The Modern Genesis; Being an Inquiry Into the Credibility of the Nebular Theory, of the Origin of Planetary Bodies, the Structure of the Solar System, and of General Cosmical History (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ...solidified rock. The deductions of Hopkins from the phenomena of precession and nutation; those of Pratt from the crushing force of immense mountain masses, like those of the Himalaya; and those of Sir William Thompson from the tides, showing the great rigidity of the earth--all unite to prove that the earth, if not solid to the center, must have a firm and solid crust several hundred miles in thickness. Under these con ditions, if there still exist a liquid center, it must, so far as superficial phenomena are concerned, be as inert as if it were not. We are thus prepared to accept the conclusions to which the line of argument leads us, and admit that our globe solidified from the center. ----C/zemistry of the Earth. If the earth solidified from the center, then it is solid at the center. How far outwardly from the center does the solidification extend? Evidently it must extend outwardly to the surface, or we must suppose a solid globe within a molten envelope, which itself is inclosed within a solid shell. It would be a curious problem to determine what would be the result of such an arrangement as this. But it would seem that if the center, and from the center outward for any great distance, is solid, there is nothing to justify the conclusion that an intermediate, continuous, -concentric chamber, so to speak, is filled with matter in original molten condition. The nebular theory, as set forth by Winchell, finds all its contractions arising from the cooling of the mass. The internal fires are inclosed within the rocky crust. Very gradually the heat is being radiated, because it is only slowly conducted to the surface. But the crust is thickening constantly by the cooling of that portion of the interior mass which is in...