Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1855-07-11
THE SCIENCE OF GEOLOGY.

10 O SuSJSSS "aSA Wv f'>.~~0
to have but slender acquaintance. From
what we do know however, we are inclined
to think that many things taught by the
sauans are contrary to the Scriptures" and
not sustained by facts and reason. The de.
velopment", and "fre", theories have always
seemed to us highly Objectionable, and as
may readily be supposed, the article below,
taken from the Scientific American, has not
had tendency to change our opinion in
respect to the internal heat which goes on
increasing in intensity, until, as seems to us,
fire itself would be dissolved before the earth's
centre is reached, and degree of heat be
engendered which would burst the. shell iu.
to fragments, though it were bound around
with brass and iron bands, made with all the
metal in its bowels. We should not be sur.
prised if after ali we had to come back and
learn. some things from Israels old law giver
and historian.
Many men of scientific, attachments be.
lieve and teach that the materials of our
globe were once in red hot motion state,
and that the interior of the earth is now
mass of fiery matter. 1t is a hypothesis
which is taught in our colleges, and is found
to prevail among those who have been
termed "the learned in the speculative SCI
ences." Those who teach this hypothesis,
have calculated the earth's crust to be only
about sixty miles in thickness. In describing
the primitive condition Of the earth, they
assert, that at one time all its matter existed
in state of gas; then "there came physi.
cal and chemical action (oose expressions
in the nebulous mass. producing light and
heat causing general conhagration, which
resulted in the formation of that mineral
mass which compasses our globe" cit is
generally admitted" says the Rev. John 0.
Means, in the Bibliotheca Sacra for April
last, "by geologists, that the result of these
chemical combinations producing combus.
tons, was melted incandescent body, which
by radiation, became solid in the exterior
only thus solid crust was formed covering
burning fluid mass" The proof adduced
for this interior fire is volcanoes, hot springs,
and the increase Of heat in deep mines.
Those who teach this hypothesis, also assert,
that the sun on account of its size, has not
cooled down to the condition of our globe,
but it is passing slowly into that condition; F;
hence period must arrive-if true-when
the sun will cease to give light, and when it
will become a dark body. Strange too as
it may appear, however, the Rev. ]. @.
Means, who believes in this theory so hearth.
", confutes himself in stating what he be-
lieves is the cause of the solar light, by
attributing it to atmosphere of burning gas,
the sun itself being dark central body. If
it be true that the sun has an atmosphere OF
burning luminous gas, and his body is dark
object, no stronger argument could ever be
presented against the sun ever being molten
fiery mass.
If the matter of which our earth is com.
posed was once in state of gas, we do not
know of any chemical law, whereby it could
have become molten burning mass. All
chemical laws are opposed to such view of
the question. Matter in gaseous state be-
comes fluid by giving out great quantities of
heat; it contains less heat in solid or fluid
than gaseous state. Steam gives out about
one thousand degrees of heat in becoming
water If our globe was once in state of
gas what could have become, Of the immense
amount of heat which must have been given
out when it became fluid. 1t could not be-
come hotter than it was in a state of gas,
excepting by compression, the same as air is
compressed in condenser for experimental
purposes.
There is no positive evidence that this
earth was ever in a molten state,. or that its
central part is now mass of fire. The
granite rocks do not exhibit the marks OF
fire. IF this earth had once been motion
mass they would be a homogeneous Stag,
composed of all the known metals and min
erals, but such is not their composition.
There is also no positive evidence that the
water Il, thermal springsis heated by inter-
nal fire in the earth, or that mines, from the
same cause, become warmer as they increase
insdepth: The practical scientific miners OF
Cornwall attribute the temperature OF mines
to the decomposition of minerals therein.
! The copper mines are hotter than the lead