The Literary echo, and Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1851-1854, 1852-03-18
I" ScienCe.1

future destination of this mundane
sphere" which we are permitted for few
days to inhabit.
One disciple of Euclid announces that
six hundred years hence the population of
the world will have increased to such an
extent, that each human being will only
have space two feet square to stand upon.
Now, that is certainly an awful demonstra-
ton for family man to consider we do
not see what this great multitude of people
are to live on, but perhaps they will learn
to live without eating by that time. There
seems to be something of a discrepancy
between this calculation and that made in
the works of celebrated phrenologist
which we perused short time since. This
went on to show what an enormous ances-
try every individual on the face of the
globe had, and proves the thing to math-
ematical demonstration. Thus, every per-
son has two parents, four-grand-parents,
eight great-grand- parents, sixteen great
great-grand-p parents, and so on in geomet-
rical progression until no farther back
than about sixty generations, or at the
commencement of the Christian era, the
ancestors of each individual now living,
would amount to about 144 ,OS3, ,1ss ,592,-
l43,S72. The number of mans ances-
tors so far back as the days of Adam and
Eve we really cannot now state, but &C
cording to this computation we should
think it must have been, as Domino Samp-
son would say, p-r-o-d-i-g-i-o-u-s ! so that
it would seem by this that the number of
inhabitants have been decreasing. How
these theories are to be reconciled we will
leave to the advocates of them. As for
ourselves, we are inclined to the opinion
that this latter scientific" demonstration
amounts to just about as much as the
former one, and that they are simply
gas; serving no earthly purpose but to
show what humbugs are put forth as the
result of scientific study and research.
Another of these theories is that " the
sun is gradually cooling, and so is the
earth" ," and that " ultimately the relations
between these bodies will undergo such
changes as to render this globe uninhabita-
BILE by race like the present inhabitants.
There is certainly something rather alarm
ing about this theory and the indefinite
ness of the time when the earth shall be-
come destitute of inhabitants perhaps does
not lessen the chilling sensations which one
feels as he meditates on these hyperborean
prospects. Like the honest fellow who
wished to have the date of &C the good
time coming" fixed, we should feel
something easier in our mind, would the
savants tells us when a" ultimately" is. We
apprehend that it may be soon Last
winter was an extremely cold one, the earth
was quite cool; possibly the ultimate re-
frigeration may take place next winter.
This geological theory is, that this world
was " no doubt, at one time, heated, and
in soft state, and has been and is cooling
and consolidating" That is, we suppose, :,
it was thrown out like a red-hot bullet
when it was first cast into shape and has
been ever since growing harder and colder,
and will continue to do so until " ultimate
ly" arrives. But we have one thing to
make us hope that this consummation so
much dreaded, will not take place in this,
our day, and that is, the large amount of
raw material which seems still to exist
inside of the earth, and is frequently
thrown out from volcanoes in the shape of
red-hot lava, &c., which it will doubtless
take some time vet to cool. But they tell