The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1883-01-20
Birth and Death Of Worlds.

II has been shown that past geologi-
cal changes in the earth taken place al
the same rate as those which are now
in progress 100000, 900 of years at the
very least would have boen required tn
produce those effects which have actu
ally been produced, we find since the
arth's surface was fit to be the abode
of life. But recently it hls been point
ed out, correctly in all probability, that
under the greater tide-raislng power CT
the moon in past ages, these changes
would have taken place more rapidly.
As, however certainly 100000 OF
wears, and probably "A much longer
time. must have elapsed since the moon
was at that favorable distance for rails
inc tides, we are by no means enabled,
as some well meaning but mistaken
persons have imagined, to reduce the
life bearing stage of the earth from
duration l00,000,000 of years to a min
ute fraction of such a period. The
short life, but exceedingly lively one,
which they desire to see established by
geological or astronomical reasoning,
never can be demonstrated. At the
very least. we must assign 100000
wears to the life-bearing stage OF the
earth's existence. Ii we now multiply
this period by seven for Jupiter, we get
period Of 60000,000 years longer
But take the stage preceding that OF
life on the earth. From the researches
of Bischoff into the cooling OF masses OF
heated rock, it seems to follow that
period of more than 800, 100000 years
must have been required for the cool
ing Of the earth from n temperature OF
1000 dogs, centigrado to one of 200
degs,, a cooling which has certainly ia
ken place. Suppose, however, that
these experiments or the calculations
based on them, were vtiated by somo
error so considerable as to increase the
real duration Of the fiery stage of our
carth's history more than ten-fold, the
real duration of that period being only
100000 yeats Multiply this 10 turn
by seven, and we get a period OF
2l0.000,000 years, or lSO,O0O,OO0
years longer. We ought next to con
slider the vaporouS stage; but the evi.
dence on which to form an opinion as
to the duration of this stage Of plan
cts history is too slight to be the basis
of actual calculation. Here, rs Tyndall
has well remarked, conjecture must
entirely cease" But, by considering
only two stage5-the fiery stage and the
life-bearing, or rather that portion Of the
ife-bearing stage through which the
earth has hitherto paSsed-we find the
two monstrous time differences-ls0,-
100000 and 60,000,000, or 240000,000
years in all. They mean that, if our as
sumption as to the effect Of Jupiter &
superior mass is correct, then, suppoS-
ing Jupiter and the earth to have start
ed into existence as distinct orbs at the
ssme or nearly the same time, 100000
900, years must elapse before Jupiter
will reach the stage OF planetary life
through which our earth is now passing.
Whelne. lilo assumption be correct or
not, the time differences between the
stages Of Jupiter's life and the earth
are OF this order. They must be meas
wed oy tens Of millions, ii not By hun
dreds Of millions Of years, We must
note, however, that tue 2i0000,0O0
years correspond with only seventh
part OF that time in the earth's history;
50 that we may say that, if our assump-
tions are correct, Jupiter would now
be in the state in which our earils was
100000 years ago or nearer the be-
ginning than the end of the fiery stage,
Bi}rGcil,