as the belt may be arranged to run in one direction or another in stopping and starting the machine. The upper part of the machine is secured to the roof by tie-rods in the usual manner, and the table and driving-shaft is mounted on a cast-iron frame, the whole apparatus weighing less than 400lb. ON EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES.* The bears witness of the truth of my assertion. The Different and very distinct motions of the soil IET take it for granted that, owing to the tion; geneous and resistant, will not swell or upheave, The third motion (mato corticoso) is rotary or circular. Many doubt its existence; but I see nothing that can be opposed to it. We read in the papers an account of the earthquake that was felt in the year 1868 in San Francisco, California, and a motion of that kind is said to have been observed If the crust is not sufficiently resistant, a new in the lower part of the city. After the earthquake crater is opened, a volcano is formed. These are the boils on our mother earth's body, that having that occurred in Valparaiso in 1822, three palmejected all the matter contained in them, subside trees, placed at a short distance from each other, and even disappear. We have an example of this were found intertwined, and so have remained ever phenomenon a few miles from Granada (Nicaragua) since. It is also reported that after the earthquake in the volcano of Musalla, which has completely of 1783, in Calabria, two square obelisks placed in vanished since the conquest by the Spaniards, and the place where it stood is now a level plain covered with burned and blackened stones. Let us suppose that the superstrata are homogeneous, and so resistant as to withstand the enormous pressure of the immensely dilated gases. Then the soil will be convulsed, tremendously shaken; and the mighty works of men destroyed, levelled to the ground. front of the Convent of S. Stephano del Bosco, But how is such motion to be explained? In two Why would not also a powerful stream of gases, rubbing against the rugged ceilings of the conduits, produce a strong electro-magnetic current, that would impart a rotary motion to the objects on the surface, in accordance with the laws that govern currents of induction. ? As deep as man has penetrated in the superficial strata of the planet, he has found them honey combed; traversed in all directions by moats, conduits, caverns, and hollows, which contain large deposits of water, forming lakes and pools, originating subterranean currents, streams, and rivers. These moats, conduits, caverns, &c. &c., are separated by walls more or less thick. These walls in the vicinity of the furnace, being less resistant than the crust above, give way under the pressure of the Again, this rotary motion may be explained in gases; an issue is opened for their escape. They precipitate themselves into it with incommensurable this wise. When two currents of air, coming from force; hence the rumbling noise-the thunder-like opposite directions, meet each other, they give rise to a whirlwind. If these currents are very strong, explosions which always accompany earthquakes a hurricane or tornado is the result. Well, there is and precede them by a few seconds, giving warning of their coming. By the falling of the walls of the no reason why the same phenomenon, which takes caverns and moats, the props of superstrata being place above ground, should not also occur under destroyed, these cave in; hence the abasements of ground, when two different current of gases, coming the surface, the rendings, the disappearance of from opposite directions, meet in the interterrestrial some streams, the appearance of others-the passages and cavities. Nature works in the same changes that take place in the configuration of the manner in all its manifestations when the conditions countries where the catastrophe has occurred. The are equal. Similar causes produce like effects; then gases, in their onward rush, meet other openings; two currents of gases meeting under ground will part precipitates into them. Soon they expand produce a tornado; and a rotary motion will be on a larger field; their forces, not being any longer imparted to all objects within its boundaries. concentrated, grow less and less as they find more avenues through which to escape; and as they are further from the centre of their generation, that is to say, from the furnace. Many of these furnaces, no doubt, exist that having communications with active volcanoes are not perceived on the surface; or have a vent in the shape of geysers, hot springs, mud volcanoes, &c., &c. The hot well discovered at Lacrosse, Wis., in the month of February, 1868, were boring an artesian well, when some men Let me then recapitulate, and sum up in a few words my 7.-Conclusions. 1. There is no central fire. It is unphilosophical, unscientific to uphold the opposite doctrine-for it merely rests on speculations, unsupported by facts and science. It must, therefore, be disregarded by all scientific minds. 2. The heat of the earth has its source: 1st. In the friction occasioned by its rapid motion through the cosmic matter that fills all space. 2nd. In the rays of the sun, that, however cold in themselves, carry light that, setting in motion the molecules of the atmosphere, generates heat, which is communieated to the earth. 3rd. In the constant chemical decompositions that are incessantly going on in its great interior laboratories. 4th. In the oxidation of the metallic substances that compose the superficial strata of the planet. All these phenomena are produced by the agency of electro-magnetism, which seems to be the life-sustainer of the whole creation. 3. The volcanoes are not the safety valves or vents of a central fire, which does not exist; but are merely local accidents produced by a conglomera. tion of materials, sulphur being one of the principal, that, being soaked by salted waters, enter into chemical decomposition, under the agency of electromagnetism, and that the volcanoes are to the surface of the earth what boils are to the surface of the human body, which disappear as soon as the matter accumulated is expelled. 4. That the sun's immense reservoir of electro magnetism, and the other celestial bodies, which are likewise reservoirs of the same agent, increases the action of the electro-magnetic currents that traverse the earth, according to their respective positions with regard to this, and hasten the effect of the chemical operations, if a point of the voltaic arch formed by them comes in direct contact with the place they are going on on a large scale. 5. That earthquakes and volcanoes stand in intimate relations, have a common origin, and will ever occur in those places where large chemical action is taking place. That, inasmuch as chemical action is alive in every part of the earth, earthquakes may be felt on any point of its surface. 6. That the origin of earthquakes may be found in the expansion of gases generated by the various causes enumerated, particularly chemical decompositions. These gases, being prodigionsly dilated, press heavily against the wall and ceilings of the cavities in which they are confined, and in trying to find an issne through which to escape, produce the dreaded phenomenon. 7. That when a volcanic action is going on in the substrata of the surface of the earth, and earthquakes are impending, the phenomenon is foreshadowed by many precursory signs. 8. That among these forerunners the following are the most evident: 1st. Sulphurous vapours arising from the ground in the vicinity of the fecus of the chemical action. 2nd. Strange and mysterious noises, produced by the activity of the gases. 3rd. Alterations of the mineral waters, occasioned by the percolation of the gases through the porousness of the superficial strata, and affecting its chemical compounds. 4th. Tarbidity of the fresh waters in wells-phenomenon produced by the same causes. 5th. Changes in the level of the waters in wells caused by imperceptible upheaves and depressions of the superficial strata, affecting the sources or subterranean streams which feed them. 6th. Emanations of carbonic acid or sulphuretted hydrogen gas. perceived in cellars, caves, wells, excavations. 7th. Electro-magnetic disturbances in the atmosphere. suddenly taking place and without any apparent causes, manifested by the loss of power of magnets 10. That the opinion of Pliny the Elder com mends itself to the serious consideration of all men of science: that the evil consequences of earthquake might in some measure be arrested by boring dea artesian wells in the countries subject to earthquakes, for those wells would act as vents through partly quelled. which the gases might escape, and their raging storm A few years ago, four deep wells were discovered one at each corner of the cathedral in Lima which had been destroyed by the earthquake that laid that city to the ground in 1687. The church was rebu and these wells bored to act as protectors of the monument. They have well fulfilled their duty, for the edifice has withstood all the different shocks that since that epoch have visited the capital Peru, and destroyed many of its strongest structures (To be continued.) I have reviewed in a very cursory manner all the CARBOLIC ACID FOR PRESERVING HIDES effects produced by the convulsions of the earth,HE difficulty hithe to experienced by tarn THE lifenty hit hides during hot weather and, by the synthetic method of reasoning, tried to I have arrive at the understanding of their causes. not advanced an opinion which is not founded on facts acknowledged by science, on events recorded in history. I do not propose any theory, but merely give in these few lines the result of my own observations and investigations. If they satisfy your mind, as they do mine, then I am happy, for I have attained the object I had in view when I took the pen. according to the Shoe and Leather Reporter, lik to be wholly obviated by the use of carbolic ac It has been known for several years that the pres vative properties of carbolic acid, when need decaying substances of any kind, were of the m particular efficacy. This fact was very pointbrought out by the experiments of the New 1 Board of Health, two or three years since, when was found that nothing else would more effects stop the decay of vegetable or animal substances than an application of carbolic acid. No matter to what state the decomposition had proceeded, an application of carbolic acid instantly checked its further progress, and rendered absolutely impossible any further decay. Proceeding on the knowledge thus obtained, experiments were made at one of the large tanneries in Pennsylvania, as to the effect which carbolic acid might have on the colour and grain of leather, when the hide was thus treated. It was found that the decomposition or decay of the hide (without making any difference as to what extent it had proceeded) were instautly stopped by the application of carbolic acid, and that the colour and grain were in no way impaired. In fact, from the experiments thus far made, it would appear that both are somewhat improved and whitened by the use of the acid, but this matter has not yet been sufficiently tested to warrant the conclusion that either the grain or colour will be in any way improved, if, indeed, it is at all affected by this new agent. PROTECTING SHEET IRON FROM RUST. N improved method of protecting iron from duced by Mr. B. Morrison, of Philadelphia, whose invention consists in deoxidising the scale oxide adherent to sheet iron, and amalgamating, blending, or intimately uniting with it any of the softer and more fusible metals, so as to render such scale oxide more flexible, soft, adherent, and less liable to rust, and the sheet iron also more perfectly annealed and flexible. It is essential that the sheets be made of the best charcoal bloom iron, and that the scale oxide thereon be even, or of uniform thickness and unbroken; and in order to produce such a scale oxide, it is recommended that the usual rough and imperfect scale be removed-by means of a weak acid, in the usual manner practised in galvanising iron, and that the sheets be then passed between a pair of smooth pressure rolls, and finally subjected to a sufficient heat to produce thereon a new and uniform scale of oxide. end of the cask as the weight gradually decreases DUBBINS PATENT A rectangular or other shaped chamber is formed of sheet iron mounted upon a cast-iron bottom or stand, and is either covered or not by a hinged lid having a slot or slots made therein. It is also furnished with holes either at the upper or lower part and fitted to the upper part of it, is a cast-iron thereof for the entrance of air. Within the chamber, trough with an opening in the bottom; beneath the opening are fixed burners on Bunsen's principle, presenting a continuous or nearly continuous line of flame, the gas being admitted at the bottom of the burner from a pipe which extends to the outside of the chamber, where it is fitted with a valve. A lever which has its fulcrum within the chamber is so arranged that one end projects above the opening in the bottom of the cast-iron trough, while the other passes through a slot in the side of the chamber, and communicates with the valve. A spring is fastened near one end of the lever, which has the effect of keeping the valve in such a position as to admit but a very small quantity of gas to pass to the burner, but upon the introduction within the trough of the iron to be heated, or the melting pot containing the metal or other material to be melted, the weight will depress one end of the lever and cause the other end to rise and open the valve, so as to allow of sufficient gas passing to the burner to produce the requisite heat. On the removal of the sad iron or melting pot the spring will cause the valve to resume its former position, so that only sufficient gas will pass to just keep a light burning. It will be seen, therefore, that when the apparatus is not in active operation the consumption of gas is reduced to a minimum, but its full power is exerted the moment the material to be heated is brought within its action. It is obvious that the shape of the apparatus may be variously modified. For the purpose of melting it may by preference be made round, and in this case the vessel containing the metal or other material may be made to press upon an upright spindle communicating with the valve without the intervention of any lever, as shown in the annexed figure, which will give a good idea of the principle, and suggest modifications to fit it for various parposes. In the drawing. which is a vertical section, a cylinder of wrought or cast iron or other suitable material is mounted upon a stand, in the top of which a piece of pipe forming the burner is firmly secured. Suspended from the top of the cylinder is the trough or pan P, into which the glue-pot or melting crucible is placed with its bottom pressing on the upright spindle T. which is forced upwards by a spring coiled in the interior of the tube S; B is the burner where the mixture of gas and air is lit, G the supply-pipe, and L is a nut used to regulate the quantity of gas supplied. When the melting-pot Having prepared saturated or strong aqueous solutions (say) of sulphate of zinc, chloride of zinc, chloride of tin, acetate of zinc, acetate of lead, and of any other readily fusible metal that will amalgamate, unite, or combine with the deoxidised scale on the iron at a strong or bright red heat under the hydrogen or carburetted hydrogen gas, immerse the deoxidised sheets either in one or a mixture of two or more of the said solutions for five or ten minutes, or apply the same by rubbing it on by means of a sponge or rough brush; let the excess becomes lighter the rubber ring is enabled to is placed in the trough, T is depressed, and the valve of solution drain off, and the remainder crystallise contract and so tilt the cask, which is then sup-in S is opened to its full extent, so as to permit the or dry upon the surface of the sheets. Now place ported in the required position by a ratchet-bar, as passage of the gas to the burner B; when the pot them in a box in the heated chamber of a furnace; shown in the figure, thus relieving the rubber is removed from the trough, the spring forces up then introduce the hydrogen gas, and slowly heat up to a scarcely visible red, maintaining the said band from the strain produced by the weight of the rod I, and only sufficient gas to just keep the low heat for (say) half an hour, more or less, to the barrel. The gradual nature of the motion flame burning passes through. There is, of course, allow a perfect reduction of the oxide of the applied thus imparted to the cask obviates the annoyance nothing novel or original in the idea, but the solution; after which the heat should be increased experienced with other contrivances for effecting arrangement may be found useful in many ways. to a bright red, or heat a few degrees above that a similar purpose, as the sediment is not disturbed which may be required to fuse the now reduced and the waste is consequently reduced to a softer metal and cause the same to amalgamate, minimum. The absence of iron in the moving blend, or unite with the deoxidised and, conse-parts also avoids the inconveniences of rusty quently, soft and porous scale on the sheet iron. springs and screws, very natural results in the HEATING BY GAS. To obtain brightness of surface when desired, it is proposed to pass the sheets severally between and in contact with a pair of cylindrical rapidly rotating bristle brushes; and, if afterwards intended to be put up in packs for storage or shipment, the sheets may, as a further protection against dampness, be SELF-ACTING apparatus for heating by dipped into any suitable hydrocarbon oil, and then means of gas has been patented by Messrs. the superfluous portion drained or wiped off. The Goldsmith and Dilkes, and the arrangement will solution of the sulphate or of the acetate of zinc doubtless be found serviceable for many different forms, with the deoxidised scale on the iron, an excellent coating. About three parts of the solution of chloride of zinc, mixed with two parts of the solution of chloride of tin, make, with the deoxidised scale on the iron, an excellent flexible coating of a whiter colour. Three parts of the solution of the acetate of zinc, mixed with two parts of the solution of the acetate of lead and one part of solution of the chloride of tin, make, with the deoxidised scale on the iron, a very suitable coating for sheet iron intended to be used in the construction of stoves, stove pipes, coal hods, &c.; but as the predominant metal in the coating is the deoxidised scale oxide of iron, the number and proportions of solutions of whatever metals are intended to be applied thereto may be increased and varied as the coating desired may require. THE annexed illustrations of Dubbin's "patent self-raising and self-setting cask-stand for peer and other purposes" are almost sufficiently xplanatory in themselves to enable our readers purposes. The invention is adapted to the heating o understand the construction and appreciate in principle of a combination of levers and springs of sad irons or the melting of metals, and consists te advantages. The principal feature of the so arranged that when the substance to be melted avention consists in the adaptation of a lever or the article to be heated is removed from the frame ctuated by a powerful indiarubber ring, so situated supporting it over the burners, the gas is lowered sto cause an almost imperceptible elevation of one! and waste prevented. MICROSCOPICAL NOTES. Pattern Lead Cells-Mr. T. Charters White, the Secretary of the Quekott Club, says that he has been in the habit of using cells made of a thin kind of lead known as "pattern lead," employed by dentists for taking patterns for their gold plates. It is found to answer the purpose very well; the slide may be made almost red hot without melting the cells, and the cells are very easily stuck on with marine glue. For shallow cells a simple ring of gold size and gum dammar, put on thickly and allowed to get hard, answers the purpose excellently, and if Bastian's cement is used instead, the cell can easily be built up higher by adding layers upon those which have become dry. Another way is to use zinc cells, which stand any amount of heat; acid, however, affects these, but vulcanite cells resist acids. In making cells for mounting in fluid, Mr. White says, it will be found of great advantage to set up some standard size, and keep to it, as this enables the worker in a short time to estimate correctly the exact amount of fluid required for tilling-a matter of some importance. Staining Tissues.-Dr. Durnforth writes as follows on this subject in the Lens, a new microscopical journal published at Chicago:-"It is desirable to stain sections of all soft tissues, whether from healthy or diseased specimens. First, because it enables us more accurately to distinguish germinal or nuclear matter from formed material or tissue proper, by their differences in receptivity of colour; and secondly, because it brings into relief all constituents of soft tissue, and, therefore, renders their study easier and more satisfactory. The staining hest, is the alkaline solution of carmine made after material which aids me most, and therefore suits me Beales's formula. The sections should be placed in the carmine solution as soon as they are made, and they should be made as soon as possible. No positive rules can be laid down as to the precise time required for the completion of the staining process. It will vary, within certain limits, according to the character of the tissue and alkalinity of the solution. In regard to this latter point, I may properly say that the carmine solution should neither be neutral nor intensely alkaline: in the former case, all portions of the tissue will probably be stained alike; in the latter case, much of the younger or softer portion of the formed material surrounding the germinal matter will be destroyed by the excess of alkali. I generally permit my own sections to remain in carmine for three or four hours. Having completed the staining process, the sections should next be immersed in a mixture composed of Price's or Sarg's glycerine and distilled water, 4 drachms of each, and 20 drops of acetic acid. This answers the double purpose of rendering the so-called nuclei (germinal matter, bioplast) sharp and clear, and of commencing the process of impregnating with LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions of our correspondents. The Editor respectfully requests that all communications should be drawn up as briefly as possible.] All communications should be addressed to the Editor of the ENGLISH MECHANIC, 81, Tavistock-street, Covent Garden, W.C. All Cheques and Post Office Orders to be made payable to J. PASSMORE EDWARDS. "I would have every one write what he knows, and as much as he knows, but no more; and that not in this only, but in all other subjects: For such a person may have some particular knowledge and experience of the nature of such a person or such a fountain, that as to other things, knows no more than what everybody does, will undertake to write the whole body of physicks: a vice from whence great inconveniences derive their original."-Montaigne's Essays. Firmament impose on him the vulgar error that the prophet regarded this Rakia (Expanse) as something solid, whereas the fowls were to fly "in the open Rakia of heaven."]... "But the Almighty, general y making use of Natural Means to bring about His Will, I thought it not amiss to give this Honourable Society an Account of some Thoughts that occurred to me on this Subject, wherein, if I err, I shall find myself in very good Company. "In No. 190 of these Transactions, I have proposed the casual Choc of a Comet, or other transient Body, as an Expedient to change instantly the Poles and diarnal Rotation of the Globe; but at that Time I did not consider the great Agitation such a Choc must necessarily occasion in the Sea, sufficient to answer for all those strange Appearances of heaping vast Quantities of Earth and high Cliffs upon Beds of Shells, which once were the Bottom of the Sea, and raising up Mountains where none were before, mixing the Elements into such a Heap as the poets strong glycerine; it will also remove the super and yet to keep a clutter with this little pittance of his describe the old Chaos, for such a Choc impelling fluous carmine. After being soaked in the glycerine and water mixture for from twelve to twenty-four hours they should be transferred to the following mixture: pure and strongest glycerine, loz.; pure acetic acid, 5 drops. They should be allowed to remain in this mixture until they are fully saturated therewith, which will take from two days to as many weeks." Carmine Staining Solution.-The following is the formula for preparing Dr. Beale's well-known carmine solution:-Ten grains of carmine in small fragments are placed in a test-tube, and half a drachm of strong liquor ammonia added with agitation and the heat of a spirit-lamp. The carmine soon dissolves, and the liquid, after boiling a few seconds, is allowed to cool. After the lapse of an hour, much of the excess of ammonia will have escaped. The solution is then mixed with 2oz. of distilled water, 2oz. of glycerine, oz. of alcohol. The mixture being passed through a filter or allowed to stand for some time, the perfectly clear supernatant fluid can be poured off and kept for use. Paraffin Oil Lamps. - Mr. John A. Perry, of Liverpool, suggests in Science-Gossip the addition of camphor to increase the illuminating power of paraffin oil and improve the quality of the light; this is a well-known fact, but here is Mr. Perry's recipe for those who have never heard of it. "I do not think it is generally known to microscopists that the addition of a little gum camphor to the paraffin oil in the microscope lamps burning that fluid is a very great improvement. About fifteen grains of camphor, put into an ordinary-sized lamp, about one hour before using, will cause the lamp to give a far more intense and brilliantly white light than the paraffin oil alone would give." The "Germ" Theory.-At a recent meeting of the microscopical section of the Liverpool Medical Institution, Dr. Braidwood exhibited specimens of a very fine white powder, deposited on the inner surface of the glass of a locket inclosing hair from a child who had died a year previously from malignant scarlet fever. After the child's death, a lock of hair not disinfected was placed below a wellfitting glass cover in the locket, and a lock which had been disinfected with Condy's fluid was placed outside the glass cover but inside the lid of the Jocket. On the locket being opened a year later a fine white powder was seen on the inner surface of the glass, next to the non-disinfected lock of hair. When examined with a one-twelfth inch lens, this deposit was found to consist of very minute spherical granules (like the microzymes in vaccine lymph), and of sharply-defined, acicular, crystalline-like bodies. The Flavour of Butter.-The German Agriculturist says that a great portion of the fine flavour of fresh butter is destroyed by the usual mode of washing, and he recommends a thorough kneading for the removal of the buttermilk, and a subsequent pressing in a linen cloth. Butter thus prepared is pre-eminent for its sweetness of taste and flavour, qualities which are retained for a long time. To improve manufactured butter, we are advised by the same authority to work it thoroughly with fresh cold milk, and then to wash it in clear water; and it is said that even old and rancid butter may be rendered palatable by washing it in water to which a few drops of a solution of chloride of lime have been added. Nitrogen in Plants.-M. Deherain (in Comptes Rendus) advances a somewhat novel theory of the reduction of atmospheric nitrogen to an available form for the support of plant life. He endeavours to prove that the free nitrogen of the atmosphere is brought into combination during the oxidation of organic matter in the soil. To demonstrate this, he dissolves glucose in a dilute solution of ammonia in water, placed in a large flask filled with a mixture of equal parts of nitrogen and oxygen. Having closed the flask, he heats the mixture gently for 100 hours, at the end of which time the whole of the oxygen has disappeared, and 5-9 per cent. of nitrogen has been taken up. The same process with humic acid and potash shows a loss of 72 of nitrogen. If these results are confirmed by subsequent experiments, they will throw light on the hitherto obscure subject of the production of nitric acid. In order to facilitate reference, Correspondents when speaking of any Letter previously inserted, will oblige by mentioning the number of the Letter, as well as the page on which it appears. WHO INVENTED NOAH'S COMET. comet for Noah, as if the dullest intellect for these two As I have only this week alighted upon, probably, the first written statement of such a commonplace, and, of course (as I might have anticipated by only abont one and a half "Sigma-fals of thought), by the first computer of a comet's retura, a bigger than Whiston, though not, like him, successor tc Newton's chair by Newton's desire. It is in the Phil. Trans., Vol. 33 (1724), and entitled: "Some Considerations about the Cause of the Universal Deluge, laid before the Royal Society on the 13th of December, 1694, by Dr. Edmond Halley, R.S.S." In copying the following chief parts, keep the capitals to substantives, that our neo-English onght, less than any other Teutonic language, to have dropped, if meaning to be understood. I "The account we have of the universal Deluge is nowhere so express as in the Holy Scriptures; and the exact Circumstances, as to point of Time, do show that some Records had been kept thereof more particularly than is wont in those things derived from remote Tradition, wherein the historical Minutiae are lost by length of Time. But the same seem much too imperfect to be the Result of a full Revelation from the Author of this dreadful Execution upon Mankind, who would have spoke more amply as to the Manner thereof, had He thought fit to lay open the Secrets of Nature to the succeeding Race of Men; and I doubt not but to all that consider the 7th chapter of Genesis impartially, it will pass for the Remains of a much fuller Account of the Flood, left by the Patriarchs to their Posterity, and derived from the .This we may, revelation of Noah and his Sons. however, be fully assured of, that such a Deluge has been; and by the many Signs of marine Bodies found far from and above the Sea, 'tis evident, that those Parts have once or more been under Water; or either that the Sea has risen to them, or they have been raised from the Sea; to explicate either of which is a Matter of no small Diffienlty, nor does the sacred Scripture afford What is meant by the any Light thereto. Fountains of the Abysse being broken up, and the opening of the Windows of Heaven, seems not so easy to be understood, but is intended to indicate the Modus of the Deluge, which was, according to the Mosaic Philosophy, from the letting in of the Waters above the Firmament, mentioned Genesis i, 7, by the Windows of Heaven, and the rising up out of the Ground of the Waters under the Earth, spoken of in the Second Commandment"-[rather, in the human comment thereon, these comments being different in the Exodus ..." so that we edition, and that of Deuteronomy] may reasonably conclude, that by one of those Expressions is meant an extraordinary Fall of Waters from the Heavens, not as Rain," [With much deference to Halley, I must quote, Yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth ] "but in one great Body (!); as if the Firmament supposed by Moses to sustain a Supra-aerial Sea, had been broken in." [The astronomer here lets the mislatinised word the solid Parts, would occasion the Waters, and all fluid Substances that were unconfined, as the Sea is, with one Impetus to run violently towards that Part of the Globe where the Blow was received; and that with Force sufficient to rake with it the whole Bottom of the Ocean, aud to carry it upon the Land; heaping up into mountains those earthy Parts it had borne away with it in those Places where the opposite Waves balance each other, miscens Ima Summis, which may account for those long coatinned Ridges of Mountains. And again, the recoil of this Heap of Waters would return towards the opposite Parts of the Earth, with a lesser Impetus than the first, and so reciprocating many Times, would at last come to settle in such a Manner as we now observe in the Structure of the superficial Parts of the Globe. In this case it will be much more difficult to show how Noah and the Animals should be preserved, than that all things in which was the Breath of Life, should hereby be destroyed. may have occasioned that vast Depression of the Caspian Sea, and other great Lakes in the World; and 'tis not unlikely but that extreme Cold felt in the North-West of America about Hudson's Bay, may be occasioned by those Parts of the World having once been much more Such n Choc northerly, or nearer the Pole, than now they are; whereby there are immense Quantities of Ice yet unthawed in those Parts. If this Speculation seem worthy to be cultivated, I shall not be wanting farther to insist on the Consequences thereof, and to show how it may render a probable Account of the strange Catastrophe we may be sure has at least once happened to the Earth." Some further thoughts upon the same subject, delivered on the 19th of the same mouth, by the same." I have been advised since the last Day, by a Person whose Judgment I have great Reason to respect [Newton (?)] that what I then advanced ought rather to be understood of those changes which might have happen'd to the Earth in Times before the Creation, and which might possibly have reduc'd a former World to a Chaos, out of whose Ruins the present might be that being much more Manner extinguished formed, than of the Deluge whereby Mankind was in a gradually brought to pass" [but surely Halley here forgets that the Day that Noë entered into the Ark (Luke xvii., 26), they knew not till the Flood came and took them all away (Matt. xxiv., 39)]" and with of" [Yes, Halley, certainly, without a Choc, and with Rain, some Circumstances that this Hypothesis cannot admit and "the same Day all the Fountains of the great Abyss," ie., all Volcanoes, "broken up and the Cataracts of Heaven opened "] "which abler Pens, perhaps, may knowledge]. "What have advanced I desire account for" [or he should rather have said later may be taken for no more than the Contemplation a Choc as might possibly of the Effects of such and not improbably, have befallen this Lump of Earth and Water in times whereof we have no manner of Tradition, as being before the first Production of Man, and therefore not knowable but by Revelation, or else a posteriori by Induction from a convenient Number of once, or oftener, to have befallen the Materials of this Experiments or Observations, argaing such an Agitation Globe." [Now, of course, for a generation past, Elie De Beaumont has abundantly proved, how much "often" and irregularly as to time, and And, the whole planet at once.] generally to such a Catastrophe may not be unnecessary for perhaps " (adds Halley), "in due Periods of Time, the well-being of the future World; to bury deep from the Surface those Parts which by length of Time sre Vegetable Production," &c. indurated into Stony Substances, and become unapt for perhaps, be thought hard, to destroy the whole Race for the Benefit of those that are to succeed; But if we consider Death simply, and how that the Life of each Individual is bat of a very small Duration, it will be found that as to those that are to die, it is indifferent whether they die in a Pestilence out of 100,000 pr annum, or ordinarily out of 25,000 in this great City. the Pestilence only appearing terrible to those that survive to contemplate the Danger they have escaped. Besides, as Seneca has it, "This may. Vitæ est avidus quisquis, non vult Mundo secum pereunte moriN.B.-The foregoing papers having been read before the Society thirty years since, were then deposited by their Author in their Archives, and not published, be being sensible that he might have adventured th crepidam; and apprehensive least by some unguarded Expression he might incur the Censure of the Sacred Order. ["Sacred" with a great S. observe, not a "sacred Scripture."] Nor had they now beet printed, but at the Desire of a late Committee of the mere Society, who were pleased to think them not unworthy the Press. Here the Reader is desired to observe that Mr. William Whiston's book, entituled, A New Theory of the Earth,' was not pablished till about a year after the date hereof, and was not presented before June 24th, 1696, to the Royal Society." Of course, the possibility now of any such "choc" as the father of cometic science here imagined remains just as certain as when he wrote. No discovery has altered the possibility that any one of the comets of infinity (more numerous, as Kepler said, than fishes in the sea, and more various in quality) may have planetary density and solidity to do all that Halley or Whiston thought of. The only modification on their reasoning brought about by the modern discovery that the masses of this century's comets have been inappreciable, that is to say, none has yet been appreciable-two (and only two) having been observed in positions where any mass over a trillion tons or thereabouts would have been appreciable, so that these two were not denser than air, and hence, not improbably, the majority may contain no matter more dense than aeriform-the sole result is to dispose of Halley's difficulty about how animals' lives could be preserved; since a comet might (if resembling most of the present century's) be wholly vaporous, and therefore fall with no "Choc." So his chief difficulty is long ago disposed of. I should not say, however, the only modification, because there have come, besides this; (1st), the wellknown properties of steam, the commonest or most abundant of all vapours, establishing, for every tyro, the certainty that a comet composed of this, the only material that can possibly, as Geology shows, have fallen in historic times on such a scale, must occasion exactly the kind of diluvial rain (or "cataracts of heaven ") that Genesis describes; and (2ndly) the geological certainty of the mere filmy flotation of the terrestrial skin, on the molten abyss within, sensitive to the least variations of external pressure, and therefore certain to be remoulded by such equable additional load, and set moving toward a fresh equilibrium, exactly the other effect of the two in which Genesis makes the catastrophe consist; the same day all the fountains" of the great abyss,"-(epithet nowhere else found, observe, and term nowhere applied to the sea) -being "broken up." For this latter certainty, I need only, in answer to "Sigma," refer to Herschel's last work, Familiar Lectures on Scientific Subjects, p. 11; and to the hurricane lists showing that there are districts, as the Windward and the Virgin Islands, where the barometer has never sunk 2 inches below its normal height (which it has scores of times since their discovery) without an instant plutonic disturbance. The St. Thomas case is merely the latest of some hundred on record. There is a third modern principle, or circumstance indeed, I might name as having similar result on Halley's reasoning-viz., to confirm it-I mean the established certainty that Darwinism-Natural Selection-in all matters, without some such interruption, won't do. You see his last remark, about an occasional catastrophe being "not unnecessary for the well-being of the future World," is become pretty considerably clearer and less disputable. Darwinism would not have peopled a world (as now) with Noachides. Natural selection would have abolished Noah's family, or any such sort. Instead of any of us, the earth of these present ages, if retaining any human kind at all, would have contained only the breed of the Nephilim (Gen. vi. 4), on the improbable supposition that they had not long ago devoured each other, and left it to the less violent mammoths and cave-bears. And so, again, what manner of planet, think you, would natural selection, or the present social forces, uninterrupted by the next comet that is on its way, make of this in another century, or two, or five ? A globe worthy of, or likely to be tolerated in, the universe of God, think you? I trow not. E. L. G. MR PROCTOR AND NOAH'S COMET. [4354.]-MR. PROCTOR'S demands (letter 4313, page 327) are readily satisdable, but before telling more, I must first beg flatly to repudiate any such "duty" as he attempts, in italics, to fasten upon me. I have made no "case of religion versus the infidel," have never used the word "infidel," have attacked nobody's religion;" and though "Sigma" complains, in letter after letter (p. 303, 326), that the subject cannot be touched without "shocking many people's feelings," and being" charged with infidel attacks on the truth of Holy Scripture," I, the only writer whose columns he measures and grumbles at, have not been yet charged with shocking or attacking any one's faith, and only wish any reader so aggrieved, be he Christian, Jew, Mahometan, Bhuddist, "pare Deist," or Bradlaughite, would point out where I have offended his tenets, that I may make amends. My object has been confined entirely to matters of fact, physics and geology; and these, necessarily involving reference Occasionally to professedly historic documents, where they strikingly agree with the indications of Nature, the only ones I have quoted happened to be the best known of any in this country; though I might and should refer, if allowed to pursue the subject, to Hindoo and other legends very little known here. But how on earth was a man to guess it would be such mortal offence to hint a probability that something you go on solemnly telling your God in your temples (at every baptism of a child, for instance) may possibly be true? Anywhere else, I believe, offence would be given by just the contrary suggestion, to worshippers, that they told their God something false instead of something true! And then, what can the reality or unreality of such a secular fact have to do with religion? To hear "F. R. A. S.," who called up the subject by his challenge (p. 61, middle), it would seem that so extreme is his dread of any influence from the "semi-barbarous Hebrews," he would actually seem to fear that if a man only admitted they had preserved as a single chapter of true history, he would forthwith be bound to swallow Heaven knows what mystical dogmas-the ten commandments, perhaps, or Trinity, or Papal supremacy at the very least! Why, save the mark, "F. R. A. S.," does admitting the naturalness of an event in an old history involve accepting the religion or ethics of its writers? May not the Hebrews' Flood story, if Nature happen to confirm it, be granted to be true, and their theology and commandments be rubbish all the same? And where have I implied I took them for anything but rubbish? Keeping, as I have, to a physical matter alone, apart from all men's faiths, and having started no "dangerous notion," it is no affair of mine what notions are started, or whose religion the facts of Nature adduced may square or not square with. Especially am I discharged from any such imaginary "duty" as Mr. Proctor italicises, when the editor has stopped the subject (p. 342), having obliged himself to do so by breaking his own rule against theology, and opening the floodgates to such abyssmal fountains as that of "Vertumnus "(let. 4291), of mere theosophic wrangle, worthy of Milton's Pandemonium. Matters of fact, it seems, are to be decided by what "God's wisdom in adapting means to an end" will allow, or "not allow""Vertumnus" to suppose! Probably it would not "allow, us to suppose" a sun as ruler, light, and life of a system, made to dispense momently twelve million times the utmost heat and light that the whole system can receive. So Mr. Proctor had better look to his astronomy, or rather, all current astronomy must give way to Hampden's, if indeed his dimensions for the sun be not exorbitant. And after all, how can Scripture be attacked, if, as all these Christians are eagerly assuring us, any words thereof may mean anything whatever? Thus, according to "Vertumnus," the command, "Make thee an ark of squared timber 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high, and pitch it within and withont," &c., may have meant, nay must have meant (or God was not so wise as "Vertumnus"), "Go and migrate with thy family and cattle to the district of Auvergne in Gaul, till the flood is over wherewith I am about to drown all the rest of thy race." If texts are thus adjustable to any meaning, what theories or discoveries can possibly hurt your Book? As it may have any meaning, surely it may mean the very thing the "infidel" is saying; or that the theory requires; or the thing discovered in Nature; or might even, in some cases, bear, as I have ventured to suggest, the grammatical meaning! As for the comet's "elements," then, I will give Mr. Proctor the most probable, so far as data seem to exist: T= Jalian Period, 1612 8706 (i.e., in November, From equinox of that date. 8102 B.C.). = 58° 10° = 58° 10° (128° 10° from equinox of 1872.) = very few degrees. = 0·68 to 0.7. between 0·99 and 1.0. a = 3.1 to 8.3, motion direct. At the fatal day the sun was entering or approaching Aquarius (thenceforth so figured), the moon Virgo, and the comet Taurus, where it had seemed stationary, but growing in size for seven successive evenings. It was tailed, and fisblike in form, and the spectators estimated the length of tail (ultimately), according to the only account I know of, at a million Hindoo leagues. They, our fathers, regarded it as an appearance of their deity-"Vishnu "-God the Saviour; and though never seen again after these seven nights, nor better represented to them than by their figure of Capricorn, they continued to believe that the divine Fish, having bound their vessel to his mighty horn, guided and protected it through the dark and raging Deluge. Now the mass, I consider, may have been anything between a hundredth of a trillion and half a trillion tons. What volume, and therefore diameter of globe, this might at any moment occupy as steam, according to the temperature, its various coats would acquire in our sunshine, may some day be calcalable, when Regnault's or Rankine's measures of the laws of vapour density are carried further. It might, for anght that appears, be as little as 100,000 miles in diameter, or 400,000, or even as large as the comet's head of 1811, for though it would in that case fall partly on the moon as well as the earth, the small portion taken by our satellite would doubtless disappear into the pores of her cindery crust. In the first of these three cases, the time occupied by the steam's falling, so as to be permanently attached to us, would be about 12 hours, in the second, eight times as long, or four days and nights, and in the last, perhaps teu. But whatever the time theoretically needed for this mere gravitational collapse, Mr. Proctor will bear in mind the actual fall took much longer, for two reasons: First, the drops or rain balls entering the air, say 50 miles high, with a speed of between 80,000 and 35,000 feet per second (according to the comet's diameter), and having to lose by friction in the upper atmosphere all but a 300th or 500th perhaps of this velocity, the heat thus evolved re-evaporated most of their bulk, so as to let them reach the ground or sea reduced both in weight and velocity to something like the moderate size and impact of ordinary raindrops, though many thousand times more abundant. Secondly, as tradition states (with all probability in its favour) that" all the fountains of the great abyss"-ie., all volcanoes became in eruption at once, a vast deal of such water as did reach the ground condensed fell on incandescent lava, to be violently revaporised again and again, rendering most of the lower atmosphere chaotic for weeks longer, with thunderous downpours (though only local) of both water and mad. And thus, however small the comet, and few the hours required for theoretical collapse, the stormfall, necessarily prolonged by these causes, might well last six weeks, and, indeed, must in any case till the subsiding of general eruption, or the fiery "fountains of the great abyss" began to be stayed (and in other than the Hebrew accounts, the action of fire is as prominent as as that of water). And note that the exact number of days these storms might endure, persons to be saved in an ark would need to be pre-informed of, though of nothing else. There was no need for their knowing how long they should be afloat, nor how long imprisoned, but of these 40 days they must be told. For as, from the moment that, wrapped in instant midnight darkness (a fact preserved in Hindoo accounts, though not in the Bible) their hatch-door slammed down, and "the Lord shut them in," it was one unchanging cataract for many hours, or possibly days, as if a return to chaos and primeval night, what could be done or thought of, or how suicidal despair be averted, but by an oracle having limited the very number of days that were to include all the violence their drifting vessel would meet, and the very day they were to expect a normal state of calm and sun re-established ? such seems to have been the impression made by that joyful and exact falfilment, that I believe we shall find an account extant of not merely the years, but the days reckoned from the end of those 40, to the era of the Persian King Yesdegird, 16th June, A.D. 632. (Hales's "Chronology," I. 197. The years are Nabonassarean.) And But now, can Mr. Proctor fairly infer that the day Noah is said to have left the Ark (which he errs in making 375 from the Deluge, it was 865, the exact anniversary) this day marked in any special way the return of sea and earth "to their normal condition "? What does he mean by "normal condition," or a "return" to what precise quantities of land and water? What were the antediluvian quantities? Where are they stated? All I find stated is that Armenia had become habitable for eight persons and their cattle. The vast adjoining lowlands of Turan (as I said, p. 230) must have continued a sea for yet some centuries; and so the establishment of the present conditions was gradual. But a normal condition, so far as to be productive and sustaining animal life, such a condition the story implies land (and, for aught we know, much and many lands) to have recovered even before the 40 days' storms were over. I say it implies this, because how else could those beasts live whom a Divine oracle is recorded to have mentioned, and not man (for how could Noah or his sons know of their existence ?) in Gen. ix. 10? This difference between oracles and mere statements of the writer (which are only sacred with a little "8") none of the critics seem to note at all. Thus it is quite true, as remarked by "E. L. B.," p. 327, that Shem twice mentions in his journal, the "breaking up" or earthquake and eruptions along with, and even before, the "cataracts of heaven," as if quite simultaneous to his mind, or rather the unexpected phenomenon impressing him the most of the two. But does "E. L. B." consider God or Shem the more likely to have given philosophical precedence to cause before effect? Where does he find the alleged oracles naming his "No. 1, the fountains of the deep?" Nowhere! The only thing predicted is the rain! Again, who said that all the high hills under the whole sky were covered, and by 15 cubits, the draught of the ark; and who that every living substance was to be destroyed off the face of the earth? There may have been (without falsifying a word) summits never submerged; but certainly not an olive leaf left, to be plucked (he seems to imply) either 8 or 11 months afterwards! Some expounders, as Professor Birks, make it 11. What leaves does "E. L. B." find, without a Deluge, to hang on a tree from November, and be worth a dove's plucking next autumn? Of course, the fall of steam evolved much heat (which, please to observe, was not first considered by "Sigma," but by me, p. 230). But the same causes that prolonged the time of its fall, spread over far more time yet, and even prevented in great measure the penetration of this heat down to the sea-level. It was the upper strata of air that were warmed, and expanded far above their normal height, and whatever they did not radiate into space would be very slowly conducted downward. This, doubtless, was connected with the physical side of what is described as God causing "a wind to pass over the earth," though this breath or spirit is plainly more a spiritual than physical statement, like the parallel in Gen. i. At all events, there remained even after radiation of much heat, and melting of all the ice-which was more abundant than now-such a change of climates as must have precluded much of winter, except at the poles, for some years. The five months that our fathers were afloat were what would normally have been the coldest in this hemisphere; and the seven following hot ones they were imprisoned aground and being hoisted above the clouds. As our Japhetic Aryan fathers wrote, the same Almighty Saviour, who had appeared as the Shining Fish, now made himself a rooting Boar, to upheave the land and all its burden ont of water, on the point of one of his mighty tusks (ie., the Great and Little Ararat). The waters, says the Hebrew, "were going and returning till the tenth month"-i.c., the land upheaving and upheaving, by fits and starts, or as our Japhetic brethren learn it, the fire-gods perseveringly churned the sea with a mountain, down whose sides the streams of life afterwards flowed. When five lanations had elapsed from the catastrophe, which five, owing to the earth passing her perihelion, were long ones, and only five new moons visible in 150 days, then the ark which had been cansed, accounted for by the enormous amount of heat thus or EXISTING EVIDENCE OF THE DELUGE. SUNDRIES. [4858.]-ALAS! for all the old superstitions, the nymphs and dryads no longer haunt the fountain and the wood; their progeny, the fairies, have vanished from the glens; the pale ghost never now revisits the glimpses of the moon, or points with outstretched arm and melancholy countenance to the spot at which its mortal coil was rudely shuffled off. And here am I about to shatter another old legend. "H. G. W." (query 12155) wants to know why a shilling suspended from a thread, and hang within a tumbler, strikes the hour. I will tell him. Hang any moderately light weight in this way, and, fixing your eyes and attention upon it, wish it to do anything possible (to swing, for instance, in one direction, weakly or strongly), it will do so; desire it to stop and to swing in another direction, or in a circle, it will instantly do so; put it inside a tumbler and wish it to strike the time, again it will obey, provided you know the time yourself; or if you prefer, it will ring a funereal knell. Now place your haud against some fixed substance and try to repeat these experiments; this time you will fail. The whole mystery lies in the fact that when you will or expect any motion, you unconsciously produce that motion-instead of fixing attention on the object, fix it on your band and guard against its moving, and you may hold your shilling till you want your supper before it will tell you the time. Will Mr. Rodwell (let. 4318, p. 328), who has actually seen the spot at Argostoli where the sea water flows into a cavern, tax his memory as to a few details? Can he say (accurately) the difference of level between the sea surface and that of the surface of the water of the well or cavern, whether the flow is continuous or intermittent, and what is at that spot the actual rise of tide (I know it is small), and whether boats can approach the exact spot at all times, or are stopped by anything like a reef at some little distance? Also, whether there is anything like a race or strong current between that and neighbouring islands? THE HEAT GENERATED BY METEORS. [4855.]-THE observations of Professor Le Conte, of the University of California, on the heat generated by meteoric stones in traversing the atmosphere, may be of interest to many of your readers, in view of a recent discussion on cometfalls being the cause of deluges. It is well known, says Professor Le Conte, that the observations of Glaisher, Petit, Daubrée, and others, establish the fact that meteoric stones enter our atmosphere with velocities which are truly planetary. For example, the meteorite of Orgueil moved with a velocity of at least 12.48 miles per second, while in other cases velocities have been observed which could not have been less than from 15 to 80, or even 40 miles per I mean the Septuagint or Greek version, made about what has this to do with the matter, or how does the second. The enormous resistance encountered by such bodies in traversing the air speedily extinguishes this high velocity, so that they retain but a comparatively moderate velocity on reaching the surface of the earth. According to the "dynamical theory of heat," this loss of energy is replaced by a corresponding augmentation of heat, and the method of finding the theoretical amount of this increase is given by Professor Le Conte in mathematical language. To obtain a correct estimate, it is necessary, of course, to know the velocity of the meteor when entering the atmosphere, and also when it has approached near to the earth's surface, as well as the specific heat of the stone in relation to water. Au estimate sufficiently near for most purposes is obtained by Professor Le Conte, by taking the velocity on entering the earth's atmosphere at about 30 kilometres a second, or a rate nearly equal to the orbitual velocity of the earth. This he assumes as reduced to 500 metres per second when near the earth's surface, and the specific heat is " certainly not under estimated" by putting it equal to 0-22. On these assumptions the Professor finds that the increase of temperature amounts to 492,184 centigrade degrees. Of course, says Professor Le Conte, by far the larger portion of the heat generated by the loss of energy of the moving stone would be imparted to the air along its trajectory; but assuming that only the hundredth part of it is retained by the stone, it would be more than sufficient to account for the phenomena of fusion and detonation which frequently accompany the transit of such bodies through our atmosphere. In the case of small masses, it is clear that their high velocities would be more rapidly extinguished by the resistance of the air than is the case with large masses. In the small mass the transformation of energy into heat being accomplished in a shorter time, a greater amount of the evolved heat would be retained by the stone than in the large mass whose velocity is more gradually checked by the resisting medium. Hence, when the smaller masses plunge into the apper atmosphere, the matter may be volatilised or atterly dissipated by the intensity of the suddenlyevolved heat. In this minutely-divided condition the material of the stones would float about in the atmosphere, and ultimately reach the surface of the earth in the form of meteoric dust. It is well known that the observations of Benzenberg, Quetelet, Herrick, Newton, and others, assign to the so-called "falling stars" velocities equal to, if not aurpassing, the velocities of meteoric stones. Accord ing to the foregoing suggestion, these may be nothing more than small meteoric stones which are volatilised in the upper regions of the atmosphere long before reaching the surface of the earth. Thus, the phenomena of the occasional fall of meteoric stones and the almost incessant appearance of the falling stars which nightly furrow the celestial vault, may be correlated with the principle of transformation of energy. At all events, all the luminous, thermic, and detonating phenomena attending the fall of snch bodies seem to be fully This, Mr. Editor, I have endeavoured to set before "THE SEMI-BARBAROUS HEBREWS." expressions he quotes from Humboldt are pure colloDoes not Mr. Petrie (let. 4845, p. 834, see that the quialisms, mere expressions in accordance with the apparent facts and the common modes of speech, that they therefore are of exactly the same nature as the scriptural statements referred to, and are in no sense scientific descriptions of facts. Mr. Proctor, in the paper commencing the number, nses just such a loose diurnal coarse." Therefore, we are not "to believe in colloquialism when he speaks of the "sun's varying the strict scientific accuracy" of such phrases. But received expressions (kaowing them to be incorrect) fact that modern scientific men drop into commonly show that ancient similar expressions are to be taken as meaning and giving actnal facts literally? "SIGMA" AS A "SEARCHER AFTER TRUTH." [4860.]-THE EDITOR, blaming me, at page 851, for the term "buffoonish," which I had chosen for its mildness, as applied to "Sigma's" geological reasonings, declares his belief that" Sigma "is "an earnest and sincere searcher after truth," a position that I de not believe I have ever yet denied, though "Derf Errac" has incurred "Sigma's" wrath by doing so, Whether the Hebrews themselves can be properly as appears from the latter's first paragraph (letter styled semi-barbarous is doubtful, if we compare them 4312, p. 326). I have two reasons, then, for deeming it with the other nations of their time. Born in a duty to join "Derf Errac" in raising this questionMesopotamia, nursed in southern Syria, educated in first, because it does personally concern all readers of Egypt, finally settled between and in contiguity to "Sigma's" letters to come to some decision whether Egypt, Assyria, and Phoenicia, partaking of the civilisa-"Derf Errac" or the Editor has had the better reason tion and science of all three, and superior to all in for their estimates; and secondly, because it seems I their theology and code of morals, they must have had must be rated as "striking out from the shoulder," advantages at least equal to the most advanced nations whether doing so or not, and may, therefore, as well of that age. It is also to be observed that the Hebrew deserve the rating. The following are grounds, I subrecords did not always stand alone as they do now; mit, for maintaining that "Sigma's" chief object in they were corroborated in their accounts of the early this Deluge matter has not been searching "for truth," history of mankind, as Josephus frequently reminds and I am equally prepared to prove this of other corhis readers, by the most ancient historians of other respondents than " Sigma," but that his chief object is nations, as Egypt, Phoenicia, Assyria, and Greece, whose the overthrow, anyhow, by sound or unsound means, writings then extant are now lost. as they may come to hand, of assumed mischievous error, namely, the error (as he holds) that the Hebrew early records are historical or trustworthy. He has dragged in references to these most revered and most hated of books, and most beslobbered with the slimy praise," grand old legends," "grandest poem," &c., of those most hating them, on every possible occasion when there was not the slightest call for them. I have written most of the columns he has been at the pains "to measure" about geology, without naming or referring to the Bible; but what single paragraph thereon ba "Sigma" written without? Sarely, whether I quoted texts or not, my primary and chief subject has been physical geology, while "Sigma's" has been the Bible Perhaps "P. Santalinus" in his last lettor (4240, p. 277) means only to talk nonsense in jest when he speaks of "Shem leaving his untouched journal to that accurate Hebrew scribe Samuel, the first of his race." There is no record or evidence that Shem left an untouched journal, whatever that may be; and Samuel was in no respect the first of his race. Alphabetical writing does not appear to have been known to mankind till about 1500 B.C., that is the age of Moses. But if "P. Santalinus" disbelieves, as he seems to ignore the existence of Moses, what reason has he to believe in the existence of Samuel, or of any one else in particular? J. M. G. BROOKWOOD. |