DEVELOPMENT OF ELECT

I was pleased to .see that you
in a recent issue of your paper fo:
this subject by Mr. Whittlesey ol
Ohio ; and with your permission
the results of my own obseryatio:
mena (including electricity) and i:
sense derivation of their cause.

I may premise that I do not q
scientific facts or observations bu
denounce'the theoretic treatment
by scientists.

Mr. Whittlesey truly says in hi;
produced by you, " to study the <
force satisfactorily, the existing c
first be thoroughly studied," and
greater number of observed resu
that we can trace to one cause, th
be our comprehension of the r<
selves ; if the general circulation
vades our planet, in the rocks, in
in the atmosphere, in other pla:
traced to one cause, the study of
manifestations will be greatly sim
for this purpose that I call atten
everlasting change of temporal nn
law of nature."

The question is, " what is the e
everoctin^ change, of temperature

We will endeavour to* answer
those changes in matte* where ele
heat are exhibited to their origin (
The most brilliant and powerfu
of electricity we find arising in tin
from the clouds, aurora, and me
also exhibited from vegetables .
when in life, and also can be pro
all those conditionally ; but we <
electricity in the earth or in the s<
may conclude that if electricity is
vading, the cause producing it in t
positions must be all-pervading.
Therefore to find the cause ^

•&vi u ipns jo oSusfe'ed on;; Su1'
-oo 01 'sapp .ratpo ut suor,

' JO 80IOUn.ll

oirj o.TCclo,n
p>vuo

AV8U M jo
paimoddt1 S

.tad A%JU o;
UIOJJ puouoS 3i£} jo
-Ainbo

produced only where there would be a
suitable compound of the mineral and veget-
able to produce the spark or combustion as
we see it, so according to the positijn of the
sun and earth anl the condition of the atmos-
phere would be that light and heat produced
and exhibited.

Therefore the variety of temperature as no-
ticed by Mr. Whittlesey is owing to, or caused
by the various conditions and positions of those
elementary gases through their different pro-
perties ; i. e. : the mineral is naturally cold but
is combustible, it is produced at any temper
ature, the vegetable is naturally warm and
supports combustion, it is produced by heat
only.

Finding electricity, or heat, to be thus pro-
duced by the reciprocal action of atoms in
either gaseous, liquid or solid state we must
conclude that it cannot be the producer of any
natural production or a " univcral " agent,
but merely takes its place in the life action of
the whole materials from which it originates.

Water being composed of two classes is the
principal or grand agent to excite the atoms
through their spiritual or magnetic /oree in th?t
dissolving and reproducing action, which seems
to be identical with a so-called " mysterious
and inexplicable " action which oursavans call
" CHEMICAL !"

Therefore by experiment and observation
from effectsto their cause, we arrive at the simple.
truth, that ALL natural phenomena originate
through and from a spiritual or magnetic force
or influence thaj, • is inherent in atoms, which
is a component part of each atom and is con-
trolled or governed by its dual law i. e., like
atoms attract and repel their like and those of
their class only ; like poles repel and opposite
or, rather, unlike poles attract, the greater in-
fluencing the less.

This dual law and action can be seen in
atoms of iron by any that are inclined to
make use of their common sense and ascertain
the truth (I do not include our scientist::) ai>d
similar actions and results may be found
throughout all atoms or the whole of their
various compounds — according to their com-
position, condition, and position — in the
mineral, vegetable and animal, individually,
and again collectively, in the earth, sea and
atmosphere as one stupendous whole harmoni-
ously working together under One law.

Thus who can form an iden. nf tl>r> Av/.l,;fn«f?

n

<-<£f?

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

Regarding the list of discoveries — " This we admit is a very important
array of discoveries, and a small part only, if substantiated, will suffice ta
earn for them the highest honours that science has to bestow/' — Quarterly
Journal of Science, London.

" Messrs. Fraser & Dewar would seem to be earnest men, and their
work is not in places without a certain amount of ingenuity." — Astronomi-
cal Register, London.

" The object of this book is to develop what the authors believe to be
a most important theory, and one that is by no means unlikely to revolu-
tionize modern science." — Examiner, London.

" Messrs. Fraser & Dewar, Mr. Darwin will be happy to learn, are
Darwinites, though with a difference." — Lancet, London.

" The authors assert that they have discovered the thread which
systematizes all science. Without professing adherence to their theory,
we shall say at once that their ideas are both attractive and suggestive." —
Chemist and Druggist, London.

" This volume is extremely readable and full of captivating specula-
tions, as well as reliable scientific statements. — British Colonist, Halifax.

" The originality ot the work makes it more than usually interesting,
and the deductions of the authors are from castings in moulds of thought
differing from those of all preceding speculators on Natural Science.
We may again revert to the " Origin of Creation," and in the meantime
recommend it as being as entertaining and novel a production as we have
ever read. The interest throughout is fully maintained, and having once
opened its pages it is difficult to lay them aside." — Morning Chronicle.

" I have read your book carefully but feel myself utterly unable to
judge of the truth of most of the special matters of physical science therein
handled. With regard to your theological views, however, I agree ; ex-
cept that I rather incline to talk of God as the indwelling and immoulding
Soul of the World, than as a separate Being who stands outside and
endows matter with qualities. I believe that the whole cosmos is a Titanic
manifestation of self-existent, self-exercising REASON, and that the Reason
of God bears the same relation to the cosmos that my soul does to my
body. Tyndall and such fellows are merely juggling themselves with
plumes." — Professor Blackie, University of Edinburgh.

THIS

ORIGIN OF CREATION ;

OR

nq of fllattfli and fora,

wH^ ^

A NEW SYSTEM OF NATUKAL PHILOSOPHY,

THOMAS RODERICK FRASER, M. D.

AND

ANDREW DEWAR.

" The progress of science consists, in the jwrpetual correction of the errors and
falsehoods which preceding minds conceived io be the correct answers they received
from nature."

KINKLM CHILLINGLY— LORD BULWKR LYTTON.

" It is only by the questioning of received opinions that truth is advanced."

SHORT STUDIES ON GRKAT SUBJECTS— JAMES ANTHONY FROUDK.

" Science must be cultivated for its own sake, for the pure love of truth, rather
than for the applause or profit that it brings."

DR. JOHN TYNDALL.

HALIFAX, N. S. :

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHORS.

LONDON : LONGMANS, GREEN, HEADER, AND DTER.

1876.

Entered according to ^ftft of Parliament of Canada, in the year Eighteen

Hundred and Seventy-four, by THOMAS R. FRASER, in the

Office of the Minister of Agriculture,

At Stationers' Hall, London.

PRINTED BY THE NOVA SCOTIA PRINTING COMPANY.

PREFACE.

UNKNOWN to the world of Science we present ourselves as advo-
cates of the vast undertaking which is, we expect, to revolutionize
the whole theory of Natural Science taught and believed in at the
present day, and to inaugurate a new system, based upon a natural
law, the evidences of which we have discovered, and which we hereby
show to be of necessity universal, and therefore capable of explaining
all natural phenomena.

This system is not the development of a day, but has been in
progress, in various ways, for many years, more particularly since the
hidden meaning of MAGNETISM was discovered and applied by us.

The nucleus of the present work appeared some time ago in a
weekly periodical, in the form of Essays on Natural Science ; and
the reception given them, along with the importance and admitted
necessity for such a work, has induced us to issue the present volume.

The .tatii upon which our theories on all the subjects touched upon
Have been based. {in! found in a discovery of the nature, classification1
and pr,,j,,.rtH.s of the atoms of matter and of the law that governs
>n and force, .and are provod by practical experiments and
personal

the Gulf Stream, the Calms of the Equator, the coasts of Brazil,
California and Mexico, the Mediterranean, the Bay of Fundy,
the Hot Sulphur Baths of Salt Lake, the Great Geysers of California,
and the mangroves of the Isthmus of Panama.

To our readers generally, let us say, that we desire lo be judged

Entered according to $& of Parliament of Canada, in the year Eighteen

Hundred and Seventy-four, bv THOMAS R. FRASER, in the

Office of the Minister of Agriculture,

AND

At Stationers' Hall, London.

PRINTED BY THE NOVA SCOTIA PRINTING COMPANY.

PREFACE,

UNKNOWN to the world of Science we present ourselves as advo-
cates of the vast undertaking which is, we expect, to revolutionize
the whole theory of Natural Science taught and believed in at the
present day, and to inaugurate a new system, based upon a natural
law, the evidences of which we have discovered, and which we hereby
show to be of necessity universal, and therefore capable of explaining
all natural phenomena.

This system is not the development of a day, but has been in
progress, in various ways, for many years, more particularly since the
hidden meaning of MAGNETISM was discovered and applied by us.

The nucleus of the present work appeared some time ago in a
weekly periodical, in the form of Essays on Natural Science ; and
the reception given them, along with the importance and admitted
necessity for such a work, has induced us to issue the present volume.

'Jytafr*<k>f(> upan wlit<»kiM^BtfaMHiifcJM»iahBO*Jb>iitM»iMWfey-in ftll

•I observations in

chemistry, telegraphy and marine diving ; in an extensive experience
in coal and gold mines: and also while voyaging and travelling along
the Gulf Stream, the Calma of the Equator, the coasts of Brazil,
California and Mexico, the Mediterranean, the Bay of Fundy,
the Hot Sulphur Baths of Salt Lake, the Great Geysers of California,
and the mangroves of the Isthmus of Panama.

To our readers generally, let us say, that we desire (o be judged

VI. PREFACE.

only by the light of their faculty of common sense, and their own
personal observations in nature •without reference to any book
whatever, except it may be the Scriptures.

To our possible critics we desire to say that it is useless, for the
purpose of convincing us, to attempt to refute our theories by refer-
ring to the statements of any man of Science, however eminent, as
•we recognise no positive authority under God and Nature.

To the many distinguished men now living whose opinions we have
ignored, we are personally unknown, and whatever force of language
may have been used in refuting their theories, must be attributed to
the strength of our convictions on the subject and its commanding
importance, and not of course to any unkind feeling to the gentlemen
themselves.

We are aware of the imperfect nature of our work, that many
unavoidable inaccuracies will present themselves to the careful reader,
and that much is comprised in the main part of the work which
ihould appear only as notes; yet we would have these drawbacks
excused for the sake of the great truths meant to be conveyed.

The scope of the work also is such — covering as it does facts and
systems of Science about which whole libraries have been written —
that, owing to our limited space and the necessary condensation, the
intent and meaning may sometimes be difficult to apprehend ; but we
have preferred to publish the Book even in its imperfect condition, in
order that we might the sooner obtain the critical suggestions of the
scientific world, as a means of rendering it more perfect: for, far
from being a work for one man only, there is material to occupy the
lives of many scientific men. We have therefore hastened the pub-
lication, in order, as intimated, to obtain the assistance of inch

PREFACE. VU.

distinguished men of Science as are still left us, for the rising or
progressive men of Natural Science are few, and owing to their
cramped ideas, comparatively stationary. Agassiz knew and lamented
this fact when he said that we have more than enough of manufac-
turers of books, men who arc mere compilers, who know nothing —
of their own knowledge — of the subjects about which they write ;
while we have few men of patient investigation and research coupled
with daring and original thought.

Here then have we lighted our taper to guide the shipwrecked
observer who is drowning amidst the swelling seas of opposing theories
and systems. Here have we planted our acorn in the already well
sown field of science, but whether it will rot in the soil, or the birds
of the air will eat it, or the biting frosts will kill it, or whether it
will pass unharmed through all these dangers and grow year by year
into a mighty oak that shall overtop the forest; time alone will
•how.

The present systems of science, and theories of accounting for
natural phenomena are like to the starry hosts of heaven. Now
one startling announcement, with the first flush of youth, passes like
the full moon athwart the zenith, dimming all the others ; but in half
a day it is gone, and it appears next evening only as another speck
atudded to the starried crown of earth, adding its faint twinkle to
the others ; yet, after all, there are none capable of illumining the
midnight darkness. Many more are like to the evanescent flight of a
meteor that docs not even leave a stone behind it to tell of its pas-
sage. Amidst this host we would also claim a space in which to set
our feeble flame, and contribute our quota towards dispelling the gloom
of mystery and ignorance ; but even this may be denied us.

nil. PREFACE;

No greater misfortune can befall a man than to be much in advance'
of his day and generation. How many hundreds are there probably
of such men alive at the present time, who, for want of encourage-
ment, are vainly striving against poverty and misery ? While willing
enough to raise statues and monuments to them fifty years after they
*re dead, the world, foolish still and foolish ever, almost invariably
refuses to know them while living. When we say, among other
things, that MAGNETISM will, long before the present century closes,
entirely replace steam as a motive power — for the latter, at the best
is only a clumsy, uncertain and dangerous agent to work with — then
the tenets which we have advanced are perhaps (without drawing
censure on us for egotism) sufficiently ahead of the world's know-
ledge to wound the vanity of some dozens of professors ; to touch
the pockets of some thousands whose prosperity would be affected by
them; and to render valueless the "loads of learned lumber" in the
heads of some millions of bookworms. There is thus sufficient in-
fluence— does any one doubt it ? — in this interested army to allay the
curiosity of the world, and to soothe it back to the even tenor of its
way. But, fortunately for us our daily bread does not depend on the-
acceptance of our theories, and as we watch and wait, and see a few
more thousands killed by boiler explosions; a few more thousands
drowned by the variation of ships' compasses ; a few more millions-
poisoned by improper medical treatment ; a few more fields of coal
exhausted, and all our interested professors- dead ~r then perhaps a
more intelligent generation will be content tc- accept the dictation
and lessons of Nature.

In the meantime we retain those pleasurable emotions which
cannot be taken away from us, the gratification which every writer

MIRPACK

IX.

experiences in unfolding a new idea, the glow of feeling on witness-
ing for the first time the dawn of a new light on the horizon of
knowledge, and the delight in taking home to ones-self a seed of
thought garnered from the unfathomable granary of Immensity.

We beg to return thanks to several gentlemen for their kindness iu.
Worrecting proof,, and rendering other valuable assistance-

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

MATTER.

Prof- Grove on Matter. — Locke. — Bishop Berkeley. — Two classes of atoms.
— Male and Female Atoms. — Matter on Earth. — Prof. Tyndall on
Matter. — Prof. W. A Norton on one kind of Force — Law of repulsion.
— Vestiges of Creation on Matter. — Frascr's Magazine on Matter. —
Analogy between language and two classes of Atoms 1 — 5

CHAPTER II.

MATTER AND ITS FORCE.

Atomagnetism. — What Prof. Huxley would like to know. — Matter and
motion. — Erery Atom a Magnet. — Law of Atoms. — Like attracts
Like. — Unlike poles attract. — Atomagnetism the law of attraction
and repulsion. — Examples. — Experiments with filings. — How Atoms
combine their Polarity. — Herbert Spencer's Philosophy. — His Foun-
dation loosened 6 — 9

CHAPTER III.

MINERAL LIFE.

Minerals not dead. — Mineral life a low form of vegetable and animal Life. —
Iron filings have life. — Compass needle has life. — Philosopher's
tree. — Coral. — Candy. — Mineral life. — Atomagnetism. — Atoms of
lead, sugar, and coral, Magnets. — Greater always influences the less.
— Explanations of Philosopher's Tree. — Cause of beautiful forms
in snow flakes. . , 10 — 11.

CHAPTER IV.

rVEGETABLE LIFE.

Origin of Life. — Spontaneous generation. — Sir William Thomson on seed
bcariiiir Metoors. — Cornhill Magazine. — Atomagnetism. — No seed
required. — Railway Cuttings. — Clover. — How a plant jrrows without
a seed. — Scriptim- proof rot it. — Scuds rot — Hardwood and soft-
wood Forests. — Darwin's " Origin of Species " overthrown. —
Thousands of plants in the first creation — New plants with every
change of soil and climate. — Present theory of plant life. — How a
cell develops — Absurdity of plants breathing. — Why roots and
branches spread. — Experiments to prove the reason. — Why a tree
does not grow in winter 12 — 18.

Zll.. CONTENTS'.

CHAPTER V.

ORIGIN OF ANIMAL LIFE.

Man afraid to inquire into the origin of life. — Milk and cheese. — Duma*
and Agassiz on seeds and eggs. — A cow the mother of maggots. —
Insects spontaneously produced. — How animals are produced with-
out an egg. — Excess of vegetable matter forms animals. — Process of
creation. — Darwin. — All animals produced not from one but from
many. — Agassiz on Men and Monkeys. — One animal may produce
a different animal. — Animals, parasites. — Argument against spon-
taneous generation. — Germ theory. — Pasteur. — Child. — Lamarck. —
Canned meats. — Why ice and salt preserve meats. — The formation
of germs. — Tyndall on respirators. — Spontaneous fish. — Agassiz on
Special Creation. — Origin of lowest organisms. — Mr. Charlton
Bastian 19—29

CHAPTER VI.

APPETITE, OR INCIPIENT MIND.

Darwin thinks development of Mind a hopeless inquiry. — We explain
it. — Appetite the lowest form of Mind in Animals. — Spontaneous
Insects eating immediately. — What is Appetite ? — The Atomic Law
of Like to Like. — Mind and Life, Properties of Matter. — Vegetable
Appetite.— A Seal's Appetite.— A Calf's Appetite.— Why it does
not eat bricks and stones. — A Baby's Appetite. — Appetite for
Tomatoes. — Superiority of a Brute's Appetite over Man's. .30 — 32.

CHAPTER VII.

INSTINCT, OR ANIMAL MIND.

Instinct a higher phase of Mind. — Frank Buckland. — Why a Chicken
knew a Gentleman was not its Mother. — Sparrows require no
Teaching. — Foreknowledge of Bees and Beavers. — Important Fact.
— Animal's Mind Perfect. — Never Progresses. — Man always Pro-
gressing,— Difference between man and Beast. — Man two minds. —
Animals one. — Animals no Soul. — Mind returns to Earth. — Their
Mind all Nature. — Animals Perfect on separation from the Parent. —
Answer to Frank Buckland's questioner. 33 — 36.

CHAPTER VIII.

KAN'S ANIMAL AND SPIRITUAL MIND.

Schelling and Hegel on Nature as " petrified intelligence." — Hope on
" Origin and Prospects of Man."— Matter without properties. —
Mind a property of matter. — No limit to the properties of matter. —
Brutes have one mind, man two minds. — Animal and Divine. —
Agassiz on two minds. — Why Man's animal mind degenerated. — Man
should distrust man. — Manner in which man's mind is formed. —
From food. — Difference between animal mind and Divine. — Situation
of the mind. — Of Memory. — Brain a picture gallery. — Difference
between man's mind and the brutes .37 — 42.

N'tENTd.
CHAPTER IX.

CHEMICAL ACTIOX. — STEAM BOILER DXPLOBIOXS.

A Knowledge of chemical action requisite. — Nothing known about it by
scientific writers. — Prof. Grove.— Chemical action only one form of
atomagnetism. — Great separator. — Attraction the great builder. —
Repulsion the great designer. — Chemical action the great destroyer.
»—How sugar dissolves in water.— How a nail dissolves. — Con*
centrated acid not so good a dissolver as diluted acid.— Soda powder,
Sulphuric acid.— 'Amusement for speculative philosophers.-— How
water evaporates. — No latent moisture in the atmosphere. — No
latent dryness in the sea. — STEAM BOILER EXPLOSIONS.— Facts
tonnected with explosions. — The materials dealt with --The manu-
facture of hydrogen gas. — What the United States Commissioners
on explosions have diecovered. — How explosion takes place. — Not
by pressure. — Mingling of gases. — Prevention 43 — 51.

CHAPTER X.

Heat the result of chemical ection between certain classes of atoms.—
Dynamical theory of heat. — Motion. — Tyndall on heat. — Christo-
pher Columbus and his followers. — No ambition among scientific
men. — Heat produced in three ways. — Natural heat. — Combustion.
— Friction.-1— Ice meltings — Hot springs and Geysers of California. —
Volcanoes caused by chemical action. — Why coal burns. — Poker
experiment. — Conductive power of heat. — Tyndall's experiments.—
Laboratory experiments incorrect. — Atomic action likened to a
gossamer thread. — How the Crusade against the present system of
science will be conducted.— Ruskin's Crusade against Renaissance
Painting, and Architecture.— Grove and Lardner ........ 52 — 61.

CHAPTER XI.

Light caused similarly to heat. — Propagated differently. — Three division!.
— Light without heat.— Light with heat. — Propagated light. —
Auroras explained. — Phosphorescence.— Tyndall refuted on mole-
cular motion. — Fire-flies.— Lighting gas oy the finger. — Auroras
from trees. — Candle a guide to light. — Four things required to b«
looked at.— The flame. — The heat. — The light.— And light as aft
object. — All light, reflection. — The undulating theory disputed. —
Light instantaneous.— Light cannot travel half a mile. — Sight
travels 286,000 miles a second. — Flame not seen in daylight. —
Astronomical fallacy of star-light. — Undulation follows Emission
into oblivion. — Tyndall's security for the continued acceptance of
the Unuulatory theory, overthrown 62— 6&.

*1V. CONTENTS,

CHAPTER XII.

THE SUN AND SUNLIGHT.

Professors Thomson, and Tait, on the Sun. — The Sun a huge furnace.—-
Herschell on the waste heat of the Sun. — Temperature of space. —
Our view of the universe.'— The solar system an inhabitant of it. — '
The Sun a stomach.-— The atmospheres, the flesh and bones of the
solar system. — Movements regulated by Magnetism. — The Sun an
inhabited world.— How Sunlight is caused by magnetism. — The
Sun, Earth, and Planets, Magnetic batteries. — Sun the main bat-
tery and head office. — Planets telegraph stations. — Sunlight caused
in a similar way to the spark at the poles of a battery. — The
" Journey to the" Sun." 69 — 76 .

CHAPTER XIII.

COLOUR.

tlndulation theory of colour. — What is the force which governs colour. —
Primary causes overlooked as usual. — Great display of Arithmetic.
— Looseness in Science. — When we will freeze to death. — Portland
Scientific Convention. — Tyndall on the vibratory theory. — 474,-
439,680,000,000 red waves a second. — This theory questioned.— No
colour on the Earth. — Herschell. — Ilelmholtz. — Science like a
voyage of discovery. — We introduce the atornagnetic theory of
colour.-- -Colour a property of matter. — Colours of mineral flames. — '
Why is the sky blue ?— Tyndall's " Scientific use of the Imagina-
tion."— -The setting sun red. — The hills purple 77 — 83.

CHAPTER XIV.

ELECTRICITY.

All light is Electricity. — Greatest Scientific delusion of the day. — -Magne-
tism and Electricity essentially different. — Quotations to show how
little is known about either. — Dr. Thomson. — Parker's School
Book of Philosophy.— Sir Wm. Thomson on Electricity flowing. —
Prof. Tyndall also confesses ignorance. — Prof. Grove — Prescott's
History. — Electric spark, what composed of. — No combustion with-
out a mixture of the two classes of matter. — The cause of
lightning 84 — 89.

CHAPTER XV.

MAGNETISM.

Explanation chapter.— To show difference between Magnetism and Elec-
tricity.—Profs. Grove and Faraday. — Electricity not a force at all.— •
Arrangement of a galvanic battery. — How telegraphing is accom-
plished.— Telegraph worked by grass. — A few facts about magne-
tism.— Well known and not generally known. — Faraday's misfor-
tune.— Born too soon. — The " Magnetic curves " explained. —
Tyndall astray again. — Polarity of iron railings. — How the polarity
of magnetism changes with position. — Sir Isaac Newton's apple. —
The law of gravitation upset.— How magnetism is a weight, and
how it affects weight. — What Newton wished to discover. — The
cause of deviation in iron ships 90-^-101.

CONTENTS. It,

CHAPTER XVI.

BOUND.

Difficult problem in Science. — Prof. Tyndall's explanation not satisfactory.
— Sound vibrations and light vibrations. — Sound generates heat. —
How long fifty organs would take to heut St. Paul's Cathedral. —
Sound in summer and winter. — How we hear fifty sounds at the
same time. — Echoes. — New theory of Sound. — A sympathy between
the mineral atoms of matter. — Iron a better conductor than wood. —
If a man has sympathy why should not an atom ? — Dancing flames.
— Tyndall's new theory of Sound. — Experiments at the South
Foreland, England. — Vapour in layers 102 — 106

CHAPTER XVII.

W AT B K AND RAIN.

Fire not so powerful as water. — 'Water in granite — Herschell on Rain. —
Rain caused by chemical action in the atmosphere. — The Rain
guage. — Rain forms in the lower atmosphere. — Proctor and Kamtz
on the reason why. — Rain shot out from clouds.— Ilerschell on Rain
storms. — Climate of North America changing. — Egypt cultivating
the Palm for Rain. — Forests and vegetation cause Rain. — Herehell's
reason why, a failure. — Drainage said to be, bad.—Chicago, St.
I/mis, once unhealthy. — Why. — No large city unhealthy. — No air
in water. — Fishes gills used for filtering food, not for breathing. — >•
The air they need produced from digestion. — Can we produce or
bring down Rain 1 — Great battles in America were followed by
Rain.— The cause.— 107— 1 12.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Chambers Journal. — Baptista Porta nearly discovered the true theory of
dew. — Thought dew was condensed from air. — Aristotle thought it
was condensed from vapour.— Muschenbrook kept back Meteorology
mMhhundred years. — Great discoveries often foiled by the stupidity
of the world.— Dr. Wells said to be the discoverer of the true dew
theory. — The radiation of heat, the basis. — The cause of moonblind-
ness. — Dew forms most readily on vegetation. — Arguments against
radiation. — Observations with wool packs. — Position everything.—
Calm and clear evenings essential. — Dew is water. — Produced in a
similar way. — The cause of fog and hoar frost. — Hoar frost spears
of ice 11 9—1 23.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE ATJCOSPHEFE AND STORMS.

Atmosphere said to be composed of oxygen and nitrogen. — An impossibility.
— Air in no two places the same. — Balloon explorations. — Guy
Lussac. — Everything with life has an atmosphere. — The atmosphere
of the African. — Impossible to get rid of it — The earth a living
body. — Has an Atmosphere composed of its own materials.— The

CONTENtS.

Atmosphere composed of hundreds of different compounds of nW
terials. — STORMS : Sir John Herschell and Prof. Rogers on Storms.
—Magnetic curves from the poles of the earth, the cause of wind
and storms. — Cause of Equatorial Calms. — Maury on cyclones. —
Description of a so-called Circular Storm. — Hints for Weather
Prophets 124^-132

CHAPTER XX.

ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, AND MINERAL FO6l>.

Nothing so much to do with our discomforts as food. — The body a
machine. — Professor Lyon Playfair on Food. — Liebig's classes of
food. — Flesh formers. — Heat givers, and mineral ingredients. —
Knows nothing of the action of the last class. — Contradictions. —
Experiments by scientific men always conducted too loosely.—
Animal food only concentrated vegetable matter. — English Navvies
and Arabs. — Sepoys and Ghoorkas. — How much an Esquimaux eats,
according to Sir John Ross.— -Canadian Indians and salt. — Criminals
in Holland. — The Scotch and Indigestion. — The action of minerals
in the body , > . . , ... . . 183^-138.

CHAPTER XXI.

Fou"nd to be of vegetable origin. — Prof. Rogers on Coal. — Statements
faulty. — Unacquainted with natural law. — Rogers' theory. — Grew
in a swamp. — Soaked with mineral oils. — Baked by the earth's
internal fire. — A forest makes half an inch of coal. — A tree said to
absorb carbon. — Incorrect. — Sir Henry De la Beche and his calcu-
lations.—Fallacies about carbon. — How carbon and hydrogen camts
into the coal. — Our theory of coal. — Prairies. — Charcoal in the
seams. — Nova Scotia mines. — Inundations.— No internal fire. — No
Baking. — The whole process one of petrifaction. — Coal inexhaus-
tible.. , 139-^144.

CHAPTER XXH.

HOW CORAL

Strange Chapter. — Coral insects unworthy of notice. — Misplaced eulogy. —
Theories of Coral growth. — The insect monument and tomb. — Not
found below thirty fathoms. — Coral found a mile and a half deep. —
Coral on the Isthmus ot Panama, not made by insects. — The Coral
insect a parasite merely. — The cochineal. — How Coral grows.—
Millions feeding from one month. — Coral grows by budding.—
Agassiz on Florida reefs, and arguments against Darwin. — Darwin's
curious theories on Coral reefs. — Sir John Herschell. — How Coral
commences to grow. — The true theory of reefs. — How a gap in *
Teef was billed.— Coral merely the home of the irisecu . . H'S^ISS*

CONTENTS. XVil.

CHAPTER XXIIL

TOLCANOBS AND EARTHQUAKES.

Another popular fallacy. — The earth's internal fire. — Dr. Mayer's theory.—
Dr. Tyndall opposed to it.— Dr. Mayer's dogged assertion. — Selfish-
ness of men ot science.— Herschell on Volcanoes.— The earth and
an egg. — Objection to Herchcll's theory. — Explanation of Volca-
noes.—Why Volcanoes become extinct.— Coal gas.— -Mount St%
Helena and Sulphur Springs.-— Prof. Mallet on Water and Volca-
noes.—Cause of Earthquakes.— Prevention of Earthquakes. — Oil
boring in Pennsylvania. — llerschell's extraordinary theory of Earth-
quakes.— What ho knew of chemical action in the interior. — The
necessity for scientific men not taking anything tor granted^ 1 53— 160.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE TIDES.

The regnlarity of the Tides.— The influence of the new and full moon on
the Tides.— There must be one grand cause of the Tides. — This is
pressure, not attraction. — Cause of variation in the Tides by the
position of the moon.— Formation of the Land. — Winds.— Lardner's
theory of the Tides. — Its fallacy shewn.— The earth ought to be
approaching the moon.— Facts to be remembered.— The Plane of the
Ecliptic.— The effect of pressure on the atmosphere. — The Tides
caused by pressure in passing the Plane of the Ecliptic. — The
moon's atmosphere. — The Tide in the Mediterranean. — The Bay of
Fundy Tides seventy feet high. — Ram Pasture. — Rise of two feet in
three "miles.— -Tbe repelling forces control the Tides, . . . 161 — 166.

CHAPTER XXV.

GULP STREAM AND DEEP SEA CURRENTS.

The cause of the Gulf Stream. — Dr. Carpenter's theory.— Oceanic
Circulation.-— Experiment with glass trough.— No comparison.—
Strength of Polar Currents.— Channel between Faroe Islands and
Shetland. — Dr. Wyville Thompson differs from Dr. Carpenter.—
Reciprocal circulation of Water and Air. — Beautiful theory of
Atmospheric Circulation overbooked by Dr. Carpenter. — What
causes the cold deep waters » . . > > . . 167 — 172

CHAPTER XXVL

COMETS.

Very little known about Comets. — Facts about them.— Jupiter's Influent*
on them.— -Comet of 1680. — Herschell's description of it. — Tht
movements of a Comet different from a Planet — All the heavenly
bodies, Magnets. — The motions of Comets explained on this theory.
•—How Comets are made periodic. — Encke's and Biela's ComeU.
"—The atmospheres of Comets. — Their tails. — Their purpose. — Art
they inhabited ?.*. *»...,.., »..»..^...»..»» ..173—177

XYiii. t CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXVII.

METEORS.

Strange theories regarding them. — Sir Wm. Thomson's. — Seed bearing
Meteors. — Prof. Newton on November Meteors. — No orbit of
Meteors. — Meteors caused by pressure and reciprocation. — Dr. Sorby
the microscopist on Meteors. — Prof. Graham on the Leonarto Meteor.
— The great November showers caused by a Comet. — The yearly and
ordinary Meteors caused by pressure 178—181.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

AURORA BOREALIS.

Visible at both poles. — Mairan on the extent of the Sun's atmosphere.—
Lardner on Auroras. — M. Biot on Polar Volcanoes. — Distance of
Auroras. — Seen by Aeronauts below them. — Facts. — Caused by
mineral emanations from the Polar Latitudes. — How they affect the
compasses. — Why seen on Calm evenings. — Dew. — Cause of colours.
— Similarity between Auroras and Meteors 182 — 185

CHAPTER XXIX.

MEDICINE ; OR, THE LIFE ACTION OF THE BOOT, AND THE CAUSE AND
CURE OF DISEASE.

A reTolution in medicine. — The cause of disease unknown. — Incurable
diseases. — Not creditable to the profession. — What are our bodiei
composed of? — What keeps up life in us ? — What is blood 1 — How
is blood formed? — How is the material we eat transformed into
blood ? — What causes and keeps up the circulation of the blood ?
— What is life ? — The magnetic action of the body. — The function
of the blood. — How the waste from the body is thrown off. — Hot
water. — Purging — Emetics. — The body compared to a fire. — Indi-
gestion.— Consumption, its cause and cure. — Fevers.. . .186 — 195.

CHAPTER XXX.

ATOMAGNETISM AND RELIGION.

Religion not affected by Atomagnetism. — The inherent life in atoms
and the spontaneous development of the mind, seem grand ar-
guments for the Materialist. — The movements of Planets and
Comets. — The great machinery of the universe. — What need of a
God ? — Man fancies himself a Monarch. — No animal intelligence
his superior. — Only a parasite. — Chained to the earth. — On a level
with his dog. — Matter existed without properties. — Who endowed
it with them? — Divine mind of man. — Magnetism not God. — How
simple, miracles must be to Him who formed and holds the key of
natural law.— Insignificance of man 196 — 199.

MEN OP SCIENCE QUOTED OR REFERRED TO.

Aristotle.
Agassiz, Louis

Bacon, Lord
Bastian, II. Charlton
Bechc, Sir Ilenrj de la
Berkeley, Bishop
Biot, M.
Brewer, Dr.
Buckland, Frank

Carpenter, Dr. W. B.
Child, Dr.

Coalomb, M. A. C. Do
Crosse, Mr.

Davy, Sir Humphrey
Darwin, Dr.
Descartes.
Dumas, Prof.

Faraday, Michael

Grove, Prof. W. R.
Graham,

Hegel.

Helmholtz, Prof. H. L. M.

Herschell, Sir J. F. W.

Higgins, W. M.

Huxley, Prof.

Hope.

Kamtz.

Lamarck.
Laplace.
Lardner, Dr. D.
Liebig, J. Von

Lussac, Guy
Lyell, Sir Charles

Mairan.

Mallet, Prof.

Maury, Dr. M. F.

Maury, Prof. Thompson B.

Maxwell, Prof.

Mayer, Dr.

Muschenbrook.

Newton, Sir Isaac
Newton, Prof.
Nichols, Prof.
Norton, Prof. W. A.

Pasteur, M.
Playfair, Prof. Lyon
Porta, Baptista
Proctor, Prof. R. A.

Rive, Prof. A. De la
Rogers, Prof.
Ross, Sir John

Scbelling
Schiaparclli
Sorby, Dr.

Tail, Prof. P. G.
Thomson, Sir William
Thompson, Dr. Wyvill*
Thomson, Dr. Thos.
Tyndall, Prof. John

Wells, Dr.
Young, Dr. Thos.

LIST OF NEW DISCOVERIES IN SCIENCE.

The duality of atoms.
The properties and force of matter.
The cause of life.
The source of mind.
The cause of chemical action.
The cause of sunlight.
The cause of variation in ships' compasses.
The cause of boiler explosions.
The cause of winds and storms.
The process of digestion.
The cause of the tides.

That magnetism is weight, and supersedes gravitation.
That coral is a semi-mineral growth and not the work of insecti.
The cause of meteors.
The cause of auroras.
The cause of the circulation of the blood.

*That hydrogen gas ha« the properties, not only of metals, but of
minerals.
That oxygen gas has the properties of vegetable matter.

•We are aware that Prof. Graham ha* the credit of the diicovery, that hydrogen
was metallic ; but as we publiihed the announcement Of the same fact in th« Phreno-
logical Journal, in 1663, Prof. Graham's alleged discovery was thui anticipated by »oro«
year*.

INTRODUCTION,

To PROPOUND a now system of Natural Philosophy in this
ago of enlightenment and great men which shall overthrow
the cherished theories of centuries, as well as those of later
date, is a difficult, and, we suspect, a thankless task ; but it is
one which, in the interest of truth, the progress of knowledge,
and the eradication of sensationalism in Science, we feel com-
pelled to undertake.

If it is acknowledged that no one knows the composition of
matter ; that the force of matter is unknown ; that chemical
action is a mystery ; that life and mind are inexplicable ; that
electricity and magnetism are forces but partially understood,
and that over all natural phenomena there hangs a veil of
mystery : then, if our most voluminous writers on science mean
what they 1£Cy in their reverence for the truth and their
endeavours after its acceptance, we, who offer an explanation
of all these mysteries, should receive encouragement and as-
•istance on every hand.

It must be inorever the desire of every intelligent man, out-
side of scientific circles, that some more definite system of science
should be adopted than that in which belief is generally placed.
People are beginning to tire of the extraordinary theories re-
garding the sun, moon, and stars, which are successively being
advanced, and which intelligent men are compelled to read if
not to accept — if they would keep pace with what is called

XX11. INTRODUCTION.

the progress of knowledge — despite, too, their own doubts and
convictions of error.

Of course it is the last result that the lower grades of
scientific men generally would try to bring about. It would
lower them from the proud position of heroic poets — gifted with
an illimitable imagination, and furnished with an unbounded
license to terrify mankind — to the level of common mortals like
ourselves. No more would their names be heralded by the
journals of the world accompanied by some brain-whirling
paragraph, and unless they were really possessed of more
intellectual power than their brethren generally, their names
would never be heard of.

For instance, see what happened at a late meeting of the
American Scientific Association at Portland, U. S. ; and although
Americans, they only imitate the theories advanced by Euro-
pean savants. Five papers were read apparently to horrify the
audience ; each having as its grand conclusion, the extinction
of life on the earth. We beg to be excused for giving their
names such prominence. Prof. Young said, in substance, that
the sun was being gradually muffled by a peculiar rain falling
on it, which formed a crust that would eventually exclude all
light and heat, so that a return to original chaos would be the
inevitable consequence. He forbore giving the exact date of
the catastrophe.

Gen. J. G. Barnard came more to the point. He said our
earth is only a fire-bubble with a very thin crust, so that we
are liable to explode at any moment. As soon, therefore, as
we hear of any telegraphic report of a volcano in eruption, or
see any heavy meteor or comet dashing towards the earth, then,
too, we may listen for the sound of the last trumpet.

INTRODUCTION. XX111.

Mr. H. F. Walling read an essay on the "Dissipation of
Energy " iti which he stated that the sun was losing its heat so
rapidly that there will be a slowing of the machinery of
the universe, until stagnation culminates in a total extinction
of life. No date given.

Prof. Franklin B. Hough^ foretold a perpetual drought in
consequence of clearing the forests. The result will be a
universal famine, and the world will be depopulated by star-
vation. No date given.

The last paper was by Dr. Le Conte, the new President of
the Association, and he foretold there would be such an alarm-
ing increase of insects, that all vegetation would be destroyed,
and finally starving and helpless man himself would be eaten.
No date.

" All of which," says an American paper, " argues an early
dropping of the curtain upon the fleeting show of life."

Is it at all possible that a system of science can be true
which permits such an outcrop of startling absurdities, no
speculation being too ridiculous to be issued, while the inventor
of the most fcwffilyiug announcement becomes the most celebrated
man of the time? The wonder, too, is that such illustrious
men as Herschell should be led away by the prevailing weak-
ness. It is to be hoped that it was only as a joke when he
said that some of the spots on the sun, 600 miles long by 300
miles wide, might be living creatures ; but Prof. Proctor
in his New York Lectures seemed to quote it as a state-
ment made in earnest. Prof. Proctor himself indulges in
some visionary dreams regarding the exhaustion of the solar
heat and the aspect of the inhabitants of Saturn, which
axe but a shade removed from the absurd There is nothing

XXIV.

so correct and invariable as nature in all her laws, and thus na
study should he so free from sensationalism as Natural Science.
The very semblance of it ought to be an abomination to the*
true student.

While, therefore, it is admitted that the established system
of science — if it may be called a system — is incorrect : for it ia
not only we who say so, but every great physicist from Newton
downwards has acknowledged that there was. something lacking :
yet Science has collected a vast array of valuable facts which
only want an assorter. They are like the multitude of objects
sent to an Universal Exhibition, but the building in which they
are to be displayed has still to be erected. Or they are like the
hieroglyphics on an Egyptian tomb waiting for a Bawlinson to
interpret them ; we hope that they will not be like the Aztec
characters on the Central American ruins which have waited,
and are, as far as appearances go, likely to wait in vain for
an interpreter.

Every river has a source ; every tree has a root ; every build-
ing has a foundation ; but it is confessed by all men that Natural
Science at present has no source, no root, no foundation,
upon which to stand. The different theories are lik»
Arabian streams which are lost in the sands of the desert ;
or northern lights which are never seen twice in the same
place. A pole or guiding star has continually been sought,,
but, like the North West Passage, it has eluded all search,
and many brave men have died in the pursuit. Still, we do not
blame explorers for not finding it. Man is not omniscient, and
even a Franklin may fail to reach the North Pole, or a Buckle
may die when his work is half done. But every man should
be honoured for the work he has accomplished, if performed

INTBODUCTIOW. XXV.

conscientiously and with originality, according to his lights.
We do not consign the heathen to hell because they do not
happen to know there is a true God ; but we certainly condemn
those men who, knowing evil, continue to preach and practice
that evil. So while we use all forbearance to those who have
been educated in a false system of science, we would unmerci-
fully scathe those bigoted pedants who would spurn the truth
when it is offered them ; who would rather continue to teach
false doctrine, knowing it to be false, than condescend to learn
a science which was true.

We feel that we have been censorious and that we have
perhaps condemned the innocent with the guilty. We know
that we have spoken irreverently of names that do honour to
our race. But it is a necessity almost forced on us by the
nature of the work. Our object is not so much to show where
Newton, Herschell, Agassiz, Tyndall, Thomson and others are
right, but where they are wrong ; not to praise them but to con-
demn them where they deserve it ; for it must be admitted
that th6ft» are few who do not deserve cens\irc. If our object
was to praise alone, nothing would afford us greater pleasure,
and we are conscious that we could find much in the life and
work of these men overlooked by the superficial flatterer whereby
to exalt and do them, honor ; but praising a man who is suc-
cessful, is a work which is already too well done by an army of
parasites and sycophants all the world over ; an army which is
also ready at the same time to tear to shreds the reputation of a
genius who stumbles in his life struggle. There is a praise
which degenerates into fulsomeness, and a worship which
degenerates into toadyism ; and while the refusal to give merit
to whom it is due, is bad, the over-praise of a man leading to

IXVi. INTRODUCTION.

the general belief that he is an infallible authority, — a preroga-
tive conceded only to nature herself — is infinitely worse.

The great bane of cultured progress in the present, if not in
all centuries, has been the worship of authority. If the Pope
says the sun goes round the earth, then Galileo must believe
him. If Sir Isaac Newton says gravitation is the universal law
of earth, then Herschell will not question the fact ; and strange
to say — although many knew the discrepancies of that law, and
the many exhibitions of force which it was unable to explain, —
no man up to the present time has had the manliness to speak
against gravitation. Scientific men seem to have gone on the
principle that a law, although defective, is better than no law
at all ; just as many nations to their cost have said that a bad
government is better than no government. But as a bloody
revolution is the inevitable destiny of such a people, and good
government, easily to have been obtained if sought for in
time, is at length only attained by a sacrifice of life which
blackens the page of history ; so it will be in science, for
the tree of knowledge has been so overgrown and entwined
with creepers, that its growth has been choked and stunted,- its
fair proportions destroyed, and its vitality threatened. In
order, therefore, that it may again branch out in all its beauty,
it will have to be severed at the roots.

This worship of authority has poisoned the streams of other
branches of knowledge, for Architecture slept at the Reformation,
and until lately a blind copyism of Grecian, Roman, and in due
sequence all the types of the Gothic styles prevailed, so that
artistic feeling was almost quenched in the architect who would
be popular. So also was it in Painting, where Cupids, Venuses,
Madonnas, and artificial landscapes were the main staple of art

INTRODUCTION. XXV11.

Our Theologians iilso are still continually trammelled and led
into trouble by quoting authority two or three hundred years old;
while Doctors allow their thousands of patients to die annually
through the like blind worship.

It will lie said that some authority must be acknowledged,
else there would be neither science or government. Unques-
tionably. But because authority is in power, it does not follow
that it should remain unquestioned. All law except nature's
is fallible, and can only be kept right by a continual exami-
nation. It is the cashier in whom implicit confidence is placed
that usually embezzles the funds of the Bank. So if we would
have authority — and it is a necessity — it must be one that
undergoes a continual scrutiny, and answers every interrogation
promptly. As long as it does so, then reverence it; but once
it fails, look out for another more sure. Do not try to prop
up a fallacy. The ruin is only the greater when it does fall.

It may be said that we should have accepted at least some
men as authorities. In many things we certainly do, but where
their theories conflict with obvious truth, then we throw them
at flnce to the winds. Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton, Bacon, and
Sir Humphrey Davy were all celebrated men in their day.
They were all students of nature, and each, as was said by
Newton, picked up but a pebble of truth from an inexhaus-
tible shore, knowing that there were many more yet to be
discovered. Far be it from us, therefore, to detract any-
thing from the honour they deserved, and the glory they
earned. But knowledge is no law of the Medes and Persians
which changeth not. The dullest school boy may now know
what these men would have given worlds to understand. Is it
then worthy of such intelligence as we are possessed of, or

XXV111. INTRODUCTION.

worthy of this grand century of thought and discovery, to have
so little confidence in ourselves as to place implicit belief in
theories which these men, — great though they were, — in their
imperfect knowledge laid down, while facts are every day
being brought to our notice antagonistic to them ? We be-
lieve that such men were above a paltry adulation. While
some philosophers blind themselves to consequences which
the recognition of facts entail, and would rather believe
that the phenomena never occurred than that Newton should
be wrong ; we believe that Newton's, or any other sensible
man's last wish would be, that anything he had said should
stay the progress of truth. Besides, in such false humility we
do injustice to ourselves and are ungrateful to the age we live in.

The sun of knowledge is ever brightening as the years roll
on, making the hidden places clearer and the difficult paths
easy of travel. But this light has been unrecognised, and this
sun overlooked in preference to those twinkling stars, which in
their own day and in their own system shone as suns with
brightest effulgence, but which to us as the years glide by,
are now no more than brilliant and beautiful gems in the spark-
ling galaxy of the past.

The present work we believe to be the first attempt that has
yet been made to arrange the sciences under one common head,
and to show how they are all governed by one and the same
law. How far we have been successful, our readers will
decide. We suspect that there may be something observed in
every chapter to startle the ordinary scientific student, but we
offer no opinion which cannot be proved correct by a
reference to the operations of nature,, since we have been guided
entirely by her teachings.

INTRODUCTION,

To detail folly the manner in which wo arrived at the
eiples of our theory and the experiments performed, would
occupy too much space, we therefore give the following brief
atatement : —

Finding all theories of Natural Science to be conflicting and
unsatisfactory even to Scientific men, we laid them aside and
referred to Nature for explanations of her working. By tracing
every phenomenon to its origin we found all phenomena to
spring from one and the same source. That is, the variety of
Natural phenomena are not — -as is generally supposed — ^caused
by a variety of forces and a variety of laws, but result from
the varied compounds, conditions and positions into which
matter may be placed, operated on by its oWn inherent force
under one law that controls the whole. The theory ia then as
follows : —

Matter is composed of two classes of atoms, mineral and
vegetable ; or, as they are often called throughout the work,
Hydrogen and Oxygen. JBvery atom is a magnet having
polarity. iiffc» atot*» * *fit*i«tt > <Lik9^peJ9# ropeir and unlike

Atoms ;m<l their magnetic force being nis.-purable. their <lu:il law

properly iva-K thus: Like atoms attract and r^pel each its like and

of its class mily, the greater body attracting or reversing the

polarity of the smaller. Like poles repel — thus dissolving matter,

;md unlike poles attnict, thus building up or forming material sub-

ture's \:\w< all work together in harmony.

That the law is correct ana complete we nuve no uuuui, -t
but we do not assert that we are right in the interpretation
of every detail of the law, as exhibited in all the variations of
natural phenomena, for infinite wisdom is not attained by
man.

Thus while all other systems fail tc give a reliable explana-
tion of the simplest natural phenomenon, we are confident that

INTRODUCTION.

•worthy of this grand century of thought and discovery, to have
so little confidence in ourselves as to place implicit belief in
theories which these men, — great though they were, — in their
imperfect knowledge laid down, while facts are every day
being brought to our notice antagonistic to them 1 We be-
lieve that such men were above a paltry adulation. While
some philosophers blind themselves to consequences which
the recognition of facts entail, and would rather believe
that the phenomena never occurred than that Newton should
be wrong ; we believe that Newton's, or any other sensible
man's last wish would be, that anything he had said should
stay the progress of truth. Besides, in such false humility we
do injustice to ourselves and are ungrateful to the age we live in.

The sun of knowledge is ever brightening as the years roll
on, making the hidden places clearer and the difficult paths
easy of travel. But this light has been unrecognised, and this
sun overlooked in preference to those twinkling stars, which in
their own day and in their own system shone as suns with
brightest effulgence, but which to us as the years glide by,
are now no more than brilliant and beautiful gems in the spark-
ling galaxy of the past.

The present work we believe to te ** — °~~~
yet been inn-i- ±
and to
law. 1

decide. — ^g observed in

every ch „. uiie ordinary scientific student, but we

offer no opinion which cannot be proved correct by a
reference to the operations of nature,, since we have been guided
entirely by her teachings.

INTRODUCTION,

To detail fully the manner in which wo arrived at the priiv
eiples of our theory and the experiments performed, would
occupy too much space, we therefore give the following brief
statement : —

Finding all theories of Natural Science to be conflicting and
Unsatisfactory even to Scientific men, we laid them aside and
referred to Nature for explanations of her working. By tracing
every phenomenon to its origin we found all phenomena to
spring from one and the same source. That is, the variety of
Natural phenomena are not— -as is generally supposed — caused
by a variety of forces and a variety of laws, but result from
the varied compounds, conditions and positions into which
matter may be placed, operated on by its own inherent force
Under one law that controls the whole. The theory is then as
follows : —

Matter is composed of two classes of atoms, mineral and
vegetable ; or, as they are often called throughout the work,
Hydrogen and Oxygen. Every atom is a magnet having
polarity.

To this universal law of the attraction of like atoms and the
repulsion of like poles by their inherent magnetic force, we
have applied the term ATOMAGNETISM.

That the law is correct and complete we have no doubt ;
but we do not assert that we are right in the interpretation
of every detail of the law, as exhibited in all the variations of
natural phenomena, for infinite wisdom is not attained by
man.

Thus while all other systems fail to give a reliable explana-
tion of the simplest natural phenomenon^ we are confident that

XXX,

the Atomagnetic will never fail. That it will always give the
tight answer will depend upon the mind of the man who asks
the question, for it is not always the law which answers a
question, but, unfortunately for science, the fallible mind of
man himself assumes the responsibility. Thus while we have
discovered the laio we do not claim to be the infallible interpre-
ters of it.

People generally judge of a scientific theory by its practical
value and usefulness. Looking at it even in this light (which ia
disclaimed by modern scientific writers for very obvious reasons)
Atomagnetism is bound to be of immense permanent value.
We expect to save the lives of thousands by showing the cause
of boiler explosions, by explaining the variation of ship's com-
passes, and by showing the cause of life ; also how our bodies are
kept in life, and how sick people should be treated. But we
suspect that the most valuable practical discovery we have
made will be that of the nature and action of magnetism, which
shows that it may be brought under control, and made to
subserve man's will and work in every department of labour.
It is strange, that if magnetism is the only force which nature
employs to accomplish her mighty work in all her actions and
movements, that man cannot make it propel his tiny engines
and machinery. Without going into particulars we may say
that we have made a machine and propelled it by magnetism.
We proceeded with our experiments far enough to satisfy us
that there was no limit to the power that might be obtained ;
and this power could be gained without smoke, without fire,
without danger of explosion, and at a cost of only a thousandth
part of that of steam. It seems like a dream but it is a dream
that will yet be realised,

tMHODUCTIOK.

In conclusion, the realm of science, we have often thought,
resembles the vast expanse of ocean that lies glistening in the
morning sun ; not a breath of air disturbs the glassy surface ;
the vessels lie la/ily without movement or sign of life, and the
.re nil cluarly reflected in the water. Anon as we cast
our eyes out to sea, we perceive a shade darkening the horizon.
On it comes gradually widening and expanding till it spreads
like the shadow of an eclipse over the sea, throwing the water
into foam, spreading a mantle of blue where all was white, and
converting the lazy boats into birds of flight, so that each «hip
could now enter on its voyage and go where it willed, while
previously it had to drift with tide and current. The ocean is
the sea of all knowledge ; th« wind is the guiding law which
leads to the sources and ends of all truth ; and the vessels are
scientific theories which drift about with the tide. Sometimes
the name of a man may urge a theory along and give it pro-
minence, just as we sometimes see a tug boat towing a vessel
out of a harbor. But the steamer cannot always be with it, and
after the vessel is alone it is still at the mercy of the tide. The
ships may also make a great display and noise, they may hoist
flags and fire off cannon, they may challenge respect and attract
considerable attention, but they are only becalmed after alL
Which, then, of all the theories before the world, is that favour-
able wind ?

THE OBIGIN OF CREATION,

CHAPTER L

MATTER.

Prof. Grove on Matter. — Locke. — Bishop Berkeley. — Two classes of
Atoms. — Male and Female Atoms. — Matter on Earth. — Prof.
Tyndall on Matter. — Prof. A. Norton on one kind of Force. — Law
of repulsion. — Vestiges of Creation on Matter. — Fraser's Magazine
on Matter.-— Analogy between language and two classes of Atoms.

PROP. GROVE says : — " Probably man will never know the
ultimate structure of Matter, or the minutiae of molecular
action ; indeed it is scarcely conceivable that the mind of man
can ever attain to this knowledge." Locke also affirms that we
know nothing of substance of any kind. Bishop Berkeley also
said to the Materialists : — " You tell me that all the phenomena
of nature are resolvable into matter and its affections. I
assent to your statement, and now I put you the further
question, What is Matter 1" This was a puzzler for them ; but,
with all due deference to such high authorities, we profess to
have discovered not only what matter is composed of, but its
properties and law as well The consequence of this has been
the discovery of other natural laws, or variations of the one
law, which lead to a new system of Science altogether, that can

2 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION',

be shaken by no difficulty, and is capable of explaining every
phenomenon in nature.

In the first place : — All matter is eternal, and resolvable into
atoms.

Atoms are invisible, indivisible, intangible, and inde-
structible.

They are separated into two great classes ; viz.: mineral and
vegetable atoms, or as they are at present called ; oxygen and
hydrogen. There arc many different kinds of mineral and
vegetable atoms, the former producing different minerals, and
the latter uniting with the mineral producing different kinds of
vegetation ; still there are only two classes of them.

All atoms are Male and Female.

We find that all animals and vegetables are male and female,
and as all animate matter is kept alive by eating or absorbing
so-called inanimate matter — for the theory which divides atoms
or matter into animate and inanimate, is untenable as we shew
farther on — is it unreasonable to suppose that each inert atom
is also either male or female ?

These atoms also have in our world peculiar inherent pro-
perties belonging to each individually. For instance, the
mineral atom is the Male, and its properties are, that it is
naturally cold ; that it has the blue and white cold colours ; and
that it is acid and combustible.

The vegetable atom is the Female ; and its properties arer
that it is naturally warm ; that its colours are yellow, red, and
the warm colours ; and that it is incombustible.

Many Scientific men have endeavored to reduce matter to a
simple form, but without success — Professor Tyndall in his-
lecture on "Matter and Force "at Dundee in 1867, said:' —

MATTER. 3

" The matter of the world may be classified under two distinct
heads, that of dead and living atoms. All atoms were once
alivi-, but having exhausted their force in attracting other atoms
in forming granite, limestone and metals, they are dead and
cannot live again." This is manifestly incorrect, for by a
simple experiment we can show that if these granites or metals
were pulverized, mixed with vegetable atoms, and seeds were
planted in them, and well watered, the atoms would show
themselves alive by dissolving and aiding in producing a plant
and probably a flower. Or they could be so mixed with other
substances, that they would assist in blasting the hardest iron
stone. There is no such thing as a dead atom. All atoms are
alive or have inherent life properties, but they must occupy
certain positions and conditions in order to show their vitality.

Prof. W. A. Norton in the American Journal of Science for
1872 endeavors to show that there may be only one kind of
matter, and one form of force governing it. Matter is of three
varieties, he says : — " Ordinary or gross matter, directly
recognized by our senses ; universal or luminiferous ether,
filling all space ; and electric ether, associated with all bodies of
ordinary matter." He thinks however that they are all formed
from luminiferous ether. The force which governs this matter
is a law of repulsion. As the fact of an attractive power
cannot however be denied, he seems to imply it is caused by
the repulsive power of the atoms being so feeble that they
attract each other ! Rather a Quixotic mode of reasoning.

It would baffle him to explain how any phenomenon of nature
is caused, and how any product of the earth grows, by the
operation of the law of repulsion alone.

In the " Vestiges of Crealion " we are told that matter was

4: THE ORIGIN OF CREATION1.

originally a universal " Fire Mist," which gradually cooled off
into suns and planets. How fire mist could cool when there
was nothing to cool it, and how one substance could change
•without coming in contact with another, is inconceivable to us.

In the same book we find that there are fifty-five simple
elements composing the earth.

But in an article on the "Materials of the Universe" in
Eraser's Magazine 1869, we find there are sixty-two elements,
of which forty-nine are metals, eight are substances with an
individual character of their own, and five are gases. They can
however be resolvable into the two classes of mineral and
vegetable. The author of the above mentioned article says : —
" "We cannot affirm it to be matter of demonstration that none
of these may be some day found reducible to a more simple
form. We cannot pronounce with mathematical confidence,
that no unexpected and startling discovery may yet effect at
least a partial change iu some of these positions. But we may
safely affirm, that the probability of any general revolution is
infinitesimally small."

It remains for our readers to judge whether it has not now
become a certainty.

"We find the nearest approach to our views on the composition
of matter, in Park's Chemical Catechism ; where, after showing
that plants may be grown in sand, litharge, and even in
common lead shot, merely by moistening them with water, it
concludes : — " Oxygen and Hydrogen, with the assistance of
solar light, appear to be the only elementary substances
employed in the constitution of the whole universe, and nature
in her simple process, works the most infinitely diversified

MATTER. 5

f fleets l>y the slightest modifications in the means she
employs."

In conclusion there is a remarkable analogy between the
component parts of matter, and the component parts of
langu

Our alphabet is composed of a number of letters, but they
are all divisible into the two great classes of consonants and
vowels. By them we express ourselves in simple language that
children might understand, while the inspired poet by the same
means can give utterance to the grandest thoughts our literature
contains. Although also the vowels and consonants remain the
same, yet there is no lack to the multiplicity of new names
that may be coined, nor a dearth of grand ideas, or of sonorous
eloquence.

So in our language of nature, although it is composed of an
infinite variety of simple elements, yet they are all divisible
into two great classes.

By a simple union they form water and weeds, and worms
and insects ; while by a more intricate process they produce the
beautiful bird, the pretty flower, and the lovely woman.

Moreover, as we have said by means of the same letters, new
words are being coined, and new ideas expressed every day ;
so by the commingling of the same elemental atoms in nature,
new plants are growing, new flowers are blooming, new colours
are imparted, and new animals are created every day the world
exist*

CHAPTER II.

MATTER AND ITS FORCE.

Atomagnetism. — What Prof. Huxley would like to know. — Matter and
Motion. — Every Atom a Magnet. — Law of Atoms. — Like attracts
Like. — Unlike poles Attract. — Atomagnetism the law of attraction
and repulsion. — Examples. — Experiments with Filings. — How
Atoms combine their Polarity. — Herbert Spencer's Philosophy. —
His Foundation Loosened.

HAVING in the preceding chapter shown what the two great
classes of matter are, we now proceed to explain the lorce which
governs them in all their movements and products, and to
which we have given the name of Atomagnetism.

It is this law which Prof. Huxley, as shewn in the following
quotation, has been striving after without success. In an
article on Bishop Berkeley's works in Macmillan's Magazine
1871, he says : — " There is a passage in the preface to the first
edition of the Principia, which shews that Newton was
penetrated as completely as Descartes, with the belief that all
the phenomena of nature are expressible in terms of matter and
motion." It is this " Many circumstances lead me to suspect,
that all th'ose phenomena may depend upon certain forces, in
virtue of which, the particles of bodies, by causes not yet
known, are either mutually impelled against one another and
cohere into regular figures, or repel or recede from one another ;

MATTER AND ITS FORCE. 7

which forces being unknown, philosophers have as yet explored
nature in vain."

That they may he unknown no longer, we will at once
proceed to explain them.

A great deal has heen said lately about matter and motion,
but the latter is as yet only known to the most daring
speculators as a senseless dance of the atoms; a dance so
omnipresent and never ending, that they imagine it never had a
beginning, and is as unlikely ever to have an end. On shifting
sands like this the accepted theory of physics is based,
forgetting that it is quite contrary to the working of any law of
nature with which we are acquainted.

We have said all matter is formed of atoms. But every
atom is also we say a magnet having polarity. That is, each
atom has two poles similar to a compass needle, which may be
designated north and south.

The law of atoms is observed to be, that like attracts like ;
but by the law of magnets, it is seen that like poles repel, while
unlike poles attract. ATOMAGNETISM THEN is THE COMBINATION

OF THESE NATURAL LAWS, RESULTING IN A UNIVERSAL LAW OP
ATTRACTION OF LIKE ATOMS AND REPULSION OF LIKE POLES. In

order to make this principle clear, we will give a few examples.
A tree, for instance, in growing does not attract sand and
clay and metal, and form a branch of clay or another of metal,
but it attracts only material similar to itself. If a smith in
casting a bar of iron tried to combine clay or coal ashes with it,
he could not succeed, or else there would bo no strength in the
bar. Again we cannot attract the poles of a magnetic compass
with a wooden stick, or a piece of coal, or indeed anything not
in the nature of iron or steel.

& THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

This is the attraction of like atoms.

Now suppose we have two bars of magnetized iron, and
some iron filings. If we take the ends pointing north, or the
ends which attract the north point of a compass needle, and
dip them into the filings, these particles will stick to the bars,
and bristle out on both ends like hairs. Suppose we then
bring the same ends together, the filings seem possessed of
life and fall back from each other, thus showing the repulsive
power of similar poles. But if we place filings on the nortk
end of one, and on the south end of the other, the particles
stretch out from each bar and cling to one another. This is a
simple experiment, but very important and suggestive, and it
may be performed by any one.

While thus all atoms are magnets having polarity, when a
number of them coalesce or join together, each individual atom
merges its polarity into the force or polarity of the whole.

For instance, a small piece of iron has a north and south
polarity, because it attracts the points of a compass needle ; but
suppose we take some hundreds of these small pieces, and form
them into a large bar of iron, we do not find some hundreds of
north and south poles in it, but only one north and one south
pole. The force which was in each small piece is concentrated
in the whole, so that the attractive and repulsive power of the
bar is stronger by every piece that is added to it.

While then it may be believed, by our readers generally, that
some atoms are magnets, as iron for instance, it will be hard to
convince many that all atoms are magnets — for instance, the
atoms of the paper we write on, or the bread we eat ; but it
shall be our endeavour to prove them to be so in succeeding,
chapters. It will be hard also to convince the world thai

MATTER AND ITS FORCE. &

besides being magnets, all atoms are governed by the universal
law which we have advanced, but not till the last chapter is
finished, will we consider that we have proved our assertions,
for should one effect or phenomenon of nature arise which
cannot be explained by it, then we throw the whole theory
aside as utterly worthless. We conclude this one by stating,
that as Herbert Spencer's Philosophy is based on the fact, that
all matter obeys a simple and universal law of attraction, and
as we have now shown there is also a law of repulsion, his
foundation is defective, and the greater part of his theories must
consequently be worthless.

CHAPTER III.

MINERAL LIFE.

Minerals not dead. — Mineral life alow form of vegetable and animal Life. —
Iron filings have life. — Compass needle has life. — Philosopher's tree.
—Coral. — Candy. — Mineral life. — Atomagnetism. — Atoms of lead,
sugar, and coral, Magnets — Greater always influences the less. —
Explanations of Philosopher's Tree. — Cause of beautiful forms in
enow flakes.

THE title of this chapter may seem curious and incompre-
hensible to many, but we do not think it difficult of explanation
or incapable of being understood.

Minerals have been looked upon as dead matter, but as we
have said before, every atom in this universe has life, but it
must be in a certain position and condition to show it.

Mineral life is indeed the lowest form of life. It is not so
complicated as either vegetable or animal life, yet it is caused
by the same law. The experiment of the iron filings shows
that they are possessed of life. A low form of life it is indeed,
yet one that infallibly directs them when to attract, and when to
repel. The compass needle has similar life, and man although
possessed of the highest form of life on this earth, has to
depend upon its guidance, and to stake his life upon its
warnings.

But there are other forms of mineral life. We all know or
have seen the philosopher's tree. A piece of zinc is suspended

MINERAL LIFE. 11

in a solution of sugar of lead, and in a short time the atoms of
lead will be seen deposited on the zinc ; which will then appear
to shoot out branches and leaves in the form of a tree. If
these particles of metal are not possessed of a certain principle
of life activity, what leads them to arrange themselves in such
a beautiful manner ?

We have another fine example of growth in a similar manner
in the coral — erroneously supposed to be formed by insects,
but shown by us in another chapter to be the result of natural
growth from water, saturated with suitable material.

All confectioners too in making crystalized candy, see the
operation of the same life in the formation of it, although they
do not understand it otherwise than as the process of
crystalization.

Mineral life is also exhibited in every snow flake that falls.
The beautiful forms which they exhibit, all springing from a
centre — being caused by the same law.

Mineral life is only one form of atomagnetism ; and it shows
that all these various substances, the particles of lead, the coral,
the sugar, and the snow, are all magnets. For instance, in the
philosopher's tree, the piece of zinc first obeys the atomic law,
and draws all the small atoms of lead in the solution to itself —
as the greater body always influences the less. But being a
magnet also, it has polarity, and as particle after particle is added
to it, its force is continually becoming stronger, so that it shoots
out branches and leaves as though possessed of vegetable life.

Thus, in conclusion, while minerals have life, it is not a form
of it fitted to produce seed, but in other respects it is like the
vegetable and animal life, inasmuch as it reproduces its kind
from suitable material.

CHAPTER IV.

VEGETABLE LIFE.

Origin of Life. — Spontaneous generation. — Sir William Thomson on seed
bearing Meteors. — Cornhill Magazine. — Atomagnetism. — No seed
required. — Railway Cuttings. — Clover. — How a plant grows without
a seed. — Scripture proof for it. — Seeds rot. — Hardwood and soft
wood Forests. — Darwin's " Origin of Species " overthrown. —
Thousands of plants in the first creation. — New plants with every-
change of soil and climate. — Present theory of plant life. — How a
cell develops. — Absurdity of plants breathing. — Why roots and
branches spread. — Experiments to prove the reason. — Why a tree
does not grow in winter.

FOR a number of years of late, there has been considerable
discussion on the origin of life upon the earth. Vegetable life
has been accepted as its lowest form, and numberless theories
have been advanced, some in favor of spontaneous generation,
but most against it. The latest and most extraordinary theory
is that advanced by Sir Wm. Thomson.

In a lecture before the British Association, he suggested that
Meteors were seed bearing. For instance, two worlds or more
collided in space and burst ; and the fragments bearing moss
seeds found their way to our earth ; and thus generated life on
it. But supposing this correct, his theory would not account
for the origin of life in the universe ; there must have been a
higher power to originate the seed bearing meteors

VEGETABLE LIFE. 13

A writer on this subject in the Cornhill Magazine for 1872
very aptly says : — " By this theory, nature must destroy two
worlds in order to plant a few moss seeds in a new one."

Following up the law of Atomagnetism, we say, that the
growth of any plant is governed by the same law which governs
the philosopher's tree ; and that, practically, a seed — in the
first instance — is no more required in the one case than in the
other.

"We are told that no vegetation can be produced without a
seed ; but how is it that when a railway cutting is made in new
earth, which has never before been disturbed, a crop of clover
should immediately grow up ; and that it, in its turn, gives way
to other vegetation, as the soil changes year by year.

Besides, every seed does not become a plant ; for they often
rot by being placed in unfavorable positions for growing ; and
thus they return to the dust from which they sprung. If, then,
seed can return to dust, is it not possible for dust to perform
the functions of seed1?

Moreover, a plant, while growing, forms a seed in itself from
the soil in which it is placed. What, then, should prevent
seeds or plants forming in the soil itself, under favorable
circumstances and suitable conditions 1 Let us detail the
process by which this could be accomplished.

In the soil we have mineral and vegetable atoms. All
atoms are magnets. Several like vegetable atoms are attracted
together, along with a sufficiency of mineral atoms to generate
a combined action. Rain, composed also of both classes —
oxygen and hydrogen — descends, and increases the force.
More atoms are attracted ; and with the addition of every atom,
more action or life is given to the whole. In due time) enough

14 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

atoms have come together to enable the force to show itself.
Accordingly, a root is thrown out below, and a leaf is pushed
out above. The further progress of the plant then is simple.
The root attracts atoms in every direction from its battery — the
decomposing soil — and sends them as sap to the axis of the
plant, which is the life centre. From there they are sent
through the whole plant by the nature that governs them ;
either to the branches to develope leaves, blossoms, fruit, or
seed in succession, or to multiply and extend the roots.

It may be asked, Why should a seed be formed in the plant
at all, seeing there is no absolute need for it? This question
would lead us still further, and we would ask why there should
be any fruit, or blossoms, or any law ordering plants yielding
seed to be formed from the soil, and who ordered the same ?
Scientific men in general are not noted in their theories for
paying much regard to the statements of Scripture, nor are they
willing to look there for authority in discussing them. But in
proof of the correctness of our views, we can point in many
instances to Scripture for our proof. There are in the Bible
many mysteries which man does not understand, but when he
shall thereby be fully informed, little else will be left for him
to learn.

In confirmation of, or agreement with, the correctness of our
theory of vegetable life, we quote the following verse from
Genesis : — " And GOD said, Let the Earth bring forth grass,
the herb yielding seed, and the fruit trees yielding fruit after
his kind whose seed is in itself, upon the earth ; and it was so."

The thoughtful reader will observe that it is not written : —
" As God said, let the seed of the grass be planted, that grass
may be brought forth by the earth ;" — but he ordained : " Let

VEGETABLE LIVE. 15

the earth bring forth grass" In other words, God in creating
the earth, had placed within the atoms of which it is composed,
that principle of life giving force, which is part of His universal
law ; and by which the earth, spontaneously, brings forth the
" grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit trees yielding fruit
after his kind."

Surely He who gave the atoms their atomagnetic power and
properties, is able to give them any other.

Again, plants die out, and seeds do not always grow to plants,

For instance, a forest of hardwood is burned down; and,
although the roots may be uninjured, the hardwood trees do not
renew themselves, but a forest of softwood grows up in their
place. What is the cause of this ] The nature of the soil has
been changed by the fire, and the new soil, as a natural
consequence, not being adapted for the hardwood, developes a
plant bearing seed suitable to itself.

Thus is Darwin's theory of the "Origin of Species" over-
thrown in a moment. He asserts all plants are descended
from four or five progenitors, "or probably only one." But if
a plant will grow only in a soil, and in a climate suitable to it,
there must have been some thousands of species at first. For
Darwin surely does not mean us to believe, there was only one
kind of soil, and one climatic condition in the beginning.

We do not, however, believe with his opponents that no new
species have sprung up, for with every change of soil there
must necessarily be a change of plant growth. Every day,
therefore, old plants are dying out and new ones are being
created. Experienced gardeners, while they can produce a new
variety of almost any plant or fruit grown, might, doubtless, if

16

they tried, produce entirely new plants also, by chemically
changing the soil.

Having thus given our view of vegetable life, it may not be
uninteresting, to see how it tallies with that given by botanists.

Althotigh botanical students know the structure of every
well known species of plant, and examine the minutest parts of
them with a microscope, besides giving them names, such as
cells, granules, raphides, &c., yet, strangely enough, they have
not attempted to discover the principle of force which makes
them grow. They say a cell contains the first germ of life,
that it grows by dividing itself into four other cells, and these
four into sixteen, and so on. But what impels the cell to
divide itself? there is the mystery ! They say plants have two
principal parts, an ascending and a descending axis. (See how
agreeably this comes in with our theory of the poles.) The one
axis produces leaves and branches, whereas the other only forms
roots. In the leaves they find flattened cells with mouths, and
consequently they say plants inhale carbon and ammonia. In
the roots they find spongeols, and these they say draw up
water and potash only.

If we ask, Why the roots spread out in all directions, it is
to search for food ; and why the leaves and branches spread
out in the atmosphere, it is to give them room to breathe. If
we ask what the power is that causes them to do so, they
cannot explain ; unless that it is a wonderful law of providence
for preserving the life of the plant.

We will now refer to the fallacy of those botanical statements.

That plants breathe through their leaves, is just as absurd as
to say a man breathes through the pores of his skin. They
say this is proved by coating a tree with paint and it dies. But

VEGETABLE LIFB. 17

if we coated a man with paint, he too would die. The reason
of this is, the exhalations from the body through the pores are
stopped, and sent back, contrary to the healthy course of nature,
and the man dies. So it is with the tree. It is giving out
exhalations continually by its flattened cells, and should they
be checked, the tree is choked, and its life action ceases.

Moreover, if we placed a man under a glass case with plenty
of food and water, and closed every aperture, he would speedily
die for want of fresh air. But, enclose a plant under the same,
and it thrives and grows well; thus showing that plants
neither breathe, nor inhale carbon, or anything else, from the
atmosphere. The flattened cells answer a similar purpose to
our pores, and are merely the channel of exit, for the exhalations
from the plant.

We will now explain the force which naturally spreads the
roots and branches.

Suppose we again take the magnetized bar of steel, and the
filings. If we dip both ends into the filings, we have a perfect
representation of a tree in winter, with the roots at the one end,
and the bare branches at the other. No two roots in a tree are
observed to go together, nor any two branches. Even the
smallest twigs are observed to shoot out in places where no
others are growing. So it is with the filings. Each hair of
steel dust is as distinct from another as needles would be. The
reason of this is — as already explained, — that similar poles repel
each other. Roots and branches of the same tree, therefore, repel
each other, because they are of the same poles. A plant or tree
consequently must have polarity, and this would show us, if we
did not know from other sources> that a tree i» by nature a
magnet.

18 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

It may be asked why a tree in our latitude does not grow in
•winter? This is a question that cannot be answered by a
botanist. For, if plants feed on carbon, — which they say is
given out by animals — they ought to grow in winter as well as
in summer, for animals are breathing at all times of the year.
How is it also that they obtain their carbon in a hot house in
winter, from whence all exhalations except the gardener's own
breath are excluded ? Just for the same reason that we find
trees in tropical climates, growing and bearing flowers and fruit
all the year round. They need warmth, and similar exhalations
to their own to grow in. A cold, mineral, frosty air, checks the
exhalations, and kills the plant. While a warm, vegetable,
moist, (or mixed) atmosphere, draws it out and increases its
growth.

V.

ORIGIN OF ANIMAL LIFE.

Wan afraid to inquire into the origin of life. — Milk and cheese. — Dnmas and
Agassizon seeds and eggs.— A cow the mother of maggots. — Insects
spontaneously produced. — How animals are produced without an egg.
— Excess of vegetable matter forms animals. — Process of creation. —
Darwin. — All animals produced not from one but from many. —
Agassiz on men and monkeys. — One animal may produce a different
animal. — Animals parasites. — Argument against spontaneous genera-
tion.— Germ theory.— Pastenr. — Child.— Lamarck. — Canned meats.
—Why ice and salt preserve meats. — The formation of germ*.—
Tyndall on respirators. — Spontaneous fish. — Agassiz on special
creation. — Origin of lowest organisms. — Mr. Charlton Bastian.

HAVING shown that mineral and vegetable life are caused by
the simple law of atomagnetism, it will be said we are surely
not giving animal life so humble an origin. Human life has
ever been considered such an awfully mysterious thing, that
men come to look at it as eomething forbidden to be talked
about. " God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life "
has been sounded faintly through all the ages, into intelligent
men's ears, and the meaning conveyed thereby was so inscrutable,
so sublime, and so far above mundane thoughts, that few ever
dared to inquire into it

No wonder that men should have such a dread of it, when
everything connected with life is so unfathomable.

20 THE ORIGIN OF

A great poet full of lofty ideas, whose works are known by
educated men all over the world, by an accident falls and
breaks a cord in his body, and at once he is as inanimate, as
senseless, and as incapable of anything for good, as the stones he
lies on. That head once brim full of knowledge and overflow-
ing with song, is now vacant and silent as the tomb, and the
key to those chambers of learning the world wondered at, is
lost forever. But the mode in which life comes into the world,
astonishes us as much, if not more, than the way it disappears.

We buy a piece of cheese, and in a few days it is teeming
with living creatures ; or we lay aside milk for the same term,
and the microscope shows us thousands of living organisms.
Who were the fathers and mothers of these creatures ?

M. Dumas in his first Faraday lecture, denied that the
chemist with all his endeavours had ever imitated life itself, or
would ever be able to produce a living being. " There must be
a living seed for a living plant, and a living egg to produce a
living animal. These were far above human power, and within
the power of God alone." Agassiz also says:— "All living
beings are born of eggs, and developed from eggs." Did the
cow then furnish the eggs from which these organisms grew in
the cheese, and the milk ?

In the " Vestiges of Creation " We find thai a Mr. Crosse,
unexpectedly, produced insects while conducting some chemical
experiments with silicate of potash, and since that time,
numberless experiments have been tried with different materials,
ending in similar results. What inference therefore must we
draw, but that life is regulated according to some law which
God gave to the component materials of this earth, and that
when the full conditions required for producing life are fulfilled;

ORIGIN OF ANIMAL LIFE. 21

the so called creation of minute animals, is as natural as the
growth of weeds from the ground in spring.

Let us then explain how animal life may he produced from
mattor without an egg.

In all life and growth water is necessary. Water is a
combination of the two great classes of matter, vegetable and
mineral, or as it is commonly called oxygen and hydrogen.

In mineral life and growth, an excess of mineral atoms in
watery solution is requisite.

In vegetable life and growth, both mineral and vegetable
atoms in watery solution are required.

And in animal life, an excess of vegetable atoms in watery
solution is essential

It may be asked why an excess of vegetable atoms should
form animals, and not vegetables ? Because in vegetable life, a
certain quantity of mineral atoms, and a certain position and
condition are required ; and should these not be obtained, an
animal results. For instance, if we moisten some hay seeds
and expose them on a warm floor for a few days, animal life
will teem all over them. Why is this 1 Because the requisite
amount of mineral matter could not be obtained. If they had
been placed in the ground, grass would have grown. Thus the
difference in the production of animal and vegetable life, is
chiefly one of condition and position of matter.

Let us explain how these minute animals are formed.
Every atom is a magnet. The water and heat in the atoms of
hay, initiates an action, which leads them to form an attraction
of like to like. A number of these atoms being brought
together, an action commences in the centre as a stomach, a
mouth opens to take in other atoms ; and thus an animal is the

TEE, ORIGIN OF CREATION.

result. Low animal life is thus only a higher form and: develop-
ment of vegetable life, the animal as a general rule, being
migratory, and the vegetable stationary.

Wherein, then, consists the life of this animal? Merely in
the process of the stomach, receiving the food and dissolving
it, and the innate force of the animal as a magnet, sending the
necessary material from the food as blood, to its. extremities to.
repair and increase its body.

All animal life including that of man, consists therefore, first,
in the dissolving of food into atoms, and assimilating them to
the material of the body ; and secondly, in the magnetism of all
the atoms, of the body acting as one magnet, farcing these atoms
from the centre to the extremities of the body.

The law which governs life then is ATOMAGNETISM. In cor-
roboration. of our statements we have that of Prof. Leo. H..
Grindon ,who in his valuable work on " Life " says- : — " All life,
whether physical, physiological, or. spiritual, is, a state of
marriage or the union of two complementary forces- acting and
reacting."

Such being our theory it may be asked, do- we then say with
Darwin, that all animals have been produced from one minute
primordial farm, and have so progressed up to man ? By
no means. Just as matter itself is composed of a variety of
elements — just as all minerals are not, and cannot be produced
from one sort of mineral matter ; and all vegetables from one
species of vegetable matter \ so animals are governed by the
same law, and have not been produced from one animal, but
from many.

Agassiz is of the same opinion, and even carries it further
when he says3 in his lecture on. "Men and Monkeys," 1867 : — " If

ORIGIN OF ANIMAL LIFE. 23

it is an error " (as he proves it is) " to consider man as derived
IVoni monkeys, wo must admit that men are not derived from a
common stock, because the differences which exist among men,
are of the same kind, and quite as striking, as the differences
which exist between monkeys and the lower animals." Also :
— " The doctrine which I support, is that it is not only the
few which were started in the beginning by a creation act, but
the many."

AVo do not say however that one animal may not produce
some other, just as <<ome plants produce others. "Wheat, for
instance, if sown one year and cropt during the summer and
autumn, will produce a crop of rye the following season.

All plants and animals may be classed as parasites. Not
only has each variety of mineral its peculiar soil, and each soil
a plant peculiar to itself which may be considered its parasite ;
but in almost every instance, the plant itself has other smaller
plants or animals parasitical to it. Each animal also, while a
parasite to certain soils, has other animals parasitical to itself,
and so on indefinitely.

Raspberries produce an insect peculiarly their own, so do straw-
berries, apples, figs, and in fact every kind of fruit. Yet these
same fruits, when preserved, will produce a different kind of
insect from that which it produces in its natural state. Thus
showing that the nature of the animal, is dependent on the
matter it springs from, and feeds on.

All animals including man are parasites of the earth, and
each is peculiarly fitted for the climate in which it is a native.

The camel, the elephant, the lion, the moose, the polar bear,
the seal ; in fact each particular animal, enjoys its life to the
utmost in the place where it is found ; and speaking generally,

24 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

when animals are transported to other countries, they live a
precarious existence, and require to be carefully tended — a
study being necessarily made of their natural appetites and
habits, in order to preserve life.

We find also that many animals die, or are exterminated
from a country. The wolf has gone out of Britain, and
geologists tell us that the elephant, the woolly rhinoceros, and
the cave bear, had once a home there in ages gone by.

"What inference then must we draw from these facts ?
Nothing less than that these animals were produced on those
soils, and in those countries in which their remains are found,
and that the condition on which their lives depended being
changed, they had to die, and became extinct.

While thus showing the truth of spontaneous generation,
let us review the arguments which have been adduced for and
against it.

A number of years ago, the French Academy offered a
prize for the best essay on the subject, and it was awarded
to M. Pasteur, a celebrated chemist, an opponent of spon-
taneous generation. Dr. Child, an eminent English physician,
however, tried the same experiments from which Pasteur
derived his arguments, and with a more powerful microscope,
found life where Pasteur could not see it.

In order to explain how fungus mould on cheese, and on
boots, mildew on cotton, the hop blight, and the vine disease
are caused, Pasteur says, " the air is filled with living invisible
germs, which alight in suitable places, and commence to grow
immediately." As this germ theory is the main argument
adduced by the opponents of spontaneous generation, let us
see what it really means.

ORIGIN OF ANIMAL LIFE. 25

Life we are told is originated by living invisible germs.
Wlint is the difference between a germ ;md an atom1? We do
not sec that there is any difference, but many scientific men
seem to say there is.

We explain what atoms are, where they come from, and how
they cause life ; but where do these germs come from 1 They
must have been bom in some way. Pasteur does not know, and
the only man of science who advances an opinion regarding
their origin, is Lamarck. He says that the germs or rudiments
of life, which he calls monads, are continually coming into the
world, and that there are ditterent kinds of monads, for each
primary division of the animal and vegetable world.

" This hypothesis," as Sir Charles Lyell correctly says, " i.s
wholly unsupported by any modern experiments or observa-
tions, and affords us no aid whatever, in speculating on the
commencement of vital phenomena on the earth."

Lamarck's theory, to be of any service, ought to have ex-
plained where the monads came from.

If invisible atoms, and invisible germs are not the same,
then the germs must be formed from atoms, by the law of
atomagnetism ; that law or cause of life, which men have been
seeking for so long, and could not find. We can prove that
germs are not exclusively in the air, and that atomagnetism
causes germs — if such things do exist — for Pasteur says, in
speaking of the length of time during which preserved meats
and vegetables may be kept in cans : — " this result is solely
obtained by tho exclusion of the germs of corruption and
decay, which prey upon all perishable substances, with more or
less rapidity."

But if we expose one of these cans to the heat of the sun,

26 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

in a window, for several days, we find that germs have gained
admission to it, and animals innumerable, have been hatched
from " nothing." Although the can was air-proof, the heat of the
sun, acting on the meat and the water, or the vegetable and
mineral matter inside, formed a power which immediately
set the atoms moving. Like began to draw to like, germs — as
they say — were formed, magnetism set in, and in a few days, the
so-called can of dead animal or vegetable matter, was a mass ot
moving and living animals.

Moreover, this preserved meat, if taken out of the can and
placed on ice, will keep for months, although exposed to the
atmosphere, thus showing conclusively, that germs are not
floating about in the air alone, but are formed from matter
under certain conditions of temperature fyc.

It may be asked, why ice and salt preserve meat so well.
Merely because they are mineral substances ; and as we said
before, animals are only formed and supported, from an excess
of vegetable matter, kept at a certain high temperature.

Professor Tyndall believes in the floating germ theory, and
in an article on " Dust and Disease " in Fraser's Magazine, he
shows the air of London to be so bad, that he recommends
every one to wear a woolen respirator over the mouth. This is
unnecessary, for the nose is so constructed that a germ would
have great difficulty in reaching the lungs by it. The only
precaution required is to keep the mouth shut.

Another difficulty with the germ theory is, that while its
upholders believe it to develop into fungus, worms, and insects ;
they cannot understand how it develops into fishes. For
instance, the writer of an article on " Spontaneous Generation "
in Blackwood's Magazine (1861) says : — There are numberless

ORIGIN OF ANIMAL LIPB. 27

cases in which we arc baflled, in the attempt to explain how
i uuils ondil possibly find their way to the places where they
are disrovrml, but spontaneous generation is not an acceptable
solution of the difficulty. Xo one supposed that the fish which
icartney found in a pond, in the middle of an island far
• -iy from any continent, and which seemed to have been thrust
up from the bed of the ocean by a volcano, were produced
spontaneously ; yet how they got there is inexplicable" Why
should they not be produced spontaneously? Small animals
would develope out of the vegetable matter which grew in the
water. These would enlarge and alter, as the water gradually
changed from the different substances draining into it ; and at
lost, a full grown fish would be developed, suitable for living in
the pond, and capable of propagating its species too. In this
view there is nothing inexplicable about it. Spontaneous
generation, is merely the result, and continuation, of the law and
order of Creation, at the beginning.

In opposition to the theory of spontaneous generation, or
Evolution, its sister theory, Agassiz maintains the doctrine
of special creation. But we perceive no material dif-
ference between special creation and Evolution, as we have
explained ifc. For instance, would it be more difficult for the
Creator to order at the beginning tor all time, that just as
certain materials were mixed together under certain conditions
— such as warmth, moisture, and air — an animal would
result, of a character and kind suitable to the material it was
born in ; than to interpose in a special manner, whenever any
chemist should bo chancing to mingle creative substances, or
wherever a new kind of preserve was storing, or some fruit was.
decomposing 1

28 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION".

It would be limiting the power of the Creator to say so.

It is evident, however, that while matter has been endowed
with an inherent creative force, both in plant and animal life, a
certain limit has been affixed to that power. No being higher
than man may be formed ; no monstrosity may be perpetuated ;
nor any animal created, but what may be controlled or governed
by man.

If a simple evolution of nature originated all things, we would
have expected that in the course of six thousand years, all these
above results would have happened. We should, for instance,
have found some men able to fly. If, as Darwin says, animals
develope into something higher by merely wishing to
advance; then certainly it is not for want of wishing,
that man is not gifted with the power of flight ; for, from
the days of the mythological Icarus, — who soared so high
that the sun melted the wax on his wings, and he fell into the
sea — there have not been wanting men to experiment with
wings on their shoulders, but the appendages refused to be-
come incorporated with their bodies, and all their endeavours
have only ended in failure, if not disaster.

The nearest approach to our explanation on the origin of life,
is in a pamphlet by Mr. H. Charlton Bastian on " The mode of
origin of lowest organisms;" which is a reply to Pasteur,
Tyndall and Huxley. After detailing his experiments, he sums
up by saying : — " It would thus appear, that specks of living
matter may be born in suitable fluids, just as specks of crys-
talline matter may arise in other fluids. Both processes are
really alike inexplicable. Both products are similarly the
result of inscrutable natural laws; and what seems, inherent
molecular affinities. Living matter developes in organisms of

ORIGIN OP ANIMAL LlI'l.. 23

different kinds, while crystalline matter grows into crystals of-
••livers shapes."

The only thing he appears to Lack, is a knowledge of the
inherent molecular affinities, and that, it will be evident, is sup-
plied by nothing else than Atoraagnetism.

It will be seen therefore, that Atomagnetiam explains all
difficulties connected With the subject of life, and that a know
ledge of it, is all that is necessary for every one to see the mode
of, and to believe in the process of, spontaneous generation.
It accounts for Lamarck's monads, explains to Mr. Bastian
how animals are born in suitable fluids, and finally annihilates
the germ theory.

Life, awful, mysterious life, is then merely that atomic
attraction, and repulsion, of matter, which we see everywhere
combined with, or similar to, that magnetism which is exhibited
so abundantly in steel This simple law (for the one cannot
work without the other) is so universal, that in future chapters
we will show, there is nothing so minute that it does not affect,
and nothing so powerful that it does not control The tiniest
shell fish that creeps on the shore, and the noblest animal that
walks, are governed by the same law. All movements whatever
are but parts of the one great machine the globe, our earth
itself being, so to speak, but a wheel in the grand clockwork of
the universe.

VI

APPETITE, OR INCIPIENT MIND.

Darwin thinks development of Mind a hopeless inquiry. — We explain
it. — Appetite the lowest form of Mind in Animals. — Spontane*
oas Insects eating immediately. — What is Appetite ? — The Atomic
Law of Like to Like. — Mind and Life, Properties of Matter.— -
Vegetable Appetite. — A Seal's Appetite. — A Calfs Appetite.-^
Why it does not eat bricks and stones.-^A Baby's Appetite. —
Appetite for Tomatoes. — Superiority of a Brute's Appetite over
Man'i.

DARWIN in his " Descent of Man " says :— In what manner
the mental powers wefe first developed in the lower organisms
is as hopeless an inquiry as how life first originated. These are
problems for the distant future, if they are ever to be solved by
man."

But if we have shown how, by an atomic law, the greater
mystery of life originates, surely an explanation of the lesser
mystery of mind ought to be comparatively easy.

All animals, the instant they are endowed with life and
freedom, are given also a mind suitable to their condition, in
the form of an appetite ; which is the lowest phase of mind
in animals. For instance, the minute insects which Mr. Crosse
brought out of silicate of potash, immediately began to feed on
the matter they were produced trom. What led them to do so?
What told them that silicate of potash was good for them to

APPETITK, OR INCIPIENT MIND. 31

oat ? Their instinctive appetite, of course. "What then is the
natural appetite? Merely the atomic law of liko attracting
like, the same law which draws similar materials to minerals
ami vegetables, to assist in their formation. The matter of the
animal, having an affinity for material like that it is formed of,
is drawn towards it, and feeds on it. The animal then is, as it
were, merely a living magnet, and its appetite or mind, merely
a property of the substance of which it is composed ; as magnet-
ism is a property of the iron magnet.

Incipient mind, or appetite, and life, are thus alike manifested
as properties of matter, in different conditions only.

Let us now see how this same law of appetite governs all
animals, from Mr. Crosse's insect up to man ; and not only
animals, but vegetables too.

All kinds of vegetation will not grow on the one soil,
for each plant has an appetite, and this can only be supplied by
a situation which contains materials similar to itself. If planted
in a different soil it dies. The same law holds with animals.
"We have seen seals transferred from the clear, cold, salt water of
the North Atlantic Ocean, where they had abundance of fresh
fish for food, and placed in a pond of muddy fresh water, in
the belief that they would enjoy life in company with frogs,
"eels, and muskrats. They died of course.

When a calf is born, it is immediately attracted to the cow
for a supply of food, because its natural appetite tells it, its
mother can furnish suitable material ; and shortly afterwards
it proceeds to nibble the grass, and to drink water. The
material of the calf s body being produced from grass, saturated
with water, it has an attraction to a similar vegetable product
growing in the field, and to water, and thus it partakes of both.

32 Trifl ORIGIN OF CREATION.

JFor this reason it does not proceed to chew bricks, or stones,
01 rubbish, as we might expect such a young and inexperienced
calf to do ; nor will it eat a different vegetable from that fed on
by its mother; so powerful is the atomic law governing
its life and instincts.

A baby likewise is drawn to its mother, and feeds on her
milk, or on substance similar to the food which it obtains from
her. Its appetite as it grows to manhood also, is still governed
by the materials composing its body, and it generally dislikes
what it never tasted before.

For instance, a Briton going to America, and trying to eat
tomatoes, Indian corn, or bananas, generally dislikes them, till
by persistence in tasting them, the material becomes incor-
porated with the other material of his body, and he finally
acquires an appetite for them.

There is one grand distinction, however, between the appetite
of the beast and of man. The beast, uncontaminated with
man, will never eat anything which is injurious to it, as it is
perfect and never fails ; while man's appetite, guided by his
Seasoning powers, is uncertain, and not to be depended on.
Why this is so, is explained in the next chapter.

CHAPTER VII,

INSTINCT, OR ANIMAL MIND.

instinct a higher phase of Mind.— Frank Bnckland.— Why a Chicken
knew a Gentleman was not its Mother. — Sparrows require no
Teaching. — Foreknowledge of Bees and Beavers. — Important
Fact. — Animal's Mind Perfect— Never Progresses. — Man alwari
Progressing.— Difference between Man and Beast. — Man twv
Minds. — Animals one.— Animals no Soul. — Mind returns to
Earth.— Their Mind all Nature. — Animals Perfect on separation
from the Parent.— 'Answer to Frank Buckland'a questioner.

WHILE appetite is instinct, and should hardly be separated
from it, yet we wish to allude more particularly to the higher
phase of animal mind, as shown in the skill of the bees,
ants, and spiders ; the foreknowledge of the beaver, the cunning
of the fox, and the scent of the hound.

A curious paragraph went the round of the newspapers some
time ago, about a gentleman, who told Mr. Frank Buckland.
the naturalist, that on watching a chicken coming out of ite
shell, it ran away from him as soon as it was free ; the gentle-
man wished to know how the chicken knew he was not ite
mother. The question was a puzzler for the naturalist, so he
contented himself with merely turning the whole thing into *
joke. But there is more than a joke in the query, and it
involves other questions about the inetinctive habits of animals,

3

34 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

•which should have definite answers in this age of intel-
ligence.

There is something very curious about the habits of what we'
call the inferior animals, which seems to make them gifted in
many respects, far beyond what man apparently will ever"
attain to. Instinct in them often excels reason in man. We
find the inferior animal, as it comes into existence to be perfect
— so to speak — -each according to its species- and its instincts ;
as shown by each adapting itself to its proper food and condi«
tions ; whereas man is altogether helpless, and he only reaches
a kind of perfection, by the long road of education.

The scent of the hound, is a gift which n'o man possesses ;
and the foresight displayed by the bee, in laying up a store of
honey when the winter is to be long, and in killing the drones
early if a wet summer is coming ; seems to baffle human
prescience entirely. The swallow also, in his mild winter
residence, knows when it is time to migrate to his northern
home, and the carrier pigeon, no matter where taken to, will
find his way back to his original starting place : the foreknow-
ledge of the beaver and muskrat, outstrips the telegraph, while
the spider, excels man in the art of spinning, and drawing mathe-
matical lines. Yet there lies the comparative limit of their
skill; for, while the animal of to-day knows no more than his
congener of creation, the man of to-day is continually pro-
gressing in knowledge and acquirements.

What then constitutes this immense difference between man
and the beast, and how does the latter inherit it ?

The grand difference lies in the fact, that the animal its
possessed of one mind only, known as instinct, and that it i»
perfect in its kind ; while man has two, an animal mind,

INSTINCT, OR ANIMAL MIND. 35

similar to that of the beast, and a divine one, the soul, implanted
by 0...1.

The beasts have no soul or spiritual existence. Their mind
being merely a property of earthly matter, and of earthly origin,
returns to the dust from whence it came. They know not sin
nor do wrong. Being guided by nature, all species of animals have
their own instincts. They have appetites, but no desires.
Their only object in life is to satisfy their wants, to preserve
and defend themselves from danger, and to increase their kind.
Thus it is they know what to eat, and what to avoid, while
they are also provided with a suitable defence in danger. The
fox has cunning, the flying fish wings, the porcupine bristles,
and so on indefinitely.

But how is it they can know beforehand of the near approach
of storms ?

If their appetites, or the material composing their bodies,
infallibly regulate them in their choice of natural food, and of
the unfailing remedy to be taken when they are sick ; what is
more probable than that the gaseous adjuncts of their minds,
being of similar material to the atmosphere, should inform
them of every change about to take place in it. If so-called
inanimate substances like mercury, salt, etc., should be so
sensitive to atmospheric changes, how much more would an
animate body feel them, whose mind we might say is all nature
itself?

It may be asked, how is it that the mind of the young animal
is so perfect 1 Because it is transmitted by the parent.

If a hen gives to her feiood, wings, beaks, legs, toes,
feathers, &c., similar to herself, and not similar to a duck ;
she must give them appetites, and a mind, also, similar to

36 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION

her own. If a chicken did not derive its mind from its mother,
it would not necessarily act like a hen, Taut might follow a duck
into the water, or try to quack, or do many other stupid things
which would be considered unnatural.

We can now answer Frank Buckland's questioner by
saying, that the chicken knew he was not its mother, firstly ;
because its appetite told it, there was a deficiency of proper
food for it in the person of the inquisitive gentleman ; and
secondly, because its mother had a natural dread of such
persons, and communicated that feeling, as a matter of course,
to her offspring.

It may be asked, why are foxes cunning, geese stupid, and
ants industrious 1 This can only be answered by asking, why
is sugar sweet and salt acid ] Each mineral has a quality of its
own, gold, silver, iron, and granite, for instance. Each plant
has a property of its own. So also each animal has a character
of its own. Why they are so and should not be something
different, is beyond our inquiry ; as even why certain letters
should represent a particular sound. They are only known to
us as properties of the material forming each, and every one of
them is developed in many, if not in all cases, by the circum-
stances which surround them.

CHAPTER VIIL

MAN'S ANIMAL AND SPIRITUAL MIND.

Schelling and Hegel on Nature as " petrified intelligence."— Hope on " Origin
and Prospects of Man " — Matter without properties. — Mind a pro-
perty of matter. — No limit to the properties of Matter. — Brutes havo
one mind, man two minds. — Animal and Divine. — Agassiz on two
minds. — Why his animal mind degenerated. — Man should distrust
man. — Manner in which mind is formed. — From food. — Difference
between animal mind and Divine. — Situation of the mind. — Of
Memory. — Brain a picture gallery. — Difference between man'*
mind and the brutes.

SOME philosophers assert that mind is matter. Schelling and
Hegel, for instance, say that surrounding things arc " solidified
mind," and nature is " petrified intelligence."

Hope, also, on the " Origin and Prospects of man," says : —
" Can we say that God has not in matter itself laid the seeds of
every faculty of mind, rather than that he has made the first
principles of mind, entirely distinct from that of matter 1
Cannot the first cause of all we see and know, have fraught
matter itself from its very beginning, with all the attributes
necessary to develope into mind."

But we can fancy matter without, any properties, where the
world would be a perfect " chaos without form and void ;" as it
•was in the beginning ; and once this is admitted, mind cannot
be matter, but only a property of it.

38 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

Although the matter of this earth has been endowed with
atomagnetic properties, we have no right to say all other worlds
are endowed with exactly the same force ; for we would thus be
limiting the power of the Creator. If, then, matter can be
endowed with different kinds of properties, and we find it to
be so, there is no limit that we can ascribe to the properties and
combinations of matter.

If therefore man is endowed with an animal mind, possessing
the properties of the matter of this earth, in character similar
to the beast ; who can say that he is not endowed with an
additional divine mind, not included in our earth's material
properties at all ?

If we say that the beast's mind is as perfect as the properties
of this earth can make it, and that the brutes worship no
superior being ; we must admit that man has a Divine mind, in
addition to his earthly mind, because he believes in and
worships a superior being.

In Agassiz's lecture on " Men and Monkeys " delivered in
1867, we have a partial confirmation of our theory. He
says : — " Were we not made in the image of the Creator, did
we not possess a spark of that divine spirit which is a godlike
inheritance, why should we understand nature 1 Why is it
that nature is not to us a sealed book 1 It is because we are
akin to the world, not only the physical and the animal world, but
to the Creator himself, that we can read the world, and under-
stand that it comes from God." Agassiz, however, while thus
obviously suggesting two different minds, yet did not grasp the
idea in all its fullness, and consequently is weak and erroneous
in many of his arguments.

That the animal mind when properly cultivated in man, is

MAN'S ANIMAL AN<D SPIRITUAL MIND. 39

»ot greatly inferior to the beasts, may be seen in those tribes
lowest in the scale of civilization, who live and prt-y upon
animals. The manner in which one Indian will track another
through the forest, is almost equal to a dog's faculty of scent.
Tin- instinct which shows the former how to make a fire ; to
know the signs of the weather ; which tells the natives of
northern latitudes to eat no salt, and to drink no cold water in
winter ; while their more civilized neighbors bring on sickness
and disease by overdosing themselves with both, all show that
the animal mind only wants cultivation. He can also outwit
the fox, and outstrip -the swiftest antelope with cunning;
besides he can bid the elephant do his will, and is also able to
combat the lion with advantage.

How is it then since man at first rose above the brutes, that his
animal mind proved to be of such little use to him ; that as he
progressed in knowledge, skill, science and art, he knew so little
of the weather ; that he distrusted his appetite ; that he could
not cure himself when sick, and died more by ignorance than
disease ? Surely man was not given a divine mind to acquire
a superior knowledge of nature and art, and to forget what con-
cerns his life, and the best way of preserving his health and
existence on earth. Certainly not. His Divine mind, if
consulted and properly controlled, was given to aid him in
understanding all that the brutes know, and infinitely more ; but
man distrusted or misused it. He preferred to trust and be
taught of brother man, " while the beast was taught of God."
Till therefore he dethrones the authority of man, and seeks
wisdom by prying for the sources of natural law in nature
.herself, and applying it properly, his progress will only be

40 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

obtained, in the future, as it has been in the past by an endless
series of blunders, impediments, and failures.

Let us now give an opinion, of the manner in which the
materials comprised in a man's body, form mind, and how this
mind exhibits itself.

A literary man when starved, or hungry, does not feel in a
humour to write, and if obliged to do so, it is accomplished in
anything but a satisfactory manner. A man who is sick or
feverish cannot do any mental work. When we eat too much
we feel drowsy, and disinclined for literary labour, but allow
two or three hours to elapse, and we are ready for such work.
After a smart walk or early in the morning, we are inclined, and
ready, for anything that demands attention.

If we drink alcoholic spirits, some evil influence usually
ascends to the head, and disarranges our faculties ; while again,
aome men can only write or speak with effect, when half
intoxicated. Many men also when sober, will forget everything
they did when intoxicated, but remember the circumstances
when they become inebriated again. We have read of the
mind acting in a similar manner with people under the influence
of chloroform. We would gather from these facts, that the mind
is influenced in a great measure by what the body eats and
drinks. Some might thus say that the intellect is in the region
of the stomach, but such is not strictly correct.

We may lay it down as certain, however, that ^ the animal
mind of man — like that of the beast — is formed from the
properties of the matter lie eats and drinks ; and man's divine
mind is a property acquired by matter, after it has been trans-
formed within him.

But the properties of matter in food, as they lie on the

MAN'S ANIMAL AND SPIRITUAL MIND. 41

dinner table, are not in a fit condition for our purpose ; neither
are they while dissolving in the stomach.

"Where then is the mind ?

During the dissolving process, a gaseous force is generated
from our food — as more fully described in another chapter —
which ascends to a space at the top of the head, — the purpose
of which space, physiologists have long and vainly endeavored
to discover — and there, the mind, we believe, assimilates and
arranges the materials to be stored away in the memorial
chamber.

Where then is the memory located ?

We see numbers of landscapes, paintings, objects, faces of
men and women, etc. — and can recognise a large number of
them when we see them again, or recall them in vision. Where
are these memories kept, to be exercised at the will of the mind?
We hear, read, and are taught, numberless words and facts from
books, and can bring them up again at a moment's notice for
use. Where are all these facts garnered and stored away 1 We
have great powers of compression, and can contract an immense
landscape into a picture the size of the pupil of our eye, but to
imagine that the contents of hundreds of books, with other
knowledge, is stowed away in the interior of the head, seems an
impossibility ; yet we can scarcely think otherwise. For although
we read and hear a vast amount of information every day, most
of it is soon forgotten. Those books also which are last read, are
best remembered, 'and only those pictures we last saw, or the
landscapes we viewed lately, can we recall to mind distinctly.

The brain is therefore, as it were, like a gallery of transparent
pictures, each distinct class of knowledge havi.ig a section of
its own ; the largest being that devoted to the subject which we

42 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

study most. The last picture is always hung on the top of
the preceding ones, so that unless we take care to make our
pictures clear, and distinct, when photographed on the brain, and
often renew such as we wish to remember, we are apt to lose
them altogether.

CHAPTER IX.
CHEMICAL ACTION.

RTKAM BOILER EXPLOSIONS.

A knowledge of chemical action required. — Nothing known about it by
scientific writers. — Prof. Grove. — Chemical action only one form of
atomagnetisra. — Great separator. — Attraction the great builder.—
Repulsion the great designer. — Chemical action the great destroyer.
— How sugar dissolves in water. — How a nail dissolves. — Con-
centrated acid not so good a dissolver as diluted acid.— Soda powder.
Sulphuric acid. — Amusement lor speculative philosophers. — How
water evaporates. — No latent moisture in the atmosphere. — No
latent dryness in the sea. — STEAM BOILER EXPLOSIONS. — Facts
connected with explosions. — The materials dealt with. — The manu-
facture of hydrogen gas. — What the United States Commissioners
on explosions have discovered. — How explosion takes place. — Not by
pressure. — Mingling of gases. — Prevention.

Before commencing to state what heat, light, sound and
colour, are, we propose to give a definite idea of chemical action,
for in this lies partly the root of our system ; and, if we can
convey our meaning in such a manner as to be understood,
we have no fear for the other subjects to be considered.

It may be stated that, hitherto, no man has properly under-
stood what chemical action is, although he sees evidences of its
working every day, in food digesting in the stomach, in a nail
rusting in water, in a Hre burning, and in numberless other
ways.

44: THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

Prof. Grove says : — " We have no knowledge as to the exact
nature of any mode of chemical action, and for the present,
must leave it as an obscure action of force, of which future
researches may simplify our apprehensions."

Bearing in mind the law of atomagnetism — the attraction of
like atoms, and the repulsion of like poles — all mystery is at
once removed from chemical action, for it is only one of the
modes in which that law works.

In all chemical action the two classes of matter are present,
and in all its operations, there is a constant endeavour on the
part of like atoms to associate, or coalesce, with each other, and
thus to be ever wearing away all material bodies, wherever
situated. Thus the granite rocks on the moors have their sharp
corners rounded, and their rough surfaces smoothed, by its
operation. Thus a tree — when its life giving impulse or life
power has left it — is attacked by the destroying force of ato-
magnetism or chemical action, and it is soon reduced to the dust
from which it sprung. Thus also with a dead animal, chemical
action at once attacks and soon decomposes it ; but life giving
atomagnetic action also returns, and innumerable living organ-
isms are the result ; to be again siicceeded, when the supply of
food is exhausted, by a different chemical action, when all the
animal substances are finally dissipated, into their original
mineral and vegetable elements.

All dissolving processes, such as in a galvanic battery ; all
cooking, or digestion of food ; all transformations from one
substance into another ; are examples of chemical action.

All life and growth might be said to be examples of chemical
action also — for this is only a sample of the same law working
under different conditions — but we wish it to be understood

vtlCAL ACfiOtf, 43

only as the great dissolvcr, because the varied actions of the
one gn :it l,i\v, will be more readily comprehended, by separa-
ting th> dill'rivnt modes of force as much as possible*

Thus if a division could be said to exist at all, we would
consider the attractive force as the great builder — the repulsive
force as the great designer ; while chemical action would receive
the ominous appellation of the great destroyer.

By way of illustration, we may offer a few examples of the
particular action referred to.

Suppose we drop a piece of sugar in a glass of water, in a
short time it dissolves. There is in the process no perceptible
disturbance, but, on tasting the water, it will be evident a
change has come over it. How did this take place ? Merely by
the mineral atoms in the water, finding some other mineral
atoms in the sugar, and attracting them ; and by the vegetable
atoms finding similar vegetable atoms and attracting them,
But in attracting each other, similar poles often come in contact,
so that great repulsion must continually ensue. It is evident,
therefore, that in every solution, there is a continuous motion
and reciprocation between the atoms. The more evenly divided
the two classes of atoms are in the solution also, the more active
will the interaction be. Thus if we place a nail in water, it
takes a long time for it to rust or dissolve, for the hydrogen, or
mineral atoms, in the water are few, compared to the oxygen or
vegetable atoms. But pour some acid into the water, and the
chemical action is instantly increased, and the nail dissolved.
Suppose we place a nail in concentrated acid, the action is,
strange to say, also slow ; but pour in some water to weaken it,
ta some would think, and the action is again increased.

Chemical action is also exhibited in various forms. For

£6 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

instance, when a soda powder is mixed, great effervescence is the
result shewn ; while in mixing sulphuric acid in water, great heat
is the result for a few minutes, without any visible motion.
Why the one should have great motion, without heat, and the
other great heat without apparent motion, are problems that we
can only solve by saying, that all individual atoms and classes of
atoms, have properties of their own, which they have possessed
from the beginning , which are inseparable from them, and which
cannot be annihilated. Why certain atoms are only effervescing,
and others only heating, we would suggest as a capital and safe
amusement, for those speculative philosophers, who are continu-
ally indulging ill those harmless and incontrovertible calculations
anent the end of the world ; as to whether it will be caused by
a comet, or a tidal wave, or a collision with Hercules, or by the
extinction of the sun, or by the destruction of vegetation by
insects, or by the spontaneous combustion and explosion of the
earth from its internal fires. For on the acceptation of our
system of matter and force, and its evident connection with all
the phenomena of the heavens and the earth, their occupation
in that direction will be entirely gone.

Let us now take a simple experiment of chemical action by
the atmosphere. Allow a glass of Water to stand on a table a
whole day, and when any one attempts to drink it, he will
immediately say it is not fresh. A change, therefore, must have
taken place in the water. What was the nature of it ? Simply
that the atmosphere being composed of the same materials ae
the water (only in different proportions) the atoms in one, at-
tracted the atoms in the other, and reciprocated, so that the
water lost some of its own particular atoms, and became pos-
sessed of the composite particles of the atmosphere. Thus it is

STEAM BOILER EXPLOSIONS. 47

I hat water kept in a room tends to keep the air pure ; not
itiically, but by its natural or chemical action with the
atmospht :

Again, if we lay aside, a loaf of bread it will be chemically
r.hangi'd iu a few days, and become hard and stale, instead of
soft and moist. Scientific works tell us that there is moisture
in the air, but all experience proves to us rather that there is
none, f»r we can keep nothing with moisture in it for any length
of time. Our bread becomes stale, our wood loses its sap, our
gardens thirst for rain, and even our tumbler of water eventually
rates into air, in the atmosphere.

There is no more latent moisture in the air, than there ia
latent dryness in the sea ; and We would just as soon expect a
piece of new bread to remain moist, on a warm summer's day,
as a piece of stale bread to remain dry when immersed in water.

But there is no need for enumerating further examples, for
every natural change or action is chemical action, and is caused
by the reciprocal attraction and repulsion of the two classes of
atoms.

It may not be out of place to record here, an example of
chemical action, which is causing the destruction of life and
property almost every day. We refer to

STEAM BOILER EXPLOSIONS.

No clue seems as yet to have been found elucidating the catlse
of explosion. Boilers which have been tested by an hydraulic
pressure of 100 Ibs. to the square inch have exploded at a pres-
sure of 30 Ibs. and although it has been surmised that this
could not have been caused by pressure, and that some other

ORIGIN OP

force must have been in operation ; yet with all the skill and
knowledge of the scientific world it has evaded their research;

In the United States, Congress appointed commissioners to
investigate the cause of boiler explosions, and allowed them
$50,000 for making experiments, but after expending half the
amount, the only discovery reported to be made, is, that the
steam guages in use are very incorrect.

Before showing how chemical action is their cause, we will
present a few of the facts connected with boiler explosions, culled
from numerous accounts of them in the newspapers.

1. Kew boilers are more frequently found to explode than old
ones.

2. The explosion of a steamboat or locomotive boiler almost
always takes place on its starting, after having been waiting
for some time. Our readers may remember the terrible West-
ville explosion of one of Com. Vanderbilt's Staten Islands'
steamers, which Was just leaving the wharf at New York, when
the boiler burst.

3. The explosion in a stationary boiler takes place, when
what is called a heavy pressure of steam is put on.

Let us now examine the nature of the material we have to
deal with. In the first place there is the boiler made of iron.
An old boiler has generally an inside coating of rust or sedi-
ment, which is more or less composed of vegetable matter,
caused by chemical action between the water and the iron;
whereas a new boiler has a surface of pure metal, together with
the scrap iron from its manufacture.

The water which is used in the boiler is composed of two
gases — oxygen and hydrogen — in certain proportions. It is
Well known also that if those gases are mixed in a certain but

8TBA1* BOILER EXPLOSIONS. 49

ttitfefent proportion, an explosion will take place. Steam is the
form of gas which rises from water when at a temperature of 212°
As water is composed of two gases, it of course follows, that
steam must be composed of the same. If we take this steam and
allow it to pass through a red hot iron tube, the gases separate ;
tlio uxy^i-n being absorbed by the hot iron, while the hydrogen,
if allowed to escape through a jet, and lighted, will burn like
ordinary gas. It is thus that hydrogen gas is produced.

Another fact about steam is, that it cannot be much compress-
ed, as may be inferred from observing the lid of a kettle rising
by its force j and hence comes the absurdity of trying to obtain
and utilise an excessive pressure of steam.

We think we have now facts enough before us, to consider
And explain the cause of explosions. Let us suppose, for the
eake of clearness, that the iron boiler is transparent, as a glass
bottle, or retort. Let it be half full of water. Put fire under
it, and after a time the water begins to boil at the bottom,
and change into its gases, which rise through the water and fill
the upper chamber. There they remain transparent, till they
issue from the boiler into the atmosphere, with which they
chemically unite in the form of cloud.

Suppose we aow shut off steam. The gases cannot be com-
pressed, and the water cannot be made to reach a higher tem-
perature than 212° F. without changing into steam, although
the latter may be raised to a temperature of 600°, As the fire
is still burning at the bottom of the boiler, the water then must
be continuously changing into steam, and as it cannot gain the
surface, because the upper part is already completely occupied
by the gases, it must remain at the bottom. The water then
is gradually being auspended above the bottom of the boiler,

50 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION,

diminishing in quantity as itr boils, while the bottom' of the
boiler and the steam are both increasing in temperature.

As there is- thus a space filled only with gases between the
bottom of the boiler and the water, the boiler must at that part
soon become red hot. We have already found that steam, in
passing through a red hot pipe, has the oxygen absorbed from it.
The same result follows here; the red hot metal "absorbs"
chemically all the oxygen gas derived from the hot steam, and
at the same time throws off its mineral or metallic (hydrogen)
gas, which takes the place of the oxygen until the Avhole becomes
in consequence only hydrogen.

"We have thus in the boiler, the hydrogen at the bottom, the
water in the middle—suspended — and the steam at the top.
But as in water there are eight parts of oxygen to one of
hydrogen, it follows that the steam at the top, being the same
in proportion as the water, is almost wholly composed of oxy-
gen gas. We have stated before that oxygen and hydrogen^
when separate or alone, are incombustible, but when mixed in
certain proportions they form, or become, one of the most ex-
plosive compounds. It follows, then, that should the hydrogen
at the bottom, and the oxygen at the top, come into contact,
the explosion thafr would ensue will suffice to rend the strong-
est boiler ever made, and the greater the resistance offered, the
greater the explosion and destruction would be. The materials
being in the position indicated, suppose we open the valve, or
start the engine, the pressure is relieved on the top by allowing
the steam to escape, but what is the next result ? The water
immediately, by its " gravity," falls to the bottom, the hydrogen
gas is forced up, the gases intermingle, and, as the opening
is- not large enough- for the steam to escape in time, an ex-

STP.AM noll.l'tl KXPLOSIONS. 61

plosion takes place by tho consequent natural combustion of

:<i-s. and then tip- tumble destruction and loss of life wo

luenflv read of, ensues. This then illustrates in a simple

way what happens in the case of all boiler explosions, and their

prevention can be at once made certain and simple. As steam

cannot lie CMinpn-ssed — its force being caused by its escape or

condensation — an extra quantity or superabundance, is no more

iry than food for an over-loaded stomach. Therefore, the

engineer sin mid always allow the steam to escape, after the water

!<ro>itjlit to tlii'ir lt!ijl«>tt temperature.

If by any means the steam should have been accidentally
shut off, then the only safe way to prevent explosion is to allow
tho fires to go down, so as to permit the steam to condense into
water before being agitated ; or else to have an escape at both
tho top and bottom of the boiler.

The reason old boilers are not so apt to explode, is that the
" rust " at the bottom of the boiler, being largely composed of
vegetable matter, preserves the iron from any rapid chemical
action, and so prevents an accumulation of hydrogen gas suffi-
cient to cause an explosion. We frequently hear, however, of
those old boilers bursting in a quiet, peaceable way, and washing
out the fires, but doing no serious damage. Some of the plates
have tl ifii been usually found to be so completely oxydized, that
they were not of sufficient solidity to stand repairing.

Should the facts here stated be widely known and acted
upon, we might guarantee that accidents from boiler explosions
will almost entirely cease.

CHAPTER X.

HEAT.

Heat the result of chemical action between certain classes of atoms.-*
Dynamical theory of heat. Motion.— Tyndall on hoat. — Christo-
pher Columbus and his followers.— No ambition among scientific
men. — Heat produced in three Ways. — Natural heat.— Combustion.
—Friction. — Ice melting .—Hot springs and Geysers of California.—
Volcanoes caused by chemical action. — Why coal burns. — Pokef
experiment.— Conductive power of heat.— Tyndall's experiments. — <
Laboratory experiments incorrect.— -Atomic action likened to a gos-
samer thread.— How the Crusade against the present system of
science will be conducted. — 'Buskin's crusade against Renaissance
Painting, and Architectnre.— Grove and Lardncr.

FROM what we have stated in the previous chapter, it must
be evident, that heat is the result of chemical action between
certain atoms of the two classes.

Because motion in most cases will produce heat, the
originators and followers of the Dynamical Theory of heat,
assert that motion is the primal cause of heat among all
atoms.

Professor Tyndall in his lecture on " Heat as a mode of
motion," says : — " Heat is not the clash of winds, nor the
quiver of a flame, nor the ebullition of water; all these are
mechanical motions into which the motion of heat may be con-
verted ; but heat itself is a molecular motion, as oscillation ot

HI: AT. 53

ultimate particles." But the particles are not always oscillating,
there must be a force which initiates the motion.

We admit that the discovery which elicited the connection
ii motion and heat was a great one, but it much resembles
that made by Christopher Columbus when he landed on one of
the AVest India Islands, and went home proclaiming he had
found a great country ; while the vast continent of America lay
still beyond his ken.

If our scientific men possessed half the daring displayed by
the followers of Columbus, they would have searched into this
theory of motion, indicated by Mayer and others, and by
discovering what caused it, a great deal of useless writing,
would have been spared the world. For there is this bane
connected with science, that while we have trumpeters and
drummers innumerable, we have no real leaders in it at the pre-
sent time. There is not sufficient ambition among scientific men
generally, to make researches, and hew out paths of their own,
they would rather, like most of our professors and teachers of
science, be flunkies to an eminent man's opinion, than ride in
carriages of their own.

Heat is produced in apparently three different ways, but we
show that the action of matter is the same in alL

Firstly, Natural heat, caused by the natural motion and
reciprocal action of atoms, as explained in the preceding chapter
on chemical action, or such as is known as animal heat.

udly. Heat given out by combustion, which is the result
of an excess of the same action, when the atoms of the two
classes are of a more favourable character to produce heat, and
in a more favourable condition and position to reciprocate or act
under a changed or different form.

54 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

•

Thirdly, Heat produced by friction, where that atomic action
is induced by mechanical influences, as by the rubbing of two
solid bodies against each other.

As regards the natural heat exhibited in our bodies, what
causes it? The human body, like every other production of
nature endowed with life, is a magnet ; and as in other magnets,
the force is exerted from the centre to either end. The stomach
being the centre of the body — and the place where the food is
transformed into blood, for repairing the waste of the body and
increasing its growth — the material is forced from thence in
both directions. "While therefore a certain amount of animal
heat is caused by the dissolving of the food in the stomach, and
the action and inter-action of the atoms, it is also increased by
the magnetic power of the body in forcing these into circulation.
We also increase the natural heat of our bodies by taking our
food warm. In cold climates, it may be said, the inhabitants
could not preserve life otherwise.

Similar heat is produced by mixing sulphuric acid and water,
as already explained, and by the pouring of water on lime.
Great heat is the result in both of these cases without com-
bustion. Although heat is induced by water, it is kept within
certain limits of temperature by water also. Masons engaged
in labour at new buildings, may be seen warming their dinners
by placing their pitchers among lime and wet sand.

Hot springs and geysers, furnish other examples of the same
action. At the Great Geysers in California, we find the ground
all around them completely burnt, and exhibiting the most
beautiful varieties of colour. Dozens of different kinds of
chemicals are found all over the place. Water and steam ooze
out under the feet, and from the sides of the ravine on either

HEAT. 55

"hand. "Water also bubbles and boils in natural pots, and steam
s out of natural funnels, with the force and noise of a
steamboat whistle. This all shows the result of chemical action,
by water, under the surface ; for we find that the action has
ceased in many spots, and every year it is travelling further
up the valley, and breaking out in nerw places. Mount St.
Helena which crowns the beautiful Napa Valley, and towers
over all the liills around, was once a volcano, but its action
has now ceased. Should not this lead us to believe that vol-
canoes also, are merely the result of chemical action ; else why
would they become extinct ?

Let us now consider the second cause of heat in the process
of combustion, or heat from combustion.

In the chapter on Matter, we stated that the mineral atoms
were combustible ; but minerals will not burn of themselves, for
in all continued action there must be a union of the two classes.
For example, sulphur will not burn while alone, but put some
portion on a piece of wood, the two substances will burn or re-
ciprocate together, and the consequence is we see the sulphur on
fire. Iron will not burn if alone, but when it is in fine
particles as filings, and separated, as in sprinkling them in
the atmosphere over a gas jet, they are combustible, and
when ignited burn more readily than gunpowder. "Wood
burns because there are mineral atoms in the composition and
formation of the woody fibre. "Wood is produced by a combi-
nation of vegetable and mineral atoms, through the agency of
water which comprises the element;- of both.

This shows conclusively, tliat there is reciprocity and motion
in the process of chemical action, and of course, according to
the properties of the atoms — the greater the motion, the greater

56 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION1.

will be the heat, provided the material elements and conditions
are adapted to produce heat.

Mineral atoms are not all combustible in every situation and
condition, for some find certain vegetable atoms with which
they will specially reciprocate, and, often times, will reciprocate
with no other sufficiently to produce heat.

The differing effects of the various combinations of the same
material, are to be seen from the variety of displays in
pyrotechnic exhibitions, induced by merely changing the con-
ditions and positions of the material.

This is a branch of chemistry which is comparatively
unexplored. The foundation, or cause, of chemical action being
now furnished, and its mystery removed, there is abundant
room here (that is in classing matter according to its nature and
properties) for students, to make themselves useful, not to say
distinguished in their day and generation.

A coal fire burns. Why ?

Because we have in the coal the suitable material for pro-
ducing combustion ; that is, a certain species of both classes
of atoms required. Coal is iormed from vegetable matter,
saturated by mineral solutions and gases. These have been
produced from the dissolving of minerals in the interior of the
earth, through the agency of water. These solutions and gases
by reciprocating, permeate the vegetable matter until it is crys-
tallized or petrified into coal. By the mechanical appliance of
fire, or combustion, to this coal, a reciprocal action again takes
place in a new and different form, between the atoms of the two
classes in the coal, in consequence of which these gases and
particles are again set free, or are repelled from the pieces of coal;

HEAT. 37

and by the intense action of the atoms both heat and light are
produced.

If we put a poker in the fire it becomes red with heat, and,
should the fire be made hot enough, it will melt. Why?
Because the polarity of the atoms of the iron are reversed, and
the mineral atoms of the fire have a greater attraction for the
atoms in the poker than the iron has. Gradually, therefore, the
polarity of the atoms is reversed, and as the fire becomes hotter,
they are repelled from the poker and amalgamate with the
atoms in the fire ; for the greater always influences the less.
The end of the poker, if held in the hand, is found to be hot
also, although it is some distance from the fire. "Why is this ?
Because the metal, being conditionally a combustible material,
possesses a conductive power of heat, just as it has a conductive
power of sound.

If we hold the hand before a fire we feel it warm. Why ?
Because certain atoms in the fire have an affinity to similar
atoms in the hand, and are seeking so draw them out. If we
can bear it long enough for them to do so (and our hand is
burned) then we feel it just as much as if a hook were put into
the flesh, and a piece were torn off.

We now come to the third division, and consider how heat ia
produced by friction.

Supposing we take two pieces of metal, in which, by polarity,
the atoms are all lying in one way. That is the "north"
pole of one atom, is next in position to the " south " or opposite
pole of another, and so on all through, leaving the middle of
the atom exposed on the outside of each piece. If we then rub
the pieces together, we are disturbing the position of the poles
by rubbing similar points together, and as similar poles naturally

58 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

repel one another, an action commences in the atoms, if the
friction continues long enough, to reverse the poles. Should the
friction be intense, we have the metal dissolved, that is, repelled
from each bar or piece, and amalgamated with that of the other.

In rubbing two pieces of wood we have a similar resultant
action, but as the heat increases the atoms are thrown off in the
form of gas, and such is the nature of the action in this class of
atoms, that combustion is the result of their reciprocation.

Sir Humphrey Davy's experiment of dissolving two pieces of
ice by rubbing them together, caused quite a discussion at one
time, and strange conclusions are drawn from it by Prof. Tyndall
and others. But it is easily explained. In ice there are a con-
siderable number of mineral atoms, and the friction of these at
opposite poles, produces a heat which gives the atoms of one
piece, a greater attraction for the atoms in the other, than they
have to the piece they are connected with, and thus they are
repelled; a sufficiency of oxygen being thus set free by the
heat, or being present in the atmosphere, it combines with the
repelled mineral atoms and forms water.

We have now given, it is hoped, such an explanation of heat
as will be understood, and, by way of contrast, we make a few
quotations from our most distinguished writers on the subject.

In reading Professor Tyndall's lectures on " Heat as a mode
of motion" we admired them very much, and his experiments
were no doubt beautiful to behold. But, while we do not deny
any fact he illustrated, or any experiment he performed, we
certainly do deny many of the conclusions he arrived at. For,
regarding the assistance to be derived from experiments per-
formed in the laboratory, in corroborating assertion, or proving
theory, we are very much in doubt ; inasmuch as the mode of

HEAT. 59

., in all the phenomena which they exhibit, are
biased by the slightest influences, to an extent that few of our
physicists even dream of.

In all natural action, the atoms, in order to assume their
atomic position — that, is, regarding their polarity to each other,
which affects their form and disposition, their transparency and
opacity — must have perfect rest and an even temperature. The
typical form of atomic action, may be likened to a glistening
!;er thread springing from earth to heaven, and which if
undisturbed, becomes as an endless gleam of silver, straight,
pure, and transparent ; but it is so sensitive to motion, that the
slightest zephyr that blows, will twist and turn it, and cause it
to become knotted and ragged. Laboratory experiments are
therefore like unto the last, for the action being in nearly all
instances forced, the chemists see only these knots and rags,
and argue from them. We believe, therefore, that more good
would result, and more truths would be discovered, if physicists
would appeal more to nature, and confine themselves mainly to
a scrutiny of experiments conducted by nature herself, in her
Alpine Glaciers, her stalaclitic grottoes, and her forest dells of
ferns and flowers ; for every one could then test for himself the
truth of the theory propounded, without the aid of expensive
and delicate apparatus.

"While, however, we object to the common practice of
theorizing, and basing grave laws of science on forced results
obtained from in-door experiments, we have no objection to
their endeavouring to prove by such tests, the truth of pro-
blems found and solved in nature, yet we fear that our
physicists generally proceed in a contrary manner. The
crusade against the present system of science therefore, will

60 THE ORIGIN OP CKEATION.

have to be conducted on much the same principles, and for
somewhat similar reasons, that Euskin waged war against the
great Eenaissance revival in painting and architecture; by
appealing to nature as a paramount authority in everything,
over the opinions or doctrines of any man, or class of men,
however eminent or distinguished.

A number of persons again may read the same sentence of a
foreign language, yet scarcely any two will translate it similarly :
and, as a person who is ignorant of the language could only guess
the meaning of the sentence, so one who is ignorant of the com-
posite law of nature and its working, can only stumble at the
processes of any of its phenomena. It may seem a startling
thing to say, but we assert that neither Professor Tyndall,
nor any other man, can read nature, or experiments in nature
or in the laboratory aright, until they understand magnetism
and atomic action.

For instance, he says : — " A leaden bullet in hitting a target
is much hotter than an iron one, for iron has a greater capacity
for absorbing heat than lead." This is manifestly incorrect, for
such heat is entirely induced or caused by friction. The ball of
lead in hitting the target is crushed out of shape ; the intense
friction of the particles consequent on this circumstance, must
produce great heat. The harder iron, on the other hand, by not
yielding, has little or no . friction, and of course very little heat.

Again, from this illustration, they argue that if a solid body
be stopped, a certain amount of heat would be generated, accord-
ing to the rate at which it was going. But it is obvious that if
the same leaden bullet had been stopped in sand, so as to
preserve its shape, it would have generated no more heat than
the iron one.

Cl

Thus they argue, " if the world was suddenly stopped, enough
heat would be generated to r<-dure it in great part to vapour."
If tlu- earth wore stopped by coming into collision with another
w..rld (an absurdity also) and it was crushed out of shape, we
c-i'iild account for the friction causing heat, but the simply
stopping its motion through space would not do so.

In urder to carry out this great discovery to its fullest limits,

according to Dynamical principles, we are also told by Profc

the earth on stopping would assuredly fall into

the sun, and the heat gem •r.i{«id by the blow would be equal to

lousand worlds on fire !'' In order to Calm the fears of1

tmsophisticated mankind, wo will show in another chapter, howj

under the existing laws of nature, such an event is impossible.

Prof. Grove, while endeavouring to show that heat is motion,
feels himself compelled to say 1 " We know not the original
source of terrestrial heat, far less that of solar heat."

Brewer states that the principal source of heat is the sun, and
Tyndall also means the same tiling when he says i " We are all
souls of fire, and children of the sun."

The climax is, however, reashed by Dr. Lardner when h«
•ays : " Heat is propagated by radiation, which is apparently
independent of matter." If the Professor could point out a
place where there is heat, or anything else without matter, th«
scientific world would bo largely indebted to hinu

CHAPTER XL

LIGHT.

Light caused similarly to heat.— Propagated differently.— Three divisions.
— Light without heat.— Light with heat.— Propagated light, —
Auroras explained.— Phosphorescence. — Tyndall refuted on molecu-
lar motion. — Fire-flies. — Lighting gas by the finger. — Auroras from
trees. — Candle a guide to light. — Four things required to be looked
at. — The flame. — The heat. — The light. — And light as an object. —
All light, reflection. — The undulating theory disputed. — Light

instantaneous. Light cannot travel half a mile. — Sight travels

286,000 miles a second. — Flame not seen in daylight. — Astronomical
fallacy of star light. — Undulation follows Emission into oblivion. —
Tyndall's security for the continued acceptance of the Undulatory
theory, overthrown.

IN considering this subject, we find that light, or flame, is
produced in a similar manner to heat, but it is transmitted

9

differently. If we are right in stating heat to be the result of
chemical action, between two certain classes of mineral and
vegetable atoms, then light is produced in the same way ; and,
in most instances, we cannot get one without the other. Light
however does not always indicate, or give heat, and some
materials do not afford such a bright light as others. This is
owing, we believe, entirely to the proportion, condition, and
position of the materials yielding the light. For example, a
lamp may not give a very bright light by itself, but put a glass

LIGHT, 63

shade over it, to secure an oxygenized current around it, and
wo have a light equal to gas.

\\Y n.iisiiK-v light undor three divisions.

First, light without heat or combustion.

Second, light with heat and combustion.

Third, how light is propagated.

In the first division we have the aurora, fire-fliea, phosphor-
escence on water, etc.

How are those lights caxised ?

Merely by two cla3ses of suitable atoms, combining in suita-
ble proportions, and reciprocating, causing friction and light.
The aurora is caused by the mineral gases from the poles, or
in polar latitudes, mingling with the vegetable gases from
equatorial, or warmer latitudes, in certain proportions, and under
certain conditions. These same gases in other proportions
and conditions will produce rain and snow, lightning and
thunder, hail and storms ; so that it will be observed, nearly
everything depends upon proportion, condition and position.

On the Pacific ocean, we have seen the waves, made by the
steamer, rolling in a volume of liquid fire, while a long stream of
light was left behind almost bright enough to read by ; yet there
was no more heat in it, than in the surrounding water.

Why was this ? Because the atoms were not in a position to
produce and show a development of heat.

If these light giving principles could be extracted from the
water, we have no doubt they might be placed in a position to
exhibit heat also.

If merely cutting through the water lights it up, it may be
asked why does the water not always shine, seeing that the
light producing properties are always present in it 1 Because it

$4 tf&a oniGitf of

is not in a condition to do so. Light is caused only when thb
ntoms are in excessive motion^ when the poles are disturbed and
clash with each other / and they are only in this condition when
the atoms are unequally divided,

In calm water, the different classes are thoroughly at rest, and
arranged in natural atomic position, but the crest of a waV6
in falling, or a steamer in motion, presses the atoms into
collision with each other, many consequently combine, while
instant commotion en&ues throughout the mass, the greater
lights attracting the lesser ; till by rapid attraction and repul-
sion, the atoms are in order again, and darkness reigns supreme*

It may be asked why these little globes of light, having once
been set in motion, do not continue to attract the light
producing atoms, till they form an immense ball of fire t
Because crystallization, or the aggregation of any particular class
of atoms, can only ensue when such atoms preponderate over
others, and as the light atoms in the water, are few, in com-
parison to the mass of other atoms in solution, therefore, as
before, the lesser must necessarily give way to the greater.

The streak of light left by a fish as it dashes through the
water, or a meteor in passing through the atmosphere, is
evolved on the same principle. (See chapter on Auroras.)

In the fire-fly, the light is caused by the atomic mingling of
two different kinds of suitable material, one of which the fly
manufactures and developes in its body from its food ; the other
is probably derived from the atmosphere. The heat from this
light is very slight) no greater than the temperature of its insect
body.

Many healthy persons after a brisk walk will ignite our1
ordinary coal gas, by merely applying their finger to the jets

65

Tin sis causal l>y the animal, or concentrated vegetable gas, from
tin; body, reciprocating with tho mineral gas from the pipe.

A light is often seen at the ends of branches of trees on a
xsool morning, resembling miniature auroras in appearance, this i«
caused by the vegetable gas fron the tree, reciprocating with
the mineral atoms in the Air.

The second and third divisions on the subject, viz : light
with heat and combustion, and how light is propagated, we will
'consider together. The explanation of daylight, we will reserve
For another chapter.

Taking a candle tor our means of illustration, we find that
there are four things required to be looked at.

First, the flame itself.

Second) the heat from it, extending twelve inches or more all
•around.

Third, the light from it extending in a greater or less degree
for ten or twelve feet.

Fourth, The phenomenon of the light itself, looked at from
•a local distance of a few miles, according to the state of the
atmosphere.

In the first, we burn our fingers if we put them in the flame.

In the second, we feel warmth but we are not burnt.

In the third, we do not feel the heat but the light is bright
enough to read by.

In the fourth, we lose both heat and light, locally, and
can only see the flame as a distant object.

The phenomena felt and observed in these four instances,
must of necessity make the action in each several case different
from the others.

Now what is the action ?

THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

In the first, we have the atoms of the materials- under in-tense1
motion and friction, causing heat and light.

In the second, we have the same action, but with differing
materials, or atoms in a different condition and in a less degree.

In the third, as the light is too far removed to be apparently
affected by, or to take part in, the chemical action going on in
the flame, the cause and effect must be ascribed to something
different. This we assert to be due to the reflective power of
the atoms. If materials can combine into a flame, and reflect a
powerful light all around from the action of the atoms on one
another (for all light may be said to be reflection) and if all
substances reflect light more OF less, the atmosphere being com-
posed of the same kinds of material, must be possessed of the
like reflective power. Consequently this reflection of one
atom on another, produces what we experience as light, the
intensity of the light or reflection decreasing, as the distance
from the flame is increased.

In the fourth instance, we have a pure case of sight ; that is,
we are looking through a transparent medium at a mass of
reflecting atoms; but the scientific world have invented a theory
connected with it, which is worth combating.

Prof. Tyndall, in his lectures on heat, says : — " Sir Isaac
Newton supposed light to consist of minute particles, darted out
from luminous Bodies ;" this was the celebrated Emission theory.
To Dr. Thomas Young, however, belongs the immortal honour
of establishing on a safe basis the theory of Undulation. Ac-
cording to the notion now universally received, light consists
first of a vibratory motion of the particles of the luminous-
body, which motion is communicated to the ether in which
they swing, and thus it is transmitted in waves to the eye.

i.i.iiir. 07

as truly mechanical as the breaking of tin- \vnvcn
on the slu'iv." 'I'll,- idea is a very be.i'itii'ul OQ6, '":! WJ hard
to comprehend, lor lie adds, "a wave of light comes from
Jupiter to us in a second ! 186,000 miles." .\

of light have waves of dill'eivnt lengths. " 39,000

of re<l light placed >'i'd i» end make up one inch ; accordingly

170,139,680,000,000 red waves enter the eye in a single

second; while 699,000,000,000,000 ot violet waves enter in

.me time."

;vat mistake, it will be observed, is made between light
and sight.

Both Light and Sight arc instantaneous. It we shut our eyes

mid open them again, we can see any object within their range,

whethi r live or ten miles away. It does not require a distant

! or house to st'iid waves of their colour to us in order

that we may distinguish them ; so also is it with a candle.

If we place it in a room, we see it as a bright light, and
everything in its immediate vicinity is rendered distinct by its
reflection ; but place it a hundred yards away, and we only see
it as a point of light. Place it ten miles away and we cannot
see it at all, and if it be kept burning for a million of years, the
light will never reach us.

It is :is ;. -rt.ed as one of the poetical facts of astronomy, that the
light of probably some thousands of stars has been travelling
toward- vis i-vcr since, if not before, Adam was created, and it
has not reached us y. t. If, as we assume, sight and light are
one, both instantaneous, then we may safely all'mn, that the
light from these thousands of stars beyond our vision, \vill
never reach us.

Again, if we hold a pi> before us we can see Jupiter

68 THE ORIGIN OB1 CREATION.

through it. The waves being communicated through the ether,
which is everywhere and in everything, glass included, of course
it goes through it to our eye. But suppose we hold a piece of
cloth before us — which is much more porous than glass — we
cannot see Jupiter. Waves and ether, therefore, have nothing
whatever to do with seeing the star, but sight and a transpar-
ent medium, everything.

Lastly, if a fire is lighted a mile or two away during the day,
we see only the smoke ; the flame is not visible at all ; while at
night the light only is visible. What is to be said of the waves
of light during the day ?

From what we have remarked, light at a distance must be
regarded only as a question of sight, and the Undulation theory
will have to follow its predecessor Emission, into oblivion.

Prof. Tyndall, in his lectures in New York, stated, that while
it was quite logical for any one to insist, that sufficient evidence
might be brought forward in the future, to overthrow the undu-
latory theory of light, just as other theories as widely accepted
had been given up before, yet it was as unlikely to be over-
thrown, as the theory of gravitation. If our theory is correct,
— which we are endeavoring to prove — then the foundation of
security on which he has built his hopes, is gone, for we adduce
enough proof in another chapter to insure its rejection.

CHAPTER XII.

THE SUN AND SUNLIGHT.

Professors Thomson, and Tait, on the Sun. — The Sun a huge furnace. —
Herschell on the waste heat of the Sun. — Temperature of space. —
Our view of the universe. — The solar system an inhabitant of it. —
The Sun a stomach. — The atmospheres, the flesh and bones of the
solar system — Movements regulated by Magnetism. — The Sun an
inhabited world. How Sunlight is caused by Magnetism. — The Sun,
Earth, and planets, Magnetic batteries. — Sun the main battery and
head office. — Planets telegraph stations. — Sunlight caused in a
similar way to the spark at the poles of a battery. — The "Journey to
the Sun."

HAVING explained how ordinary lights are caused, and what
our views of light are, we now proceed to discuss the character
and phenomena of daylight.

We do not profess to be astronomers, and would not wilfully
run counter to the grand discoveries which eminent men such
;is Newton, Kepler, and Herschell, have made in connection
with astronomy, but as our system clashes with theirs, and as it
is impossible for us to see how daylight is caused by a huge
roaring furnace ; it is essential that we lay down a system, in
accordance with natural law, as understood by us.

Before doing so, let us examine a few of the statements made
by teachers in physics. Professors Thomson and Tait, in
an article on "Energy" in "Good Words," 1862, give four

70 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

theories on the nature and action of the sun. The fourth,
which they say is probably the true explanation, is as
follows : — " According to this theory, matter when created was
diffused irregularly through space, but was endowed with the
attractive force of gravitation, by virtue of which it gradually
became agglomerated into masses of various sizes. The temper-
ature produced by collision, etc., would not only be in general
higher for the larger bodies, but they would of course take
longer to cool ; and hence our earth — though probably in by-
gone ages a little sun — retains but a slight amount of its
original heat, at least in its superficial strata, while the sun still
shines with brilliance, perhaps little impaired. Supplies of
energy are, no doubt, yet received continually by the sun, on
its casual meeting with masses traversing through space, or
the falling in of others revolving about it ; just as on an
exceedingly small scale, the earth occasionally gets a slight
increase of kinetic energy, by the impact of a shooting star or
aerolite." " But it is not probable that the sun receives in
this way more than a very small portion of his heat. He must
therefore, at present, be in the condition of a heated body
cooling." " But it will take seven thousand years, before his
average temperature can go down one degree !"

This conclusion is a very safe statement to enunciate, but we
are astonished that any man with an established reputation
should make it.

The accepted idea, therefore, is that the sun is a huge
furnace, which is being continually fed with fuel to keep the
heat up. This heat, we are told, is given off in every direction,
and as the planets — which the sun lights — are mere specks in
comparison with the vast open spaces between, there seems to

rnt: SUN A.VD SUNLIGHT. 71

bo, as Sir -Mm Ilersrhell says : — " An enormous waste or what
appears ID l>o waste."

" Take all the planets together, great and small, tin- light and
heat they receive, is only one 227 milliuncth part, of the
whole quantity thrown out by the sun. All the rest escapes
into free space and is lost among the stars, or does there some
other work that we know nothing about."

This very fact should have told Herschell the theory was a
bad one ; for as there is nothing more perfect than nature, iu all
its inherent principles or laws ; so it is not in accordance with
any of God's works, that such a furnace should be poised in the
heavens to light and heat a few planets, when it could equally
perform the same service to a million of them.

But there is another strong objection. Herschell says the
temperature of empty space is no less than 230° F. Thermo-
meter below zero." If the sun is a furnace, then according to all
rules of furnaces, the heat must l>e all wasted or absorbed by
this cold region of space. Or, if it is really the heat of the
furnace, which we feel on a summer's day, then the " empty "
space must be hotter still, for the nearer we approach a furnace,
the hotter the temperature becomes. But the reverse in this
case is the reality, for the higher we rise from the earth, the
colder it becomes, and the mountain tops are covered with ice
and snow, all the year round.

\\"e must, therefore, give up the supposition that the sun is a
furnace, and seek for an explanation of the light, and heat,
which we receive from it, in the theory of atomagnetic action.
In giving a theory of the sun, we are obliged to lay down a
theory of the universe, which, it is unnecessary to say, differs
from that accepted by astronom-

72 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION",

Our universe is a vast body of which the solar systems are
the inhabitants, and yet these are all so regulated in their move-
ments, the one with the other, that even the universe itself, as
far as we see it, may be but as a solar system, in a universe more
boundless still.

Our solar system then, may be compared to an animal body
with a stomach — the sun and the planets being different members
of it, all having regular arteries and channels to travel along,
and from which they cannot deviate. And just as the different
members, or parts of our bodies, are connected with blood, flesh>
and bones, so the planets are all connected with the sun, and
with each other, by their atmospheres ; a firm, although elastic,
and invisible material.

This accounts, firstly, for their position.

Secondly, their movements are regulated by the law of
MAGNETISM.

We have shown that every atom is a magnet, every conglo-
meration of atoms, therefore, must also be a magnet. —
The sun, planets, moons, and comets, are therefore magnets ;
and they act upon, reciprocate with, and attract and repel each
other. Thus it is that sometimes the earth approaches the sun,
and again recedes, yet still keeping its fixed course and
position.

But the sun could not attract any planetary body close to, or
into itself, for it must be like unto the earth — with its own
atmosphere ; every body and planet therefore, having its own
emanations, or atmosphere, enables it to keep its solid parts free>
and apart from every other body.

Thirdly, the life action, producing heat, light, or electricity,,
and all other natural phenomena on the earth, is shown to be,

THE SUN AND SUXMCiHT. 73

the result of chemical action, cuused by magnetism or atomag-
netic action.

"We do not think therefore that the sun is a furnace, but
rather that it is a vast body probably inhabited like our own
earth. lit ing the largest also, it occupies the centre of our sys-
tem, and controls the life force or magnetism of the whole.

How then is sunlight caused ?

As we have already said, the sun and planets are magnets.
They are also magnetic telegraph batteries with their poles, and
between them there is an atmosphere acting as a connecting
wire or medium, — by which they all communicate with tho
head office, the sun.

"Whatever part of our earth's surface is in line with the sun,
there is bound to be a powerful reciprocal force and action be-
tween them, and the more direct and unobstructed the line is,
the greater will be the action, i

Hnw do we know this? By the phenomena of sunlight.
Supposing for illustration we cut the wire of an ordinary
telegraph line, and bring the two ends into merely the slightest
contact, we have a spark of light or electricity — Why? Because
the force of the decomposing battery, is transferred from its
poles within the solution, to the partially disconnected poles on
the line, inducing them to attract and unite ; this force is so
concentrated by the slight contact, that minute particles of
mineral matter are thrown off the wire, by reciprocating with
the particles of oxygen and hydrogen in the atmosphere, ami
thus light and fire, or electricity, is the result

Sunlight, as we will now show, is an exhibition of this spark
on a grand scale.

The earth, aa a battery, is continually, by tho action of water

74 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

in its interior, dissolving and reforming minerals, and throwing
their particles into the atmosphere. But on the surface the
vegetable atoms assert themselves, — the conditions, heat, light,
and moisture, being favourable for their development — and thus
they grow into vast forests, and these in turn produce and feed
animals. The emanations from these forests, as well as other
vegetable emanations, are sufficient to form a rim or covering of
oxygen all around the earth, in close contact with it.

The sun, we believe, is of an entirely similar formation, with
its dissolving and reforming action, its vegetation and animals,
and its oxygen atmosphere.

The mineral gases rising from both sun and earth being lighter
than oxygen, occupy the higher spaces of the atmospheres.
The connecting medium — called by the supporters of the Un-
dulatory theory of light, "luminiferous ether," — all through space,
must necessarily be of the same nature, because the conditions
for the presence and maintenance of vegetable atoms do not
exist there. The earth and sun, being thus like working mag-
netic dissolving batteries, connected by a metallic medium,
there is a strong action existent between them, as between
two poles. But the rini of oxygen at either end, partially
breaks the connection. The result then is the continuous
spark of electricity, on a scale, commensurate with the great
size of the batteries — for the force of the sun and earth striving
to meet each other, through the hydrogen or metallic medium,
causes the elementary atoms of oxygen and hydrogen to re-
ciprocate in the lower atmosphere, and;; as may be shown
by experiment, the combination of the two gases with the
intense friction and motion between the poles and atoms, pro-
duces our glorious sunlight

Tin-: su\ AND HUM. i. HIT. 75

A similar action goes on in the sun, ami tliu itness

I'.uf, while we have light ami darl.

day, tli«- inlialiitants of the sun may not know what night is ;
::tral position, it is doubtless at all times
reciprocating with planets on every side of it.

It may be. said by some opponents, that the electric spark
burns us if we touch it, why not daylight too? ll--i-au.se usually,
the action is so diffused, and tho continuity disturbed by
wind?, etc., but if we concentrate the light on tho hand with a
lens, it may be burnt also ; besides how many people have their
faces sun burnt by direct exposure to the sun's i

If we ascend out of this oxygen atmosphere, we gradually
enter the cold region which aeronauts have experienced. Why?
Because we lose the region of the compound which causes the
development of light and heat.

It may be asked why the moon does not reciprocate with the
earth in a similar manner to the sun ?

Because very probably by being connected with us, its
atomagnetic character resembles our earth's, and is of a similar
pole, consequently it would not act with us ; but it also re-
ciprocates with the. sun.

Daylight, then, is a vast process of chemical action between

the atoms of the atmosphere, induced by the reciprocal magnetic

force of tho bodies of the sun and earth ; this is the reason

exposure to sunlight in temperate latitudes is so healthy, for the

• action and motion in the atmosphere, must produce a

ponding action and circulation in the b. xlies that are

exposed to it.

Thus we have given an explanation of the general features of
that wonderful orb, which shines on us with such splendour, and

6 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION,

•which regulates our movements in a manner that the simplest
may understand ; and yet proved on our atomagnetic theory to be
governed according to natural law, which is infallible. Thus have
we done away with, it is hoped, forever, that superstition worthy
only of untutored minds, which imagines the sun to be a huge
furnace, feeding upon comets and shooting stars, and now and
then swallowing a planet to assuage its hunger. Thus have we
done away with the necessity of thinking so little of the
works of nature, and so much of ourselves, that a few planets
should monopolize a great furnace, which — if it had them in pro-
per position — could light and heat up all the starry hosts of hea-
ven. And thus, in conclusion, are turned into ridicule those
theoretic descriptions of a " Journey to the Sun " by a sensa-
tional philosopher, in which the voyagers — impervious to heat
or cold — after travelling far through " empty " space, at last
encounter flames of burning hydrogen thousands of miles long,
and see through the rifts of the raging fiery clouds, the red hot
nucleus of our luminarv within,

CHAPTER Xltl,

COLOUR.

Undulation theory of colour— What is the force which governs colour—
Primary causes overlooked as usual — Great display of Arithmetic-
Looseness in Science — When we will freeze to death — Portland
Scientific Convention — Tyndall on the vibratory theory — 474,439,-
680,000,000 red waves a second — This theory questioned — No colour
on the Earth — Herschell — Hclmholtz — Science like a voyage of dis-
covery— We introduce the atomagnetic theory of colour — Colour *
pfoperty of matter—Colours of mineral flames — Why is the sky
blue ? — Tyndall's " Scientific use of the Imagination "—The setting
sun red — The hills purple.

HAVING given the cause of light, and its modes of action in
different forms, we now give an explanation of that element of
it which we reserved for a chapter to itself,

As light has been explained by the theory of undulation, so
also has colour, which in ono way is inseparable from it.

The theory is said to have been siiggested by the vibration of
a harp string. The shorter the string is made, the greater are
the number of vibrations produced by the same force ; and the
shriller the note becomes.

Thus it is said to be with colour. Light vibrates, but
coloured lights vibrate more.

From experiments made, it has been shown that red rays are-
propagated the shortest distance, and violet rays the longest

78 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

Consequently it is laid down as a settled fact, that a certain
number of vibrations, or waves per second, produce red, a few
more produce orange, and so on all through the colours of the
spectrum.

We can understand why a harp string should vibrate rapidly,
or slowly, because we know the force which is applied to it,
But what is the force which controls the colours, and makes the
violet to vibrate more rapidly than the red? No explanation is
made of this circumstance, and as it never seems to have been
thought of, the statement about the waves is a merely empyrical
one. This shows again, how our leaders in science are forever
striving to understand secondary causes and phenomena, for-
getting altogether, or not seeming to remember, that there must
be a first cause for everything. They find something, out of
which by a great display of arithmetic, astounding announce-
ments may be made, and they therefore seek to obtain all the
glory possible for this discovery, before another shall find the
first cause of his secondary force, and blast his fame.

From this looseness in science, we have one philosopher
stating that we will all freeze to death on this earth, while the
sun is gradually cooling ; but it will take seven thousand years
to go dawn one degree! Another states we are rushing into
collision with Hercules, but we need not pack our trunks for a
million of years or so yet. Thus every scientific journal we
look at is filled with some extraordinary theory, and instead of
being laughed at, the pedants are considered as men of genius.
An exception, in this respect, must be made to the papers deliv-
ered at the late Science Convention in Portland, United States,
which have been so thoroughly ridiculed, not only by out-
siders, but by the Americans themselves, that we only hope it

COLOCttr 7'J

will t •:! a losson, which will nut soon bo forgotten, by

dabl-i liro ;ill over tin; World.

• vibratory theory is improbable 'on the face of it, and
seems very sensation il.

Prof. TyniLill on haat says: — "Light travels through space
at a velocity of 192,000 miles in a second. Reducing this to
inches, wo find the number to be 12,105,120,000. Now it is
found that 39,000 waves of red light placed end to end would
make up an inch; multiply the number of inches in 192,000
miles by 39,000 we obtain the number of waves of red light in
192,000 miles : this number is 474,439,680,000,000. All these
waves enter the eye in, a single second. To produce the impres-
sion of red in the brain, the retina must be hit at this almost
incredible rate."

But all colours are not 192,000 miles away. For instance
we set fire to a red light three feet from us, and in a second we
perceive the colour. By TyndalTs own figures, the greatest
number of waves that could possibly exist in that distance
would be 1,404,000. This number then produces the im-
pression of red on the brain, whereas he says nothing less than
474,439,680,000,000 could do it. It is evident that there must
be something faulty about this theory, or it would^ not break
down so easily.

Again, if we examine a bouquet of flowers, is our eye being hit
by millions of waves of colour, coming from them ? We think
it more probable that our nose is being hit by millions of waves
of the atoms of perfume, for we have a stronger sensation from
the matter by the one, than from the pmp<'.rti>'s of the matter,
by the other.

Nearly all who have written on tho subject in these latter

56 fHfi ORIGIN OP C

<days, seem _ to assert that there is no colour whatever in tn6
earth, and that all the brilliant hues which we see in a sum-
mer's day, are imparted to objects by light.

Herschell, Tyndall, Maxwell, Helmholtz, Brewer, Parker and
others, endeavoured to prove this, and there is no doubt that it
is the rock on which they have stranded.

Science in many ways is like a voyage of discovery into
Unknown seas and rivers, amidst which navigators have heard
that certain lands are to be found. Jtfow one philosopher and
now another takes the helm, and after placing buoys at differ-
ent points to mark the channels of knowledge from which no
succeeding explorer must deviate, and whose correctness no one
must question ; they stumble along from one quicksand to
another, till they are lost amidst rocks and shoals. This is
what is being done in the region of colour, as well as in many
other branches of science.

One observer having a slight show of plausibility to support
him, asserted that there was no colour naturally on the earth,
but that it Was imparted to it by light. There being no better
theory at the time, it Was not questioned much. A buoy was
immediately placed, and every scientific man guided by this, at
once commenced to puzzle his brains in order to account for the
colours in the light, and how they acted on objects around us.
First, the refraction theory, and then the undulatory theory was
started, but they have both miserably failed.

We now introduce the atomagnetic ; and as it springs from
primary causes, and elements, altogether, and as no buoys or
soundings by previous observers are recognized unless they
stand our own test, we feel sure it has better claims to stability
than any that have been previously advanced.

cotoun.

As wo staled in tin- li: ;-, matter is ii.itur.illy posscgs-

vd of certain properties whieh arc inseparable from it. The
mineral atnins liavc. naturally, as inherent elements, the cold
colours; Lino, Mack and white; while the vegetable atoms
arc naturally possessed of the warm colours, red, yell"1,
orange. Of course there appear to be exceptions, '(Jold is
yellow, but it is very scarce and pri/.ed accordingly. Sulphur
is yellow also, but it sheds a blue light when burned. Some-
times we see a blue flower also, but they are very rare indeed.
Every material we know of has a colouring element of its own,
caused by the colours of ihe different classes of matter compos-
ing it. Grass and most vegetation is green — a mixture of the
yellow and blue of the two classes of atoms — while all tha
beautiful variety of colours we see in a flower garden, are de-
fived in a similar way.

We once saw a professor experimenting before an audience
of an evening with diiferent minerals, showing the colours
which they assumed on being set on fire, and were astonished
that he did not, or would not, understand what gave the-
flames their various colours. It could not have been frou
sunlight, for there was none ; neither could it have been gas-
light (or " bottled sunshine," as it is called by our sensational
philosophers) for that w;us turned down. It must, therefore, as
a necessary consequence, have been inherent in the ma:
themselves, and we cannot see how it could be properly ex-
plained otherwise.

Again, by the accepted theory, a bouquet of flowers ought to
be colourless at night, but if we hold them to this mineral
flame, we see the natural colours of the flowers just as in day-
light. Thus proving the fallacy of the assertion that everything

82 THE ORIGIN OF' CRBATIOST.

,.*

ia colourless, and that it is the sunlight that gives them, or'
indeed anything else, their colour.

It may be asked, how is it we see a spectrum of colours in
light at all ? Because the atmosphere in which light is exhibit-
ed, is composed of all the materials — in a gaseous form — of
which this earth is composed, and of course they retain their
inherent colours also. Consequently light by coming through
these different materials, displays also their colours to us.

If the spectroscope is held to one of those mineral flames we
speak ofr it shows a spectrum of all the colours 'too ; for a
similar reason, that hi order to produce flame at aH, there must'
be a mixture of the two classes of matter ; and adding the
materials of the atmosphere in which the experiment is shown,,
there need be no difficulty in collecting all the colours together.
In corroboration of our system, we give a few facts illustrative*
of the different colours, and the materials to which they belong.

"Why is the sky blue? is a question which Prof. Tyndall
says is the most difficult one in meteorology ; and the explana-
tion he gives of it in his lecture on " The Scientific Use of the-
Imagination " is simply, to OUT mind, incomprehensible. Com-
pare our account of it with his. The atmosphere nearest the
earth is dense, and composed mainly of oxygen, while the higher
atmosphere is rarified, and composed mainly of hydrogen, or'
mineral atoms. As blue is the main, or distinctive colour of
the mineral atoms, the sky is blue in appearance, because in
looking xip wards, we are' gazing through a greater volume of the
mineral, than the vegetable atmosphere. But when we look at
the rising and setting sun, or moon, we see them red. Why T
Because we are looking through a dense volume of vegetable-
atmosphere, and red is the distinctive vegetable colour.

COL* 83

Why ;ir- «li>; ur'. hills purple ? IVcauso we have a blending
..t:n -spheres, the blue and cold mineral atoms of the
hill, seen through the rod warm ve^-taLl" at'»ins nf th<- vall'-y.
Thee!, Alpine glaciers are blue, thus showing the

mineral nature «i' ice and frost. Cobalt blue again, is highly
magnetic, a characteristic of mineral matter, only in ani-
degr

Iron when it rusts, becomes red with oxide, thrcmgh the
action of vegetable atoms upon it.

Many more examples migbt bo adduced in support of our
assertions, but we think enough has been advanced to establish
their truth.

CHAPTER XIV,

ELECTRICITY.

All light is Electricity. — Greatest Scientific delusion of the day. — Mag-
netism and Electricity essentially different. — Quotations to show
how little is known about either. — Dr. Thomson. — Parker's School
Book of Philosophy. — Sir Wm. Thomson on Electricity flowing. —
Prof. Tyndall also confesses ignorance. — Prof. Grove. — Prescott's
History.— Electric spark, what composed of. — No combustion with-
out a mixture of the two classes of matter. — The cause of
lightning.

FOLLOWING up our chapters on light, we come to Electricity.
In fact it ought to form part of the chapter on light, for all
light is Electricity. The greatest scientific delusion of the day,
is the supposition that electricity has anything whatever to do
•with telegraphing, except, that under certain necessary condi-
tions, the magnetic force in the wires ofttimes exhibits it.

Magnetism and Electricity are essentially two different-
things, but they have been so interchanged by writers, for
several generations, that the public mind is uncertain where the
boundary line lies.

We hope however by a few facts, and illustrations, to be able
to show clearly what each phenomenon is, and the difference
between them.

In the first place, to show bow little is really known about

85

• •ith.-r, \\v will nnk'.' ;i few ([notations from well known v.
on the subject.

Iir. Thos. Thomson, in his treatise on " Hc;it and Kleotricity'*
says :-- " Klectrie.ity is tin- property acquired by bodies, of attract-
in,,' and p-pelling light bodies, through tlic action of friction on
them." This is exactly the, property possessed by a in
Why then should two names l>e given to the same thing ?

In another chapter the same writer says: — "I shall now give
ount of the recently discovered facts, which have shown
the dependency of magnetism on electricity."

Then follow a number of statements which in our view would
show the. reverse, for the names are merely transposed. Not"
withstanding all he. siys in his treatise regarding electricity, ho
has at last to confess, in speaking of the powers of attraction
and repulsion : — " We are altogether ignorant of the cause of
these proper!'

In Parker's K<-houl T.ook of Philosophy we read: — "Elec-
tricity is the name given to an imponderable agent which
pervades the material world, and which is visible only in its
effects." Again, he has also to confess : — " The nature of
electricity is unknown."

Sir Wm. Thompson in " Good Words " 1807, says:— "In
every kind of electric telegraph long or short, aerial «>r
submarine, a signal is sent from either end, by causing flee-
to iI"W through an isolated metal wire." A very rapid
and singular kind of flowing it must be ; for he tells us that it
flows, at the speed of, "twelve time j around the globe in a second."
He has also to confess his want of knowledge, on the subject,
for he says: — " It. may be regarded as probable that there is a
real electric fluid, and that this lluid really Hows through tho

86 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

wire ; but in the present state of electric science, wo cannot tell,
or even conjecture on any ground of probability, whether the
true positive electricity is that which is commonly so-called;
or," etc.

Prof. Tyndall also says in his lectures on "Heat:" — "We
have every reason to conclude that heat and electricity are both
modes of motion ; we know experimentally that from electricity
we can get heat, and from heat that we can get electricity.
But although we have, or think we have, tolerably clear ideas
of the character of the motion of heat, our ideas are very
unclear as to the precise nature of the change which this motion
must undergo, in order to appear as electricity ; in fact we know
as yet nothing about it."

Prof. Grove says : — " How the phenomena are produced to
which the term attraction is applied, is still a mystery."

In Prescott's " History of the Electric Telegraph " — which is a
compilation of facts from Dela Eive — we read : — " The theory
most generally admitted is that there are two electricities,
each composed of particles that mutually repel each other."
What would be the use ef two electricities, having the same
properties ; in fact we cannot see how there could be two, if
they had the same force. Moreover, two differing electricities
could reciprocate, while two similar ones could not. We do
not see either how a message could be sent along the wires, if
the particles mutually repelled each other. If on the contrary
they mutually attracted and repelled, there might be some
common sense in it.

From the quotations given, it will now be seen how little is
really known about either electricity or magnetism, and it is no
wonder, seeing the manner in which they have been mixed up,

TIUC1TY. 87

that no one has been found capable of separating th< -in. This
however we shall now endeavour to do.

It is admitted that the $imrk at the poles of a magnetic
battery is electricity, and we are assured that this spark flows
!i the whole- length of the wire. Thi~ ily be

proved by finding out what the composition of the spark is.

There can be no light or fire without a combination of the
two classes of matter. As stated in the chapter on Sunlight,
the spark from the telegraph wires is composed of the two
<>xygen and hydrogen ; being minute atoms thrown
off the metallic wires by the force of the magnetic action in
them, and reciprocating with the oxygen and hydrogen in the
atmosph.

If then electricity is a combustion of two different materials,
how could this combustion flow through a metal wire? Of
how is it that the wires do not burn away instantly 1 More-
over the spark is only exhibited wh"ii the. wires are in a certain
position, and when the force is concentrated.

It i.s just as incorrect therefore to call the magnetic action in
the wires electricity, because under certain conditions there is
an exhibition of electricity at their poles, as it would be to call
thunder clouds lightning, because under certain conditions they
produce and yield lightning ; or to call a tadpole a frog, because
it becomes a frog ; or to call an egg a chicken, because it pro-
duces a chicken ; or indeed to call anything else by any name
whatever, except its own.

Of course if the scientific world choose to reverse the naines,
and call magnetism, electricity, and vice versa, it would be all
right, if the same name be applied only, to the same property
wherever it is found. But this is not done. A magnet by

88 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION1.

them is called a magnet, and its force is called magnetism.
This force is exactly similar to the force in a telegraph line, and
yet they call the latter electricity. This is what we object to,
and wherein we desire to correct public opinion.

Magnetism therefore, and not electricity, is the great " im-
ponderable agent" which governs and controls all the movements
of the material world.

Instead therefore of magnetism being dependent upon elec-
tricity, the case is reversed, as will be shown in the next
chapter, and all forms of " light " whatever, are consequently
caused by magnetism under certain conditions.

"We stated at the commencement of the chapter that all light
was electricity. How do we prove this 1

Electricity in its broadest sense, is combustion between the
two classes of matter, wherever exhibited. We can .find no-
combustion without the two classes, and we can find no electri-
city without combustion, in some form or another. Sunlight,
lightning, gas, coal and wood fires, volcanoes, are all examples.
As lightning is the best known form of electricity, we will
explain how it is caused.

Gases are always rising from the earth, mineral as well as
vegetable ; these coming in contact in the atmosphere, by re-
ciprocating, and reversing their poles, become opaque and form
clouds. Thus combined they occupy less space than at first,
and by the greater attractive power which is acquired by them,
surrounding gases are drawn to them. This tends to produce
wind, which still further increases the reciprocal action.
The atoms when in form of clouds, being free, are reciprocally
brought into immediate action, and according to their position,
condition, and compounds, produce rain or snow, hail, fire or

89

F.lectnVity, :ill those being the result «>f different unions of thu
tame l . ••; ni% null-rial, under \ari"d conditions.

"Where a cloud thus formed is insulated, and is moved within
the influence of others, they resemble decomposing galvanic
hatteries, and act uj>..n .<r dl--eliargc into — cadi other, the lesser
into the greater, by their instantaneous chemical action. The
trillion of the. atoms produces combustion, and this is exhibited
as electricity — being similar to that (Derived from the poles of a
Ixittory. When th^se thunder clouds with this excess of action-,
move within the attracting influence of an object connected with
the earth, its mineral particles are concentrated into a ball-like-
mass of liquid fire, and through this point of contact — such as a
lightning rod or church steeple — the earth, as the greater mag-
net, attracts the fire ball to its surihce. Its contact, in passing,
will destroy any small moist or large dry object, but will bo
immediately dissipated when coming in contact, either with the
wet earth, or a large metallic surface. The remaining oxygen
and hydrogen, or vegetable and mineral atoms, in the cloud,
being shaken and brought together, then combine, form water,
and fall us rain to the eartlu

CHAPTER XV.

MAGNETISM,

Explanation chapter. — To show difference between Magnetism and Elec-
tricity.— Prof. Grove and Faraday. — Electricity not a force at all. —
Arrangement of a galvanic battery, — How telegraphing is accom-
plished.— Telegraph worked by grass. — A few facts about magnetism.
— Well known and not generally known. — Faraday's misfortune. —
Born too soon. — The " Magnetic curves " explained. — Tyndall
astray again. — Polarity of iron railings. — How the polarity of mag-
f netism changes with position. — Sir Isaac Newton's apple.— The
Law of gravitation upset. — How magnetism is a weight, and how
it affects weight. — What Newton wished to discover. — The cause
of deviation of compasses in iron ships.

This chapter is introduced more by way of explanation than
anything else, in order to distinguish Magnetism from electri-
city. We described in our second chapter on matter and its
force, the leading characteristics of magnetism, and every chap-
ter since, has had more or less reference to it.

Being the universal force in nature, we could not explain the
cause of any phenomena without mentioning it; and the conse
quence is, that nearly every sitcceeding chapter will also contain
something new regarding it, according as the subject matter
appears in different positions and conditions.

Prof. Grove in his " Correlation of Physical Forces," says : —
44 Magnetism, as was proved by the important discovery of

MAGNETISM. 91

Far.iday, will produce electricity, but with this peculiarity —
th:it in itself it is static; and therefore to produce ;i dynamical
force, motion must 1*: added to it. It is in fact directive, not
motive, altering the direction of other forces, hut not in strict-
ness initiating them." If magnetism is powerful en- nigh to
alter the direction of, and to control other natural forces, -we
would argue that it is more powerful than any of them, and
that in consequence, ail others take their rise in it — the object
of our whole work is to prove the truth of this theory.

Again he says : — " Magnetism can, through the medium of
electricity, produce heat, light, chemical affinity and motion."
But if it be acknowledged, as we have shown in the previous
chapter, that the spark in a galvanic battery is combustion,
caused by the force of magnetism in the ends or poles of the
wires, then, electricity is not a force at all, and can no more
produce heat, light, chemical affinity, or motion, than it can
produce, or have any control over itself. The very arrange-
ment of a galvanic battery might show us, that electricity
has nothing to do with the force in it ; for if it had, the pro-
ducing material would show it, which it does not.

Magnetism is an invisible influence, or force, which appears
to have been observed only under particular conditions in iron,
or steel, and a few other metals. But indications of a similar
influence and action may be found in all substances, and in
connection with all natural phenomena. It is traceable also in
all atoms, and is thus found to be an inlwent property of matter.

Let us examine the nature, influence, and action, of that
force as observed in steel, and trace some of its effects to their
source, then by comparing the same action in other substances,

92 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

and forms of matter, the similarity and evidences of the same
natural law will be observed in the whole of them.

Magnetism was first discovered in a peculiar kind of stone or
metal, by its attracting pieces of iron ; such stones were called
magnets. By rubbing a magnet over a piece of steel, it was
found to impart a force or power to the steel, so that it became
a magnet, and when poised upon a point where it was free to
act, its ends would incline towards the ends or poles of the
earth. Magnets when thus poised, are observed to influence
each other by attracting their opposite ends, or poles, and by
repelling their similar ends.

At this point we would like to give an explanation of the
" magnetic curves " formed by filings between two poles of a
magnet, an experiment which has long been known to scientific
men, but never explained. It was Faraday's misfortune, that
he should have been born before the law of atomagnetism was
discovered, for Tyndall in his New York lectures stated, that
these magnetic curves, or " lines of force" : — "so fascinated Fara-
day, that the greater portion of his intellectual life was devoted
to pondering over them." It seems strange that we can explain
in five minutes, what Faraday consumed a whole lifetime in only
trying to discover, yet such is the case. These curves are
caused simply by the attraction of the opposite poles of the
magnet ; and the reason they form lines, is that each hair, or
branch of filings, must repel every other hair starting from the
same pole, because similar poles repel, whereas only opposite
poles attract. This is the whole mystery, and any one With a
magnet and filings can speedily test the truth of it.

We have already said in our chapter on Heat, that the force of
atomagnetism when undisturbed is in straight lines, and we see

MAQNKT1SM. 93

evidences of it everywhere. In tho fibre of trees, in grass and
In dissolving a piece of iron in acid, it is eaten away
in lines. If the frost leaveB on our windows are observed
forming on a winter's morning, we may also perceive that
tin- f»iv>- is in .straight lines, unless they are swayed either one
way or other by the polarity of rival shoots. Thus we have Been
two fronds starting from the bottom of a sash, a little apart from
each other, and shooting out towards the centre, but on the
points approaching they each repelled the other, which caused
both to curve outward again.

On breaking a piece of shell ice, we have often seen on the
under side, long lines of small spears of ice, formed as regularly
the one behind the other, as a regiment on parade. Tyndal!
thinks that these magnetic curves will, by the progress of sciencej
be found to represent a condition of the " luminiferous ether"
which is " the mysterious substratum of all radiant action."
We are only sorry for him that these curves will, in the progress
of science, only prove that his theories of light and heat are all
wrong.

To resume our facts regarding magnetism, particles of iron
are attracted to both ends or poles of magnets, but not to their
middle portion or centre. A steel magnet when bent to the
of a U, or of a " horse shoe," shows its greatest force at
either end, gradually diminishing towards the middle. This
may be seen by placing the magnet in iron filings, when the
ends by attracting the filings, are united, forming an arch of
filings. A piece of soft iron similar in si/e to the ends of the
magnet, if brought into contact with the ends, will be imme-
diately attracted to the magnet. In this .situation no filings
will be attracted to the magnet, because tho ends or poles of

94 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION1.

all the atoms are preoccupied one with the other. If the
magnet he divided into minute particles, the like force and
action will he found to prevail in each particle, or atom, and
is merely diminished in proportion to the reduced size of the
piece.

If a har of steel remains fixed in a vertical position for any
length of time, it will afterwards exhibit all the properties of a
magnet, the upper end when placed in any position, will attract
the " north " point of a compass needle, and the other end the
south point. But if we take a piece of soft iron, every time its
ends are vertically reversed, it is immediately changed in its
magnetic polarity, to correspond with the attraction of the
earth — that is, the lower end attracting the south point, and
the upper end the north,— in these northern latitudes j in
southern .latitudes of course it is reversed. If we hold a pocket
compass to the upper ends of any iron railings surrounding
gardens or houses, or the upper end of a stove, or any fixture of
iron whatever, we will find that the north point will be attracted,
while the lower ends will attract the south point.

One of the strange scientific delusions of the day is, that if a
piece of iron is struck several times with a hammer, it is converted
into a magnet. It never seems to occur to those ingenious
philosophers who perform the experiment, to try whether it is
not a magnet without being hammered. From these facts,
we infer that there exists an inherent force in the atoms of the
iron, which must be under the dominating influence of a similar
and greater force in the earth.

In the arrangement of metals for the operation of the tele-
graph, we again find that the force in the line arid instruments,

IfAGXETISM.

•'uminished, ox 1 ami controlled at

pleasure, by tin; operator.

We will examine the affltngementy and observe the effects anil
causes of the.*; changes.

•mi :i battery, the ends of two pieces of metal an; placed
iu diluted acid, and by chemin! ;i<'ii»n they are gradually dis-
solved. In this position they have no other magnetic force
than the* power of dissolving. Each piece has however two
poles, the poles in the acid being similar, and those in the
air beiiii; also alike. If the dry ends be brought into contact*
the action of the ends in the solution is seen to increase ; this is-
owing to the two pieces now forming one magnet with two
poles, in place of four. The two poles lost at the point of
contact, now merge their influence into the whole, and the polea
in the solution become dissimilar — opposite poles (as explained
before) then reciprocate, or attract one another, and thus we
have the increase of the dissolving power exhibited, and an
increase of force developed.

If the junction of the two metals be made by a long con-
necting wire, instead of close contact, the same action is
continued between the poles or ends in solution. No more
force is shown in the connecting wire, than in the middle of
the magnet, because the force can by i{£ nature, only be
developed or exhibited at the ends or poles. If however we
tin; wire or its connection at any part, the action is
immediately checked at the ends, because they arc now as
before, two magnets and four p.l"s ; the poles in the solution
being of courSe similar. Baing the separated ends slightly into
contact, and the result is the electric spark ; for as we have
explained before, those ends act as opposing poles, and attract

t)§ TfiE ORIGIN OP C&EATIOtf.

the mineral atoms towards each other in siich a way, that they
combine with the oxygen of the atmosphere, and product,
dectricity and liijllt. By the same action in the solution
between the poles, the metal dissolving unites with the oxygen
of the Water and throAvs off hydrogen, or forms other compounds,
such as sulphate of zinc, etc.

It will be observed then, that a close connection of the wires
throws the fotce into the ends that are in the solution, thuS
Converting the whole line into one magnet ; while a slight con-
nection induces the poles of the two pieces, as two magnets, to
reciprocate at their junction, thereby producing the resulting
magnetic spark, known as electricity. Telegraph instruments,
or " relays " as horse shoe magnets, forming poles, are arranged
in the several offices along the line, and by them the operation
of telegraphing is performed.

The magnetic force may be increased in the line to
any extent, by multiplying and arranging a great number of
pieces of any two kinds of metal, in a solution of acids, propor-
tion being had to the quantity of surface metal, and the
strength of the solution adapted to act chemically upon the
metal ; besides paying regard to the arrangement and amount
of metal in connection.

Magnetism is latent (or active) in all atoms of matter, and

may be brought into action, conditionally, in many ways;

0

The magnetic repelling force of atoms in dissolving substances,
is equal to their attracting force in reforming new substances.
The process of producing or reforming minerals, may be satis-
factorily seen in the electro-plate, in the formation of the Lead*
tree, and in all kinds of crystallization. As .all natural forma-
tions arise from the operation of this atomagnetic force, ita

MAOMETI8M. 9?

action in dissolving and reforming minerals, vegetation and
unhn:;ls, upon and within the earth, is noticed in other
bhapt

Kl-vtrii-ity therefore no more flows along, or through the
|ih win-, than milk or water docs; and if physicists would
examine more into the nature and action of atomagnetism ; not
only in reference to metals, but in other departments of
nature, they would have less failures in connection with
telegraphing, and other similar operations, than have generally
fallen 4o their lot.

As on incentive to new inquiry in this direction, it may be
stated that we have seen a telegraph lino charged and worked
-without tho metal galvanic battery, by simply allowing the
Wire line, to come in contact with the long blades of grass
growing in ewampy ground. The force from the dissolving, or
decomposition of the soil yielding the grass, affected the line
in a similar manner to a mineral battery — and induced the mag-
netism in the blades of grass, on the occasion referred to, to
supply the Avire with a much greater force than was necessary
for the ordinary working of the line.

In conclusion, the magnetism which is so abundantly pos*
sessed by iron, is also inherent in all other bodies, but in a
much less marked degree. The magrret is only observed to
exert its influence on iron, when the said iron is in a favourable
condition for tho purpose; so all bodies when in favourable
positions, and conditions, principally attract or repel their own
kind — although a Urge body, su^h as the earth, composed of
every variety of substances, will attract materials of every kind.

The apple that Sir Isaac Newton saw fall by the law. of
gravitation, was attracted by the law of magnetism to the earth,

98 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

from which it had been produced ; because the earth contained
the same kind of material as that which composed the apple.
The tree kept the apple as long as it had the power to do so ; •
but as soon as the attraction of the earth became more power-
ful than the tenacity or attraction of the tree, it fell. Sir
Isaac Newton's grand discovery about the law of gravitation,
may then merge into, or become a branch of, the more compre-
hensive and universal law of ATOMAGNETISM, for by the follow-
ing simple experiment, we prove the theory of gravitation to be
not universal. Take a bar of steel, not magnetised, and balance
it in the middle, then merely touch it with a powerful magnet,
to charge it with magnetism, and one end, — that which attracts
the south point of the compass — immediately falls. Can gravi-
tation explain this 1 No.- But atomagnetiam can, for the earth
being also a magnet, it attracts that pole of any other magnet,
which is the reverse of its own polarity. We at this part of the
earth — north of the equator — are placed far towards the north
pole, consequently the opposite or south pole of a magnet i»
attracted to the earth. If the same bar is balanced anew, and
its whole polarity is again reversed, the other end will ialL
The experiment may be repeated again and again with the same
result.

Sir Isaac Newton himself was evidently not satisfied with his-
discoveries, for he said : — " To devise two or three general
principles of motion from phenomena, and afterwards to tell u»
how the properties and actions of all corporeal things follow
from those manifest principles, would be a great step in philo-
sophy." This we believe atomagnetism can do.

Before closing this chapter, we would like to say a few words,
on the deviation of the compass in ships, for the loss of life and

MAGNETISM. 99

prop, rfy on tho North Aim-rimi! coast and other shores of
lute, h is. through this and other causes, been lamentable.

•. itlistan.ling the long time that the mariner's compass
has bfi'ii iisril, scientific, as well as practical men, seem to be
.••rant as over of the influences to which the needle is
subject, and to have learned absolutely nothing in this respect,
to efficiently protect their vessels from danger. Since the in-
troduction of iron vessels also, accidents have become more
numerous, even as high, compared with wooden vessels, as 8 to
I, and yet the only invention brought into use to prevent the
deviations, is one of the most stupid, not to say dangerous, that
could have been thought of, viz. : the placing of fixed magnets
on the deck of a vessel under tho compass. For the one
thing absolutely required in the use of a compass, is perfect
freedom from all magnetic influence, except that of the earth's
polarity, and yet fixed magnets are placed in such a manner,
that if the ship alters its position, or its course, by storm or
otherwise, the true marking of the compass is lost altogether.

In wooden vessels there is not so much danger of deviation
as in an iron vessel, and the only care necessary, is that no irtm
of any description be placed near the compass. Any metal
required for the fitting up of the ship should be of composition.
Care also should be taken with the description of cargo, stowed
under or near tho compass.

We re-id lately of a Captain who sailed from New York for
Japan, with a cargo of petroleum in tin cases, and after being
out a day, found he had been going more southwardly than he
expected. On making an examination of the compasses, and
trying them in different parts of his ship, he found that any-
where within three feet of the main deck they were alike, but

100 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

on raising them six feet and over, they showed differently. He
thus discovered that the tin cans had caused the deviation, as
they were merely sheet iron covered with tin \ so during the
remainder of the voyage he steered with a conjpass fixed half
way up the mizen mast. He stated that if he had sailed from
Boston, in thick weather, instead of from New York, it was
highly probable he should have lost his vessel on Cape Cod.
But it would not require a full cargo of tin cans to make such
difference in the compass, as only one tin can, if sufficiently
near, would affect it. Before iron ships came into use, we heard
an account of a difficulty from compasses on board one of H.
M. Ships, the officers finding an error in her position after every
night's sailing. An investigation showed it to be caused by
the officer of the night watch, carelessly placing his speaking
trumpet in the binnacle, alongside of the compass, when he
came on deck.

The influences to which compasses in iron shipa, or steamers,
are subject, are more numerous.

The first great cause of deviation, is from the iron sides and
projections of the vessel, all iron projections, such as stanchions,
davits, etc., acting as separate poles to the ship's magnetism.

The uppermost sides of the ship and the projections, will
always — in northern latitudes — attract the " north " point of
the compass. Thus if the ship rolls heavily from side to side, the
compasses will move from side to side with every roll. But if
the ship sails with a steady list to one side, the north point of
the compass will keep inclining to the uppermost side as long
as it is so. A vessel from this cause is apt to go a long way out
of her course; and instead of attributing the trouble to the
deviation of the compass, currents are stated to have caused it

MAGNETISM. 101

The pp.iratus of many steamers in the wheel house,

•1 ul iron and steel, and these act as the poles of
the ship's magnetism. They not only at all times aH'rct the
compass, hut the effect varies, as the helm is shifted hard a-port
or starboard ; the joints of the screw steering gear sometimes
advancing towards, or receding from, the compass, thus attract-
ing the north point of the needle, or repelling the south.
Again, when steam is up in the boilers, the magnetic influence
of the whole machinery is increased by the action from them.
Care in observations should also be taken in approaching a
rocky iron-bound co.ist, particularly such as that of Nova Scotia,
where the S. S. A:l/.ii'f:<- and the City of Washington were lost,
because the strata of rock is nearly venical, which in conse-
quence allows the escape of mineral emanations from the interior
of the earth, to influence the ship's nvign.-tism, and thus to alter
her compasses. A considerable deviation might thereby be
induced without any apparent cause for it.

The best safeguard, with due care, would in most instances,
be the fixing of a compass at such a distance above the deck, as
would be beyond any local influence. And yet with this
.:k»n, the most absurd mistakes are made, for in many
steamers we have seen the compass elevated on the mast, but
fixed ihnv under ir-^/t erots trees. They are thus led into the
very d , lurli. in elevaiing tho compass, they expected to

Avoid

];•• sat'iv of lite and property, all sailors in particular,
should kno\v iliose simple facts; and all iron vessels should be
examined and reported upon, concerning such parts of their
construction or fittings, as are liable to derange the compasses.

CHAPTER XVI.

SOUND.

Difficult problem in Science. — Prof. Tyndall's explanation not satisfactory.
— Sound vibrations and light vibrations. — Sound generates heat. —
How long fifty organs would take to heat St. Paul's Cathedral!
Sound in summer and winter. — How we hear fifty sounds at the
same time. — Echoes. — New theory of Sound. — A sympathy between
the mineral atoms of matter. — Iron a better conductor than wood. —
If a man has sympathy why should not an atom ? — Dancing flames.
— Tyndall's new theory of Sound. — Experiments at the South
Foreland, England. — Vapour in layers.

AN explanation of the phenomenon of Sound we consider to
be one of the most difficult problems in science, and the
manner in which it has been explained by Prof. Tyndall, and
others, is far from satisfactory. For instance he says, sound,
light and heat, are all caused by the vibrations of the atoms of
the atmosphere. But sound, light and heat, all travel at
different rates of speed, and in order to surmount this difficulty
he says : — " they all vibrate different ways," a most empirical
and yet safe assertion, for it is beyond the power of any
experimenter, or microscopist to demonstrate how atoms vibrate.

Again he says : — " Sound generates heat." " Every sonorous
vibration which speeds through the air of this room and wastes
itself upon the walls, seats and cushions, is converted into the
form with which the cycle of actions commenced : — namely

BOUND. 103

into heat" Theories like these are very easily advanced, but
rather difficult to prove. We would like to ask the professor
how long under the most favourable circumstances for accumula-
tion, it would take fifty ordinary church organs to heat St.
Paul's Cathedral 1

The experiments which are made m every Scientific Institu-
tion, to illustrate the various phases of sound and vibration are
both numerous and beautiful, but we fail to see that sound is
vibration of the atoms of the atmosphere only, and that it
cannot exist independently of such motion.

For instance, if we sound a bugle on a warm summer's day,
and again on a clear frosty day, it is heard with twice the
distinctness, and at twice the distance, on the latter occasion,
although the vibrations are theoretically the same.

Again metal is the best conductor of sound, and a long piece
of iron, from its mineral character, will yield more sound when
struck, than a similar piece of wood, although in theory, the
vibration is necessarily the same.

Suppose a bar of iron, twenty feet long, by twelve inches
square, lay on the ground, and we strike it with a tiny hammer,
sound would result, although it is impossible that the bar could
vibrate. Again if the bar were suspended and struck with the
same force, we would have more sound, and yet there would be
no vibration, thus showing that the position of atoms has a
great deal to do with sound. If the material composing a bell
were cast in any .>thiT shape, it would not yield nearly so much
sound as before the < -lia:

While we admit that in many instances, vibration causes
sound, and particular vibrations cause particular notes, yet we
could no more say vibration of itself was sound, than that a

104 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

hammer was sound — for if the vibration of a bell caused sound,
then the hammer caused vibration — these are only secondary
causes ; sound must be something deeper, some innate property of
the atoms entirely independent of vibration or motion.

Vibration also will produce sound from a tuning fork, or a
violin string, but that a special vibration of the air for each
particular note, speeds from the instrument through the atmos-
phere to strike the listeners ear, we deny. If this were the
case, how is it possible for us to hear fifty different sounds at
the same time 1

It may be said that echoes prove there must be vibrations in
the atmosphere, for the sound waves strike the obstruction, and
are forced back again. We disbelieve in sound Avavea
altogether, and think it evident that if there were such
phenomena, in striking the obstruction, the waves would bo
so changed, that a note would be sent back of a different
character from the one first sent.

Taking everything into consideration, we submit the follow-
ing theory of sound : — Sound is a property of SYMPATHY

i
between the mineral atoms of matter, induced in the first place

by friction or vibration.

Thus we hear better on a frosty day, because t,he atmosphere
has more mineral atoms in it than on a summer's day. On the
like principle, iron must be a better conductor of sound than
wood.

Thus also we can hear any number of sounds at the same
time, for the sympathy of the atoms naturally repeats them all,
whereas the vibrations of the atmosphere, as denned by the
theory referred to, would neutralize one another.

sot 105

So also in echoes, the sound is accumulated at the point of

obstruction, and must necessarily come buck wi.hou

Hiiinui beings an; endowed wiiha great amount of sympathy
and thus will naturally laugh, or cry, or dance, jn.4 as tho
sounds they hear impel them. If human beings, who an- only
made up of a conglomeration of atoms, should h
is it not likely that each individual atom is ; Iso
possessed of it? If a man should uel impelled to dance
while under the influence of music, why should not tho
sympathetic atoms in a flame cause it to d^m-e also 1

There are many of the experiments relating to sound not
easily to be explained, and many theories scarcely admitting of
demonstration, but we think thai; fewer difficulties will pre.-.-nt
themselves by the explanation we have j-iven, l'K u '.>' any
other.

Prof. Tyndall ^ely delivered a lecture at the Royal
Institution, on Sound, giving an account of numerous e:,peri-
ments made at the South Foreland, 1 "upland, with steam
whistles, trumpets and cannons, in order to determine the
distance at which sounds could be heard at sea. The result of
these observations is a New Theory of Sound, and it just tends to
show how much dependence is to be placed on any ilieo'j of

abstruse science, where the imagine Hun is allowed comiderablo

•

latitude — Jio permanent basis of natural s. it-nce liein^ established,
which would enable any one to prove or disprove any startling
assertion.

The. theory is not complete, 1^ut it is to the ellVvt, that the
imagination haa to picture vapour from sea and land, rising in
layers; these layers presenting "reflecting •surfaces" to the

106 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

passage of sound : — " In the relative homogeneity of the atmos-
phere, or its being split up into many layers, we have a clue,
which may enable us to arrive at a knowledge why sounds of
equal intensity, will travel further in some days than others."
Long discussions and lectures will probably be the result of this
discovery, till, when it is on the point of being universally
adopted, another clue will be unfortunately discovered.

CHAPTER XVII.

WATER AND RAIN.

Fire not so powerful as Water. — Water in granite. — Herschell on Rain. —
Rain caused by chemical action in the atmosphere. — The Rain
guage. — Rain forms in the lower atmosphere. — Proctor and Kamtz
on the reason why. — Rain shot out from clouds. — Herschell on Rain
storms. — Climate of North America changing. — Egypt cultivating
the Palm for Rain. — Forests and vegetation cause Rain. — Herschell's
reason why, a failure. — Drainage said to be bad. — Chicago, St.
Louis, once unhealthy. — Why. — No large city unhealthy. — No air in
Water. — Fishes gills nsed for filtering food, not for breathing. —
The air they need produced from digestion. — Can we produce or
bring down Rain ? — Great battles in America were followed by
Rain. — The cause. — Conclusion.

THE subject of the present chapter, deals Avith one of the
most powerful agencies in nature, by the medium of which, all
formations, — animal, vegetable, and mineral, — are by turns
produced, dissolved and again reformed.

Many scientific men assert that Fire is a more powerful agent
than Water. For dissipating and dissolving, it is so, but it does
not rebuild, and cannot re-produce. It has been generally con-
sidered that all minerals, diamonds, and precious stones, have
been formed from the action of fire, also granites and coal ; but
scientific opinion is gradually veering round to a belief in the
more powerful agency of water.

108 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

Strange to say, granite when examined by a microscope, is
found, by Dr. Sorby, to have minute cells filled with water, a
most emphatic demonstralion that it has been formed by the
medium of water; yet this has been explained away on the
ground that it is condensed steam, or vapour, which was
present during its formation. How steam could exist where
every substance (as believed) was in a molten state, and
confined to the interior of the earth, is more than any one could
imagine possible.

If we except the atmosphere, there is nothing so abundant
on this earth as water ; for the oceans are larger than the con-
tinents, and the land even abounds in lakes, and rivers, while
the atmosphere itself is continually pouring down deluges of
rain. What is this wonderful element, arid how is it produced?

Natural Philosophers, tell us it is composed of oxygen and
hydrogen — eight parts of oxygen, to one of hydrogen — and that
with these gases ".artificial" water can be easily manufactured in
a laboratory. They also tell us that the most powerful combus-
tion, is produced by a combination of the same gases in different
proportions.

Agreeably with our atornagnetic system, we prefer to use
simpler language and say : — Water is the result of the simplest
combination, next to air. of the two classes of matter in the
form of gases. Moreover, because these gases can be made on a
small scale only by a certain chemical process, our teachers
would have us believe, that they are not to be found naturally
in sufficient abundance ,in the atmosphere ; and consequently,
that rain is not formed by their combination in it. But they
forget, or rather they do not perceive, that the earth itself is a
vast laboratory, where hundreds of nature's gases, of every

WATER AND HAW. 109

description, ;ire continually being manufactured by the agency
of \\Mt.T in the interior, and thrown into the atmosphere; where
they a^.-iin n-t'oMii and descend in the shape of rain, or snow, of
hail, to repeat the same transformation below.

y account for rain, therefore, by saying that all the water
that comes down to us in that form, must have arisen first aa
vap'iur, and so remained for a time in invisible particles in the
atmosphere, till it accumulated and fell again. Thus Prof,
Tyndall in his "Forma of Water," says: — "Solar heat is the true
origin of Glaciers. The sun acting on the ocean within the
tropics, causes an exl.alition which floats away as clouds to the
Polar regions, as well as the high mountain range?, where, in
each case, the clouds yield up their contents as snow or rain."
The too common practice of tracing everything to the sun, is
something to be deprecated, and just as absurd, as to be for*
ever blaming Adam for all the ills and miseries that afflict the
human race. There is no necessity for searching for a remote
ancestry for any natural phenomenon, when Its own immediate
cause is explained. Apart from this, the theory is incorrect, aa
We will show further on. Thus also Sir John Herschell in
"Good Words," 1864, says: — "Common sense assures us, that all
the rain, etc., which falls from the skies must have origina-
ted in the sea, and must (if the present state of things is to
cntluiv) find its way back to it." Common sense is a very good
guide for a man's actions, but a poor guide to the study of science,
I the given principles of science ate correct. In our
opinion, this theory would be merely distillation, which is an
induced process, whereby the particles of water are expanded
by heat, when confined in a vessel, so that their properties or
compounds, are in no way altered by coming in contact with

110 THE OSIG1N OF CREATION.

other compounds or gases ; and, if cold be applied, they then
return to their former condition as water. Evaporation, on
the other hand, is a chemical action — induced by cold as well
as by heat, and is a throwing off into gases of the particles of the
material acted upon. Thus we have seen the wet muddy streets
of a city in spring, dried up in a few hours by a piercing north
wind, and such clouds of dust raised, that would have taken
the sun a day or two in summer to have accomplished.

When bodies are evaporated into their original elements,
either by heat or cold, or fire, or water, and then allowed to
come into contact with other gases in the atmosphere, those
compounds will be chemically changed into a variety of
new compounds, and are thus in a position to produce a variety
of atmospheric phenomena, such as rain, hail, snow, fog, clouds,
lightning, thunder, auroras, etc., etc.

If all bodies can be converted into gases or their original
elements, water cannot be an exception. The main scientific
objection to this, is the statement given by professors of chem-
istry, that oxygen is the most universal gas, for it is found in
connection with every other gas on earth, while hydrogen is
only found beside metals. This is only apparently so. Vegeta-
ble gas must, as a matter of course, be contiguous to vegetation.
It is also more dense than mineral gas, consequently we find it
close to the earth. But as we ascend into the atmosphere, the
air becomes more cold and rarified, so that we breathe with
difficulty. This atmosphere cannot be composed principally of
oxygen or vegetable gas, for no vegetation grows on the tops of
high mountains ; it must then partake more of the hydrogen or
mineral gas. If a large quantity of this oxygen, should come
in contact with the hydrogen, the result would probably be

WATER AND RAIN*. Ill

cloud ami then rain, not on account of the temperature of the
gases, but of their opposite characters causing a reciprocation
and chemical action. Let us give a common illustration. The
weather (in winter) has been cold for eovenil days, with the
wind I'liiwing from the north, so that everything is frozen hard.
Suddenly the wind veers round to the south. The consequence
is we first have snow, (which is a compound of the gases when
they are both cold or below 32° F.) and as the south wind
prevails, the temperature of both gases rises, or rather the south
wind so overpowers the north that it turns to rain.

What is the philosophy of this ?

The north wind is composed of a largo proportion of mineral
atoms — emanating from the pole — which permeates everything,
BO that when the south wind blows with its large allowance of
vegetable gas, brought from the region of the tropics, or where
there is a warm sun and abundance of vegetation, there is an
immediate change of combination with the result mentioned.

The rain or snow which deluges us, does not necessarily
come from the Gulf Stream, or result from the evaporation of
the Atlantic, as is generally assumed, but from the atmosphere
which immediately surrounds us. Rain also does not necessarily
fall from a distance of some hundreds of yards above us, but
may be formed only a few feet over our heads. This is
proved by observations which have been taken lately, showing
that the nearer the rain guage is kept to the surface of the
earth, the greater is the rain-fall indicated. The process of
rain formation is everywhere in the atmosphere up to a certain
height, and even down to, and on, the surface of the earth.

Thus it is we have fogs from a similar union of gases. The
opacity is occasioned, we believe, from the poles of the atom*

112 THE ORIGIN 01* CREAflOK,

1 — "by reciprocating with others — being all turned topsy tui*Vy;
When the atoms have combined and are in position, they are
again transparent. Thus if we allow sugar to crystalize quietly
it will be transparent, but stir the syrup, and it becomes
opaqfte. If water freezes on a calm evening, it is transparent,
because the atoms are undisturbed, — thus we have seen the
fish in the East River of Pictou, Nova Scotia, gliding along
tinder the ice, and yet the latter was so thick that horses and
sleighs .were travelling over it — but if the wind blows during
the process of freezing, — as We once observed on Dunsappie Lochj
near Edinburgh, Scotland, — the ice, no matter how thin, becomea
a milky white and obscure. So it is with many other solutionsk

Mr. Proctor, in an article on Rain in the Intellectual Ob-
server, alludes to these observations with the rain guage, and
says Kamtz, explains it thus : — " A drop carries with it the
temperature of the upper region of air, and condenses on ita
Surface the aqueous vapour present throughout the lower strata
of the atmosphere, as a decanter of cold water does when
brought out of a room."

But the mere immaterial sensation of cold, could not produce
a material substance like rain. The cold must either be a
material substance itself^or it must have a material to represent
it. We say cold, as experienced by us, is caused by hydrogen
or mineral gas, being a property of it. If thea a drop fell
from the upper atmosphere and enlarged on entering the
lower, it would not do so merely from. the temperature, but
because the hydrogen in the drop combined with the
oxygen it came in contact with. Water forms on the outside
of the decanter in a similar manner, not by reason of the
temperature, but by the proximate cause of the temperature,

WATER AND IUIN. 113

the ice, sending forth mineral gas, which combining with tin-
in (or animal and vegetable gas in the room) forms water.

K;imtz's theory, such as it is, is supported by several well
known men, but Sir John Herschell applies the Dynamical
Theory to it, and because it does not stand the test, he opposes
it, but offers no explanation in return.

Mr. Proctor, in concluding his article, thinks there is no
difficulty in explaining the phenomenon, for he has observed
that when rain is falling heavily, small specks are seen flitting
among them, which could not be caused by the collision of the
drops, for they all fall parallel. This, he says, shows rain
is generated in the lower as well as the upper strata of atmos-
phere ; for these specks are observed to be water. "Why this is
so, however, he does not profess to explain. A simple acquain-
tance with atomagnetic law will settle the question for ever.
The idea that rain drops all fall parallel is not strictly correct,
for we have seen them shot out from a cloud (like rays of
sunlight), thus indicating that there is a force in the cloud which
ejects, as well as forms the rain, when the combination of the
gases or materials present, become repellent to it.

The theory of rain storms is very vague at the present time.
Sir John Herschell, in the article we quoted from previously,
asks :— " Is it in any degree in the power of man to alter the
weather ? This he tells us is not so absurd a question as it may
appear ; for from the registers of rain falls which are kept all
over England, the rain would seem to have a preference for
some places more than others. All well wooded districts are
observed to have a large yearly rain fall, while waste barren
moors are dry in comparison. He also says: — "The rain fall
over large regions of North America is said to be gradually

8

114 THE ORIGIN Of

diminishing, and the climate otherwise altering in consequence
of the clearance of the forests ; while on the other hand, under
the beneficial influence of a largely increased cultivation of the
palm in Egypt, rain is annually becoming more frequent.
Lakes are cited in what was formerly Spanish America (that of
Nicaragua, if we mistake not, is one) whose water supply
(derived, of course, from atmospheric sources,) had been so
largely diminished, owing to the denudation of the country
under the Spanish Regime, as to contract their areas, and leave
large tracts of their shores dry ; which, now that the vegetation
is again restored, are once more covered by their waters."

The reason why trees attract the rain is, Sir John says : —
" The foliage of the trees defends the soil beneath and around
them from the sun's direct rays, and disperses their heat in the
air, to be carried away by winds, and thus prevents the ground
from being heated in the summer ; while on the other hand, a
heated surface soil, reacts by its radiation on the clouds as they
pass over it, and thus prevents many a refreshing shower
which they would otherwise deposit, or disperses them
altogether."

We confess we cannot understand, neither does he explain,
why a soil that is not heated will attract rain, or "vice versa."
How much simpler would it not be to say, that well wooded
districts attract or produce rain, because there is always an
excess of vegetable gases around them, which are thus always
ready to combine with any mineral winds that may be blown
over them. While on a barren moor which has no sufficient
supply of oxygen, reciprocation seldom takes place.

H Drainage " — Herschell also says, " is bad, for it cuts off a

WATER AND RAIN. 1 1 ."»

• lr.il ul' th" supply of local evaporation, which is the

: tl element iii tin- amount of rain fall."
\\'" admit that drainage lessens tin- rain fall, net for his

>. lnii Inrause there i* less concentrated activity in vege-

-iM\vth, and consequently a smaller supply of vegetable
exhalations necessary for forming rain. Still we would not say
that drainage is had, for a clump of trees at the end of a field,
would counteract the effect of drainage over a hundred acres.

These facts regarding vegetable exhalations, give us an
insight into the cause of fever and malaria. A hundred years
ago the sites of many of those great western cities in America —
St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, and others, were fever swamps,
full of all kinds of malaria, striking down the strongest man
that took up his abode in their midst ; yet they are now as
healthy as any of the cities of the Republic. Why were these
cities unhealthy? Becau.se there was too much vegetation
present with decomposing vegetable matter, and in consequence
more oxygen or vegetable gas in the atmosphere, than is suitable
for the health of man. We never hear of a city being a place
of fever and ague, especially one which is largely built of brick
and stone, unless the drainage and cleanliness are defective,
fur the vegetable emanations in its area are very scant.
But allow the cities to go to ruin, let them be overrun with
vegetation, as in the case of Palenque and Uxmal in Central
America, or those magnificent ruined cities of Cambodia in
Siam ; and they become as dangerous to the life of man, as the
worst ague swamps known.

A curious fallacy expounded regarding water, is, that it con-
tains a quantity of air. Prof. Tyndall proves this by saying
that bubbles rise to the surf a .vattr is boiled. But if

116 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

•we boil the water long enough, it will all vanish into air, or its
original elements, therefore according to Tyndall's own showing,
water is all air. If water contained air, we should think it
would he enclosed when frozen into ice. But Prof. Tyndall
declares that it is not so, " for although ice is full of small
"bubbles, they are not filled with air."

Mr. H. Higgins in "Eraser's Magazine" 1870, on "The
water we should not drink," says : — •" A considerable volume of
air is absorbed by water." " In this and in other ways
(bubbling over falls and among rocks) water receives atmos-
pheric air, without which it would fail of the purposes for
which it was ordained. It is necessary to the existence of the
creatures who live in the water, and for the continued purity of
the water itself."

This statement is plainly incorrect, for if water were capable
of absorbing air by a process of agitation, then when we
introduce a small quantity into a large vessel of water, it ought
to permeate itself through it, and not show itself; but it
invariably (except when confined by pressure) comes to the
surface in bubbles, and disappears, thereby showing that water
has an aversion to air. Water may be, however, saturated with
air by mechanical pressure, as in soda water or champagne, the
pressure while corked not allowing the air to escape.

The idea that fish use their gills to assimilate air for them-
selves, is a grand mistake ; for the motion of the mouth and gills
of the fish, is not a breathing process, but one for filtering, or
separating their food from the water with which it is combined.
This can be proved by observing the peculiar construction of
the gills of certain kinds of fish, and the nature of their food.
The shark and the dog-fish have but little or no gills, (neither

WATEH AND RAIN. 117

has the. loi.ster) because their food is solid, and no filtering is
necessary. P.nt the whale,, the herring, the mackerel, and others
that are provided with extensive gills, take in a small descrip-
tion of aniiiKilcuIa1. for food with the water; and having dis-
charged the latter through their gills, as we see the whales
in particular do, the food is then left in a state for them to
swallow. From the fact already noticed that water does not
contain any fixed air, the air necessary for the support of the fish
is pnxluced from the dissolving of the food iu the stomach,
during the process of solution and digestion.

The idea that air is generated by the dissolving and decom-
position of food in the fish, is supported by deduction from
natural facts, for we find that all decomposing or chemical
action generates a gas or air. The drowned body of an animal,
for instance, becomes inflated with gas — not from air contained
in the water — but from the process of decomposition by the
water — and the body rises to the surface, where it floats.

The question has often been asked, can we call down rain at
will ? and it lias been answered in different ways. "We answer
that under certain conditions it is possible, but the expense of
doing so, would be greater than the value returned. During
the late war in the United States, it was observed that every
great battle fought in the South was followed by deluges of
rain, and violent wind. It was then stated by many, in con-
sequence, that we could easily bring down rain by merely
discharging cannon. ]>ut during the Franco-Prussian war, the
like phenomenon was not observed, so the idea was declared a
myth. Since the war, some scientific American wished his
government to lend him a few hundred guns to settle the
question ; but the government very properly refused. It was

118 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

thought the concussion of the guns caused the rain, but no
vibration however great will cause rain to fall, unless the
necessary materials are present in the atmosphere to furnish it.
The rain was in part produced from the material used in firing
the cannon, viz. : the gunpowder. As powder (sulphur, saltpetre
and charcoal) is composed principally of mineral ingredients,
these in passing into gases consequent on explosion, reciprocated
with the abundant vegetable gases that filled the atmosphere
in the Southern States, and in the first place formed clouds,
then wind and rain. The same result would have followed, if
the powder had been merely set on fire without the use of guns.
The reason why no rain appeared on the occasion of the
Prussian battles was, that they occurred in winter, and in
places where no excess of vegetable gases existed in the
atmosphere.

In conclusion, as animal and vegetable bodies are composed
of the same material elements as water, let us apply our
knowledge to a practical purpose. We cannot then perform
our ablutions too often, and the more frequently we wash
ourselves without becoming altogether amphibious, the more
healthy we shall become. We cannot also, if at proper intervals,
drink too much water, but it should always be preferred of the
same temperature as the body. The frequent use of iced water
is often injurious to health, and there is no doubt that in the
present day it is used much too freqiiently.

CHAPTER XVIII.

DEW.

's Journal. — Baptists Port* nearly discovered the true theory of
dew. — Thought dew was condensed from air. — Aristotle thought it
was condensed from vapour. — Muschenbrook kept back Meteorology
one hundred years. — Great discoveries often foiled by the stupidity
of the world.— Dr. Wells said to be the discoverer of the true dew
theory. — The radiation of heat, the basis. — The cause of moonblind-
ness. — Dew forms most readily on vegetation. — Arguments against
radiation. — Observations with wool packs. — Position everything. —
Calm and clear evenings essential. — Dew is water. — Produced in a
similar way. — The cause of fog and hoar frost. — Hoar frost spears
of ice.

IN "Chambers's Journal" for 1868, is an article on the
above subject, which pretends to settle the question definitely
About the formation and phenomenon of dew ; but, like most
other explanations of natural phenomena, it fails for want of a
correct apprehension of natural law.

We find in it, that one Baptista Porta, nearly discovered,
(according to our view of it) the true theory of dew ; but his
notions arc; su«.Tiv<l at altogether, because they do not agree with
dynamical principles.

The old idea was, that dew was precipitated from the moon
and stars ; which also shed down cold. But the writer of the
above mentioned article states, that so far from shedding cold

120 THE ORIGIN OF CEEATIOIT.

on the earth, astronomers and physicists show, that an impor-
tant portion of the earth's heat supply is derived from the stars.
A statement just as absurd as the other.

Porta denied that the moon and stars had anything to do
with dew. He discovered that dew was sometimes deposited
on the inside of glass panes ; and again, that a glass hell placed
over a plant in cold weather, was more copiously covered with
dew within than without. He thought his observations justified
him in looking on dew as condensed — not from vapour as
Aristotle thought, and as is now believed by the scientific
world generally — but from the air itself. This, although not
entirely correct, was a remarkable discovery, and had it been
believed in then and worked up to, a great deal of blundering
might have been avoided, and our knowledge of meteorology
would have been much further advanced than it is.

Dew was generally supposed to fall, and people still continue
to speak of its falling, but Porta's experiment showed that it
rose from the earth, that it was an exhalation from the ground
and from plants. In making observations to establish this view,
Muschenbrook found that dew forms much more readily on some
substances than others. This was supposed to be damaging to
Porta's theory, for dew neither seemed to fall, nor to rise, but to
be caTised in a great measure by the nature of the substance on
which it was found deposited. Had this circumstance only
been searched into more minutely, it would have shown still
more conclusively that Porta was right, and greater discoveries
might have resulted from it. Yet it is always the way of the
world, we are often on the eve of wonderful discoveries, by
great minds who are ahead of their day and generation, but
which are foiled by the stupidity of those for whose benefit they

DEW. 121

are designed, and who have not the brains to understand th.-ir
tendency.

The tnir theory, we are told, was at length discovered by Dr.
Wells, of London, who made a series of observations with a
number of little wool packs, and the result was : — "the rate of
the deposition of dew, depends upon the rate at which bodies
part with their heat by radiation. If the process of radiation
is checked, dew is less copiously deposited, and vice versa."
For instance, we are told that the earth is continually throwing
off its internal heat. If there are any clouds, the radiation is
checked at night and there is no dew, but when it is clear,
plenty of dew is the result. This, however, is incorrect, for we
have often observed that on a clear night no dew is formed,
because there was wind. A calm night is just as essential as a
clear one.

Dr. Wells also asserts moon-blindness to be caused by the
want of clouds to check the radiation of heat from the eye,
which consequently becomes chilled. Moon-blindness, therefore,
according to his theory, ought to be as frequent on clear starry
nights, as on clear moonlight nights, yet we never hear of
persons being afflicted by it. This assertion, consequently, is
just as inuch to be relied on as the others.

Let us now endeavour to find out the origin of dew from
atomagnetic law.

Some objects have more dew formed on them than others.
I and bushes in the morning are found covered with dew,
while rocks and gravel roads are perfectly dry. Metal we are
told radiates very little heat, and no dew forms on it, yet if wo
place a piece of metal among grass, it will be covered with dew;
while a piece placed on the road bed, will have none. What is

122 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION,

the reason of this? It cannot be that it radiated its heat quicker
in the one place than in the other.

This is one argument against the radiation theory. Again, if
dew be formed by radiation, why is it that a glass bell placed
over plants is covered with dew inside, but not outside, and that
there is no dew on the plants themselves. Obstructions between
an object and the sky, we are told, check radiation, and prevent
the formation of dew, yet here we have the plants radiating, and
dew forming on the obstruction !

The whole series of observations, which led Dr. Wells to
advance his theory, seem to have been conducted in a loose
manner. He had a number of little wool packs which he
exposed at night, some he covered, and some he did not ; and it
was by weighing the amount of dew which each contained,
that he became convinced that he had something to work on.
He found, generally, that those packs which were hid from the
sky, contained more moisture than the others. This ought to
have been contrary to his theory, but he does not seem to have
thought so. It does not appear that he thought the situation
of his wool packs of any consequence, and if so, his observations
are of no value whatever, because position had every thing to
do with the deposition of dew on them. If he placed them in
the centre of a broad road, with little vegetation around it, no
dew would ever reach them ; while if he placed them over grass,
or among trees, they would be heavy with it.

It will be observed that the action and formation of dew, has
thus been explained by secondary causes only. We are told,
for instance, that glass radiates heat better than metal. Why it
does so they cannot show us. That it radiates heat at all, is an
assertion which is dogmatically laid down, and cannot be
proved, (heat being merely a property or condition of matter.)

DEW. 1:23

::i:iin, however, that with f ;ions, it is

only on calm and clear evenings that dew is formed, and the
warni'T i!i. daj li.is b'/en, tlie greater is the amount of deposi-
tion. It is evident, therefore, that some part of the material
necessary is derived from the upp-r ;i ; and as dew

is found principally beside vegetation, th«: other material
comes from it.

What then is dew 1 Dew is water, and it is formed in a
similar /un,tn<r, by a reciprocal or chemical action between the
two c' matter, viz: the vegetable emnn'iliuns or gases

rising from plants, and reciprocating with that from the upper
mineral afmo.yhcre, which on a calm evening descends and
meets it.

If the sky is cloudy, the same action is going on in forming
the cloud, and making the cloud larger, therefore it cannot
work on the earth's surface ; and if it is windy, the gases take of
necessity a horizontal direction, and do not meet in a suitable
position to form dew, for each class is blown onwards at its own
level, forming cloud.

Sometimes the differing gases will be more dense, and meet in
the lower atmosphere, the result is a fog ; and if the cold
mineral air is mure powerful, the result is hoar frost. On the
latter occasi< >n. i f a rounded stone or stick be examined, it will be
observed that the spears of ice are longest at the highest points
of the surface, and that they diminish on the sides, till they
degenerate into a mere glistening powdered dust. Thus show-
ing, in a humble way, the direct continuity in the action of atoms,
before spoken of, and that the formation is caused by a direct
reciprocation between the ascending, and the descending gases.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE ATMOSPHERE AND STORMS.

Atmosphere said to be composed of oxygen aud nitrogen. — An impossibility.
— Air in no two places the same. — Balloon explorations. — Guy
Lussac. — Everything with life has an atmosphere. — The atmosphere
of the African. — Impossible to get rid of it. — The earth a living
body. — Has an Atmosphere composed of its own materials. — The
Atmosphere composed of hundreds of different compounds of ma-
terials.— STORMS : Sir John Herschell and Prof. Rogers on Storms.
— Magnetic curves from the poles of the earth, the cause of wind
and storms. — Cause of Equatorial Calms. — Maury on cyclones. —
Description of a so-called Circular Storm. — Hints for Weather
Prophets.

IN school books we are told that air is composed of "20 parts
of oxygen to 80 parts of nitrogen." What nitrogen is we are
not told, but from the way it is made artificially, we should
imagine it to be of a vegetable character. As oxygen is of the
same nature, there must be some of the other elements — as
a mineral — to counteract and modify the vegetable, else the
atmosphere would be unfit for man or beast to live in. Be-
sides, we do not find the air in any two places to be the same.
The air of the city is different from that of the country, and the
sea air, from the air near a lake. The air at the tropics, is
different from that of temperate or polar regions, and the

THB ATMOSPHERE AND STORMS. 125

air on a mountain top, from that in the valley. All tin
atmospheric phenomena we see and hear, fog, rain, thunder,
lightning, hail, snow and cloud formations, show us that the
constitution of ihe atmosphere is continually changing. There*
ton-, to say the atmosphere is composed of two kinds of gases,
tain proportions as elements, and nothing else, is simply
unscientific.

inches have been made in balloons, to discover whether
the atniosphen! decreases in density, and temperature, at any
regular rate, but with no Very successful results. Guy Lussac,
a Frenchman, foxmd the temperature at 22,000 feet high, to be
15°, while other balloonists found it 30°, below zero; thus
showing that the temperature and composition of the higher
atmosphere, varies in a like degree to that on the earth, and is
subject to the different conditions and positions of its surround-
ings, or the material with which it comes in contact.

"What then is our atmosphere composed of? We have stated
before, that every thing with life, or having a life action,
has an atmosphere, consisting of emanations from itself. In
life action, the plant or animal is continually throwing off waste
material into the atmosphere, through its outer covering. This,
keeps around it an atmosphere of its own, peculiarities of which
may generally be detected by the organ of smell. Thus we
have the atmosphere of a rose, sweet brier, a horse, a cow, a
rabbit, an African, or a European. The atmosphere is thus
part and parcel of the body, and it would be as impossible for
animals to avoid, or cut off their sh'dows, as their emanations.
Tin' earth then is a vast body, having a life action. It is
composed probably of hundreds of different kinds of mineral
and vegetable atoms* These, by the action of water in the

126 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

interior, are continually forming, dissolving, and reforming,
into the different substances found in nature's arcana, and all
the time throwing off gases, which find their way through
fissures in the rock, through volcanoes, and in other ways to
the surface of the earth ; where they again take up a position
in the atmosphere according to their density. The light
mineral gases all ascend and take up a position in the higher
atmosphere, while the vegetable gases being more dense, remain
near the surface.

Just also as a man, or other animal, has a coating of hair on
the skin, so is our earth bristled all over (except at high polar
latitudes) with an edging of vegetation, which is thrown out on
every side by the atomagnetic repellent force of nature, after
being produced by the dissolving process of water, and elements,
on the surface. Thus thousands of varieties of trees and plants
have been, and are being, continuously produced, each with a
different exhalation ; because composed in varying proportions
of different vegetable and mineral materials ; consequently
thousands of differing vegetable, as well as mineral, gases, mingle
in our atmosphere. It will be seen, therefore, that to define our
atmosphere as composed only of two particular gases, is sheer
nonsense. Enough it is for us to know, that as we ourselves
and every living thing, are composed elementally of certain
proportions of mineral and vegetable atoms, so the atmosphere
adapted for our use is also composed of certain proportions of
the same : and, as in overloading the stomach with one descrip-
tion of either vegetable or mineral food, we bring on disease
and death, so wherever there is an atmosphere with an excess
of one gas or the other, it is also a dangerous place for us to
live in. We should therefore learn the nature, and actions, of

THE ATMOSPHERE AND STORMS. 127

materials, and be able by what we oat aii'l ilrink, to adapt
ourselves to any climate or atmosphere.

A gi has been said in these latter days about a sub-

stance allied to exist in the atmosphere, and which is considered
ial tn healtL In order to show how little is known
about it, and how those who write about it contradict them:-
and expose their ignorance while endeavouring to define its
rluracter, we give a few extracts from an article on " Ozone " in
the Scientific American, Feb., 1874 :

" Ozone is generated by lightning flashes !" " Ozone is
'metric state" " Evaporation of saline

solutions disengages ozone." "Ozone is found near the Sea."
" Ozone is heavier than oxygen."

Another experimenter in Xew York, discovered that matches
dipped in water and hung up, cleared the atmosphere by
generating ozone. We would suggest that they would be more
efficacious if burnt. We have read of some other philosopher
who declared the best place for generating ozone was a swamp !
We thus have it stated that ozone is a vegetable gas, and as
often that it is a mineral gas. Our readers, we think, will bo
more inclined to side with us when we state the whole discovery
to be a humbug. If exhalations for purifying the air are
wanted, it is not necessary to hunt up ozone. If the air is
poisoned with vegetable or animal matter, then any mineral
burnt and given off as gas will purify it, and vice versa.

8TORM3.

From what we have advanced regarding the composition, and
formation of the atmosphere, and the cause of ruin in a previous
chapter, it would not be difficult now to arrive at the cause of

i28 fHE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

winds, and storms, and it may not be amiss to lay down s6me
propositions, which may tend to 'assist those devoted to the
study of meteorology, in their predictions of coming weather.

Sir John Herschell in "Good Words," 1864, has a long
article on the subject of " Weather and Weathef prophets,"
in which he tries to show that the trade winds, and all others,
are caused by the sun attracting the vapour from the earth,
making a kind of vacuum, towards which the winds rush from
all directions.

Professor Eogers in " Good Words," 1863, also says :— " The
Wind and every material movement of the atmosphere is prim-
arily, as we all know, a consequence of the unequal warming by
the sun, of the different latitudes and tracts of the globe's varied
surface." This we deny, and believe it is one of those empirical
assertions, which are not sustained by facts in nature. That the
sUn has an influence in causing winds, we admit, for the heat
caused by it locally in certain situations so increases the growth
and life action of plants, — in swamps for instance, — that vast
quantities of vegetable gases are released, and by coming in
contact with mineral emanations or gases floating in the
atmosphere — near hills for instance — a reciprocal action is sure
to take place. The gases will thus mingle, form cloud and
rain, and descend) causing a vacuum, which attracts the
atmosphere from all quarters, thus producing wind. A
vacuum, therefore, is not caused by the vapour ascending, as
Sir John Herschell says, but by the gases coalescing, occupying
less space as vapour and water, and then descending to the
earth.

In place of Herschell's and Rogers' untenable theories we
present the following : — The " magnetic curves " formed by

STORMS. 129

the opposite polos of a magnet with iron filings — as explained in
o.h.ipt'T .in M.io'm;tism — suggest a theory of wind currents over
th« surface of the globe, which accounts for the cause of al-
most all storms. If there is a powerful current existing between
the two poles of a magnet, then as the earth is a magnet and has
two poles, there must be a similar current forcing its way from
both the North, and South Pole, towards the Equator. Thie
current, therefore drives the cold mineral winds from the poles,
into contact with the warm vegetable exhalations from central
latitudes, and causes — along with the special reciprocation
necessary in each case — all the atmospheric phenomena we are
acquainted with.

Thus the calms in the " Horse " latitudes, near the Equator,
which continue for days, and during which deluges of rain fall
continuously, are easily accounted for, because the two opposing
Polar currents endeavouring to meet there, are intercepted by
the dense vegetable gases accumulated on either side of the
Equator, and by reciprocating with each other, they condense
as rain. This of course occurs only at certain seasona As the
earth changes its position with regard to the sun, so does the
latitude change, which is to be the scene of the warfare, or
rather of marriage, between the opposing gases. Thus in
winter, the rainy season is far to the south, near the
Equator, because the Polar winds have the mastery over us.
As the spring advances, we are enveloped by the belt of rain,
and when summer comes tho waters have passed over us, and
«re reciprocating far away to the northward, because the vege
table emanations in summer, owing to the heat of tho sun, have
now gained the mastery. As autumn and winter advances the

130 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION*.

Polar current regains its strength, and again drives everything,
before it.

Faraday, in his works, indicated some figures of magnetic
curves, which show iron filings to arrange themselves round
three centres in a magnet — one at either end, and the third in
the centre. The central curve could have existed only in his
imagination, for the centre of a magnet will not attract even the
smallest particle of iron. Maury in his " Geography of the
Sea " copies these figures, without ever testing the experiment
himself, and in trying to deduce a theory ol wind currents from
them, he of course fails. Thus here we have another of those
false beacons anchored in the ocean of knowledge, which has
lured to destruction, or made shipwreck of — in a scientific point
of view — one of the most eminent men of science America has
produced, and that, too, while he was far on the voyage, and at
the threshold of discovery. For there are many facts in his
book which indicate, that he only wanted to know of the
existence of this great magnetic current from the north to the
south pole, to make everything clear to him. But an unques-
tioning faith betrayed him. Faith although essential in reli-
gion, is often as the wrecker's light on the rock-bound shore, or
the phantom mirage of the desert, to him who trusts in fallible
man.

A curious idea seems to be prevalent, and it is strongly
supported by Maury, that all storms are cyclonic, or circular in
movement — that is, the winds all blow round a centre. Such
occurrences are very rare indeed, and then whirlpools, and
waterspouts, are the result. In most of the instances mentioned
of these storms, they are traceable directly to a centre, but not
round one.

STORMS. 131

In the " World of Science " tin t ago,

an article on a, so-called, circular storm, which j> r tho

.ship X>,>l,!tit at St. Thomas. This is acminpanifd by a diagram,
showing the direction of the wind on the -ship, at different
intervals during the storm. First then; was a tremendous gale
of wind: — "The barometer falling, at nine a. in., the storm
increased, and at noon it was blowing a fearful hurricane, wind
STEADY at X. N. W. hf. W. ; at 12.15, p. m., it full a dead
'•nlin, with a considerable sea; at 12.40, p. m., it

became almost dark ; and of a sudden, a most fearful and
li-rrible rush of wind succeeded from S. S. R hf. E., (a
directly opposite point) and struck the ship on the port broad-
side, keeling her over on her beam ends, blowing her fore and
miz/.enmast right out of her. * * * At one, p. in., the
barometer began to rise; 2, p. m., rising gradually, the wind
steady at S. S. E. hf. E." This diagram shows the storm to be
round a centre, strictly according to the accepted theory. But
how is it possible to make the circular force correspond with
the facts as stated, where the wind blew furiously from only
two directly opposite points, into a dead calm, which lasted
some 25 or 30 minutes, and during the calm at noon, it was
almost dark ? How in this case can they account for the calm
between the gales, or in the centre ? Generally in the centre of
any whirlwind, or whirlpool, then- is the most violent move-
ment or disturbance. Such a storm as we have described, if
circular, must of necessity, have resulted in some such tremen-
dous central commotion. Thciv -jould not possibly be a calm.
If, instead of saying the winds blew round a centre, we say
they blew into a centre, then the whole phenomena can be
easily accounted for. A deluge of rain poured continually

132 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

during the storm, accompanied with intense darkness. This
rain, and darkness or opacity, were formed from those contend-
ing and combining currents of vegetable and mineral air,
which blew from exactly opposite directions ; the calm showing
where the centre of union, formed a dense dark cloud and
deluge of rain, by the reciprocal action. By condensing into
rain, these gases would necessarily occupy much less space, and
as their horizontal force was spent, they would then form a
vacuum, and attract all the surrounding gases, until they were
neutralized — only then would there be rest and a clear
atmosphere.

In Chicago, United States, during January 1873, we hap-
pened to witness a great snow storm accompanied by violent
wind. Nothing like it had occurred for years before, and on
examining the maps issued next day from the weather
office, showing the direction of the wind at different stations all
over the continent, we observed that for hundreds of miles
around the city, the wind was trending towards, or to one side
of it. The most distant points had wind without either snow
or rain, those nearest had either rain, or snow, according to the
temperature of the locality, while at, and around Chicago, there
was nothing but snow.

If those who are stationed at meteorological observatories, in
inland towns especially, paid due attention to the nature, tem-
perature, velocity, and direction, of the wind, as sent to them in
the reports from the surrounding districts, the exact locality of
any storm, might easily be designated twenty-four hours before-
hand. The temperature and character of the gases must also be
considered, for many while on the way to the storm centre, might
reciprocate with each other, and a little storm centre on their own
account would be the result.

CHAPTER XX.

ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, AND MINERAL FOOD.

Nothing so ranch to do with our discomforts as Food. — The body a
machine.— Professor Lyon Flayfair on Food. — Liebig's classes of
food. — Flesh formers. — Heat givers, and mineral ingredients. —
Knows nothing of the action of the last class. — Contradictions. —
Experiments by scientific men always conducted too loosely. —
Animal food only concentrated vegetable matter. — English Navviet
and Arabs. — Sepoys and Ghoorkas. — How much an Esquimaux eats,
according to Sir John Ross. — Canadian Indians and salt. — Criminals
in Holland. — The Scotch and Indigestion. — The action of minerals
in the body.

ONE of the most important matters connected with health
and comfort, is the food we eat. Nothing else has so much to
do with the trifling little annoyances to which we are subject,
and those irritations of temper, lassitudes, and headaches, which
worry and annoy us. The body is like a machine, which is
almost wholly sustained, repaired, and kept in thorough work-
ing order — or injured and destroyed — by that which we put into
it. Any one who desires to prove this can easily do so. Let
him starve himself for a short time, and he will soon find his
flesh reduced, and his bones showing their form. Or let him
eat but one kind of food for a few days, such as plum pudding,
and see how miserable he will feel. Or let him drink a bottle of
champagne in the evening, and see how incapable cf work he

134 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

is next morning. Much lesser ordeals than these, however,
suffice to make one miserable, and out of sorts.

How necessary is it, therefore, that we should strive to know
the nature of our bodies, and of the food we eat.

Half the ailments that people are troubled with, could easily
be avoided, if a little more attention were paid to the kind of
food required, the time of eating it, the quality of each kind
actually necessary, and the manner in which it is eaten.

Prof. Lyon Playfair has two excellent articles on " The Nature
and Composition of Food" in " Good Words," 1865, which we
propose to discuss ; but while he gives an immense fund of
useful and practical information, he yet admits that neither he
nor any other chemist, can explain the working of the mineral
matter which we are obliged to take in our food, and how it is
we cannot digest anything, or even exist without it.

Liebig, he tells us, classses all food into three divisions : (1)
Flesh formers. (2), Heat givers. (3), Mineral ingredients.
Many philosophers object to this classification, but Playfair
insists on supporting and upholding it. We, however, object
to it on much the same grounds as his opponents, viz., — that
flesh could neither be formed, nor heat given, without a mixture
of at least two of the classes. If moreover, he knows nothing
about the working of one of the divisions, his opinion about
the other two are not much to be relied on, because like all
other chemical actions, the atoms must work in unison. Play-
fair again contradicts himself from his own " Table of Food, "
for he says : — " The Esquimaux live on heat givers principally."
Yet we find that some of the greatest heat givers are vegetable
substances, such as sugar, rice, flour, and oatmeal, but the
Esquimaux does not eat them, he prefers, or rather is compelled

M^IMAI., i:, AND UINKRAL POOD.

to cat meat and blubber, while the people of warm climates eat
those very substances which are stated to give the most heat
"Why tin •!! do the Esquimaux live on blubber. "We say on
account of their living in a cold mineral region, they require
the strongest vegetable loud they can find, to counteract the
influence of the cold atmosphere. This they get in animal food,
which is merely concentrated vegetable substance. Thus it ie
we can eat more meat in winter than in summer, and the people
of hot climates are content with the simplest vegetable diet,
along with so much mineral, such as salt, as they can relish.

Playfair also tells us the principal flesh former is animal
food. But some of the strongest and largest animals are vege-
tarians ; such as the elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus,
the buffalo, the cow, and the horse ; while those animals which
supply us with our animal food, all live on vegetal)]'

"We think Liebig's division of food altogether erroneous, for
no account seems to be taken of the climate, and that is every-
thing in importance. What would form flesh in the Esquimaux,
would only breed sickness or disease in an Arab, and vice versa.

The experiments made by scientific men to prove certain
formulas, are all done far too loosely. They seldom think any-
thing of the nature, position, and condition of the material, or
the locality in which they are performing, or of the nature of
the object operated on ; and thus their generalizations can seldom
be depended on as correct If a man, therefore, were to diet himself
by Playfair's Tables, with the expectation of forming flesh,
or losing it, he would probably end by being sick ; because, for
any such purpose, these Tables are absolutely worthless, until
the nature and action of the mineral ingredients in food are
•explained. When these are known, they may become

136 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

valuable for reference. Before explaining this action let us
give a few facts concerning the nature and character of food.

We explained before, that animals are formed from an excess
©f vegetable matter. Animal and vegetable food, therefore, we
class as one, while mineral forms a class by itself.

From chemical analysis, we find that mineral matter i»
associated with all substances in their formations.

The close connection that exists between animal and vegetable
substances, is shown in the following quotation from Playfair'e
essay : — " In all kinds of vegetable food capable of affording
nutrition, there are certain substances which are not only alike,
but. essentially the same in composition, as the principles of
Which the animal body consists. The albumen of the white of
an egg, is equally found in the cabbage. The fibrin which forms
an important part of blood, and the chief part of flesh, abound*
in wheaten flour and in the cauliflower. The casein or cheese
which is obtained from milk, is present still more abundantly
in peas and beans, and from which the Chinese in reality
extract and make cheese for sale." " Human fat also exists in
palm oil ; the fat of train oil — as got from the whale — is also
found in the root of valerian ; and the fat of mutton and beef>
exists in cocoa beans."

Is it any wonder then that minute animals sheuld spontan-
eously spring from these vegetable productions when in favour-
able conditions ? They all contain very little mineral matter,
and this accounts for what microscopists tell us of brown sugar
— that the cheapest kinds are often a mass of living creatures.
As meat then is only a stronger kind of, or concentrated,
vegetable matter, it follows that as it is the nature of man to.
eat both, those who feed on animal food are likely to be the-

\NIMAL, VEGETABLE, AND MINERAL FOOD. 137

strongest race of men, and BO wo find it. Playfair says, that
one English navvy will do as much work as four rice-eating
A nil is. The Sepoys, moreover, who gave us so much trouble in
India, were the flesh-eating men of the upper provinces, while
our best allies were the Ghoorkas, who are also omnivorous.

As previously mentioned, the season and climate have a great
deal to do with the variety, quantity, and quality of the food
to be taken. In a warm climate, or in summer, when the
atmosphere is charged with vegetable gases, a vegetable diet,
accompanied by plenty of salt as mineral matter, suffices for our
wants. While in a cold climate, or in winter, we require the
strongest animal food we can obtain, accompanied by very
little mineral matter, and this we get in animal food.

Thus we find the Arab and the African, using great quan-
tities of salt with their vegetables — the children sucking rock
salt as ours here do sticks of candy. The Esquimaux again,
as Sir John Ross assures us, can consume daily, 20 Ibs. of flesh
and oil. Sometimes he will wash down this enormous mass
with a quart or two of train oil, and finish with, as a dessert, a
dozen tallow candles. They eat very little salt, and their first
demand in spring is for a supply of it. The Indians in Canada
live in a similar manner ; the villages near their winter en-
campments being besieged in spring for the same article.

Concerning the mineral ingredients of our food, Prof.
1'layfair says : — " Unfortunately the knowledge of this sub-
ject is far from being precise ; certain mineral bodies such as
phosphate of lime, magnesia, soda, potash, common salt, tho
sulphates of the alkaline bases, and oxide of iron, are absolutely
.rial to nutrition. It was formerly a punishment in
Holland, to feed great criminals on food free from salt ; and

138 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

they are stated to have been subject to the most loathsome
diseases."

" Undoubtedly it is essential to the processes of digestion
and assimilation, although we cannot explain more than a few
of its actions." " If all the organic elements of nutrition — the
flesh formers, and heat givers, were presented to an animal in
abundance, in the absence of these mineral substances, the
animal would not only cease to thrive, but all nutrition would
be impossible." "Our information on this subject is very
meagre, and while we recognise the importance of these mineral
ingredients of food, chemists do not at present profess 'to explain
their action."

"We dare say our readers, by this time, are able themselves to
explain the mystery to Prof. Playfair. We have already said
that all dissolving processes are caused by chemical action.
Digestion is a similar action, and chiefly a reciprocation between
the two classes of matter — mineral and vegetable. As our food
then is principally vegetable, no motion will take place in it
unless it is accompanied with a quantity of mineral matter,
when every individual atom is loosened and the whole dissolves
away.

In conclusion, we need not be troubled with indigestion, or
lack that " mysterious " ingredient, gastric juice, if we take a
proper quantity of mineral matter and drink a sufficiency of
water with our food. It may account for the Scotch, as a
people, being so little troubled with indigestion, that the food,
especially of the poorer classes, is mainly composed of oatmeal,
gait fish, and cheese — substances which, Professor Playfair
shows us, hare a large quantity of mineral matter in their
composition.

CHAPTER XXI.

COAL.

Foaud to be of vegetable origin. — Prof. Rogers on Coal. — Statementi
faulty. — Unacquainted with natural law. — Rogers' theory. — Grew
in n swamp. — Soaked with mineral oils. — Baked by the earth'i
internal fire. — A. forest makes half an inch of coal. — A tree said to
absorb carbon. — Incorrect. — Sir Henry De la Beche and his calcu-
lations.— Fallacies about carbon. — How carbon and hydrogen came
into the coal. — Our theory of coal. — Prairies. — Charcoal in the
seams. — Nova Scotia mines. — Inundations.— No internal fire. — No
Baking. — The whole process one of petrifaction. — Coal inexhaus-
tible.

FOR a great many years, this useful production of nature was
very little understood. It was classed among the ordinary
minerals, and was supposed to have been made in a similar
manner — " oat of nothing by fire" Geologists, however, in pur-
suing their researches some thirty years ago, found numbers of
fossil leaves and stems among the coal ; and in the shale (a
stratified kind of rock always found in connection with coal)
appean-tl a 1' rest of fossilized vegetation. The conclusion was
then arrived at, that coal was of vegetable origin.

After this h 1 1 l»<'ii discovered, numberless theories were
thrown out regarding the way in which these coal fields were
produced; but wi- have, not seen one that gives an altog-tlur
satisfactory solution of the problem.

140 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

Prof. Rogers in " Good Words," 1863, has two interesting
articles on " Coal and Petroleum " which contain the latest
ideas on the subject; but the statements are so faulty, and
show such unacquaintance with natural law, that we propose,
firstly, to detail how the popular idea of the formation is
incorrect, and secondly, to show how coal is really formed.

Prof. Rogers' theory is, that the coal-producing vegetation
grew in a bog or swamp, that it was of colossal dimensions, and
as each season's growth decayed, it sunk into a sort of peat. A
succession of earthquakes then occurred, gradually sinking the
coal measures to their present level. The vegetation being all
compressed hard, petroleum and other mineral oils and juices
soaked through the substance, and the whole field was then
baked into coal by the earth's internal fire ; those masses which
were nearest the interior being baked the hardest, and thus it is
we have the hard anthracite, and the common soft coal.

This theory seems very plausible, but as we will show, it
cannot be sustained by facts. A forest, it is said, will only
make half an inch of coal. How many hundreds of forests then
must have grown, or how luxurious must have been the growth,
in order to produce a coal field, which, with its shale, is fre-
quently found three or four hundred feet thick.

Prof. Rogers, in order to account for the luxurious vegeta-
tion, enters into a speculation, which shows how little is really
known of natural phenomena, seen by us every day. A tree, he,
as well as all other teachers say, is mainly composed of carbon.
This substance it absorbs from the atmosphere, and according
to the amount of carbon, so is the quantity of vegetation. In
the coal-producing ages, therefore, there must have been an
incalculable amount of carbon in the atmosphere, for the

COAL. 141

immense growth of vegetation that then existed could ml
have sprung up without it. As carbon ia deadly to animals,
none could have lived at that time. In the "Vestiges of
ui,'' we find a similar statement to the effect, that Sir
Honry Do La Beche has calculated, that " if the quantity of
carbonic acid gas which is locked up in limestone, and coal,
were disengaged in a gaseous form, the constitution of the
atmosphere would undergo a change, of wliich the first effect
would be, the extinction of life in all animals." If this is
correct, how is it that the work of coal mining is so healthy 1
Again, the quantity of carbon that is disengaged every day, in a
large city where coal is consumed, ought to be so enormous
that much injury should result from it j yet we hear of no evil
effects. As the coal is being gradually consumed, the whole of
the caibon which was once in the atmosphere, must eventually
be restored to it again, the earth every year, therefore, ought to
be becoming more and more unhealthy, till no animal will be
able to live : yet we hear of no appearances to indicate such a
change. Lastly, carbon is said to be so injurious to man, that
if he breathes much of it he dies ; yet we are told that he lives
on it, for all vegetables they say are mainly composed of it !

That there is such a gas as carbon, may be admitted, but
that vegetation feeds on it, and is mainly sustained by it from
the atmosphere, is an impossibility. The only necessaries
demanded are heat, good or suitable soil, and water ; what-
ever carbon is found in the tree or plant, has been absorbed
from the soil and water, and not from the atmosphere.

The hydrogen in the coal we can account for also. Prof,
Rogers says : — " A passing allusion has been made to tho
absence of any mineral source for the material of the coal bedei

H2 TSE ORIGIN OP CREATION".

This is a fact patent to every mineralist ; and there is another
i'act disclosed by chemistry, that both the carbon, and the
other main ingredient of coal, the hydrogen, could have come
together from no sources but the earth's atmosphere and water,
and only by the process of vegetable growth or plant life."
This was written before hydrogen was generally known, or
admitted to be mineral. One source of the mineral, therefore,
was from water, but this could not have supplied the coal with
the quantity found in it. Prof. Rogers himself gave the cause
when he said "mineral oils and juices soaked through the
decayed vegetation."

Our view of coal formation is as follows, and we think it
will be found to tally with all the facts that have been ascer-
tained relating to the subject, and with true natural law.

In the Western Prairies of America we have a vegetation
continually growing, decaying, and growing again. During the
time this has been progressing, an immense depth of vegetable
soil has been deposited. It is probable that the material of many
coal beds, though not of all, was first formed in this manner.
Parts of trees are often found fossilized in the coal, but they are
all in an upright position, or rather at right angles to the strata
of coal. This shows that, comparatively speaking, the .growth
was of inferior vegetation, such as ferns, grasses, and bushes.
They were probably more luxuriant, however, then than
now ; and in order to account for the great depth of the
deposit, many fields by convulsions may be supposed to have
doubled on themselves.

In the strata of the Nova Scotian shale and coal fields, are
found seams containing charcoal ; showing where fires had run
ever the prairies, just as they do at the present time. As the

COAL. 143

earth also was in more violent action than no\v, occasional

inundations took place, and sands, sediments, etc., were depo-

• ilions in whi'-h we now tind t!i. 'in, between and

the coal beds. Taking into account the vast thickness of

many coal hods, and the vast (quantity of vegetation that would

;uired to form them, we an: inclined to believe it possible

that some may have been formed from deposits of vegetable

soil, or matter, independent of vegetable growth.

The process which the material undergoes to form coal we
will now state briefly.

The first fallacy of Prof. Rogers is that there is any internal
firo at all, and this we prove in another chapter. The next is
that vegetation, even although soaked by mineral oil, could by
any manner of baking whatever bo converted into coal. AVe
assert that the whole process was merely one of petrifaction
As the vegetable deposits were gradually covered over, they
would be saturated with the mineral emanations, solutions, and
gases, which are continually being formed in the interior of the
earth, then, by the chemical action between the two substances,
the vegetable matter would thus be thoroughly combined with
the others. After a time this would merely harden or petrify
into coal. Neither fire nor a baking operation, or pressure, were
therefore required. It may be asked, how is it, when the
prairies are level, that seams of coal are always found lying
at an angle? Because by the mineral gases and solutions
p.'trifying (he vegetable deposits, the escape into the atmos-
phere of other accumula %>m below is stopped, and
in consequence, a force is generated which causes an earthquake.
This throws the whole field into the position in which we
usually find it. These positions allow a free escape of the ever

144 THB ORIGIN OP CREATION

accumulating gases through the strata ; examples of which may
be seen at many mines, arising from the fissures in the strata ;
end sometimes when the crop is covered with water, the gag
boils through it, and may be collected and burned in the
atmosphere.

In conclusion, great fears have been entertained that the coal
supply of the world will run out, but we believe, that like every
other production of nature it is inexhaustible. By the time
the present coal seams are worked out, fresh seams equally as
good may generally be found in the same vicinity. Fresh
deposits also are continually being discovered, and there is no
doubt but that fresh fields are at the same time continually-
being formed,

CHAPTER XXII.

HOW CORAL GROWS.

S.trangc Chapter. — Coral insects unworthy of notice. — Misplaced eulogy.—
Theories of Coral growth. — The insect monument and tomb. — Not
found below thirty fathoms. — Coral found a mile and a half deep. —
Coral on the Isthmus of Panama, not made by insects.— The Coral
insect a parasite merely. — The cochineal. — How Cqpal grows. —
Millions feeding from one month. — Coral grows by budding. —
Agassiz on Florida reefs, and argument against Darwin.— Darwin's
curious theories on Coral reefs. — Sir John Herschell. — How Cord
commences to grow. — The true theory of reefs. — How a gap in a
reef was filled. — Coral merely the home of the insect.

THE title of this chapter may seem strange, as we have
always been taught that Coral did not grow, but was desigried
and built by small insects. Many are the lessons that have
been drawn from their supposed industry, the sermons that
liave been preached on them, and the lectures in which eminent
men have waxed eloquent upon them, but it is our painful duty
to inform naturalists generally, that their eulogy is misplaced,
tfhat coral iasocts are no more to be compared to bees, than
sand is to sugar, and that they are as unworthy of notice as a
common grub or fly.

Coral is only found in equatorial latitudes. In the Pacific
Ocean there are islands said to be entirely composed of it, and
these appear to have been formed from the bottom to the
surface.

10

146 THB ORIGIN OP CREATION.

On examining the substance, it was observed to be covered
•with small insects, and scientific men, without much thought,
or close research, at once assumed that they built the coral.

Commencing at the bottom of the ocean, we were told, these
industrious insects struggled higher and higher from their vast
lurid sea green depths, towards the light, until they reached the
surface, when, with a devotion worthy of a higher phase of
being, they sealed the work with their own bodies, thus making
it their tomb, as well as their monument. Later discoveries
have proved this to be contrary to fact. Chambers Encyclopedia
tells us it has been ascertained, that none of the polypes, or
coral insects, live at depths of more than twenty or thirty
fathoms; and that most of them are inhabitants of much
shallower water. As coral is found at much lower depths than
this, the question arises — -what formed it at the bottom of the
ocean ?

During the cruise of H. M. S. Challenger, a piece of coral was
brought up from a depth of a mile and a half > and in the news-
papers it was stated to be, unfortunately dead. If by this it
was meant that no coral insects were found in it, then we have
evidence that our view of its formation is correct, — viz; by
semi-mineral growth.

Every one has probably seen coral. It is generally in the
form of a tree, with branches ; or it is of a circular form, like a
sponge, with the appearance of having all sprung from a centre,
On the Isthmus of Panama we saw a large solid piece that
looked like the trunk of a tree, and on breaking it, we found
the formation to radiate from an innumerable series of centres,
the whole filled up with an interlacing of stars. The construc-
tion was such that it could not have been built by insects, for

Bow CORAL onows. 147

Hie openings were so small that they would scarcely allow th«
point of a needle to enter, far leas a polyp to live and grow
there; and it afforded in ogr view, the most beautiful
exhibition of mineral growth that could possibly be seen.
Tin; forms of the centres resembled the figures of snow flakes, —
which is another furm of mineral growth, or crystallization, —
only they were on a much smaller scale. On being broken,
the coral split in vertical layers, and showed the star cavities to
continue in long unbroken lines from the top to the bottom of
the piece. The only sign of life about it was a number of
worm holes circling tnrough it made by the borer.

Coral is only a form of mineral growth, and it as surely
grows in equatorial waters by natural law, as a tree grows on
the surface of the ground. The coral insect is merely a parasite
of the coral, just as the cochineal is a parasite of the cactus ;
end it would be as correct to say, that the one formed the plant,
as that the other formed the -coral.

We have already explained how the lead tree is grown
by suspending a piece of zinc in a solution of sugar of lead, — thf
formation and growth of the coral is by a similar process.

Coral is composed of material having all the properties of
vegetable matter. In th-e equatorial latitudes, vegetable mate-
rial is most abundant ; the waters, therefore, must also be
largely permeated with similar matter. This agrees with the
popular theory, for it is acknowledged that the material for
producing the coral is in the water, and that it is taken from
thence by the insect, and laid with mathematical precision and
artistic taste on the fabric. But if we can show how the
material may be drawn together without any animal aid what-

148 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

ever, we deal a death blow to another of those sensationalisms
of science, which are so destructive to the acquirement of a
correct knowledge of the power^and functions of natural law.

Various particles of animal and vegetable matter, in the
nature of coral elements, settle on a rock or sea bottom.
As their numbers increase, they acquire a greater magnetic
influence, and attract other particles. But, as atoms, they have
the repelling power of the magnet, and like to either the
philosopher's tree, or the natural one, they throw out roots on
the rock, or sea bottom, and branches in the ocean ; looking
almost exactly like a leafless tree in winter. The shape, size,
and colour, of the formation, is naturally guided by the condi-
tion, quantity and quality of the surrounding materials. All
coral does not contain insects, and while some, from its coarse
nature, may provide convenient abodes for a species of animate
jelly, yet, even supposing that this jelly is as high in the intel-
lectual scale as the oyster — which it is admitted not to be — it
has no more the power of design, the gift of aspiration, the
longing for the light and the glories of the sunshine, than the
barnacle, or a piece of seaweed ; and no more influence in deter-
mining the size, shape, colour and extent of its coral home,
than a mouse has over the castle it dwells in.

Compare with this view what the late lamented Agassiz
said about polypes in his Cambridge Lectures, in 1873': —
— " Here then are animals remaining united by the lower parts
of their body, but having distinct heads, and distinct internal
cavities, yet in which the juices elaborated by digestion in one
individual feed the common stock. This may go on till
hundreds of thousands, nay millions, of individuals share the
result of functions of life and digestion, performed only by a

HOW CORAL GROWS. 149

Q limited number of the community." Fancy millions of
stomachs fed from one mouth.

Agassiz again asserts that some species of coral grows by
budding. This oirght to have been a capital argument against
insect formation, but he fails to see it, and moreover states : —
mists never look upon a tree as a simple individual, but
an aggregate of individuals growing upon the same foundation,
and remaining attached to the parent stock." If assertions
like these are good for anything, there is no saying where they
might end, for a man may, with as much reason, be said to be
composed of an aggregate of individuals also.

Agassiz founds • a curious argument with coral insects,
against Darwin's development of species, which is worth
noting. In tracing the formation and growth of coral reefs
in Florida, he has shown that eight thousand years are required
to raise one of these reef's, or walls, from its foundation to the
surface of the ocean, and as there are four wall reefs round the
southern extremity of Florida, the first of these must be thirty
thousand years old; "and yet all of them are built by the
same identical species." " Tnese facts then," says he, " furnish
as direct evidence as we can obtain in any branch of physical
inquiry, that some at least of the species of animals now exist-
ing, have been living over thirty thousand years, and have not
undergone the slightest change during the whole of that
period." But as we have shown the insects cannot make these
reefs, or anything else, Darwin is safe enough yet, as far
as that argument is concerned.

Darwin himself, has some curious theories regarding coral
insects, and their work, from which he draws conclusions

150 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

more illogical than any Agassiz has given. Many of the
coral islands are surrounded by a reef, a short distance from
the shore, and deep water exists between them. Darwin
aays these islands were originally connected with the reef
outside, but as the islands are continually sinking, they carried
down with them the coral fringing it. While therefore the
fringe was carried down, the reef was always brought up to the
surface, by the aforesaid industrious insects, Why the insects,
only worked on the reef, and not on the fringe, is unexplained
by Dr. Darwin. Moreover, the depths of the vacant spaces are
so great, that if it were true the islands were sinking, and had
continued to sink along with the fringe, they must have gone
out of sight long ago.

In connection with this, Sir John Herschell says in his Essay
on Volcanoes : — " Dr. Darwin has shown by the most curious
and convincing proofs, that the Coral Islands are sinking, and
have been sinking for ages, and are only kept above water — by
what think youl By the labours of the coral insect which
always builds up to the surface." If we only examine the
statement for a moment, we will find the arguments are
certainly curious, but scarcely convincing.

Suppose the island to sink twelve inches, the insects cannot
all assemble below the island, and raise it up again the space of
that foot. Neither can they invade the island and form coral
all over its surface, a foot high. The only thing they could do,
would be to work all around the shore, and bring it up a foot
high. If this had been going on for ages, an immense high
wall would be formed all around the shore, and on looking
over it we would see a beautiful island, a hundred feet or so
below us, looking like a fairy world with luxuriant groves of cocoa-

HOW CORAL GROWS. 151

nut and palm trees. Such romantic scenes, however, are not for
this world, and the plain dull truth is simply this, that the
Islands are not sinking, that the reefs do not require to be
brought up to the surface, and that, not only are the insects not
required, hut they are also as incapable of the herculean task
"which the Doctor assigns to them, as a starfish or a
sponge.

We assert that the reefs never were connected with the
islands, hut that they are formed in a similar manner to the
bars at the mouths of rivers or harbours, or the sand bars of
islands on the North American coast — such as those of Sabl«
Island — which are formed where the wash, and the undertow
from the shore, meet. To explain more fully. The bottom of the
sea is composed of material and formations similar to the surface
of the dry land. Both have their valleys, rocks, hills, and moun-
tains. The higher mountains which rise above the level of the sea
must form islands ; such as St. Helena, St. Thomas, the Azores,
the Bermudas, and Sable Island. What are called coral islands
then, are no more formed wholly of coral, than any of the
dt In rs. The parts formed of coral are probably only the reef
on, and outside of them. Comparative quiet is needed for
mineral formations, therefore the fringes could not form
on shore, as the surf by continually dashing on it, caused
too much disturbance. But where the wash and undertow
met, there would be an accumulation of the necessary
material, and all the tranquility that is requisite. Thus
count for the reef outside the island, and once that
reef is properly filled in solid, sufficient to intercept the inrol-
ling sea, another reef by the same action of wash and undertow

152 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

will be formed beyond, or outside of it ; and so on
indefinitely.

Chambers Encyclopedia gives an instance of this outer reef
liaving been broken through to allow a vessel to pass out, and
says the gap was filled up again in fifteen years, by these
industrious insects. This incident is introduced to show the
rapidity with which they work. But if we are to attribute this
work to them, we must also believe them endowed with con-
siderable administrative and governing powers. Orders must
have been issued to all parts of the reef, for the assembling of
an army to repair the damages ; and work in other places must
have been delayed in order to finish this great undertaking.
We should rather think that they would have been annoyed
with the destruction, and left the gap alone. If we could find
any such gap abandoned, or not filled up again, then we would
admit our theory wrong, for the law of nature in repairing the
breach could not be stopped.

In conclusion, every production of nature capable of sustain-
ing life has a parasite peculiar to it, and the coral insect is
merely one of these parasites making its home in or about l&e
coral, and feeding on the congenial water around it.

CHAPTER XXIII.

VOLCANOES AND EARTHQUAKES.

Another popular fallacy.— The earth's internal fire.— Dr. Mayer's theory.
Dr. Tyndall opposed to it— Dr. Mayer's dogged assertion.— Selfish-
ness of men of science. — Herschell on Volcanoes. — Nineveh and
Carthage. — The earth and an egg. — Objection to Ilerschell's theory.
— Explanation of Volcanoes. — Why Volcanoes become extinct. —
Coal gas.— Mount St. Helena and Sulphur Springs. — Prof. Mallet on
Water and Volcanoes.— Cause of Earthquakes.— Prevention of
Earthquakes. — Oil boring in Pennsylvania. — Ilerschell's extraordin-
ary thedry of Earthquakes. — What he knew of chemical action in
the interior.— The necessity for scientific men not taking anything
for granted.

IN this chapter we deal with a popular fallacy advocated by
scientific men for many years past ; but which has nothing to
support it, save their own assertions. This theory is, that the
interior of the earth is a mass of molten fire, where everything
is reduced to a state of " igneous fluid ;" and the crust we live
on is only about twenty or thirty miles thick — so that taking the
size of the earth into account — the solid substance we are sup-
ported on, is not so thick, by comparison, as the shell of an egg,
to the matter within it. Then when we fancy that the interior is
bubbling and boiling all the time, the wonder is that we
have not exploded long ago ; or that the Himalayas, the Alps,

154 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

or the Andes, have not fallen through, and added fuel to the
flame.

The theory as expounded by Dr. Mayer in his Celestial
Dynamics, is as follows : — " Several facts indicate that our
earth was once a fiery liquid mass, which has since cooled
gradually, down to a comparatively inconsiderable depth from
the surface, to its present temperature. The first proof of this
is the form of the earth. According to the most careful
measurements, the flattening at the poles is exactly such as a
liquid mass rotating on its axis with the velocity the earth
would possess ; from this we may conclude that the earth at
the time it received its rotary motion was in a liquid state."

Scientific men will however differ, and we find that Dr.
Tyndall does not coincide with this theory. In a note to his
book on Heat we find the following : — -" Prof. Wm. Thomson
has recently raised a point which deserves the grave considera-
ation of theoretic geologists. Supposing the constituents of the
earth's crust to contract on solidifying, as the experiments
thus far made indicate, a breaking in, and a sinking of the
crust would assuredly follow its formation. Under these
circumstances, it is extremely difficult to conceive that a solid
shell should be formed — as is generally assumed — round a liquid
nucleus." Dr. Mayer's theory is however strongly supported by
Sir John Herschell, Dr. Lardner, and others.

Dr. Mayer proceeding with his theory, says : — " The cooling
of the earth must have shortened the length of the day " — as
the earth would contract as it solidified, and the contraction
would make it revolve quicker on its axis. But Laplace has
shown that in twenty-five centuries — the time in which our earth
revolves on its axis — it has not altered one five hundreth

VOLCANOES.

part of a sexagesimal second. This puzzles Mayer, but
bo very doggedly asserts, that if they give up the theory
of an internal fire — they then deprive themselves of any
tenable explanation of volcanic activity. This result how-
ever remains to be seen. The assertion of Mayer is of a piece
with most of the scientific dogmas of later days, for when facts
will not coincide with theories, the ambitious philosophers yet
cling to their statements, and by perpetually driving them into
people's ears, endeavour to stifle the attempts of others to arrive
at the truth. It is to be deplored, that there is displayed among
scientific men more of a selfish desire to have their names
mentioned in connection with some secondary, and compara-
tively unimportant pet theory, than is consistent with a true
ambition to promote the interests oi science.

Sir John Herschell says, in an article on Volcanoes and
Earthquakes, Good Words, 1863, that they are : — " Un-
avoidable (I had almost said necessary) incidents m a vast
system of action, to which we owe the veiy ground we stand
on ; without which neither man, beast, nor bird, would have a
place for their existence, and the world would be the habitation
of nothing but fishes." The reason he assigns for this is, that
the land being every day washed by the tides and rivers, is
having vast quantities of its material gathered and deposited in
the ocean ; and this is so constant and universal, that if there
were no counter action by earthquakes to raise the land, the
earth would be one vast ocean ! That earthquakes raise vast
tracts of country occasionally, wo admit, but that they have
the influence which Hurschell attributes to them, wo deny.

Volcanoes and earthquakes according to the popular theory,
are thus caused by the central heat of the earth. Ilerschell

156 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

attempts to prove this supposition on different grounds,
from Mayer, by saying that when we descend into the earth,
the atmosphere becomes gradually hotter, till — supposing
the rate of increase to continue the same — at twenty or thirty
miles the crust of the earth would be found red hot. Thus th«
English commissioners have fixed four thousand feet as the
limit for the depth of the coal mines. The health of the colliers,
it is supposed, would suffer, should the hope of gain induce
mine owners to sink their shafts below that depth.

The objections to this theory are very numerous, although th«
number of hot springs, and volcanoes and earthquakes, would
seem to support it. The main objection is, that Herschell and
others have calculated the heat of the interior, from the surface
inwards ; they have never calculated what the effect Avould be
on the surface of the earth, from the amount of heat they say is
inside of it. If an egg shell and the meat within it, is a correct
illustration of the relative thickness of the crust of the earth
to the molten matter within, then we wonder how hot the egg
shell would be, if the contents were only boiling hot. Any
calculation at all weuld show us, that if our crust was only
twenty miles thick, the heat would be so intense on the surface,
that, far from the world being only inhabited by fishes, our
oceans would be dry, our river beds empty, and neither
man, beast, fish, or plant, could have any existence whatever.
The whole theory is such an untenable one, and so much
out of harmony with natural law, that it only remains for us to
give a feasible explanation of the cause of volcanoes and earth-
quakes, to have it rejected altogether.

Firstly, then, with regard to Volcanoes.

They are mountains, from the tops of which issue — when in

VOLCANOES. 157

activity — smoke, flame, ashes, and lava; and henco it has been
argued tliat if lire issues from the crater, there must be lire inside.
ThK li"\vfviT, need not of necessity follow. The whole phen-
omena connected with both volcanoes and earthquakes, are
cuused by chemical action. The intense flame witnessed at the
mouth of a volcano, is caused by the ignition of tho vast
Volumes of gases which are issuing from it. The flame does not
extend inside the mountain, for it is subject to tho same condi-
tions as our coal gas is. When we light the gas in our rooms we
have flame, but it does not extend inside the pipe or burner 5
in fact there is a space outside, between the burner and the flame,
that will not ignite. This is owing to the fact, that until a
sufficient quantity of oxygen is combined with the hydrogen,
there can be no combustion or flame. If we could introduce
coal gas into a vessel containing other mineral gases, we could
not light it. In a similar manner, there can be no flame
in the interior of the mountain, for there is not sufficient oxygen
inside to induce a combustion.

Under the surface of the mountain, in the interior of
the earth, there are immense stores of mineral materials,
such as sulphur, nitre, salt, iron, etc., saturated with water,
which chemically act npon each other. By this action,
they are continually dissolving, reforming and generating
gases, till they accumulate in such quantities that they
cannot be confined ; they then burst with terrific force,
combine with the oxygen of the atmosphere, and igniting,
burn until the explosive and combustible gases are exhausted.
The dissolving and reforming action with water may then con-
tinue, and fresh outbursts may occur until the whole material
is changed, then the volcano becomes extinct. Thus we

158 ffifi ORiGIS Otf

find numberless extinct volcanoes all over the globe, a result
Which would never ensue, were they — 'as We are told — funnels or
chimneys for the molten fires within. A good illustration
of this exists in California, where Mount St. Helena, be^
fore mentioned, being once an active volcano, has long been
silent, but the evidences of its violent action ate to be seen in
the wonderful Petrified Forest, while the remains of its once
extensive stores of gas producing matter, now burn away in
insignificant puffs in the Great Geysers, and the Hot Sulphur
Springs ; the whole phenomena suggesting the picture of the
charred and dying embers of an extensive conflagration.

The lava and burnt earth found at the " crop " of the coal at
the Albion Mines in Nova Scotia, show the site, Where the gas
generated from the action of water in the mine, at one time
formed a volcano.

To show that we are not altogether alone in our statements
regarding the cause of volcanoes, we may state that Prof. Mallet
of England also maintains, that there are no volcanoes without
the action of water.

EARTHQUAKES^

Earthquakes are Caused similarly to volcanoes. The interio?
of the earth, as we have said, is saturated with water, and forms
a grand magnetic battery, continuously in action, dissolving and
reforming its mineral matter — -which action produces tht
mineral gas we have so frequently referred to — and throws it
ofl through the strata of rock, principally from the poles of the
earth, and mountain tops as poles. But where this gas is
confined, it accumulates, and finally generates a force sufi>
cient to produce an earthquake, and to rend portions of the earth
asunden

EAttTtiQUA 150

If Arti'si in wells were bored to a sufficient depth in those

subject to earthquakes, we are inclined to believe

that then: might result a comparative immunity from them, for

MSCS which aiv. dangerous might thu.s be provided with a

Vent to pass off without accumulating.

Volcanoes which are always smoking seldom break out with
great fury. The danger lies in the apertures closing up for
long periods, and thus preventing the escape of accumulating
gases.

Some suggestive illustrations of the force of these gases in
the earth, occurred while boring for oil in Pennsylvania*
-In many instances, after boring for a few hundred feet,
a cavity would be tapped containing gas, oil and water,
and the pressure on it had been so great, that the boring
machinery and everything connected with it, were blown to a
great height above the surface. Thus compressed gases were
relieved, which in time might have generated an earthquake.

Sir John Herscholl has an extraordinary theory regarding
earthquakes. It is to the effect, that the continual washing
away of the land into the sea causes some parts of the earth to
become top heavy, and then they fall, making a crack through
which the molten fluid escapes.

Notwithstanding all these strange doctrines, Herschell was
quite conversant with the chemical action going on in the in-
terior, and with the force of accumulated gases, yet he evidently
refused to accept the natural deductions from these truths, and
would rather propound a sensational explanation than a simple
one. He says : — " There is no doubt that among the minerals
of the subterranean world, there is water in abundance, and
eulphur, and other vaporizable substances, all kept subdued ,

100 THB ORIGIN OP CREATION.

and repressed, by the enormous pressure." "But let the
pressure be relieved, and they make their way to the surface,
expanding as they rise, till they burst in great power."

This admission shows how necessary it is for every man of
science to beware of taking any doctrine for granted, unless they
have sifted it in every particular, and made it stand the test of
tijeir own observations, experiments, and calculations ; for it is
evident that had Herschell allowed his own common sense to
guide him, he would probably have discovered, and caused to be
atteepted long ago, the true explanation of volcanoes and1 earth-
qiiakes.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE TIDES.

The regularity of the Tides. — The influence of the new and full moon on
the Tides.— There must be one grand cause of the Tides.— This is
pressure, not attraction.— Cause of variation in the Tides by the
position of the moon. — Formation of the Land. — Winds. — Lardner*s
theory of the Tides.— Its fallacy shewn.— The earth ought to be
approaching the moon.— Facts to be remembered. — The Plane of the
Ecliptic. — The effect of pressure on the atmosphere. — The Tides
caused by pressure in passing the Plane of the Ecliptic. — The
moon's atmosphere. — The Tide in the Mediterranean. — The Bay of
Fundy Tides seventy feet high. — Ram Pasture. — Rise of two feet in
three miles. — The repelling forces control the Tides.

THE cause of the tides is an interesting subject of enquiry,
and yet there are few who attempt to explain ik The periods of
the tides are so regular, that they may be determined for months,
or even years, before their recurrence ; yet again they are never
BO regular that it can be said the -waters will rise to such a
point, and no higher. The rise and fall of the tides are the
same at scarcely any two places. In the Mediterranean the
rise is only about one foot, whereas in the Bay of Fundy, it ie
sixty or seventy feet

When the moon 4s >at the -new and the full, the tides are
unusually high. When a -storm also is blowing on the coast
from the ocean, -the tide in the harbours exposed to it, i«
elevated several feet higher than usual.
11

162 TffE ORIGIN OF

We glean from the above facts, that while there must be'
one grand regular cause of tides, there are several peculiar'
influences to which they are subject, and which cause them to
vary in different localities, and at different seasons. This grand
cause We believe to be induced by pressure. The variations
to which they are liable are produced : — Firstly, by the*
position of the new and full moon— secondly, by the for*
mation of the sea coast— thirdly, by pressure of winds.

Before explaining our views, let us review the old estab"
lished theory and show that the grounds for accepting it are
not conclusive.

In consulting various authorities, we find that attraction is
given as the cause of the tides, and that it is the sun and moon
which are the reputed possessors of the influence.

In Dr. Lardner's Science and Art we find an explanation
to the following effect, of the two tides a day, one on either side
of the earth at the same time : — 'Let us, for instance, imagine a
diagram of the earth, with the four cardinal points marked on
it. If the moon is directly above the north point, Lardner
says, the waters will be heaped up there by the moon's attrac-
tion, while on the east and west sides there will be low tides.
But as the moon could not attract the waters on the south end*
also, the high tide there is caused by the earth being drawn in"
from the water.

A more extraordinary theory has seldom gained ground, and"!
we wonder how it was ever accepted, for it will not bear even the
slightest examination. In the first place, how the moon being
the smaller body, could attract the earth the larger body, is a
mystery ; for according to all rules of attraction or gravitation
the greater always influences-ihe less. Secondly, the same rule

TIIK TIDES. 163

applies to the question, why docs the sun, the larger body,
not exercise a greater attractive, influence over the tides, than
the moon? Thirdly ami lastly, It' tlio moon draws the earth
in, or the earth "recedes" from the water at the side more
distant lYom the moon, it follows, that as the tides are rising and
falling continuously from one part of the globe to another, the
earth is gradually receding from the water hour by hour, and
accordingly ought to be approaching nearer and nearer to the
moon every day. This however is not the case, and would be
indignantly denied even by Lardner himself ; but it is the only
logical conclusion to which his theory leads.

Having thus shown that the tides are not caused by attrac-
tion, we now explain how, according to our views of the law
of nature, they are caused by pressure.

In order to understand the assertions clearly, the following
facts should be well kept in remembrance, viz.: That the moon
has an influence on the tiles. That the highest tides occur
when the sun and moon are on the same side, or one on either
side of the earth. That high tides follow the meridian by two
or three hours, and in many places by ten or twelve hours,
according to their position on the coast. That the whole rise
of the tide is, on an average, only a height of four or five feet.
And that while the earth moves from west to east, the tides go
from east to west.

Recalling our arrangement of the solar system expounded in
previous chapters, we have a number of planets revolving round
the central planet, the sun. The planets all revolve on one level,
called the Plane of the Ecliptic. Each planet has an atmosphere
that extends till it meets the atmosphere of the planet next it.
"We know also this fact in connection with our atmosphere, that

164 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

if it is pressed by currents of wind, it in turn presses •whatever
is opposed to it. On water, therefore, we find that wind storms
will sometimes raise the tide two or three feet higher than usual.
If our atmosphere, consequently, is pressed from without,- — that
is, by any other atmosphere — the oceans are impelled to show
evidence of such pressure by their rise and fall.

It will be observed, then, that as the earth revolves on its
" axis," its atmosphere must be pressed by the atmospheres of
the other planets whenever it crosses the Plane of the Ecliptic,
as they are more confined at that point than any other. As
the earth revolves once on its axis daily, the whole of the
globe's surface must be exposed twice to the pressure of the
other planets' atmospheres on the Plane of the Ecliptic. We
have two tides daily. What is the natural inference to be
drawn from these facts ? Nothing less than that the pressure of
other atmospheres on the atmosphere of the earth, as it cr oases
the Plane of the Ecliptic, causes the tides.

But it will be argued that we make nothing of the influence
of the moon, which undoubtedly has some action on the tides.
We admit the fact of that influence but its effect is apparent
only when the moon is at the new or the full. The tides are
then much higher than usual, and this arises, in a similar way,
by the moon crossing the Plane of the Ecliptic, and adding
the pressure of its own body and atmosphere to the influence
which is felt there already. Although it is denied that the moon
has an atmosphere, such a condition would not be in accordance
with the existence of any other known body, and according to
atomagnetic or natural law it could not exist without one.

It may be asked, how do we account for the tide following
the meridian ? The attraction theory explains it, on the ground

THE T1I> 165

that inertia keeps the mass of water from immediately rising,
and obeying the attraction of the moon. We may also answer
that inertia prevents it from yielding at once to the pressure of
the atmosphere ; and that just as the ocean billows are largest
wlifii the tempest lias nearly blown itself out, so the tide wave
is highest after the pressure is over.

In answer to the query — What makes the tide vary so much
in different localities 1 We answer, that this is all due to the
formation of the land at the points of contact with the sea, or
its position with regard to prevailing winds.

The reason that there is scarcely any tide, observed in the
Mediterranean, is owing to the winds blowing three fourths of
the year into the bay at the mouth of the Straits of Gibraltar.
This causes a strong current to flow through the Straits into the
Mediterranean, and as the waters are thus raised higher than
the general sea level of the Atlantic, and have no other outlet,
they flow back again to the Atlantic by an undercurrent. Thia
we proved by experiment in the year 1830, on board the brig
Clarence, John U. Ross, master.

In the Bay of Fundy, which is a long straight bay, with a
very wide entrance, tapering to a narrow point like a funnel,
there is a higher tide than at any other place in the world.
This is caused by the tidal wave striking the shore, and running
along the North Atlantic coast into the wide mouthed bay, and,
as the funnel is continually narrowing, the waters are pressed far
above the sea level, because they cannot fall back owing to the
heavy pressure of the currents behind urging them on. Tides
of sixty and seventy feet thus occur daily at the head of the Bay.
In Cumberland I'.isin, at the head of the Bay of Fundy, near
Sackville, New Brunswick, the tide flows up Tantamar river,

166 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

and round a peninsula called Earn Pasture. This peninsula is
only connected by a narrow neck of land fifty yards wide, and is
three miles in circumference from neck to neck. This neck is
very flat and level. When, therefore, the tide in rising has
encircled the peninsula, the waters flow back over the neck into
the river again, falling into it a distance of two feet. Thus
showing that in three miles the water has risen a height of
two feet.

It will be evident, therefore, that great inaccuracies must
prevail from similar causes in certain parts of the world, regard-
ing the height of rising ground above the general sea level.

In conclusion, while we have great faith in the mutually
attractive forces of nature, we have no reason to believe that
they cause the tides, but rather that the influence exerted over
them arises from their counterpart, the repelling forces of
nature, which have here sole control.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE GULF STREAM AND DEEP SEA CURRENTS.

The cause of the Gulf Stream.— Dr. Carpenter's theory. — Oceanic
Circulation. — Experiment with glass trough. — No Comparison. —
Strength of Polar Currents. — Channel between Faroe Islands and
Shetland.— Dr. "Wyville Thomson differs from Dr. Carpenter. —
Reciprocal circulation of Water and Air. — Beautiful theory of
Atmospheric Circulation overlooked by Dr. Carpenter. — What
causes the cold deep waters.

AFTER being one of the wonders of the world for a long
time, and a mystery which men of science in vain tried to
unravel, we have now come to regard the Gulf stream aa a
phenomenon very easily explained by the various natural
causes which give it birth.

The trade winds, which blow almost constantly from East to
West, press and force the waters of the Atlantic into the Gulf
of Mexico, and these along with the rivers running into the
Gulf, raise the waters higher than the general sea level of
the Atlantic. As the narrow Strait of Florida is the only free
outlet from the Gulf, a rapid and permanent motion is given
to the water, which it maintains, in a greater or less degree, for
hundreds of miles ; and thus the Gulf Stream is established and
kept moving.

Dr. Carpenter while describing the cause of the Gulf stream in
a. somewhat similar manner, sees in it only a particular instance

168 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

of what is constantly occurring all over the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans. He has a theory of a general oceanic circula-
tion which he is endeavouring to have accepted as an established
doctrine of science, viz. : That there is a continuous under-
current of cold water throughout the oceans, irom the Poles to
the Equator, and a surface current of warm water from the
Equator back again ; thereby equalizing the temperature all
over the world, and bringing every part of the waters to the
surface, to purify and make it fit for the preservation of animal
life in the deepest sea beds. He has made his observations
from a series of deep sea soundings, in which he has found that
the sea bottom, even at the depth of two and three miles, has
averaged thirty degrees by Farenheit's Thermometer. His
opinion is, therefore, that the water coiild not be so cold unless
it came from the Polar regions, inasmuch as cold water always
falls to the bottom, while warm water floats on the surface.
In order to. illustrate his assertions he makes an experiment
with a glass trough, six feet long, one foot deep, and one inch
wide. This is filled with water. At the surfase of one end he
fixes a piece of ice, to represent the pole, and at the other he
applies a bar of heated metal, for the equator. Dropping some
blue colouring matter into the polar end, and some red at the
equato^ a circulation is at once seen to be established. The
cold blue water sinks, then creeps along the bottom till it
reaches the heated end, is there warmed, rises to the surface, and
returns to the pole again ; while the reddened water flows along
the surface to the pole, sinks and returns just as it is expected
to do. But this is not a fair illustration, because what would
occur in six feet of water, would not well apply to a distance of

THE GULF STREAM AXD DEEP SEA CURRENTS. 1C9

three or four thousand miles — the exj>eriment is not a compara-
tive one. The ice and the heated iron almost touch ono
another, whereas in the ocean there are thousands of miles of
water of a medium temperature. If the trough were a milo
long, by the same depth and height, it -would afford a better
comparison, and, of course, it is easy to conjecture that the two
temperatures would never meet to form a current.

This polar current Dr. Carpenter says is so strong, that in many
places it has rounded the stones at the bottom of the sea, as in a
channel between the Faroe Islands and Shetland. But it only
requires one to reflect how much force is necessary to roll
stones over one another in order to round them, to be convinced
that this explanation of their form is not the correct one. Be-
sides, at another place he says the motion is only a creeping
one.

Dr. Wyville Thomson, one of Dr. Carpenter's colleagues in
Deep Sea Explorations, says in his late book on the Depths of
the Sea, that he differs from him in his theory of oceanic
circulation, and does not think that the facts he has given
warrant him in arriving at the conclusions he draws from them.

Moreover, it is not a matter of necessity that there should be
such an oceanic circulation. It is enough for the purpose of
keeping the water pure, and preventing stagnation, that there is
a continuous reciprocal or chemical atomic action between the,
upper and lower strata of water, throughout the whole body of
it. This we believe to be the true producer of the oceanic
circulation, for its action is not confined to the ocean, but per-
vades the whole system of our planet. For instance, water
percolates to the interior of the earth, and by its chemical
action, dissolves minerals and produces gases which find tlieir

170 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

way to the surface ; there they meet other gases, which, "by com-
bining form fog, clouds, rain or snow, that descends as water,
and percolates back again. On the surface of the earth vegetation
is forced out, as from a centre, by the magnetic force of the
escaping mineral gas, and this again exhaling a vegetable gas
into the lower atmosphere, reciprocates with the rising mineral
gases and forms dew, or cloud and rain.

Or, let us take for consideration the bottom of the ocean.
The mineral gases from the interior of the earth are forced into
the water, and thence through the whole mass of it ; thus
the warm vegetable atoms which are at the surface, left from
evaporation and from rivers running into it, are reciprocated
with, or neutralized and purified. The surface of the water,
again, reciprocates by evaporation with the lower atmosphere,
and that again with the higher, thus forming, as said before,
rain, and cloud etc. Throughout the whole extent of our
planet, therefore, from the interior of its solid body to the
utmost verge of the atmosphere (for we show that meteors are
caused by reciprocation also) there is a continuous action ever
taking place, forming, dissolving, and re-forming, and keeping
up a universal reciprocal circulation which prevents stagnation
of any kind.

For any one to suppose that nature works in the slow fashion
of causing all the impure water distributed over the surface of
the ocean, to creep to the Poles before it can be purified again, is
•egregious folly ; for it is evident on the face of it that such is
not the case. To bring the matter home, does Dr. Carpenter
really mean to say, that if we pour a pail full of slops into tho
sea, it will require to float onward to the Arctic Pole before
it can be changed ? ~VVe should certainly say not, for in the
slops and in the salt water, are the two different classes of atoms,

THE GULF STREAM AND DEEP SEA CURRENTS. 171

and by each attracting its lik<-, tliry ncutrali/.i- each other;
this process, as wo have said, is continually proceeding all over
the surface, and throughout the whole body of the oceans.

To press the question still further, the atmosphere is also
being charged continually with all sorts of gaseous impurities
induced by the heat of the sun, and given out by plants and
animals. Does Dr. Carpenter mean to affirm that we must wait
for a storm to blow them away, or must they also travel to the
Poles to be purified. In either case a plague would probably
result before we could be relieved by these modes. The phe-
nomenon of dew shows us that the reciprocal circulation is
continually in progress, and that even when there are no winds
blowing, the purification of the atmosphere is accomplished
by the chemical action of the atoms.

This leads us to ask the question why Dr. Carpenter has not
endeavoured to found a general system of atmospheric circulation,
on the same principle as that of the oceanic. If the law is
good in the one instance, it ought to hold good in the other.
He would then have made his theory complete, for the cold
Polar current of air being mineral, would be the highest, and
this would form an upper current from the Poles towards the
Equator, while the warm vegetable atmosphere being denser,
would travel on the surface from the Equator along with the
warm current of water to the Poles, the one thus helping along
the other. A beautiful and complete theory of ocean and air cur-
rents would thus be enunciated, the motions of the one accurately
fitting into the motions of the other. But unfortunately, he
only managed to grasp the least acceptable theory, for as we have
shewn in the chapter on Atmosphere, there is more than a grain
of truth in the theory of the upper atmospheric current, while
there is none in that of the oceanic.

172 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

While we deny that there is a general oceanic circula-
tion, such as Dr. Carpenter describes, we admit that the
condition of the water and the position of the land, may, in
many instances, be such as to induce currents, that, from a
superficial examination, may lead an observer to suspect they
form part only of one general movement.

It may be asked, how do we account for the extreme coldness
of the deep waters if it is not caused by the Polar currents 1
We answer by asking and answering another question. What
causes, or how do we account for, the coldness of the Polar sea ?
If the conditions for causing coldness are the same on the sea-
bed at the Equator, and in the Arctic ocean at the Poles, there
is no necessity for the supposition of a current at all. This we
endeavour to show.

The gases expelled from the interior of the earth are mostly
mineral in character. As the earth is a magnet, its gases, are
given off principally at the Poles. Ice and snow being composed
largely of mineral substances, are therefore caused by the mineral
emanations from the Poles of the earth combining with suitable
vegetable particles of the water. (This mode of ice formation
accounts for the granulated, and not stratified character of ice-
bergs.) But these mineral emanations are not confined to the
Poles, they are exhaled all over the earth's surface, and wherever
we find a place free from vegetation, or the influence of vegetable
gases, there we may observe it more particularly. Thus the tops
of high mountains are cold and covered with snow, while in the
depths of the sea where no vegetation exists, and the warmth of
the sun does not reach, we also have the cold mineral exhala-
tions acting upon the salt water, and producing the so-called
Polar current.

CHAPTER XXVI,

COMETS.

Very little known about CoraeU.— -Facts about them. — Jupiter's influence
on them. — Comet of 1680. — Herschell's description of it. — The
movements of a Comet different from a Planet. — All the heavenly
bodies, Magnets.— The motions of Comets explained on this theoryi
— How Comets are made periodic. — Encke's and Biela's Comets,
—The atmospheres of Comets. — Their tails. — Their purpose. — Are
they inhabited ?

IN writing this chapter on Comets, we do not intend to enter
into «i full history of them, for that can be obtained in any
book on Natural Science ; neither do We pretend to give a
correct account of what they actually are ; but as they come
Within the influence of atomagnetic law by entering our system,
we propose to offer some explanation of the phenomena and
movements which they exhibit, and also a suggestion as to their
character.

On an average, it is said, two or three comets visit Us every
year ; but most of them are too small, or too distant to be seen
by the naked eye, or are situated in such a position "With regard
to the earth that they cannot be observed.

The following are a few of the particulars connected with
comets, which may help us to an explanation of their nature : —

First. — They all seem to bo attracted towards the sun ; but
none have ever been absorbed by it

174 THE OKIGltf OF OKEATIG'S,

Second. — 'Jupiter sometimes attracts a comet on its way
towards the sun, and delays its movements, but always repels it
again. None of the other planets have been, reported to
influence comets in any way.

Third.— Some comets, such as Halley's, Encke's and others,
return within a certain number of years ; but by far the greater
number are never again noticed or reported.

Fourth.— ~While a large number of comets have luminous
tails, most of them have none.

Fifth. — -Comets do not keep on one plane, nor move
similarly to the planets, but they appear to come from any, and
every direction.

Sixth.-— Sometimes a comet when it approaches the sun is
shot straight back again with tremendous force. This was the
case with one in 1680, which Sir Isaac Newton saw, and which
he endeavoured to explain by the law of Gravitation ; but he
could not account for the force which repelled it from the sun.

The comet of 1680, Sir John Herschell says, was perhaps
the most magnificent one ever seen. It appeared from No-
vember, 1680, to March 1681. It was not very bright at
first, but as it approached the sun it grew more brilliant.
" "When, within one-sixth of its surface, it turned violently
round," and was shot back in exactly the opposite direction
with such tremendous force, that in four daya it was as far
distant from, the sun, as in approaching it, the comet took
twenty-eight days to travel the same distance.

Seventh.— Ii has not yet been ascertained whether the
nucleus of a comet is solid or not, but from its intense
brightness, it is supposed to be so.

Thus in the motions- of- comets we have an entirely dif-

COM, 1 re-

ferent niovoiii'-nt from tli;it dx-ycil ]>y planets. A planet
circles muud the sun in a regular orbit, while a comet goes-
utly beyond the bounds of the solar system; and when
it does come within it, it speeds towards the sun at a tremend-
ous rate, and after approaching very close, it is generally
ropi'llrd again with greater force than ever. This is contrary
to the so-culled principle of Gravitation, according to the law
as promulgated by Newton's disciples in the present day ; for
they say that if the earth was to approach as near the sun as a
comet does, it would assuredly fall into it.

Believing all the heavenly bodies to be magnets (many
savants are now urging the propriety of the theory) — and
Atomagnetic law to bo universal — the movements of comets-
are explained at once.

Supposing a comet, on its journey through the universe, be
drawn within the influence of our solar system, it is attracted by
and speeds directly to the centre of our magnetic attraction, the
sun; but as soon as it comes within the influence of our
luminary's denser atmosphere, it undergoes a change. What
i« the nature of the change 1 If two different sized magnets are
brought together, the greater will instantly reverse the polarity of
the lesser. Thus it is with the comet, the larger body being
the sun, it instantly reverses the polarity of the former ; dis-
similar poles are thus brought together, and as similar poles repel,
the comet is driven from the system with irresistible force. It
would then never return, unless it came tinder the influence of
another sun, which reversed its polarity, and sent it back again.

Those small comets such as Encke's, and Biela's, have been
tendered periodic by being hemmed in by the attraction and

t

1?Q Tflfi OHlGltf 0$ CREATION,

repulsion of the planets and the sun, and made to revolve
Oh the Plane of the Ecliptic.

That comets hate atmospheres may be accepted as correct, foil
their bright light could not be caiised without it. The fact of
their having an atmosphere, also, should reassure us that they can
neve* do any harm by coming in contact with Us ', for besides tha
magnetic repelling power each body possesses, our atmosphere is
elastic enough to preserve Us from close contact. It might be
worth while, however, to inquire whether the pressure of any^
comet which approached very close to us, especially on the
Plane of the Ecliptic, had any influence on the tides.

The luminous tails of the comets may be attributed, ws
believe^ to a cause which we have already suggested in
explanation of the transparency, or opacity, of -atoms. We find
that although water is clear and transparent, yet if blown into
foam, it becomes white and obscure, simply because the polarity
of the atoms ia disarranged and in motion. Thus at night,
off the coast of Mexico, we have seen the crested billows
as they folded over one another, flashing brightly as they
curved into foam, spangling the whole surface of the sea with
the dazzling spectacle of an endless succession of phosphorescent
beacon lights. So in a similar manner, we believe, that these
vast luminous envelopes, as they are called, stretching it is said,
for millions of miles, and which strike even the most cultured
observer with awe, are caused by the atoms of the material
filling all space^which are arranged according to their natural
atomic position, and are transparent — being disturbed by the
different atmosphere of the comet in passing, and have their
poles deranged, thereby causing a motion and an opacity,
which in the darkness we see as light. This displacement

COMETS. 177

continues till the comet is no longer able to influence them,
ami then they assume their natural position again. The tail*
of comets are long, or short, or invisible, according to their
position in regard to the earth.

The light of the comets is caused in a similar manner to that
of the planets, by a reciprocal action of the magnetic force in
each, acting on their atmospheres. What may be the purpose
of comets, and the object they accomplish, are questions which,
in the present state of our knowledge regarding them, are
unanswerable, until we can find out the extent of their
journeys, and what other heavenly bodies they may circle round.

"Whether they are inhabited or not, is also a question to be
decided when there is more discovered about the solid nucleus,
but the probability is that they are, like our Planet, inhabited
by some description of beings.

12

CHAPTER XXVII.

METEORS.

Strange theories regarding them.— Sir Wm. Thomson's.— Seed bearing
Meteors. — Prof. Newton on November Meteors. — No orbit of
Meteors. — Meteors caused by pressure and reciprocation. — Dr. Sorby
the microscopist on Meteors. — Prof. Graham on the Leonarto Meteor.
— The great November showers caused by a Comet. — The yearly and
ordinary Meteors caused by pressure.

FOR a long time no attention whatever was given to the
study of meteors, but lately there has arisen a great interest in
their movements ; and, as usual, the most extravagant theories
are promulgated regarding them. Some physicists say they are
fragments of broken worlds travelling through space ; others
that they are ejected from the sun and mQon ; and others that
they fill all space and rush toward our sun, where they act aa
fuel to keep the fires burning. But the most extraordinary one
of all, is that theory, before referred to, suggested by Sir Wm.
Thomson, that meteors are seed bearing.

The following are a few of the facts concerning them.

While meteors and shooting stars may be aeen nearly every
clear evening, there are particular seasons when they are more
numerous than usual. On the 9th and 10th of August, or the
14th of November, there are often to be seen magnificent dis-
plays. This fact has led some astronomers to suggest, that there
must be a ring, or several rings of meteorites which travel round

METEORS. 19

the 8Un in an orbit, bearing a similarity to the orbit of our earth.
But the great objection to this theory is, that they move in a
Contrary direction to that of the earth and the other planets.
Another peculiarity is, that in the history of all th6 aerolites
contained in museums, only one was observed to fall on a
" star shower " date. Professor Newton, of Yale College,
America, also states, from observations taken with the spectro-
scope, that the shooting stars of November consist of more
inflammable material than those of other meteoric showers.
All these facts tend to show the improbability of an orbit of
meteors.

Sir "Wm. Thomson's theory of the seed bearing meteors is
so improbable, and has so little apparent evidence to support it,
that it may be dismissed at once. "We Would, however, call
attention to the argument which he brings forward, to show
how it is possible for two worlds to have collided, and dis-
tributed the seeds. He says : — " It is as sure that collisions must
occur between masses moving through space, as it is that shipt
steered without intelligence directed to prevent collision could not
cross and recross the Atlantic for thousands of years, with
immunity from collision." We are astonished that such a
student of science should have studied the mechanism of the
universe to so little purpose, as "not to have discovered the
perfection of every movement connected with the heavenly
bodies ; and compared with which, human action or skill is as
perpetual blundering. That any leader in science at the pre-
sent day, should consider it possible that planets, and other
similar bodies, are not gifted with attractive and repulsive
properties and atmospheres, calculated to keep them from
colliding; only shows how little is really discovered by scientific

180 TSH! ORtGlN OF CfiEATlOK'.

men about nature and her laws. Besides he can point to n'o'
direct evidence of any collision having ever taken place ; and of
all the numerous erratic comets which have passed through our"
system, not one is known to have collided with a planet.
. Our theory of Meteors is as follows : — The earth in its
daily journey through space, has its atmosphere pressed hy the
atmospheres of other planets, (as shown in the chapter on
Tides.) The outer or upper surface of the earth's atmosphere, i»
composed of metallic atoms. If, then, hy the pressure or con-
tact of the atmospheres, two of these metallic atoms should unite,
they must immediately influence and attract other atoms. They
then accumulate, become more and more dense, and fall towards
the earth, increasing in bulk, force of attraction, and also in
Velocity, till they come into the oxygen atmosphere near the
surface of the earth ; when the reciprocal action between the
two classes of atoms takes place, and the friction is so intense
that combustion and light is the result : they may either then
explode and be dissolved into a gaseous condition again, or fall
as solid meteoric stones to the earth.

To support our assertions we have three facts, besides Prof.
Newton's statement already referred to, to bring forward in
proof.

The first is, that the microscopist, Dr. Sorby, of Sheffield,
England, has arrived at the conclusion, from the examination
of a large number of specimens, that the structure of meteorites
cannot be explained in a satisfactory manner, except by sup-
posing that their constituents were originally in a state of
vapour.

The second is, that the late Prof. Graham said the "Leonarto "

METEORS. 181

meteor had so much hydrogen in its iron, that the inference
was, " the meteorite was extruded from a dense atmosphere of
hylrofjen gas."

Tin- third is, a discovery which has lately been announced
i'.iapart-lli, that the great star showers of November, which
occur crery thirty-three years, have been hitherto preceded by a
fonift. There is no doubt, then, but that it is the great pres-
sure of a comet's atmosphere on the atmosphere of the earth
which causes the atoms to combine and to form meteors. We
have also no doubt, that the yearly display in August, and
November, will be found traceable ere long to a similar cause ;
or to some combination of the atmospheres by which there
is more pressure exerted at one time than at another. The
meteors which we see on ordinary occasions, are probably only
caused by the constant daily effect of pressure on the atmos-
phere.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

AUEOEA BOKEALIS.

Visible at both poles. — Mairan on the extent of the Sun's atmosphere.—
Lardner on Auroras. — M. Biot on Polar Volcanoes. — Distance of
Auroras. — Seen by Aeronauts below them. — Facts. — Caused by
mineral emanations from the Polar Latitudes. — How they affect th«
compasses. — Why seen on Calm evenings. — Dew. — Cause of colour*.
— Similarity between Auroras and Meteors.

AURORAS are visible in the direction of both the Northern
and Southern poles — various explanations have been given of
them, but they are all open to objection.

A curious one is given by Mairan, who supposed the aurora
to proceed from the intermixture of the far extending atmos-
phere of the sun with that of the earth. While -we do not
altogether coincide with it, we are glad to get an incidental con-
firmation of our theory of tides and atmospheres from him.

Lardner says : — " Although the complete explanation of the
aurora has not been accomplished, the electricity and magnetism
of the earth and its atmosphere must now be regarded as its
source." This is partly correct, but as he does not apprehend
the properties or mode of action of either, of course he could
not understand the theory in its entirety.

M. Biot supposed that metallic clouds thrown out of polar
volcanoes were the cause of auroras, and this accounted for

AURORA. BOREALIS. 183

their disturbing the magnetic needle. But the disturbance of
the needle can he accounted for in a more simple manner.

Some philosophers asserted that the auroras are thousands
of miles ahove the surface of the earth, hut the most generally
accepted theory is that they are within our atmosphere ;
for aeronauts have frequently heen elevated ahove them.

The principal facts to be borne in mind concerning aurora*
are these: —

Firstly, that (in our latitudes) they are always seen to the
northward of us, never to the south — even although persons to
the south of us may see auroras between us and them.

Secondly, that when they are visible, the evening is usually
calm and clear.

Thirdly, that they influence the compass needle and affect
the telegraphic lines.

Fourthly, that they have different shades of colour.

We have already shewn by the experiment of the " magnetic
curves " that there is a magnetic force or current continually
extending from the Poles towards the Equator. The poles of
a magnetic battery if introduced into a vase of oxygen will
exhibit light, and we have proved that sunlight is produced in
Nature from a similar action. We have, moreover, shown, that
when the poles of atoms are disturbed, opacity is the result in
daylight, and light is the consequence in darkness. We have,
therefore, two explanations open to us. The magnetic upper
current issuing from the north, being, of necessity, accom-
panied by mineral gases which are exuded principally from
the polar latitudes, comes iu contact, on a clear and calm
evening, with the vegetable gases in the lower atmosphere ;
either, then, a chemical action is induced between the two gases,

184 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

causing intens* friction and light ; or the polarity of the
mineral atoms in the upper atmosphere is deranged, and
opacity or light is the result. We are inclined to think that both
causes may be in operation at times, and thus we may account
for the brilliancy and dullness of the displays — the bright ones
being caused by chemical action. By the latter theory, the
evanescent character and continuously shifting position of these
northern lights may be accounted for more easily than by any
other, for a shoot of the current along the " lines of force " could
instantly reverse the poles of the atoms in the direction traversed;
and in withdrawing aa instantly allow them to resume their
natural position again. The fact that nearly all these displays
shoot out in lines from a Polar centre, very materially corrobo-
rates our assertion that the action of the " magnetic curves "
of the earth is the principal cause of auroras.

The influence of the aurora on the compass needle and on
telegraph lines, may then be easily accounted for by the Polar
magnetic current.

But the auroras are seen much further south, how far south
we believe has not been correctly ascertained ; but, we should
think, that under suitable conditions, they would be visible
wherever any magnetic influence is found to be exerted on
the compass.

It may be asked why do we not see the 'aurora to the south
of us 1 We believe it is owing to the position of the atoms of
the atmosphere, and to the atoms having two poles. The mine-
ral atoms, under the influence of the polarity of the earth, being
attracted southward through the oxygen, only those southern
poles that come in contact with the oxygen exhibit light. Thus,
also, for a somewhat similar reason, only those observers who are

AURORA BO REAMS. 185

between the sun and a rainbow can see the latter. A rainbow
cannot be seen if it exists between the point of observation and
the sun.

Why is it only on calm and clear evenings that auroras aw
seen 7

Because like dew, they aro formed in consequence of a
reciprocal action between the lower and upper atmospheres ; a
process which can only exhibit its action as the aurora, when
the atmospheres are otherwise at rest, and when there are no
winds to dissipate the gases, or divert them from the natural
position necessary to form aurora ; otherwise they form clouds,
etc.

The sensation of cold is caused by the quantity of mineral
gases mingling in the atmosphere.

The colours of the aurora are produced by the variety, and
the different combinations, of the gases mingling ; the vegetable
gases causing the red, yellow and warm colours, and the mineral
gases showing the blue and cold colours.

CHAPTER XXIX.

MEDICINE;

OB,
THK LIFK ACTION OF THB BODY, AND THE CAUSE AND CUBE OF DISEAil.

A revolution in medicine. — The cause of disease unknown. — Incurable
diseases. — Not creditable to the profession. — What are our bodiei
composed of ? — What keeps up life in us ? — What is blood ? — How
is blood formed1? — How is the material we eat transformed into
blood? — What causes and keeps up the circulation of the blood?
—What is life ? — The magnetic action of the body. — The function
of the blood. — How the waste from the body is thrown off. — Hot
water. — Purging — Emetics. — The body compared to a fire. — Indi-
gestion.— Consumption, its cause and cure. — Fevers.

IP the atomagnetic system be true, it is destined to revolu-
tionize the whole practice of medicine. Any one who has "been
sick, must have noticed how ignorant certain doctors are as to the
nature of disease, and how uncertain they are about the proper
manner of treating it. The true cause of fevers and other
diseases, the circulation of the blood, etc., is misapprehended,
and in many cases totally unknown to them. Numerous dis-
eases also are deemed incurable, such as consumption, heart
disease, liver complaint, indigestion, and some others which
ought to be no more so than measles, or scarlatina. It seems
far from creditable to the profession that such should be the
case, when, as a class, they have been operating on the human

MEDICINE. 187

system for a term that is infinite, compared to tho status of
any other profession,

The name and purpose of every bone and muscle in tho body
Is well known, hut neither the true nature of the atomic
material that composes the body, nor the nature of tho action
which keeps up life in it, is understood by them. Tho reme-
dial knowledge of the profession, also, is obtained almost solely
by an uncertain, or careless experience ; and in many instances
the remedy which has proved successful with one will be tried
on another, without considering the differing nature of either
case, relatively to the other.

How many cases of mysterious death also occur from the
prescriptions of the physician, which are kindly ignored by
the coroner, who is, fortunately, often one of themselves ? Yet,
notwithstanding all this, certain medical professors in Ontario,
Canada, have petitioned their legislature for a bill, to consti-
tute them the only life-preserving and death-dealing power in
the land. To give them the power " to decide what is medical
truth ; to decide how truth shall be taught ; to fix tho standard
of medical knowledge ; and to prosecute all medical practition-
ers who may differ from them." Either the people in Ontario
must be very simple, or their doctors are gifted with an
audacity which could only result from, ignorance. "We hope
for the honour and good name of the profession that there are
no others in the world so bereft of reasoning capacity, for, it ia
evident, that a branch of any other profession or trade could
as well claim similar privileges.

So much will, henceforth, be known about matter and its
chemical properties, that disease should be, as Sir J. G. Simpson
said, the exception, rather than the rule,

188 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION.

There ought to be no disease in existence but such as might be
cured, if treated in time, as it usually exhibits its character
early. A better knowledge of the qualities mid character of
medicine will d.?o from hence be easily obtained — tin it is as
regards its mineral or vegetable character — thus fewer mistakes
shoidcl occur in transposing remedies, while experiments with
new medicines might, with due care, be tried with irapuuity.

If we explain the hfo action of the body, it will ,4iow us
what effect medicine is expected to produce and how it accom-
plishes its work.

In the iirst place of what are our bodies composed? Of
matter in its varied forms and conditions ; thai is animal,
vegetable and mineral atoms, in solid, liquid, and gaseous
forms.

What keeps up life in the human system ? Let us examine
the human .-structure. There is a frame-work or .skeleton of
bones to support the body. There are muscles and nerves that
work and guide the frame, and flesh and skin to protect these
muscles and bones. But all throughout this flesh, muscle, and
bone, there are multiplied arteries and veins jillod with blood,
coursing and saturating the whole, from the stomach to the
extremities.

What is this blood ?

If we bleed a man exhaustively, he becomes gradually-
weaker, till he has no strength to move, and finally he dies.
He has lost his blood, and with that his breath of life ; but all
the rest of the machine, the bone, muscle, flesh, veins, etc.,
remain, yet they cannot keep life in the man ; his life support,
therefore, must be through the blood.

How is this blood formed ?

189

If wo take a strong, healthy, full-blooded man, and starve
him for a time, we find he loses his flesh, and there is little or
no blood or life left in him. Furnish him with warm water, he
will revive, and may thus ho kept alive for a time ; hut the
reduced flesh ia not restored. If we now take this famished
and reduced man, and furnish him gradually with food and
drink, ho speedily becomes robust, fleshy, and full-blooded.
The correct inference then is, that not only the blood, but the
flesh, muscle, bones, hair, and everything connected with the
body, must be formed from what we eat and drink,

How is this materhl that we eat transformed into blood? The
stomach is analogous to a magnetic battery. The food which
we eat is passed into it, and dissolved there by a process of
chemical action between the particles of the animal, vegetable,
and mineral matter contained in the food, similar to that which
takes place in the mineral magnetic battery. This chemical
action is produced through the agency of the water, or the
fluids we drink, and with which the food is saturated. The
portion which has dissolved, is then forced into the arteries and
veins along with the blood, as new blood ; while the more
indigestible parts are ejected from the system, along with the
waste material of the body, through the intestines.

But the blood itself is not life. It circulates through the
body, we are told, once in twenty minutes. There must then
be something to drive the new blood through the arteries
and veins, in order to take the place of the old which has
•erred its purpose, and is returning laden with impurities.
For, while it is the function of the blood to restore the decayed
parts of the body, it is also its function to cany off whatever
inert material it wastes.

*HE oaiGiN otf CREATION,

"What then causes and keeps up the circulation of the blood f
We have already said the body, in its vital parts, is like &
decomposing magnetic battery. In such a battery, the force
produced by the dissolving of the minerals, is sent from the
battery to the poles or extreme ends of the metal in con-
nection. So is it wilh the body. While the food is being
dissolved in the stomach, a force is generated which is continu-
ally urging the material, as soon as it is in a fit condition, from
the stomach to the extremities. For the body is as touch a
magnet in its nature as a loadstone, although the magnetism.
is exhibited in a different way. This, therefore, is the primal
force which keeps up the circulation of the blood. Life then ii
the atomagnetic action of the body.

In order now to discover the cause of fever and disease in tke
system, let us examine again the function of the blood, and the
action of the body in throwing off its waste material, and of
rebuilding the same. The W^aste is thrown off in two ways j
firstly, by the exhalations from the body externally all over
its surface ; and secondly, by passing along with the blood
to the intestines, and being ejected from the body with the
insoluble parts of the food eaten. It will be seen, therefore,
that should there be a checking of the circulation in any way,
as by cold or chills, or by the food not being digested as well,
or as readily, as it ought to be, or by the waste material clog-
ging up the veihs, or by uncleanliness checking and filling up
the pores of the skin, some disease or ailment is sure to ensue.
In a stoppage of this sort, the atoms of the body interfere with,
or obstruct, the general arrangement of its working, and a new
local action takes place in the part so clogged, causing inflam-
mation, fever, palpitation, rheumatism, cholera, bodily pain, of

kEDtCIN*. 101

i Condition and disposition to take on disease in the form of
any contagion or infection that may be prevalent.

As we cannot always foresee, and so prevent a stoppage of the
bodily functions, no household should be without the know-
ledge and means of restoring the circulation of the blood.

The first remedy on the list wo commend is hot Water.
Inasmuch as the blood and other material of the body is
largely composed of water, should any poisonous matter exist
in the human system that is foreign to it, the hot water will
dilute it, and assist in urging it along to the intestines and
extremities to eject it from the system. In many cases of
lassitude or exhaustion, no other remedial agent would bo
required.

The next agent, is a purgative food or medicine adapted to
the chemical condition of the body ; and in urgent cases, an
emetic — adapted to the same conditions — given in a weak
solution, in doses every twenty minutes, or at sufficient inter-
vals to allow it to permeate the whole body through the
circulation of the blood, before vomiting takes place. This,
together with a moderate application of moisture and heat to
the body, would generally be a certain cure. Some simple
treatment such as we have described, administered in time,
would in many instances check what might otherwise result —
by the prescribed system of treatment — in a long and serious
illness.

Ag regards the circulation of the human body, it may be
compared to a fire. If the fire is expected to burn well, there
must be freedom for the air to circulate through the material
that feeds it, and therefore it wants occasional clearing of the
ashes, before having a fresh supply of fuel put on. Should

THE OK1G1N OP

the ashes be allowed to accumulate, the fire will burn low and
threaten to go out ; then the extensive poking which is neces-
sary to restore a draft, almost puts the fire out. So it ia with
the body if the circulation is neglected, the body becomes
feeble and the spirits languish, then sickness, cold or fever
ensues, and Unless the circulation is speedily restored in a
proper manner, the life of the patient is apt to go out.

Indigestion is one of the most common complaints, and the
cause of many ulterior diseases. It is caused, in many instances,
by an insufficiency of liquid to dissolve the food and to enable
the body to keep up a free circulation. In England, where great
quantities of beer and wines are drank during dinner, indigestion
is not half so frequent as in America, where iced water is the too
frequent accompaniment to every meal. Our food and drink
should always be taken warm when possible, because a certain
temperature must be kept up in the body to digest the food.
Sufficient salt, too, should always be taken at every meal —
especially in warm weather, and in equatorial latitudes.

What causes consumption ? Inflammation. "What causes in*
flammationl Merely the circumstance of certain veins or arteries
becoming clogged with waste material. This is caused by a
chill in the region of the lungs, tending to check the circula-
tion; or may arise from neglect or improper care of the body.
A. local action then takes place, and a pain is felt in one of the
lungs. The doctor probably explains that the lungs are wasted
or decayed in that particular spot, and that the only treatment
he can recommend is a change of climate, or a blister. If the
patients do not go away from home, — and there are comparatively
few who can afford to do so — then they may make up their minds
to die. It seems like murder that some hundreds or thousands

MEDIC1NR. 193

of people should die every year of consumption, and that the
profession which is so greatly accountable for the calamity
should never have found a remedy for the disease. Those who
try to discover a cure also, are treated discourteously instead of
offered assistance.

How would We treat consumption t

Not so much by drugs, or blisters, as by careful nursing.
From what we have said of the nature of the body and its
mode of action, it may be inferred that we would in the first
place restore it to a proper working condition, by attending to
Ihe digestion and the circulation, so that the body be kept warm
in every part, by its own natural atomic action. We would then
find the locality of the inflammation, and by the continuous
application of moisture and heat, along with a slightly mineral
solution to the part affected, we would expect to produce a
reciprocal action between the atoms in the region of inflamma-
tion, and in the liniment, which would neutralise each other,
and so induce a healthy circulation, that might result in
removing the state ot inflammation entirely. If carelessness,
•or inattention to the rules of health should bring on the inflam-
mation again, the same treatment would have to be repeated.
Thus no young or otherwise healthy person need die of
consumption if property prescribed for. It will be evident,
therefore, that all those compound nostrums, patent medicines,
and galvanic batterie>, which are advertised indiscriminately
to cure consumption, without some general treatment of the
body and system besides that of local application to the parts
effected, are a deception, and destined only to failure.

How are fevers caused and cured?

Fevers, as we have already said, are caused by the checking,

13

194 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

of the circulation, owing to the blood being vitiated. To bleedy
iu such cases, may for the moment relieve by reducing the
quantity, but certainly can never alter the quality or condition
of the blood. The dogma that every fever must run its course
of so many days, and that its various changes and stages should
be watched and named, is a most absurd and dangerous one ;
for, admitted that the fever is caused by vitiated blood, the
common sense treatment would obviously be to chemically change-
its condition, and to induce a free and full circulation of the
blood throughout the body : not to wait till symptoms of some
particular type of fever or other disease be developed, and the
whole bodily system is reduced and paralyzed. Or worse
still, ere symptoms are fully developed, to guess at the disease
and prescribe a strong medicine, which, if the surmise should
be wrong, may probably prove to be the worst drug the patient
could have taken.

Suppose two men are in a room with a fever patient, and
both are attacked by the fever, but one man .recovers in a
few days while the other has the fever for weeks ; it will
then be commonly said that the one who recovered did not
have the fever at all. Is it not more likely thet the constitu-
tion or condition of the one was able to resist, or counteract the
influence of the disease, and thus throw it off sooner, while the
other wanted assistance from a physician, but the proper means
were not used. It is only reasonable to suppose, that if a strong
healthy man is able naturally or voluntarily to throw off a fever,
a weak man with proper assistance and medicine .ought to be
able to do so too.

It is not our province, in a work of this kind, to enter into
a detailed system of medical treatment, for such a proceeding*

MEDICINE. 19.')

would enlarge the voluime into a library; but wo desire jirinri
p.illy t» <Mll attention to the fact that many diseases are deemed
incur iMr, which properly ought not to bo so called; and also
be f>-w illustrations wo have given of the cause of disease
and UK- manner of treating sickness, may lead those who feel
nick to trust to and to act in the first place for themselves, until
a better system of nu-dica! treatment is adopted ; thus many
v.ilu il>le lives may bo saved every year.

CHAPTER XXX.

ATOMAGNETISM AND RELIGION.

Religion not affected by Atomagnetism.— The inherent life in

and the spontaneous development of the mind, seem grand ar«
guments for the Materialist. — - The movements of Planets and
Comets.— The great machinery of the universe.— What need of a
God ?— Man fancies himself a Monarch.-^No animal intelligence
his superior.— Only a parasite. — Chained to the earth.-^On a lerel
with his dog.— Matter existed without properties. — Who endowed it
with them 1— Divine mind of man.— Magnetism not God. — How
simple, miracles must be to Him Who formed and holds the key of
natural law.— Insignificance of man.

As Religion may be considered to be affected by the system
of science promulgated in the previous chapters, we have
reserved our remarks on the connection between them for a
concluding chapter.

It may seem, to many readers-, that we supply arguments
from which the materialist could still further advance his cause/
When we say that matter is possessed of inherent life, and
that this life is capable of forming any production on earth spon-
taneously, according to the nature, condition and position of
the materials commingling, not only in the mineral and vege--
table kingdom, but in the animal kingdom as well ; it appears a
most astounding assertion. But when we state that the same
atomic matter spontaneously produces the mind, not only in

ATOMAQNETI8M AND RKLIOION. 197

tho unintrlliT.tual animal but in man, and that those wonder-
ful instinctive powers which seem to baffle the wisdom of man,
in the bee and tho beaver, are only manifestations of the same
power inherent in the atoms of matter ; might not the infidel
exclaim, what more do we wantl Furthermore, if the power
of matter controls and governs the universe, guides the planets
in their course, steers the comets in their erratic wanderings
through space, and shields those bodies which come in their
path ; if the mysterious meteoric shower, the awe inspiring
thunder, the earthquake, and every movement in earth, sea and
atmosphere, from the tiniest individual atom to the bright orb
above us, are all controlled by the same inanimate force, so that
each is powerless to work except as that law impels it, and each
moves but as a wheel in the great machinery of the universe !
might not the materialist exclaim ; what need of a God at all?
But, here insignificant man fancies himself monarch of all he
surveys. His lofty mind looking down on the brute creation,
and seeing nothing which could be deemed his superior, makes a
God of himself. He forgets that this earth is infinitely less
than millions of others in space. He sees those brilliant worlds
above him, but fancies they are only jewels studded in the
skies, to add to the glories of his earthly home. He forgeta
that they are peopled with beings perhaps many times more
able than himself, and with intellect as much above his, as hia
own is above that of his dog ! He forgets that he is merely a
parasite of the earth, chained to its surface without hope of
escape, while those other beings may be gifted with angels wings
to soar from star to star. He forgets that tho dog he spurns
from his feet is made of dust like to himself, and yet he would
place himself on a level with Hinx who created the heavens

198 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION.

and the earth, and caused both himself and his dog to grow
upon it.

While we deny that our system favours the materialist or the
infidel, we maintain that it brings the most conclusive evidence-
to bear against them. In the science of the day mystery is
found on every hand, and no two observers read phenomena
alike. A man may in consequence be excused for holding
opinions of his own on science and religion, when his state-
ments cannot be disproved. But, as we have laid down the
law which regulates all nature, which originates and controls all
forces in it, and is therefore as infallible as nature itself — the
possibility of any misconception or misconstruction is obviated
entirely. The existence of the Great God, the Designer and
Ruler of all, is thus seen at once to be true, for in the perfec-
tion of the law, is shown the perfection of Him who created it.

While then we say that matter has inherent properties, we
have also said that it may exist in a position not to exhibit its
properties ; as in the beginning of our earth, when, as we are
informed, the material forming the earth, sea, and atmosphere,
was " chaos " or invisible matter — " Without form and void."
Grant, therefore, that matter did exist without properties ; where
is the materialist who will explain how the properties were
imparted to it without a God 1 The fact, too, that man has a
divine mental faculty or mind, distinct from his animal or
earthly mind, is also conclusive evidence of a power beyond
that contained in matter. We have ourselves been told that
because we stated life to be magnetism, we therefore implied
that magnetism was God. But if magnetism is a power with
which matter was endowed, there must also of necessity have
been an endower of that power.

XTOMAQNETISM A' I.)!?. 199

This latter fart strikes a vein of thought, which convin*
of the illimitable power of the Creator.

If atomagnetism so regulates all atoms and forces of matter,
that, imt tin- slightest movement, not the waving of a blade of
grass, not the flutter of a bird on the wing, not the fleeting of
a cloud in the sky, but is governed by this law; then how
great is the power of Him who holds the key thereof! He
who gives a power can surely take it away again ; and Ho who
can create one power, can surely devise another. How simple
a matter then must it be to the Deity to shut the mouths of
lions ; to take the heat from a burning fiery furnace ; to part
asunder the Red Sea; and to raise Lazarus from the dead.
The fact that not only these mysteries, but the creation of
our world, the flood which deluged it, and all other natural
phenomena recorded in Scripture are found by this atomag-
netic system to harmonise with scientific facts ; and the impres-
sive and yet simple fact that the infidel's own lips but open
and shut, according to the same law, should show proud man
what a miserable and insignificant being he is, and how much
he is at the mercy of an ALMIGHTY RULER.

INDEX.

Ailum, blamed for all the ilia

that afflict mankind, ... 109

African, Atmosphere of the ... 125
Agassiz, Louis, on living beings

born of eggs ... 21

Agassiz, Louis, on an animal

and divine mind ... 36

Agassiz, Louis, on men and

monkeys ... 22

Agassiz, Louis, on the creation

of the many at the beginning 23
Agassiz, Louis, on special cre-
ation ... 27
Agassiz, Louis, on coral insects. .. 148
Agassiz, Louis, on millions of
coral insects fed from one
mouth ... 148
Agassiz, Louis, on coral growing

by budding ... 149

Agassiz's, Louis, argument
against Darwin with coral in-
sects ... 149
Agassiz, Louis, on the age of

Florida reefs ... 149

Air, no moisture in ... 47

' no, in water ... 115

' no, in ice ... 116

" Mr. H. Higgins on water

absorbing ... 116

" composition of ... 124

Albion Mines, Nova Scotia, site

of a volcano ... 158

Alphabet, similarity between
the elements of matter and
the ... 5

America, rain diminishing in

North ... 114

rain increasing in

Spanish ... 114

disastrous effects of
clearing the forests
in North ... 114

ruined cities in Central 1 1 ">
American, weather maps ... 13'J
Animals, possessed of one mind

only ... 32

" have no soul . 32

Animals, their mind a property

of earthly matter only 32
" how produced spon-
taneously ... 21
Appetite is incipient mind ... 30
" the, of spontaneous in-
sects ... 30
what is ... 30
governs all animals up

to man ... 31

a seal's ... 31

a calf's ... 31

how to acquire an ... 32
Atomagnetism, the law of mat-
ter and its force ... 6
Atomagnetism, how great the
power of Him who nolds the
key of ... 199
Atomagnetism supersedes gravi-
tation ... 98
Atomagnetism, the motive pow-
er of the whole machinery of
the universe ... 197
Atomagnetism, Religion, and... 196
Atomagnetism, explains all mys-
teries in Scripture . . . 199
Atomagnetism brings the most
conclusive evidence to bear
against infidels ... 198
Atoms, their character ... 1
two great classes of ... 2
Mineral and vegetable... 2
male and female ... 2
properties of ... 2
all alive ... 3
are all magnets having

polarity ... 7

" the attraction of like,

explained ... 7

Atomic action, continuity of... 123
" likened to a gossamer

thread ... 59

matter, spontaneously

produces mind ... 196
Atmosphere, the, in layers ... 106
•' temperature of, in

balloon researches 125
composition of ... 125

202

INDEX.

Atmosphere, everything has an 125
of the African ... 125
extent of the pla-
nets ... 163
pressure of, causes

tides .„ 164

pressure on, causes

meteors ... 180
Atmospheric circulation, theory

of ... 171

Atlantic, S. S., loss of ... 101

Attraction not the cause of the

tides ... 162

Artesian wells for the prevention

of earthquakes ... 159

Auroras, facts concerning ... 182

" Mairan on .., 182

Lardner on ... 182

M. Bioton ... 182

" disturb the magnetic

needle ... 183

'" caused hy the magne-
tism of the earth... 183
two theories of ... 183
colours of, caused by... 185

B.

Balloon researches, by Guy

Lussac ... 125

Bastian, Mr. H. Charlton on

Origin of lowest organisms ... 28
Battles, followed by rain, cause

of ... 117

Beasts have only one mind ... 34
have no soul ... 35

know not sin, nor do

wrong ... 35

have appetites but no

desires ... 35

Beavers, foreknowledge of ... 34
Bees, " ... 34

Beche, Sir Henry de la, on

carbon ... 141

Beer, vast quantities of, drank

in England ... 192

Berkeley, Bishop, on matter ... 1
Biot, M., on auroras ... 182

Bible, the, comprehensiveness

of ... 14

proof of vegetable life

drawn from ... 14

Blood, what is ... 188

function of the ... 189

cause of the circulation

of the ... 190

Botanical theories of vegetable
life , 14

Botanical theories of trees . . . 149
Bottled sunshine ... 81

Borer, the, worm holes in coral

made by ... 147

Body, Human, a machine easily

injured ... 133

Brain, the, a picture gallery ... 41
Branches and leaves, why they

spread ... 16

Brewer, Dr., on the sun the

source of heat ... 56

Buckland, Frank, on a chicken's

instinct ... 33

Buoys, scientific,for leading men

astray. ... 81

c.

Calms, cause of equatorial . . . 129
" cause of, in the centre

of cyclones ... 131

Cambodia, ruined cities of ... 115

Cambridge, Lectures, Agassiz... 148

Carbon, trees composed of ... 140

" Sir Henry de la Beche

on ... 141

" said to be injurious to

man ... 141

" eaten by man ... 141

Carpenter, Dr. W. B., his

theory of oceanic circulation 168
Carpenter, Dr. W. B., his deep

sea soundings . . . 168

Carpenter's, Dr. W. B., experi-
ment with glass trough ... 168
Carpenter, Dr. W. B., Dr. "Wy-

ville Thompson against . . . 169
Carpenter, atmospheric and

oceanic theory overlooked by 171
Cells in plants, what impels

them to divide ... 16

Central America, ruined cities

in ... 115

Celestial Dynamics, Dr. Mayer's 154
Chamber's Journal on Dew ... 119
Charcoal in the Nova Scotian

coalfields ... 142

Challenger, H. M. S. ... 146

Chamber's Encyclopedia on coral

insects ... 146

Chamber's Encyclopedia on the
time taken to fill a gap in a
coral reef ... 152

Cheese, life in ... 20

" Chinese ... 136

Chemical action, Prof. Grove on 44
" all changes caused by 44
" Digection caused by... 44

,-nl action the great de-

•troyer ... 4;>
«• " example* of... *«>

ChiW. Dr., on spontaneous gone

"" '

ration '" -,,-

,. a fever swamp.. ' |
snow storm at
Chinese cheese, made of peas

a.M beans

City, ». why it is free of fever

•ad ague •••

" of Washington, S. S., loss

of

n ,. :l frvi-r swamp 115

of the blood, M

of the -.190

«« of the blood in the

body compared to a fire ••• *g
Cloud;. > of J10' 1-ti

Common sense, Sir John Her-

schell 011 ••• i(

Common sense a poor guide to

the study of science 10J
Coal, how form. .1

ot vegetable origin ...
l>rof. Rogers on how it is

baked ••• ;;„

« formed by petrifaction... 1
1 Nova Scotia, fields ... "'

inexhaustible
a forest will only produce

half an inch of ... «

" how hydrogen entered the 14
Cochineal, a parasite of the

cactus

Cobalt blue, magnetic
Columbus, Christopher . ... 08
Colour, length of red and violet

rays of light ••• j

" vibratory theory of ... <
» Herschell, Tyndall

Maxwell, Helmholtz on J
" Atomagnetic theory of...
•" a property of matter... 91
Compass magnetic, exhibition of

mineral life ... J

" cause of deviation of,

in ships
" general ignorance of

its action ••• 99

14 influence of a cargo of

petroleum on the... 99
«« disturbed by auroras,

why • • I83

Comets, two or three visit the

earth every year ... ITS
" facts connected with . ITS
" not absorbed by the sun It A

omeU, Jui-iti-r attracts , ...174
H alley • * .

kC*S '

„,„,,,. b»T« not tails ... 17 j

why r«-iK;lU-.l from the

sun

bow made periodical
have : 1'°

cause of the luminous

tails Of \'l'.

Consumption, cause of ••• ^

:nctor« on .. '•'-
cure of ••• ly;*

„„ yuur.- person

nt-c<l i he of ... 1*W
Cornhill Magazine on seed bear-
ing meteors •••

Coral insects, sermons preacV A

on their industry MO
«' " unworthy of notice 145
« «« live in shallow

water

«« «• merely parasites...
11 *' Agassiz on millions
of, fed from one
mouth • • "6

«« " Agassiz's argu-
ment against Dar-
win with

<« " Dar win's theories of 14J
» •« Sir Jolin Herschell

on

«« " how they keep the
Coral Islands
above water ... M
«« «« a species of ani-

mal jelly

«« " artistic taste of... 147
«' " possessed of admin-
istrative and go-
verning powers... 15j£
Coral, bow it grows .-•• «

•' found only in equatorial

latitu.U-s - *«

grows by budding
Florida reefs of ••• "J

wbat causes the colour of 1
Islands.said to be sinking 1;
•• not formed wholly

of coral
Coroner, danger of having a doc-

tor as a
C<w, is a, the mother of mag-

\ o ... •V

Crosse! Mr., producing insects

Crosse. jO

0-eatorrthe"Slimitablei>ower of 1W

204

IXDEX.

Crystallization, coral a form of 147
a. form of mine-
ral life ... 11

D.

Darwin, Dr. on one primordial

form 22

Darwin's, Dr., theory of the

origin of species overthrown... 15
Darwin, Dr., on mind ... 30

on the power of

wishing ... 28

Darwin, Dr. Agassiz's argument

with coral insects against ... 149
Darwin's, Dr., theories of coral

insects _ 149

Darwin, Dr., states the Coral

Islands are sinking .. 150

Darwin, Dr., quoted by Sir John

Herschell 150

Daylight, cause of \ 75

Descartes on matter and motion 6
Davy, Sir Humphrey, on heat

in ice ... 58

Deep sea, the, temperature of... 168
' animal life in ... 168

' coldness of the, ac-
counted for ... 172
' currents, Dr. Carpen-
ter's theory of .. 165
' Dr. Wyville Thomp-
son on .. Ig9

Dew, Chamber's Journal on ... 119
Baptista Porta nearly dis-
covered the true theory of 119
Aristotle on ... 120

Muschenbrook delayed the
discovery of the true
theory of ... 120

Dr. Wells discoverer of

the accepted theory of... 121
produced similarly to
„ wa*er ... 123

a calm and clear evening
essential for the forma-
_. . _ . *«>n of ... 123

-De la Rive, on two differing elec-
tricities . gg
Delusions, scientific, about mag-
netism 94
Deviation of ships' compasses,

caused by a speaking trumpet 100
Deviation of ships' compasses,

caused by steering apparatus, 101
Deviation of ships' compasses,
caused by a cargo of petroleum 99

Deviation of ships' compasses,

caused by iron cross trees ... 101
Diseases, doctors ignorant of the

nature of ... 186

Diseases, so-called incurable ... 186
should be the excep-
tion, as Sir J. Y.
Simpson said, ... 187
the cause of ... 190

Distillation, the common theory

of rain a process of ... 109

Digestion, what is ...138

extraordinary case of,

by coral insects ... 148
Doctors, ignorant of disease ... 186
their ignorance not

creditable to them 186
life action of the body

unknown to ... 187

their remedial know-
ledge gained ouly by
experience ... 187

mysterious deaths by,

ignored by the coroner 187
audacity of, in Ontario 187
one class of, petitioning
for a bill to persecute others... 187
Dogfish has no gills ...116

Drainage, Sir John Herschell

says, lessens the rainfall ... 114
Dumas, M., on origin of life ... 20
Dunsappie Loch, near Edinburgh,

Scotland, obscure ice on ... 112
Dust and Disease, Tyndall on... 26

E.

Earth, the, heat generated by,

falling into the sun 61
' a magnetic battery 73
: no colour on ... 80
1 Prof Rogers on the

central heat of 140, 153
thickness of the

crust of ... 153

Dr. Mayer on the

internal fire of ... 154
" Drs. Tyndall, Thom-
son, and Herschell
on ... 154

Earthquakes, Sir John Her-
schell on 155, 159
how prevented . . . 159
caused by chemi-
cal action ... 158
Ecliptic, plane of the, tides
caused by pressure on ...164

203

ttggi, Hot necessary for pro-

during life ... 21

AgMiiz on ... 21

" not chickens ... 87

Egypt, rain becoming more frt-

.jiifiit in ... 114

" oultivation of the palm in 114

Electricity. Dr. Tho«. Thomson
on .. 85

Electricity, Parker, 81r "Win.
Thornton, Tyndall, OroTe,
and De la Hire on 85, 86

Electricity confounded with
magnetism ... 84

Electricity not a force, only
combustion ... 87

Electricity caused by magne-
tism ... 87

Electricity, all light in ...88

lightning is ... 89

Emission theory of light, Sir
Isaac Newton's ... 66

Emetic, efficacy of an, in sickness 191

Encke's comet 174, 175

Energy, Professors Thomson
andTaiton ... 69

English navvies, the work they
do ... 137

Equator, calms of th*, explained 129

Esquimaux, Sir John BOBS on
the appetite of ... 137

Evaporation, a chemical action.. 110
" induced by cold as

well as by heat... 110

Evolution, doctrine of .:. 27

Experiments, laboratory, doubt-
ful helps to science ... 53

Experiments, Nature's, to be
studied ... 59

F.

Faith, essential in religion ... 130
Faraday, Michael, on magnetism 91
on magnetic

eurves ... 99
born too soon 92
led astray by

his imagination regarding mag*
nttic curves . . . 130

Faraday, Michael, how he led

Maury astray ... 130

Fevers how caused and cured ... 193
Fire mist ... 4

Fireflies, light of ... 64

Filings, iron, magnetic arch

formed by ... 93

Fir«, not BO powerful as water.,. 107

Fixh produced spontaneously ... 27
Fishes gills ustd for Altering

their food, not for breathing.. Il4
Florida reefs, Agaasiz on the

age

149

Food, Prof. Lyon Flajfair on

" Liebig on ... 137

Playfair's tables of
On mineral . . . 137

" how transformed into

blood ... 189

Fogs, cause of 110, 111, ]•_•:}

Forests, why they produce rain.. 114
Forms of water, Tyndall's .. 109
Fox, nu nning of the .. 30

Fraier's magazine ort matter . . 4
Frost leaves . . 93

" hoar, cause of !•_'.'<

Fumly, Bay of, North America,

high tides in, cause of 101, 1C5
Fundy, Bay of, rise of two feet

in three mile* . . . 166

a.

Gastric Juice, what it ... 138

Germs, theory of ... 23

' ' difference between atoms

and ... 25

where do they come from 25
must be born in some

way ... 25

Pasteur & Tyndall on 25, 26

Geography of the sea, Maury 's.. 130

Geysers and hot springs, cause of 54

" Great, California, 54, 15«j

Ghoorkas, n>sh eating ... 137

(Jills of a fish used for filtering

food, not breathing ... 116

Gibraltar, upper and under cur-

rent at Straits of ... 165

Glaciers, why chasms in Alpine,

are blue ... 83

" Tyndall on sdlar heat
the cause of ... 109

God, magnetism not ... 198

' perfection of ... 1'jy

" the power of ... 199

Gossamer thread, atomic action

likened to a ... 59

Graham, Prof . , on the Leomarto

meteorite ... 180

Granite, water in ... 108

Gravitation, the law of, upset... 98
fails to account for
the repelling
power of the
•un „ 174

Gravitation as explained at the

present time ... 175

Grass, why green ... 81

" why clew deposits on ... 121

Qrindon, Leo. H. on life ... 22

Grove, Prof., on matter ... 1

" confesses ignorance of the

source" of heat ... 61

Prof., on electricity ,.. 86

" on magnetism ... 96

Gulf Stream, no longer a mystery 167

Dr. Carpenter on... 167

H.

Halley's Comet 174, 175

Hens, how they transmit their

mind to their chickens ... 35
Heat, natural ... 53

by combustion ... 53

by friction ... 54

Dynamical theory of ... 52
Tyndall on 52, 60, 61

Mayer on ... 53

as a mode of motion ... 58
Grove, Lswdner and" Bi'ew-

er on ... 61

independent of matter ... 61
Tyndall on sound genera-
ting ... 102
Hegel on mind ... 37
Helmholtz on colour ... 80
Herschell, Sir J. F. "W., on the

waste heat of the sun ... 7l

Herschell, Sir J. F. W., on the

temperature of space ... 71

Herschell, Sir J. F. W., on

colour ... 80

Herschell, Sir J. F. "W. , on com-
mon sense ... 109
Herschell, Sir J. F. "W., on the

formation of rain ... 109

Herschell, Sir J. F. "W. , opposed

to Kamtz's theory of rain . . . 113
Herschell, Sir J. F. "VY., on al-
tering the weather ... 113
Herschell, Sir J. F. W., on the

reason why trees attract rain.. 114
Herschell, Sir J. F. "W., on

drainage being bad ... 114

Herschell, Sir J. F. W., on

weather and weather prophets 128
Herschell, Sir J. F. W., on the

cause of wind ... 128

Herschell, Sir J. F. TV., on coral

insects ... 150

Herschell, Sir J. F. W., on vol-
canoes .. 1-55

Herschell, Sir J. F. W., 6n

earthquakes ... 150

Herschell, Sir J. F. "W"., knew
of chemical action in the in-
terior of the earth . . . 159
Herschell, Sir J. F. W., his fail-
ure ... 160
Herschell, Sir J. F. "W. , on com-
et of 1630 ... 174
Hercules, collision with ... 46
Hills, why purple ... 83
Horse latitudes, calms of the ... 129
Holland, criminals fed on food

free from salt in ... 137

Hound, scent of a ... 34

Hope, on Origin and Prospects

of maii ... 37

" on mind ... 37

Hot Springs and Geysers, cause

of ... 50

Huxley, Prof., on matter and

motion ... 6
" on origin of life 28
Hydrogen, in coal ... 141

" how introduced into

coal ... 142

All mineral matter is 2
" in the Leonarto met-
eorite ... 180

I.

Icarus, fate of ... 28

Ice, action of magnetism in shell 93
" hoar frost, spears of ... 123

" composition of ... 172

Icebergs, why granulated ... 172
Inertia, action of, on the tides... 165
Indigestion, The Scotch compar-
atively free from ... 138
Indigestion, cause of ... 192
" not so common in
England as in
America ... 192
Indian, animal mind of an ... 39
Instinct, a higher phase of mind

than appetite ... 33

Intellectual Observer on rain ... 112
Iron, why rust reddens ... 84

" cross trees, dangerous na-
ture of ... 101
Iron ships, great mortality in... 99
great care should be

taken in fitting up ... 99
the steering appara-
tus in, dangerous ... 101
the iron stanchions
and davits of, are
magnetic poles . . . 100

tarn.

3.

:I tO

come from . 67

^•i

Kamtz on : ... 112

" 1 opposed by

Sir John H.-rsdic-U... 11::
Kepler aa an astronomer ... G'J

•vie, M., on origin of lif.

on nionails . . . '_'."•
Sir Chas. Lyell on 25
Language and matter, analogy

between ... 5

Laplace, on the revolution of tbe

earth ... 154

T.anlner, Dr., on heat indepen-
dent of matter ... 56
Lardner, Dr. , on the moon caus-
ing the ti ... 162
Lardner, Dr. 06 Auroras ,.. 182
Lead tree, example of mineral

life ... 11

' tree, caused by magnetism %
Leonarto meteorite, Prof. Gra-
ham on ... 180
Life, the atomagnetlo action of

the body is ... 190

' min ... 9

' vegetable ... 11

" magnetism is ... 1US

Light, Sir Isaac Vewton's emis-
sion theory of ... 66
undulatory theory of ... 66
Tyndall's waves of ... 67
rate of travelling ... 67
how many waves of, make

an inch ... 67

how many red and violet
waves of, enter the eye
hi a second ... 67

mistake made between

sight and ... 67

candle experiment ... 67
cannot travel ... C7

of stars travelling to us

all nonsense ... 68

phosphorescent, on the

Pacific ... 63

" cause of ... 64

offbeflios ... 64

Locke on matter ... 1

Lobster has no gills ... 117

London air, Tyndall on ... 26

F,!i!niiiifiT<»m other ... 93

i.ny, lnllocU researches

... 15»

-, on Lamarck's
"muiiadi ... 25

M.

vering fish pro-
duced spontaneously ... 2?
Magnets how to make them
without hammering ... 94
••ts, absurdity of fixed, in

... 99

Magnets, all heavenly bodies are 175
Magnetic Battery, how arranged 75
" the stomach

like a ... 189
curves, the cause of... 92
" Faraday unable
to explain
them ... 92

Tyndall on ... 93
" the cause of

storms ... 130
Magnetic curves, Faraday's fal-
lacies regarding ... 130"
Magnetic curves, Maury led

astray by Faraday's theories of 130
Magnetic curves, cause of au-
roras ... 183
Magnetism, the universal force
in nature ... 90
ism, the cause of germs.. 24
Prof. Grove on
Faraday on ... 9t
an inherent proper-
ty of matter ... 91
of iron railings ... 94
of iron ships ... 100
changes with posi-
tion ... 94*;
in straight lines ... 93
not God ... 198
matter endowed with 198
Mairan, on auroras, and extent

of sun's atmosphere ... 182

Mallet, Prof., on volcanoes ... 158
Man, animal and spiritual mind

at

pride of intellectual
' a parasite of the earth ...
on a level with his dog ...
" insignificance of
Matter, Grove. Locke, Berkeley,

Tyndall, Norton on 1 , '_», 3

Matter, eternal aud resolvable
into atoms ... 2

197

199
197
199

WBEJt,

Matter composed of male and

female atoms ... 2

Matter, Vestiges of Creation on 3
" Park's Chemical Cate-
chism on ..i 4
" analogy between the

alphabet and ... 5

11 without properties .-.i 37
and its force ... 6

" and motiott, Huxley,
Descartes and Newton
on ... 6

" and motion a senseless

dance of the atoms ... 6

Manry, estimate of ... 130

" led astray by Faraday... 130

" on circular storms ... 130

Maxwell, Prof, on colour ... 80

Mayer, Dr., on motion .... 53

' ' on the internal fire of the

earth ... 154

" on Volcanoes ... 155

" his doggedness ... 155

Medicine, whole practice of,

changed by atomagnetism .... 186
Mediterranean, rise of the tide

in the ... 161

Mediterranean, cause of the low

tide in the ... 165

Mediterranean, the under cur-
rent in, tested in 1830 ... 165
Memory, where located ... 41

Meteors, Sir \Vm. Thomson on

seed bearing 12, 178

Meteors, theories regarding ... 178
" facts concerning ... 178
" no ring of ... 179

" Prof. Newton on the
inflammable nature
of ... 179

Meteors, Sir Vm. Thomson on

the probability of, colliding 179
Meteors, atomagnetic theory of 180
" caused by pressure of

the atmosphere ... 180
" Schiaparelli on comets

causing ... 181

" November showers of... 181
Meteorites, Dr. Sorby oh the

structure of ... 180

Meteorite, Prof. Ghraham on the

Leonarto ... 180

Mexico, phosphorescent waves

off the coast of ... 1?6

Milk, life in ... 21

Mind, Schelling, Hegel, and

Hope, on ... 37

Mind, Agassiz oil ..-. 38

situation of the ... 41

" what composed of ... 40

Mineral life, lowest form of life 9

' infallibly correct... 6

" the compass needle 9

" " philosopher's tree

an example of ... 10
*' " coral and crystal'
lized candy ex-
amples of ... ll
Monads, Lamarck on ... 25

Mount St. Helena, California,

an extinct volcano 51, 55

Moon, the, light of ... 75

" tides high at new and

full ... 161

11 how it influences the

tides ... 164

" Lardfter on the influence

of the, on tides ... 162
Moonblindness, Dr. Wells on the

cause of ... 121

Muschenbrook on Dew ... 120

stupidity of ... 120

Muskrat, foreknowledge of the. . . 34

IT.

Napa Valley, California ... 55

Navvies, English, work done by 132

Newton, Sir Isaac, on matter
and motion ... 6

Newton, Sir Isaac, oft the emis-
sion theory of light ... 66

Newton, Sir Isaac, on the apple
falling ... 9?

Newton, Sir Isaac, his law of
gravitation upset ... 98

N'ewton, Sir Isaac, not satisfied
with his discoveries ... 98

Newton, Sir Isaac, on comet of
1680 ... 174

Newtoft, Prof., Yale College,
America, on meteorites ...179

Nicaragua, Lake, effect of rain-
fall on ... 114

Nitrogen, classification of ... 124

Norton, Prof. W. A. , on matter 3

North America, the rainfall di-
minishing over ... 113

Nova Scotia, dangerous coast of 101
" " transparent ice on

Pictou River ... 112
" " coal fields of ... 142
" " Albion Mines ia... 158

INDK.X.

209

0.

Oceanic circulation, Dr. Carpen-
ter's theory of

44 Carpenter1! experiment
to prove

" Dr. Wyville Thompson
ar:iinst Carpenter's theory
of ... H59

" No necessity for an ...169
Oil boring in Pennsylvania ... 159
Opacity, cause of ... Ill

" caused by combination

of gases ... 132

" cause of auroras' light 184
Origin of life ... 18

•* "Sir Wm. Thomson

on ... 12

Origin of lowest organisms, by

H. Charlton Bastian ... 26

Ozone, the discovery of, non-
sense ... 127
contradictions regarding 127
" matches generate ... 127

P.

Palenque, Central America ... 115
Parker's School Book of Philoso-
phy on electricity ... 85
Pasteur, H., on spontaneous

generation 24
on germs ... 24

on preseved meats 25
Panama, Isthmus of, coral on

the ... 146

Park's Chemical Catechism on

matter ... 4

Parasites, all plants and animals 23

" of fruit, raspberries,
figs, etc. ... 23

Pennsylvania, oil boring in ... 159
Petrifaction, coal made by ... 143
Pictou River: Nova Scotia,

transparent ice on ... 112

Pigeons, instinct of ... 34

Philosopher's tree ... 9

Play fair, Prof. Lyon, on food... 134
" supports Liebig's divi-
sion of food ... 134
food tables ... 135
on the close connec-
tion between animal
and vegetable sub-
stances ... 136
4 ' on English navvies and

Arabs .. 137

Playfair, knows not the act

of thu mineral part
of food ... 137

Phosphorescent waves off the

coast of Mexico ... 170

Plants, do not breathe, but ex-

hule ]•;

absorb sustenance from

the earth

result of painting K,

Poles, every atom hat two 7
like, repel ; unlike, attract 7
North and South, why

cold ... 172

Polarity of atoms ... 7

Polypes, coral insects, Agassis

on ... 148

Chamber's Encyclope-
dia on ... 146
Porta, Baptista, nearly discov-
ered the true theory of
dew ... 119
denied the moon and stars

caused dew . . . 120

thought dew was conden-
sed from air ... 120
shewed that dew rose

from the earth ... 120

Prairies in coal fields ... 142

Prescott's History of the Elec-
tric Telegraph ... 86
Preserved meats, why they de-
compose ... 25
Pressure on the atmosphere, the
cause of tides ... 162
" The cause of meteors ... 180
Proctor, Prof. R. A., on rain 112, 113

It

Rainbow, why not seen between

the observer and the sun ... 185
Rain, how accounted for ... 109
" assists in the formation of

glaciers ... 109

' Sir John Herschell on ...109
" does not come from the

Gulf Stream ... Ill

1 formed in the atmosphere

around us ... Ill

" does not necessarily fall a

great distance ... Ill

Prof. Proctor on ... 112

1 Kamtt on ... 112

' shot out of a cloud ... 113

41 becoming more frequent

in Kgypt ... 114

14 why trees attract ... 114

14

210

INDEX.

Bain, why forests produce ... 114
1 great battles followed by 117
Rainfall, diminishing in North

America ... 114

flerschell says drain-
age lessens the ... 114
Rain guage, the nearer the
ground the greater the rain-
fall indicated ... Ill
Reefs, coral, Agassiz on the age

of Florida ... 159
" Darwin's theories

of ... 150

how formed ... 151
" how a gap was filled

up ... 151

Religion, faith essential in ... 130
" and atomagnetism ... 196
Renaissance, Painting and Archi-
tecture ... 60
Rogers, Prof., on winds ... 128
on coal and pe-
troleum ... 140
on coal being

baked ... 140

on hydrogen in

coal ... 141

on the earth's in-
ternal fire ... 140
Roots, why they spread ... 16

Ross, Sir John, on the appetite

of an Esquimaux ... 137

Ruskin, John, his crusade against
Renaissance art ... 60

s.

Sand bars, how caused ... 151

Salt, used in great quantities by

Africans and Arabs ... 137
' Canadian Indians eat no,

in winter ... 137

" criminals fed on food free

from ... 137

' action of, in the body ... 138
" necessary for digestion ... 192
Sable Island, sand bars of ... 151
Science, absurdities of ... 78

looseness in ... 78

" like a voyage of discov-
ery ... 60
" convention in Portland,

U. S., 1873 ... 78

Scientific use of the Imagination,

Prof. Tyndall's ... 82

Schelling on mind ... 37

Scriptures, The, harmonize with
scientific facts ... 199

Scotch, The, comparatively free

from indigestion 138
" food of the poorer

classes of ... 138

Schiaparelli on comets causing

meteoric showers ... 181

Sea level, no such thing as a ... 165
Seals, transported from salt to

fresh water ... 31

Sepoys, flesh eating . . . 137

Sensational philosophers 78, 81

Shark, has little or no gills . . . 116
Siam, ruined cities of Cambodia

in ... 115

Simpson, Sir J. Y., on disease... 187
Sky, why is it blue? ... 82

Prof. Tyn-
dall's explanation ... 82
Snow flakes, cause of their beau-
tiful forms ... 10
Solar heat, Prof. Tyndall says,

is the true origin of glaciers... 109
Solent, the ship, a circular storm

passed over ... 131

Sound generates heat, says Tyn-
dall ... 102
" heard better on a winter's

day than in summer ... 103
a property of sympathy... 104
Tyndall's new theory of... 105
" experiments at South

Foreland, England,on... 105
Sorby, Dr., on water in granite 108
" on meteorites ... 180

Space, temperature of ... 71

Spectrum of colours, why seen 82
Spencer, Herbert, philosophy

shaken ... 8

based on a wrong

foundation. ... 8

Spiders, mathematical know-
ledge of ... 34
Spontaneous generation, Black-
wood's Magazine on ... 26
' ' the French Academy's

prize for essay on... 24
M. Pasteur on ... 24

Dr. Child on ... 24

Germ theory in opposi-
tion to ... 24
fish produced by ... 27
Mr. H. Charlton Bas-

tian on ... 28

insects produced by,

through Mr. Crosse 20
atomagnetism the

cause of 29

INDEX.

211

St. Louis, United States, once a

fi-Vrr NWilllil> ... 115

Iral, how long

titty organs would take to heat 103
sions ... 47

U. S.
'imissioners on ... 48

Coin. Van.l.Tliilt'B Sta-

t. n Island Steamer's 84
" caused by combuHtion
lut ween oxygen and
hydrogen ... 51

" prevention of ... fil

Stomach, like a magnetic bat-

... 189

Storms, how the inferior animal
knows of the approach
of ... 35

cause of ... 127

Sir John Herschcll on 128
Prof. Rogers on ... 128
the magnetic curves of

the earth, the cause of 128
Maury on circular ... 130
Description of a circular 131
snow storm in Chicago 132
wind, blow to a centre,

not round one ... 131
" raise the tide ... 161

Sun, the, Professors Thomson

and Tait on ... 70
" Sir John Herschell on

the waste heat of ... 71
new theory of ... 71
inhabited ... 74

not a furnace ... 76

winds caused by ... 128
forms glaciers ... 109
repelling power of, on

comets 174, 175

influence of, on the

tides ... 162

Mairan on the extent
of the atmosphere
of ... 182

Sunlight, how caused ... 73

is electricity ... 73

Swallows, instinct of ... 34

T.

Tables of food, Prof. Lyon Play-
fair's ... 134

Tails of comets, length of ... 176
cause of ... 176

Tait, Prof., on energy and the
sun . 69

Tantramer River, Bay of Fundjr,
- rues two feet in thre«
miles

'.•4
97
161

Telegraph, arrangement of

worked by grass
Tides, regularity of the
" in tlu- Mediterranean
" in the Bay of Fundy, and

cause of 161, 1C5

high, at new and full

moon . 10f»

1 storms raise the ... 166

" caused by pressure on the

plane of the Ecliptic ... 164
cause of variation of the 164
" said to be caused by at-
traction ... 164
" Lardner's theory of, un-
tenable ... 164
" average rise of the ... 163
" follow the Muri.liun ... 163
" moon's influence on the,

expliiiiii-'l ... 164

Thomson, Sir William, on seed
bearing meteors ... 12

on origin of life ... 12
on energy ... 69

on how the sun's fur-
nace is fed ... 70
on electricity flowing 85
on the internal fire of

the earth ... 15

Thompson, Dr. Wyville, against
Dr. Carpenters theory of
oceanic circulation . . . 169

Thomson, Dr. Thos. on electri-
city ... 85
Trees, attract only material

similar to themselves 7
" result of coating, with

paint ... 1C

11 why they do not grow

in winter ... 18

" composed of carbon ... 140
" formed of an aggregate

of individuals ... 149

Tyndall, Prof, on Matter and

Force at Dundee ... 2
" on dust and disease ... 25
" on heat as a mode of

motion ... 48

" on Sir Humphrey
Davy's ice experi-
ment ... f>4
lectures on heat ... 54
" on the heat caused by
the stoppage of the
earth ... 61

212

INDEX.

Tyndall, on souls of fire ... 61

" on Dr. Thos. Young
and the undulatory
theory of light 66, 63
" on iron and lead bul-
lets ... 60
" on the heat caused by
the earth falling in-
to the sun ... 61
" on waves of coloured

light ... 79

on electricity ... 86

on magnetic curves 92, 93
on sound ... 102

his experiments at

South Foreland ... 105
new theory of sound ... 105
on glaciers ... 109

on the internal fire of
earth ... 154

TL

Undulatory theory of light dis-
covered by Dr. Young ... 66
" follows Emission into

oblivion ... 68

" Tyndall on the stabil-
ity of the ... 68
Uxmal, Central America ... 115

V.

Vacuum, how caused in the at-
mosphere ... 128
" causes wind ... 128
Vegetable life ... 11
Volcanoes, Dr. Mayer on the

cause of ... 154

" Sir John Herschell on 155
" Prof. Mallet on ... 158
" atomagnetic theory of 157
" when apt to become

dangerous ... 159

Volcanoes, Mount St. Helena,
California, ex-
tinct 51, 158

w.

Water, more powerful than fire 107
in granite ... 10

of what composed ... 108
manufactured in the at-
mosphere ... 109
Tyndall's Forms of ... 109
no air in ... 115
Tyndall proves air to be

in ... 115

" efficacy of hot, in dis-
ease ... 191
" danger of iced ... 192
Waves of coloured light, Prof.

Tyndall on ... 79

Weather and weather prophets,
Sir John Herschell on
Weather maps, American ... 132
Wells, Dr., theory of dew ... 121
" experiments with

wool packs ... 121
" says radiation is the

cause of dew ... 121
" on the cause of

moonblindness ... 121
Wheat, becoming rye ... 23

Winds, Prof. Rogers on the

cause of ... 128

" the sun the cause of... 128

World, the end of the ... 46

Wrecker's light, faith in man

like to the ... 130

T.

Young, Dr. Thos., author of the
Undulatory theory cf
light ... 66

" Tyndall'a estimate of ... 66.

I>»IITITK of WATi'BAi. MI rut*.

•:ihly meeting of the above
te wan 1 • 'idiiy eventaf fa

I'...

Mi Andu-w I'.-wur lead a |m|.er <.n
Ifuynetttin, '• • the Wwl<l. 'I I.

urer -• that thf lif.

vhirh he spoke 'if *** tho force or vital
iri'i<-ip!e whii-h I ^erythititf.

In- branchint: «f
.he tree and tLo l.n ..

Jne lav. i and regula:e<l

iverything iu o

'it a Wlief in H •.

>ut increased knuwK»<Ve * .mid nh«iw ere long
,hat one law was more con "fdei

n nature than a number of them; just U
vife was preferable to a number iu a I.
Hold. The lecturer then proceeded to argue
bow inaguetuiu prevaded not only iron, but
ill mutters whatever, and that this law, witl,
:he attraction matter has for its like, pro
luces all the beds and by era of coal, shell,
freestone, etc. The connection between
mineral life and plant life was also pointed
out iu the construction of the frost ferns on
window glass, the frost bushes, the zinc tree,
»nd the coral. Als.> the remarkable analogy
between » fro?t fern, a leaf or blade of gram,
and A bud's feather; suggesting at least a
similarity in the law which constructed them.
In shewing how a plant grew by magnetism,
the lecturer produced a magnet and iron
tilings, a:.tl shewed .how the filings adhered
principally to either end or pole; shew-
ing that Cmagnetiam was concentrated and
forced out at the poles. A seed was a similar
magnet, but the poles did not show them-
selves until the see • was put in a position to
grow; then two poles;appeared, one forming a
root, the other the leaf or branch. As
growth proceeds, the roots and branches
lengthen, both conforming to the magnetic
law, which does not permit two branches
from the same pole to approach one another.
Thus it is we see a tree spreads its branches,
and that no twigs, or even leaves, approach =
or crowd one another. In showing how life J .= 3
in a man or animal was magnetism, it waa "?. _^.-£
stated that one man could draw a spark of I
electricity from another man's noao, or even j_ "Z «r
light the gas with his finger. The great dif- . '? ^
ference, however, between a plant and » = •£ £
man was, that the former was stationary, and * ^ Z
had its food and magnetism supplied to it ^ ^
from the earth; while the latter wa« r,
migratory, and had to seek for its food. The X ^
animal muat therefore carry about with it a
magnetic battery to cupply it with its life
and force; this we find in the stomach, v. h re

MOfJ wi« »h«»n

10 the

»olv«, t»

_-,.,.. .v I I

outtcrulN. A remarkable M

«-tfr»|

vou»

batUry, where tho meUl* di

••«, le*d all

to a brMM plat* u he* »<|u*re, <.»li»l

' i« plate all the wirtu

radi»t« tu thr LMiuiiiy. ir •tomarh

bodie* two cord* aUo lead op the spine
to the brain ,»y Lw compared to

the twitch - Hiid from the brain
the nrrrrt nk'iin'.e t<> every p*rt
of the b«»ly. The inference to be
deduced from thin w<md«frful analogy u that
M the diiuiolving metal* in the electric bat-
tery produce the magnetism which fills the
switch and all the wires in connection with
it, so the digestion of our food in the
stomach forms the inind in the brain, which
>!s our intellect, our actions and our
will. The paper conclude 1 by Mtating that,
a« the earth was one vast magnet wit
poles, according to the law of magnetism
every particle of a magnet was al*o a com-
plete magnet; therefore, we had in this one
fact conclusive proof that minerals, plants
and animals were formed of magnetic atoms
and consequently must be regulated by mag-
netism. Magnetism, therefore was the life
of the world.

Remarks on the paper were made by Dr.
Gilpiu aud Mr. Gossip.

Dr. Honeyman then proceeded to read a
lengthy and interesting paper on Nova
Scotian Oeohyy, shewing wherein he differed
from Dr. Pawson and others, and substan-
tiating his own positions.

The meeting then adjourne I.

-

i'he papar read last evening by A. Dewar,
]., at Daltiousie College, on " Magne*
n, ' before the Society of Natural Sci-
!'?3 contained matter of no mean import-
te, as it advanced a thepry that pertain-
ias a more directive appeal to the com«
n sense views of the lormative anulife-
duclng power of matter, t an most oi
i theories advocated by many "leading
enlists who continue to rotate in the old

3.

Phe reader, who announced himself as
mouthpiece only of the originator (Dr.
R. Eraser, M, P., of this city) claimed
the discoverer of this atomagnetic
ory, a fyir and open criticism, viz : that
tter is composed of two classes of atoms
oineral and vegetable — every atom being
nagcet, having polarity, which means
t eacty atom has two poles similar to the
ipass needle.

?ha liw of atoms is that like attract* MM,
the law of magnets is that like poles
si while unlike attract. The discoverer's
ory, then called atomagnetism, is the
ibipatipn of thesona'ural laws resulting in
uvarsal l.*w of attract! on of like, atoms aud re
iion of like poles. Illustrations of the action
this force were given in the vegetable and
nal kingdom, accompanied with a sprinkling
pungent remarks that denoted marked COJ.K
nee in *.he law t :at may revolution^ much in
lern science. It is worthy of note that since
originator published his views in bpok fom>
ed "Origin of Creation," the wheels of science
polarizing in his direction, as the builders of
i ship?? navigators, armorerp? and thosa who
a^jastirg ships' coreipasses and fitting heavy
aoient?, are stcd'cusly considering the
tiuns and conditions of various materials in
er to obtain a vitality a» cquit; b!c as position
h nature. — COM.

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