Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/439

Rh their sediments two great chalk formations. During the second subsidence, which was the deepest in all Mesozoic times, the Atlantic Ocean extended continuously from British America southward around the Appalachian continent. Prof. Hill has begun the publication of a series of illustrations of the paleontology of the Cretaceous formations of Texas, in which pictures and outlines of characteristic fossils are given, with letterpress descriptions. The first number thus represents Pecten (Vola?) Roemeri Peterocera Shumardi, and ''Crioceras? (Acayloceras) Texanus''—all new species, of the Comanche series, or Lower Cretaceous.

An Orthodox Compliment to Darwin.—The first number of the "Cumberland Presbyterian Preview" (Nashville, Tenn., January, 1889) contains a broad and enlightened article on "Charles Darwin," by Prof. J. I. D. Hinds. The author, whom the company in which he appears attests to be orthodox, looks at Darwin's doctrines on their merits, without regarding their seeming bearing on questions that are equally liable to be misunderstood with those with which the theory of evolution deals. "When a man wins distinction in this world," he begins, "it is customary to condemn him outright if his teaching happen to be in conflict with the consensus of mankind. This is natural, but at the same time very unwise; since it has thus often happened that theories have been placed under the ban which have afterward been proved true. .. . If Darwin found the correct explanation of the phenomena of the organic world, his theory will stand the test of investigation and logic; if not, it must take its place with other theories which have served their day, and have yielded to better ones; she must be content to leave the decision to the scientist and the philosopher, and we can certainly have no reason to reject their final conclusion. .. . The Christian, of all men, should have the greatest confidence and repose of mind in the face of the investigations of the present day: for, if his religion be true, its foundations can not be shaken; and, if it be false, he has nothing to lose." Of Darwin's theory, undoubtedly its first tendency "is toward infidelity and skepticism. But since the world has become familiar with it, and has found that it is simply an attempted explanation of the ordinary course of nature, to be placed side by side with Newton's law of gravitation, Copernicus's theory of the solar system, the nebular hypothesis, and the geological eras of indefinite time, it has ceased to be atheistic, and is likely soon to become itself one of the arguments of natural theologians." Of Darwin's agnosticism, "his religious views and the changes through which they passed were but the natural outcome of the course of his investigations and studies. He was a pioneer, and could not see the true ethical import of the doctrine which he promulgated. Like many other investigators, he contrasted the ideal of God to which his theories led him with theological dogmas and the prevalent anthropomorphic conceptions of Deity. His training had been Calvinistic, and the freedom which he found everywhere in nature did not accord with the Calvinistic idea of fatality and the arbitrary action of the supernatural will." Finally, "In truth, let me ask, how much worse is it to have pithecoid ancestors than to be a beast in propria persona? The great question with us is, not whence we came, but what we are, what we should be, and what we are destined to be."

The Moving Forces of Meteorite Swarms.—An attempt has been made by Mr. G. H. Darwin to apply the kinetic theory of gases to the case of a swarm of meteorites in space. The individual meteorites are analogous to the molecules of the gas, and the mass of gas corresponds, in the author's theory, to the whole solar system. Lockyer and Sir William Thomson have expressed their conviction that the present condition of the solar system is derived from an accretion of meteorites, but the idea of fluid pressure seems necessary in explaining present forms of equilibrium. The author proposes to reconcile the two theories by showing that the laws of fluid pressure apply to a swarm of meteorites which is condensing to a solid form. The case of an infinite atmosphere of equal-sized meteorites is considered, and then the case of meteorites of very different sizes. In the case of a swarm of meteorites condensing under the mutual attractions of its parts, the author shows that the larger meteorites will gravitate toward the center of condensation,