Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1894-03-28
CELESTIAL PHENOMENA.
Fosters Dissertations Upon the Causes
Their Appearance.


/ Fosters Dissertation Upon the Causes O.
Their Appearance.
In studying the evolution of worlds.
we now pass to tn comet'c or this
stage and, as in animal life, we Eu4
the mature forms not so numerous as
are those of incipicnt stages.
The planets move around the sun
from west to east. keeping very nearly
over the suns equator, but comets
move about the sun in all conccivah h!G
directions, and in immense numbers
1t is impossible to give any rel.ah,o
estimate of the numher Of comets
that belong to, 2nd never leave the
solar system. Their mum ers musd
be placed at hundreds OF millions he
sides the monstrGuS fiery wanderers
that, unannounccd, plunge into oar
suns electrOSp !ere, and again hurry
off into unknown spice, perhaps never
to return.
In studying the comet we must
keep in mind the inliSputable ia t
that space has no limits Beyond the
most remote 5 G VIII ca the mind
can conceive, lies illimitable spice.
The universe has no bounds, no CEN
ter and no circumference, and the
laws that govern matter and motion,
are just as illimitabe is space. The
/ laws that cause matter to accumulate
and cOndense must necessarily be the
same everywhere. but varying in force
in accord with surrounding Condi-
tions.
The condensation of matter l be-
lieye to be the first cause of motion.
The growth of an apple, a melon, a
grain OF wheat, an ear Of corn, is a
condensation of matter from space.
The matter that is concentrated into
an apple, probably occupied cubic
mile of space, wnen in its most at
I tenuated form, and while the apple
was growing, there was necessarily a
movement of matter toward the apple
from all directions
Vegetation gains its substance from
space, from the atmosphere, and not
from the earth. The latteris onlYan
electric battery that sets the electric
. currents in mOtiol, thereby gather
ing from space or the atmosphere,
that which builds the vegetable
bodies.
Take a great tank of dry EARTH
plant in it an acorn water il and
grow tree that will weigh a ton, OF
as much as the dry earth weighed at
the start. Then take the tree weigh
ing over ,, 900 pounds out of the tank
, OF soil, and the latter, when dry. will
weigh as much as it did when the
acorn was first planted in it. There
fore vegetation obtains its substance
from space, from the atmosphere.
The matter in a grain of powder
occupied thousands Of times a. much
space when it was in its most atten-
uated, gaseous or ethereal form, and
therefore in order to form the grain
of powder the attenauted matter
must have been set in motion toward
a center.
1t requires l,167 feet of hydrogen
gas, and SO feet of oxygen to con-
sttute one foot of water, therefore
when water is formed, it occupies
LAG times less space than did the
gasSeS out of which it is formed, ami
in the formation of water from the
gasses, there must he a great thrush
: ii
This inruSh OF matter to constitute i
more solid body Is, in my opinion, the
cause OF all motion.
Our atmosphere is supposed to be
at least 200 miles in depth, and if
condensed, would form Il substance
about the weight OF water thirty
three feet deep all over the earth.
This would contain about six feet Of
oxygen or two feet OF solid earth when
fu. theT condensed, and this process il
constantly going on, 10y the earth ac-
cumulating from the atmosphere. OF
this Prot. Mansill says: at is my
opinion that when the earth has ab.
sorbcd this total amount of oxygen
from the atmosphere. that the at
mosphere will have absorbed during
the same time nearly as much oxygen
from space
With these ideas before us, we can
see a cause for the comets movement
towards the sun and then darting
back again into space. When our
solar system has moved into new
space not before occupied by great
heavenly bodies for millions OF years
it finds accumulations of gasSes, and
as the sun is absorbing by its growth
vast amounts of the ether of space,
that ether, from vastly remote re-
gions, is moving toward the sun and
carries with it the gaseous accumula-
tions with such great force that they
plunge deep into the elements that
surround the sun, as you might throw
a block of wood with such force as TO
cause it to sink ten feet into the wa
ter. The wood having been forced
deep into the water by the mOmcn.
tum given ii, would return with su.h
force as to throw it above the water.
Thus 1t is that the comets dive deep
into the elements that surround tho
sun, and are thrown back into space
by the push or repulsion of those clc-
mentS.
No subject in astronomy attracts
such universal attention rs that
which deals with comets, and in the
discussion of these wanderers, the
probability that all satellites, planet
and suns were once comets, that oIr
moon was once Il comet, that ou.'
earth has been repeatedly struck by
great comets, causing the geological
ages of the world, depOsiJing the
stratifieI coal, lime, iron and other
measures, and bringing about that
condition of things which terminated
in Noah's food, hope to interest my
readers to no small extent.
riget, 1892 by ". I, Foster.