Footnotes

1.  Philosophical Magazine, May 1868; Climate and Time, chap. xxi.; Quarterly Journal of Science, July 1877; Phil. Mag., July 1878; Climate and Cosmology, chaps. xvii. xviii. and xix.

2.  I prefer to use the term “theory,” with the above understood qualification, viz. a theory in its hypothetical stage.

3.  Pouillet’s estimate of the rate of solar radiation is here taken.

4.  Lecture on “The Probable Origin, the Total Amount, and the Possible Duration of the Sun’s Heat,” delivered at the Royal Institution on January 21, 1887, and published in Nature of 27th of the same month. The lecture was afterwards published with considerable additions and alterations in the Proceedings of the Institution vol. xii. It is from this that my quotations are taken.

5.  Proceedings of the Royal Institution, vol. xii. p. 15.

6.  Manchester Science Lectures, Fifth Series, p. 31.

7.  Newcomb’s Astronomy, p. 487, English edition, 1878.

8.  World Life. p. 27.

9.  Philosophical Magazine, July 1878; Climate and Cosmology, Chap. xix.

10.  Proceedings of Royal Society, vol. xliii. p. 117.

11.  Good Words for 1875, p. 861.

12.  Manchester Science Lectures.

13.  Proc. of Royal Society, vol. xliv. p. 5.

14.  World Life, or Comparative Geology, by Alexander Winchell, LL.D., Professor of Geology and Palæontology in the University of Michigan. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. 1883.

15.  Other Worlds, chap. ix.

16.  Manchester Science Lectures.

17.  Proceedings of Royal Institution, vol. xii. p. 16.

18.  Laplace held a more accurate view of the primitive condition of the solar nebula. He considered that, owing to intense heat, the solar mass became expanded to the limits of the remotest planetary orbit of our system; that, in cooling, it began slowly to condense; and that, as condensation went on, planet after planet became detached from the mass. Laplace, however, offered no explanation of the manner in which the primitive nebula obtained its heat.

19.  Proceedings of Royal Institution, vol. xii. p. 15.

20.  Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. xliii. p. 140.

21.  Philosophical Transactions for 1811.

22.  Recent Advances in Physical Sciences, p. 175.

23.  Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for 1848.

24.  Philosophical Magazine, February 1867. I was not aware at this time that Mr. Alfred Tylor had previously applied the same method to determine an entirely different point, viz.: how much the sea-level is being raised by the sediment deposited on the sea-bottom. Mr. Tylor’s paper, entitled “On Changes of the Sea-Level effected by existing Physical Causes during stated Periods of Time,” appeared in the Phil. Mag. for April 1853. Mr. Tylor came to the conclusion that the sea-level was being raised, from this cause, about 3 inches in 10,000 years.

25.  Report upon the Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi.

26.  Trans. of Geol. Soc. of Glasgow, vol. iii.; Jukes & Geikie’s Manual of Geology, chap. xxv.; Text Book of Geology, p. 441.

27.  Student’s Elements of Geology, p. 91.

28.  World Life, p. 265.

29.  See Climate and Time, p. 337.

30.  Physical Geography, p. 103.

31.  It is this destruction of the stratified rocks which makes it so difficult to detect the marks of former glacial epochs, and which has led to such prevailing misconceptions regarding the evidence which we ought to expect of those epochs. See paper read before the Geological Society, “On Prevailing Misconceptions regarding the Evidence which we ought to expect of former Glacial Periods,” January 23, 1889.

32.  Physical Geography, p. 94.

33.  Quart. Journ. of Science, July 1877; Climate and Cosmology, chap. xvii.

34.  Mem. Geol. Survey of Lancashire, 1862.

35.  Mem. Geol. Survey of Great Britain, vol. iii.

36.  Memoir to Sheet 32, Geol. Survey Map of Scotland.

37.  Nature, vol. xiii. p. 390.

38.  Explanation to Sheet 15, Geol. Survey Map of Scotland.

39.  I have been informed by Mr. Peach that since the above was written additional light has been cast on this immense fault. It has been found, he says, that the fault consists of two sub-parallel branches, the more southerly of which has the effect of bringing the rocks of the Upper Silurian age against the Lower Silurian beds. The northern branch brings the upper division of the Lower Old Red Sandstones, in turn, against the Upper Silurian rocks. This, Mr. Peach remarks, does not in the least invalidate the reasoning as to the amount of material removed by denudation from this region in the time specified. In fact, it shows, he says, that a greater amount must have been removed than was at first suspected.

40.  Jukes’s and Geikie’s Manual of Geology, p. 441.

41.  Geology of Canada, 1863, p. 61.

42.  Safford’s Geology of Tennessee, p. 309.

43.  Lyell’s Student’s Manual, chap. xxiii.

44.  Geological Studies, by Prof. A. Winchell, p. 165.

45.  Geological Studies, pp. 93, 163.

46.  Powell’s Geology of the Uinta Mountains.

47.  Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, vol. ii. p. 456.

48.  Geological Studies, p. 92; see also Dutton’s Tertiary History of the Cañon District.

49.  Tertiary History of the Cañon District, pp. 20, 113; Second Annual Report, U.S. Geol. Survey, p. 125.

50.  Powell’s Geology of Uinta Mountains.

51.  Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, vol. i. p. 745.

52.  Memoir to Sheet 32, Geol. Survey of Scotland.

53.  Denudation of South Wales. Memoirs of Geol. Survey, vol. i.

54.  Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiv. p. 323.

55.  World Life, p. 369.

56.  Island Life, p. 204.

57.  Quart. Journ. of Geol. Soc. vol. xxvi. p. 53.

58.  Origin of Species, p. 286.

59.  Proceedings of the Royal Society, No. 152, 1874, p. 342.

60.  Island Life, p. 205.

61.  Of course, Mr. Wallace does not believe that it is actually 200,000,000 years since the Cambrian period.

62.  World Life, p. 196.

63.  World Life, p. 72.

64.  Correlation of Physical Forces, p. 164 (fifth edition), 1867.

65.  Popular Science Monthly for January 1873.

66.  See also on this point Mr. Lockyer’s “Bakerian Lecture,” Proc. Roy. Soc. No. 266, p. 21.

67.  Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. xxviii. p. 160.

68.  Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. xxxii. p. 230.

69.  Ideal Chemistry, p. 56.

70.  American Journal of Science, vol. xxiii. p. 124.

71.  “Our atmosphere,” says Dr. Hunt, “is not terrestrial, but cosmical, being a universal medium diffused throughout all space, but condensed around the various centres of attraction in amount proportional to their mass and temperature, the waters of the ocean themselves belonging to this universal atmosphere.” (Nature, August 29, 1878, p. 475.) Similar views have been advocated by Mr. Mattieu Williams, who says “that the gaseous ocean, in which we are immersed, is but a portion of the infinite atmosphere that fills the whole solidity of space; that links together all the elements of the universe, and diffuses among them their heat and light, and all the other physical and vital forces which heat and light are capable of generating.” (Fuel of the Sun, p. 5.) In 1854 Sir William Thomson suggested the idea that the luminiferous ether was probably a continuation of our atmosphere, though I do not think he continues to hold that opinion. The first to advance this idea was, undoubtedly, Newton, who assumed interplanetary space to be universally filled with an ethereal medium “much of the same constitution as air, but far rarer, subtler, and more elastic.”

72.  World Life, p. 533.

73.  Nature, February 1, 1883, p. 330.

74.  Protyle is the term adopted by Mr. Crookes to designate the original primal matter existing before the evolution of the chemical elements, and out of which they were evolved. Protyle in chemistry is analogous to protoplasm in biology, with this difference, however, that protyle is as yet hypothetical, whereas protoplasm is known to be real.

75.  Popular Science Monthly for February 1876. See also the January number for 1873.

76.  Proc. Roy. Soc. for April 19, 1888, p. 115.

77.  The dark stellar masses which escape observation may be as numerous as those that are visible.

INDEX.
Aqui Range, Utah, fault in, 57
Arcturus, motion of, 16
Atmosphere, universal, 82
   „    Dr. Hunt on, 86
   „    Mr. Mattieu Williams on, 86
Atomic weights, logarithmic law of, 100
Atoms, according to Herschel and Clerk-Maxwell, manufactured articles, 92
Binary systems, 32
   „    Dr. Johnstone Stoney on, 33
   „    Sir W. Thomson on, 33
Biology, testimony of, as to age of sun’s heat, 65
Brodie, Sir B., on the pre-nebular condition of matter, 84
Brown and Dickson on sediment of the Mississippi, 40
Carnelley, Dr., argument from compound radicals, 94
μ Cassiopeiæ, motion of, 16
α Centauri, distance of, 16
Chemical elements, evolution of, 80
Clarke, Prof. F. W., on atomic weights, 93
   „    on evolution of the chemical elements, 80, 89
   „    on the pre-nebular condition of matter, 98
Comets, according to Laplace, strangers to our system, 17
   „    according to Prof. A. Winchell, strangers to our system, 17
   „    M. Faye on origin of, 17
   „    probable origin of, 17
Compound radicals, argument from, 95
Condensation in relation to nebulæ, 27
   „    the last condition of a nebula, 30
Cosmical dust and “fire-mist,” 81, 102
Crookes, Mr. W., on the pre-nebular condition of matter, 90-98
   „    on protyle, 96
61 Cygni, motion of, 16
Darwin, Mr. Charles, on geological time, 67
Denudation, age of the globe as represented by, 63, 64
   „    average rate of whole globe, 44
   „    evidence from faults as to rate of, 53
   „    Dr. A. Geikie on rate of, 41
   „    glacial epochs in relation to, 46, 47
   „    in Colorado, 58
   „    in past ages not much greater than at present, 44
   „    method employed to estimate its rate, 39, 47
   „    Mr. A. R. Wallace’s method of estimating its rate, 51
   „    of Bristol coal-fields, 59
   „    of Mississippi basin, Sir Charles Lyell on, 44
   „    of Pendle Range, 60
   „    of Pentlands, 59
   „    of river basins, 41
   „    of South of Scotland, 55
   „    of Wales, 59
   „    Prof. Haughton’s method of estimating its rate, 50
   „    Rotation of the earth in relation to, 46
   „    the direct method of estimating its rate, 52
   „    time required to effect the amount of, 63
Dewar and Liveing on dissociation of chemical elements, 83
Dissociation of chemical elements, Dr. T. Sterry Hunt on, 82, 85
   „    of chemical elements, M. Berthelot on, 83
   „    of chemical elements, M. Deville on, 83
   „    of chemical elements, Mr. Lockyer on, 82
   „    of chemical elements, Profs. Liveing and Dewar on, 83
   „    of chemical elements, Prof. Schuster on, 83
   „    of chemical elements, Sir B. Brodie on, 82, 84
   „    Dumas, M., on essential unity of matter, 83
Earth’s crust, argument from, 93
   „    rotation, its influence on denudation, 46
Emmons, Mr. S. F., on a fault in Aqui Range, 58
Energy existing as motion of stellar masses, 3
   „    transformed by collision, 3
Evolution, can it be traced back to a first condition? 110
   „    evidence of, from the grouping of the stars, 81
   „    from smaller to larger aggregates of matter, 81
   „    of matter, 107
   „    of the chemical elements, 80, 107
Faults, evidence of rate of denudation from, 53
   „    examples of, 54-60
   „    “Grand Wash,” Colorado, 58
   „    in East Tennessee, 58
   „    in Strathmore, 55
Faye, M., on origin of comets, 17
Gaseous condition essential to the nebular hypothesis, 25
   „    state, second condition of a nebula, 24
Geikie, Dr. A., on area of the globe, 48
   „    on denudation of the Pentlands, 59
   „    on examples of enormous faults, 55
   „    on rate of denudation, 41
Geological epochs of past ages, misconceptions regarding, 49
Geological time, Mr. A. R. Wallace on, 65
   „    time, Mr. Charles Darwin on, 66
   „    time, Prof. Haeckel on, 67
   „    time, Prof. Huxley on, 65, 66
   „    time, Sir Andrew C. Ramsay on, 67
Geology, testimony of, in regard to age of sun’s heat, 39
Glacial epoch, age of the earth as determined by, 64
   „    epochs, influence on denudation, 46
Gravitation does not account for the heat required, 106
   „    does not account for motion of the stars, 105
   „    insufficient to account for heat of nebulæ, 27
Groombridge 1830, motion of, 15
   „    not an eject, 106
   „    Prof. Newcomb on motion of, 15
Grove, Sir W. R., on the pre-nebular condition of matter, 78
Haeckel, Prof, on geological time, 67
Haughton, Prof., method of estimating rate of denudation, 50
Heat, age of the sun’s, 37
Helmholtz on age of sun’s heat, 35
Huggins, Mr., and Dr. Miller on spectra of nebulæ with one nitrogen line, 84
Hull, Prof., on denudation of Pendle Range, 60
   „    on examples of enormous faults, 54
Humphreys and Abbot on sediment of the Mississippi, 40
Hunt, Dr. T., on the pre-nebular condition of matter, 85
   „    on universal atmosphere, 86
Huxley, Prof., on geological time, 65, 66
Hypothesis, value of, 70
“Impact Theory,” why so called, 2
   „    in relation to theories of pre-nebular condition of matter, 102
   „    removes difficulties regarding origin of heat, 108, 109
ε Indi, motion of, 16
King, Mr. Clarence, on the Wahsatch Fault, 59
Lalande 21185, motion of, 16
   „    21258, motion of, 16
Laplace, M., on the heat of the solar nebula, 30
Lavoisier, M., on simpler forms of matter, 86
Lesley, Mr. J. P., on a fault in the Appalachians, 57
   „    on fault in East Tennessee, 58
Liveing and Dewar on dissociation of chemical elements, 83
Lockyer, Mr., on arrangement of the planets according to density, 25
   „    nebulæ with solid matter in a gaseous mass, 20
Lockyer, Mr., on essential condition of solar nebulæ, 25
   „    on hypothesis, 70
   „    on number of meteorites, 103
   „    on outburst of stars, 33
   „    on “sorting” of the chemical elements, 25
Lodge, Prof. O., on ethereal origin of matter, 87
   „    on the pre-nebular condition of matter, 87
   „    on vortex atoms, 88
Logarithmic law of atomic weights, 100
Lyell, Sir Charles, on denudation of the Mississippi basin, 44
Macvicar, Dr., on ethereal origin of matter, 87
Matter not probably eternal, 112
Mendelejeff, Prof., on Periodic Law, 96
Meteorites, number greatly exaggerated, 103
   „    probable origin of, 12
   „    Sir H. Roscoe on constitution of, 12
   „    Sir W. Thomson on, 12
Mill, Mr. J. S., on hypothesis, 70
Miller, Dr., and Mr. Huggins on spectra of nebulæ with one nitrogen line, 84
Mills, Dr., on Polymerisation, 95
Morris, Mr. Charles, on the pre-nebular condition of matter, 75
Nebulæ, broken fragments in a gaseous mass, 19
   „    cometic, 22
   „    condensation insufficient to account for heat of, 27
Nebulæ condensation, last condition of, 30
   „    first condition of, 19
   „    gaseous state, second condition of, 24
   „       „    globular, 21
   „    heat of, not due to gravitation, 27
   „    how they occupy so much space, 18
   „    how origin of by impact might not have been observed, 110
   „    must possess an excessive temperature, 26
   „    Mr. Lockyer on, 20-22
   „    origin of, 18
   „    Prof. A. Winchell on meteoric origin of, 22
   „    Prof. Tait on, 20
   „    Sir W. Thomson on origin of, 6, 28
   „    spheroidal, 22
   „    why of such various shapes, 19
Nebular hypothesis, gaseous condition essential to, 2, 5
Newcomb, Prof., on motion of 1830 Groombridge, 15
Newlands on Periodic Law, 96
Nova Cygni, on sudden outburst of, 33
Objection considered, 109
Palæozoic times, winds probably not higher than at present, 46
Peach, Mr. B. N., on examples of enormous faults, 55
   „    on denudation of the south of Scotland, 55
Periodic Law, argument from, 96
   „    Prof. Mendelejeff on 96
Periodic Law, Newlands on, 96
   „    Prof. Reynolds on, 96
Planets, on their arrangement according to density, 25
Polymerisation, argument from, 95
   „    Dr. Mills on, 95
Pouillet, on rate of solar radiation, 2, 35
Powell, Major J. W., on denudation of Uinta Mountains, 58
Pre-nebular condition of matter, Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney on, 99
   „    condition of matter, Dr. T. Sterry Hunt on, 85
   „    condition of matter, Mr. Charles Morris on, 75
   „    condition of matter, Mr. W. Crookes on, 90
   „    condition of matter, Prof. A. Winchell on, 71
   „    condition of matter, Prof. F. W. Clarke on, 98
   „    condition of matter, Prof. Lodge on, 87
   „    condition of matter, Sir B. Brodie on, 84
   „    condition of matter, Sir W. R. Grove on, 78
   „    evolution, 107
Proctor, R. A., on meteoric origin of solar system, 23
Protyle, the primal matter, 96
Prout’s Law, argument from, 92
Ramsay, Sir Andrew C, on denudation of Bristol coal-fields, 59
   „    on denudation of Wales, 59
   „    on geological time, 67
Reynolds, Prof., on Periodic Law 96
Rogers, Prof. H. D., on a great fault in the Appalachian coal-fields, 57
Roscoe, Sir H., on constitution of meteorites, 12
Rotation, supposed influence on denudation, 46
Saigey, M., on ethereal origin of matter, 87
Schmidt, Dr., on number of meteorites, 103
Solar nebula, M. Laplace on heat of, 30
   „    Mr. Lockyer on condition essential to, 25
   „    Sir W. Thomson on, 6, 28
Solar radiation, rate of, according to Pouillet and Langley, 35
Solar system, Mr. R. A. Proctor on meteoric origin of, 23
Star clusters, 34
Stars, evidence of evolution from their grouping, 81
   „    how origin of by impact might not have been observed, 110
   „    in four groups, 81
   „    motion not accounted for by gravitation, 105
   „    motion not due to their mutual attractions, 14
   „    motion of, how in straight lines, 14
   „    sudden outbursts of, 33
Stoney, Dr. G. Johnstone, on the pre-nebular condition of matter, 99
Subaërial denudation, method of estimating rate of, 39, 47
Sun, age of heat of, 34
Sun’s heat, age of, according to Geology, 37
   „    age of, a crucial test, 34, 37
Sun’s heat, age of, according to Thomson and Tait, 35
   „    age of, as determined by Biology, 64
   „    age of, as determined by Geology, 39
Tait, Prof., nebulæ with solid matter in a gaseous mass, 20
   „    on age of sun’s heat, 35
Temperature excessive, essential to nebulæ, 26
   „    produced by collision, 5
Thomson, Sir W., on age of sun’s heat, 35
   „    on meteorites, 12
   „    on origin of solar nebula, 28
   „    on solar nebula, 6
   „    suggestion by, 86
Tides, supposed influence on denudation, 45
Tycho Brahe, on sudden outburst of a star, 33
Tylor, Alfred, on the denudation of Mississippi Basin, 40
Uinta Mountains, denudation of, 58
   „    fault in, 57
Vortex atoms, Prof. Lodge on, 88
“Wahsatch Fault,” Utah, immense dislocation, 58
Wallace, Mr. A. R., on geological time, 65, 68
   „    method of estimating rate of denudation, 57
Williams, Mr. Mattieu, on universal atmosphere, 86
Winchell, Prof. A., on age of the earth, 64
   „    on comets strangers to our system, 17
   „    on denudation of Colorado plateau, 58
   „    on deposition of Palæozoic sediment, 45
   „    on ethereal medium, 87
   „    on meteoric origin of nebulæ, 22
   „    on nebular hypothesis, 69
   „    on the pre-nebular condition of matter, 71