Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-11-04
A LONG LOOK AHEAD.
Slow Progress Of Earthly Life Toward
Annihilation.

jacques Leotsrd In La Nature
Before reaching the present period Of IL
history the earth passed in succession through
great geological phases, during which its con-
tinents and seas were several times deranged
by the internal forces that its nucleus of matter
in fusion developed. None of these reyolu-
tons has been able to destroy the powerful
germs of life, and II is today more impossible
than ever for a geological cataclysm to cause
such result. The most important Of the his
toric catastrophes of this kind is contem pora-
neous. We refer to the gigantic eruption Of
krahatoa in 1888, which claimed 80 900
victims and totally transformed the confgura-
ton OF the Strait Of Sunda Despite their great
violence such phenomena are always local, and,
consequently, without untoward influence upon
animate beings collectively. The internal ac-
tIvity of our planet is now greatly reduced. So
the earth has entered upon the calm period of
It's existence. rapid examination of this pro-
grossive dimiGution of in,erna, ~nergy is to lead
US to particularly rational solution of the
problem OF the worlds end. When the solid
crust OF our globe formed ii surrounded an in
candescent fund spheroid, which after ward con-
densed toward its center under the action of
cooling. In measure as 1t contracted this
nucleus diminished in volume and the external
covering gave way in places and cracked in or
der to follow the motion OF shrinkage. 1t is in
tHls way tdt were prOOuceu the large lOiuB
that formed the principal reliefs of the sur
face. Consequently the terrestrial crust, hav-
ing become thicker, will be covered by enor-
nous crevasses through which the oceans and
atmosphere will be gradually absorbed in the
numerous internal spaces.
The surface of the moon, deprived Of air An
water, with immense burrows that traverse its
plains and mountains, presents the spectacle
of this beginning of rupture, for our satellite
is more advanced in development than the ter
restrial globe. Having passed this stage the
dead star, cracked in all directions, will break
in pieces and the fragments will be scattered
along its orbit This destiny of the earth is
still a thing Of a very remote future. Yet 1t
seems as If the natural evolution OF our globe
will cause the disappearance of life long before
the extinction OF the sun. 1t IL, moreover,
easy to see that in the geological epochs lost
in the night of ages the vital forces were
more powerful than those of our day. We
have a proof of this in the exuberance of
life that then gave birth to animals and
plants beside which the present gigantic beings
such general weakening of vitality, man will
have fallen into physical decadence that his
refined intelligence will not be able to supply
the place OF, will probably be also the day on
which the last representatives. of our race and
of the entire creation will have to live in the
bowels of the Garth in the pursuit Of air and
water, which slowly descend toward the center
of the earth. Deprived of atmospheric fluid,
the surface Of the globe will thereafter have for
temperature only that of intersteilary space,
say hundred centigrade degrees below zero.
And while our human race will be reimmersed
in the nihility from which it had emerged for
few thousands Of centuries, other humanities
will succeed one another upon the inpumerable
stars that people infinite space.