The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-11-06
Impending Horrors.
THE TERRIBLE PREDICTIONS OF THE AhER1-
CAN SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION.


CAN SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION.
Few know the terrible import of the recent
meeting of the American Scientific Association
at Portland In its developments of new hor-
rors in store for humanity it was awfully pro-
Life. Its members We'd with each other in predic-
tions of coming convulsions of nature, and
sustained their arguments with truths brought
to light from the deepest and darkest wells of
science. That humanity is to be obliterated
was the gist of five new papers read by five of
the most scientific, trusted, and celebrated
members of the Association. A terrible and
total extinction of animal life was foretold by
all, the only question being which of the five
will develop itself and perform the work of
universal destruction.
THE SUN TO BE EXTINGU1sHED.
Prof Young, the most eminent living stu
dent of solar physics, read paper on the sun.
That body, he argued is a gigantic bubble,
whose crust is gradually thickening and whose
size is diminishing. There is q constant loss
of heat, which will end in its extinction as q
producer of warmth and light. He quoted
Faye, Secchi, and others, to prove that the ma
terial of the sun is gaseous, and that these
gasses are retained by some kind of crust.
Through this service the tumultuous inner
composition is constantly squirting and out
breaking with great violence. He thinks that
this crust "may consist of sheet OF descend
ing rain-not of water, of course, but Of the
materials whose yapors are known to exist IN
the solar atmosphere and whose condensation
and combination are supposed to furnish the
gaseous substance of the sun it coalesces into
q continuous sheet, forming "a sort of bottom
less ocean, resting upon the condensed vapors
underneath, and pierced by innumerable as
cending Jets and bubbles" This action Of the
SUMS envelop will be quenching of the great
orb upon which we depend for light and heat:
It will grow smaller and more compressed: and
surrounded by this crust, until it will be so
hidden and mufded as to be practically ex-
cluded from the economy of the universe. The
result will be intense cold and darkness, ces-
sation of all animal life, and an immediate re-
turn to original chaos.
THE BUBBLE EARTH TO BURST.
| General J. G. Barnard described the interior
of the earth rs a molten fluid. Previous no.
tions had given the earth, however, q rigid ex-
terror surface from one to two thousand feet
deep, He refuted this theory, and claimed for
| the globe upon which we live somewhat the
construction of rubber-ball filled with melted
lead. The surface is, he thinks, pliable
coating that has been gradually formed over
the fiery mass inside. A globular form is main
tanned by rapid rotary motion, the inner fluid
sustaining the soft shell in its position, so that
the undulations are perceptible to us. Thus,
we are being whirled through space on huge
globule, the surface of which floats Oh an inte-
| rior of liquid fire. Only the rotary speed OF
this bubble keeps it together, and any disar-
rangement or change in terrestrial phenomena
would transform it all into fluid that would
| resolve itself into vapor. General Barnard
does not believe that the surface is of an essen
TALLY different composition from the liquid in
terior-it has only been condensed sufficiently
to form sort of capsule. The tenure OF the
worlds existence, therefore, is exceedingly un-
certain. ANY greatly disturbing influence
| the breaking out of a huge volcano, any change
in the surface that would render it brittle, the
impact of heavy meteor or comet-may, In
moment, immediate it, leaving humanity to
whirling death amid the horrors of inorganic
space.
DARKNESS, SILENCE AND DEATH.
Mr. H. F. Walling began an essay on ''The
Dissipation of Energy" by saying, "since the
days Of the ancients it is known that all mo,
ton is gradually developed by friction, and
must finally cease unless maintained by ex-
ternal power" The heat power of the sun,
which he regarded as the motive power of the
earth, is being exhausted by the prodgious
layishness of the expenditure. It is supposed,
he said, that the satellite will fall into planets,
planets into suns, and SUNS into common CEN
ire. after which darkness, silence and death
will reign" He was not without shadow OF
hope, however He saw only two possible
| chances for q postponement, at least, of the
dreadful catastrophe: First, series of natural
chemical evolutions attracting to the sun
vast amount of combustibe material; and,
second, the infinite magnitude OF the universe
| being sufficient to permit never-endlng con-
centration of masses. One dreaded effect of
un-power, he said is a displacement of atmos-
pheric forces. Tidal influences or planetary
collisions may hasten the final dreadful catas-
trophe, which will be slowing of the machin-
try of the universe, until growing stagnatIon
eliminates in total extinction OF life iorces
UNIVERSAL DROUGHT AND STARVATION.
Prof Franklin B. Hough fortold perpetual
jrought-the result of clearing off of the for
ests. "The contrast" he said, between an
omen and sun.burnt pasture and one inter
spersed with clunps OF trees, must have been
noticed by every careful observer. The fact
that furniture in houses too much shaded Will
mould, is an instance of the humid influence
of trees, and the results of woodland shade eX-
plain the fulness of springs and streams i'm the
forest, which dry up ard disappear when the
trees are removed"
The rapdity w;eh which forests are disap-
nearing has already been a matter of alarm;
but when we consider the effect upon streams
practical illustrations of large ones being
lessened and small ones extinguished-there is
cause for fright Land will become unwaEered,
and consequently sterile; crops will lessen in
volume, until the arid and treeless plains re-
fuse to respond to the Indictment of the farmer;
universal famine will ensue and the world, en-
tirey depopulated by starvation, will sink into
uninhabitativeness, until some new change
calls another form of life into existence.
INSECTS TO END THE HUMAN RACE.
DIR. LIE Conte, the new President of the AS
sociation, read paper on the enormous in
crease and destructiveness of injurious insects.
The present actual annual damage done by in