ARTERY

(See Aorta.) These ve els are usual!.; found empty in the dead body, and were supposed by tl:< old anatomists to be air tubes; they are ran ificatlons o the aorta, and convey the florid blood with a pulsating mo tion to the different organs and parts of the body. ARTESIAN FOUNTAINS, or ARTESIAN WELLS (Fr. Puits Artesiens.) Vertical perforations of lite extcrio: crust of the earth, of sn all diameter, and frequently o great depth, through which subterraneous water arises U the surface, often forming abundant and elevati d jets The name Artesian is derived from Artois, a province oi France, where especial attention has been given to this means of obtaining water; but it appears, from sufficient historical evidence, that wells of this kind were perfectly well known to the ancients. Niebuhr cites a pa age front Olympiad or us, who flourished at Alexandria about th( middle of the sixth century, in which it is stated lha( whet wells are dug in the Oasis to the depth of two hundred three hundred, or sometimes five hundred yards, rivers of water gush out from their orifices of which the agrii uliur ists take advantage to irrigate their lie Ids. The oldest Artesian well known to exist in France is in the ancienl convent of the Chartreux, at Fillers in Artois. Il have been made in 1126. Others exist at Stuttgard, of great antiquity, though their dates cannot be fixed Willi precision. The inhabitants of the great deserl of Sahara appear also to have been long acquainted with this mode of obtaining water, and the Chinese are said (bui the limh of the statement is questionable) to have practised it foi you sands of years. Various conjectures have been made as to the source of the water which comes from the Artesian wells. It was long believed that the water of the sea must nei penetrate by wav of infiltration into the interior of the con tinents, and at length form large bodies of subterraneous waters, which, excepting for capillary influences, would not rise above the general level of the ocean. Another [s. 104]