Mr. Tuckwell to the idea of highly heated matter revolving in the low temperature of space can scarcely be reconciled with the existence of the sun surrounded by space, and while agreeing with Professor Lobley that volcanic action does not originate at great depths below the earth's crust, there are zones of matter in a molten condition due to intense heat or otherwise, how could we account for the eruption of basaltic lavas (of several varieties it is true, but essentially similar in composition) at widely distant places over the whole globe for example, the British Isles, Central Europe, Sicily, India, America and Iceland? COMMUNICATIONS. From Rev. A. Irving, B.A., D.Sc. — Regretting my inability to be present at the reading of Mr. Warren Upham's paper on the "Nebular and Planetesimal Theories of the Earth's Origin," I beg to offer a few remarks as brief as possible thereupon. Starting with the "protyle" (or prothyle) hypothesis of Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., I have preferred to regard the nebulous matter as entirely in its origin non-differentiated; while it is to the teaching of the "periodic" or natural system of the elements (now so well known to chemists) that we must look for light upon the genesis of the elements (so far as they are known) out of which our planet, with its four components, the barysphere, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere and the atmosphere, is made up. We thus suppose a stage at which the nebulæ consisted of matter in a state of elemental dissociation. By integration of the atomic matter further differentiation proceeded, gravitation came into play as a nucleus was formed with transformation of potential energy into heat, with its expansive force, and dissipation of that energy into space by radiation. These briefly-it is here submitted-are sufficient to account for the inorganic evolution of the globe, when we take into account the selective action of the chemical affinities of the atoms. From such general data I attempted to work out in the "eighties" an outline of the history and genesis of the present order of inorganic nature as that presents itself on our planet, in accordance with evolutionary law. This formed the fundamental idea of my graduation thesis for the Doctorate in Science, which was submitted to the University of London in 1888, and was published with considerable additions by Messrs. Longmans and Co., in 1889, under the title of Chemical and Physical Studies in the Metamorphism of Rocks. The conception, which I was thus able to form of the evolution of this globe, would seem therefore to have anticipated, by a decade or more, a good deal that Mr. Upham has brought forward in the latter part of his paper. I have returned to this subject of late, and have already in MS. a little work nearly ready for the press, in which stress is laid upon the confirmation given to my published views by the "spiral nebula" during the last three or four years. This flashed upon my mind, when I had the great pleasure of listening to Sir Robert Ball's splendid address to the Victoria Institute in 1903, and of seeing the photographs which on that occasion he threw upon the screen. In the work, whose title is given above, will be found a discursus (pp. 22-24) on the results that would follow from the assumption of the following laws and principles : 1. The law of universal attraction, and the specialised operation of this law in all cases of gravitation. 2. Elevation of temperature, when latent heat is set free either in the liquefaction of aeriform matter or in the solidification of liquids. 3. Transformation of potential energy due to chemical affinity into heat in chemical combination. 4. Dissipation of energy, as it is transformed into heat. 5. Transformation of energy into heat in all cases of impact. vapours. 7. The enormous range of condensation-temperatures of the known chemical elements from that of platinum, osmium or rutheniun to that of hydrogen gas. In the second appendix to the above work there appears also a discursus on the moon's surface, as throwing light upon the conditions of our planet in the pre-oceanic stage of its develop ment. This has also been discussed more recently by Professor Suess of Vienna in his little monograph, "Ueber den Mond" (Sitzungsberichten der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien). In his "Rede Lecture" before the University of Cambridge in 1893, Professor Bonney, F.R.S., has confirmed a good deal that was contained in my previous work; so also has much that is contained in Lord Kelvin's address to the Victoria Institute in 1897. I am inclined, upon the whole, to look upon the Huronian phyllites and Grauwacke (as the late Roland D. Irving has described them)* as furnishing the record of the beginning of the hydrosphere; though, as I have pointed out in my book (pp. 54-55), traces of water may have been caught up in the formation, under great atmospheric pressure, of such basic minerals as hornblende, muscovite, etc., of the earlier crystalline schists, even in the pre-oceanic stage; an hypothesis, which has received experimental demonstration since from the splendid work of M. de Kroustchoff of St. Petersburg in the synthesis of such minerals (see Nature, vol. xliii, p. 545). With the glimpses we thus get through the mons of the past, we may well agree with the concluding remark of Mr. Upham's paper, when he says, "In the new views opened by the hypotheses noticed in this paper the range of geologic inquiries and theories is extended almost inconceivably further back, through the laying of the foundations of the earth." Only, as I could show more fully if space permitted, those views have not quite the novelty which he seems to claim for them. It is pertinent also to remark that Mr. Upham has done good service in bringing them forward in the way he has done, and thus driving another nail or two into the coffin of the Hutton-Playfair-Lyell Uniformitarian dogma. (See remarks by myself in the Geol. Mag. for June, 1892, with quotation from Lord Kelvin on "Dissipation of Energy.") I see no reason for unsaying what I wrote in 1888, when I said, "The Archæan stage of the earth's history is seen to fall into a place in a natural order of development, and one more chapter is added to the history of the operation of the great Law of Evolution, which is written upon all created things. As the mists and clouds thus disperse, our intellectual vision begins to descry a boundary to geologic time, and the physical geologist begins to feel that over "Is there a Huronian Group?" (Amer. Journ. of Science, vol. xxxiv.) this question he can join hands with the astronomer and the natural philosopher." (Op. cit. p. 97.) Haeckel and his school may claim all that for their "Monism "; but I hope we may see that it is all included in that still higher monism which is involved in the theistic conception of creation contained in the Bible. From Rev. J. RATE, M.A. :-My dear sir, I have read with interest Mr. Upham's paper on Laplace's Nebular Hypothesis. He says that R. A. Proctor asserts that there is an improbability of the existence and permanence of the rings of Saturn as either solid or liquid. This must have been written before the discovery of the dark inner transparent ring next to the body of the planet, seen by Laplace in his reflector, and by Dawes in his achromatic, and by Sir David Brewster in Lord Ross' great reflector. Sir David says, Optics, p. 499, "I have enjoyed the great privilege of seeing through this noble instrument the satellites and belts of Saturn, the old and new ring which is advancing with its crest of waters to the body of the planet." "Laplace has already discovered the transparency of the new ring of Saturn," Brewster's Optics, p. 500. "We understand that this telescope" (Rev. M. Craig's achromatic) "exhibits satisfactorily the new ring of Saturn, which Laplace and Dawes have found to be transparent, as the body of Saturn is seen through it, but that the correction for spherical aberration in that of Mr. Craig's is not perfect, and that it is necessary to stop the central part of the object glass." Sir D. Brewster's Optics, pp. 507-8. I myself spent a clear night in 1852 with Lord Ross at his great 6 feet (in diameter) reflector, of 57 feet focal length, in which I saw nebula which had never before been seen by mortal eye-except in that telescope, and, in his 3 feet reflector, of 26 feet focal length, I saw the planet Saturn with his rings. I thank you much for sending me the proof of Mr. Upham's paper, and for your able fulfilment of the duties of Secretary to the Victoria Institute. ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING.* MR. W. H. HUDLESTON, V.P., F.R.S., IN THE CHAIR. The following election was announced :— MEMBER :- Richard Bangay, Esq., M.D. The CHAIRMAN then called on the Secretary, Professor HULL, F.R.S., to read his communication. ON DR. NANSEN'S BATHYMETRICAL RESEARCHES IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN AS COMPARED WITH THOSE ON THE ATLANTIC COAST OF EUROPE. By Professor E. HULL, LL.D., F.R.S., Secretary. Professor HULL.-Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I must ask your indulgence if I am not in very good condition for the address which I am about to give, because I am only just recovering from rather a troublesome and weakening malady. But I have also to explain why it is I address you at all this evening. On the programme for the Session a paper by Dr. Peebles of America was down, on a most important subject, that of Immortality, and Dr. Peebles intimated that he intended to be present to read it. We waited until the last day on which it was necessary to send out notices of the paper, for the paper of Dr. Peebles, but neither the paper or its author arrived until to-day. believe Dr. Peebles is here, and I am sure as an old and respected Member of the Institute, we all welcome him from across the Atlantic. (Applause.) However, I had to fill the gap; and having had the pleasure of Monday, April 3rd, 1905. |