Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1873-10-29
IMPENDING HORRORS.
The Terrible Predictions of the Ameri- |
can Scientific Association.
From the Daily Graphic.

c"h scientific Association.
From the Daily Graphic.
Few know the terrible import of the
recent meeting of the American Scien7
tific Association at Portland. In it's
development of new horrors in store for
poor humanity it was awfully prolific.
Its members We'd with each other in
4 predictions of coming commissions 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 papers, read by five of
4 the most scientific, trusted. and cele-
] brated members of the Association. A
i terrible and total extinction Of animal
life was foretold by all, the only ques-
ton being which of the five horrors
would first develop itself and perform
| the work of universal destruction.
g.s THE SUN TO BE ExTINGUIsHED.
! Prof Young, the most eminent living
student of solar physics, read a paper
on the sun. That body he argued, is a
gigantic bubble whose crust is gradual
~ thickening and whose size is dimin-
ishing. There is constant loss of
heat, with it's extinction as producer
of warmth and light He quoted Faye,
Secchl, and others to prove that the
material of the SUP is gaseous, and that
these gases are retained by some kind
+ Of crust. Through this surface the
! tumultuous inner composition is con-
stantly squirting and outspurting, with
grand violence. He thinks that this
crust may consist Of a sheet of de-
scending rain-not of water of course,
but of the materials whose vapors are
! known to exist in the solar atmosphere,
and whose condensation and combina
ton are supposed to furnish the solar
heat.,' AS this peculiar rain meets the
gaseous substance of the sun it coales-
ces into a continuous sheet, forming
6 a sort of bottomless ocean, resting
upon the condensed vapors underneath,
and pierced by innumerabl ascending
jets and bubbles " This action of the
suns envelop Will be a quenching OF
the great orb upon which we depend
for heat and light. It will grow small
er, and more compressed and surround
ed by the crust, until it will be so hid
den and mufied as to be practically
excluded from the economy of the uni
verse. The result will be intense cold
and darkness, a cessation of all animal
life, and an Immediate return to origi-
nal chaos. 81 s3f'''t .a 81
THE BUBBLE EARTH TO BURST. et
General J. G.. Barnard described the
interior Of the earth as a ~ often fluid.
Previous notions had given the earth,
| however, rigid exterior surface from
one to two thousand feet deep. He re-
futed this theory, and claimed for the
globe npon which we live somewhat
the construction of a rubber ball filled
with melted lead. The surface is he
thinks, a pliable coating that has been
gradually formed over the fiery mass
inside. A globular form is maintained
by rapid rotary motion, the inner fluid
sustaining the soft shell in it's position,
SO that the undulations are impercepti-
bic to us. Thus we are being whirled
Through space on huge gLobule, the
surface Of which floats on an interior
of liquid fire. Only the rotary speed
of this bubble keeps it together, and
any disarrangement or change in ter
| restrial 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 interlor--it has only been con-
! densed sufficiently to form sort of
| capsule. The tenure Of the worlds ex-
istence, therefore, is exceedingly un-
certain. Any greatly disturbing infu-
ence-the breaking out of huge vol
cano, any change in the surface that
would render it brittle, the impact of
heavy meteor or comet-may, in nc
ment, immolale it, leaving humanity to
whirling death amid the horrors of in
organic space. siltHai45 a
DARKNESS, SILENCE AND DEATH.
Mr.. Fl. f. Walling began an ESSAY on
the g Dissipation of Energy" by say
ing =" Since the days Of the ancients
it has been known that all motion is
gradually developed by friction, and
must finally cease, unless maintained
by external power" The heat power
of the sun, which he regarded ais the
motive power of the earth, is being ex-
hausted by the prodigious lavishness
OF its expenditure. It is supposed, he
said, that the satellite will fall into
planets, the planets into suns, and
suns into common centre, after which I
darkness, silence and death will |
reign He was not without a shadow of
hope, however. He saw only two possible
chances for postponement, at least. |
OF the dreadful catastrophe First,
series of natural chemical evolutions |
attracting to the sun vast amount of
combustible MATERIAL and, second, /
the infinite magnitude of the universe
being sufficient to permit never-ending
concentration of masses One dreaded |
effect OF a loss of sun power, he said,
is displacement of atmospheric forces.
Tidal influences or planetary collisions
may hasten the dreadful catastrophe.
which will be slowing of the ma
chinery OF the universe, until growing
stagDation eliminates in total extinc-
tion of life forces.
UNIVERSAL DRoUTH AND STARVATION.
Prof. Franklin B. Hough foretold
perpetual drouth-the result of clear
ing off of the forests. 'sThe con-
trast, )" he said, between an open and
sunburnt pasture and one interspersed
with clumps of trees must have been
hvyo fl