Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-01-27
Prof. Darwin's Book.

Professor Darwin of Cambridge univer-
sity, England, son of the great naturalist,
has written book modestly entitled 1.-THE
Tides" in which he advances a novel the
DRY OF his own, and reiterates old
ones concerning the moon and the
earth, their mutual relations to each other
In substance, motion and attraction, that
are said to have caused sensation in his
native country.
The theory that the earth and moon
were, millions of years ago, in one liquid
or gaseous body, revolving from west to
east; and to go still farther back, that all
the planets of our solar system, including
the sun, were at an anterior date i'm one
homogeneous body of LIQUID or gaseous
matter, is not original with Prof. Darwin.
Laplace, Herschell, Humboldt, Arago and
few others, have entertained similar the
cries which are regarded today as the most
plausible explanation of the genesis of our
solar system. At the remote period when
this body of liquid or gaseous matter, &C.
cupying all the space within the orbit of
the remotest planet of our system, per-
haps more, was, in process of time, to de-
velop into planetary system, its aXial
motion was rapid, almost beyond our i'm
agnation, and planets were thrown off in
lar system
Coming now TO the earth and its satel-
lite, which more Immediately concern us,
the professor tells us that the body
that had been discharged from the
sun, and was in the fulness of time TO
develop into earth and moon, had an axial
velocity of eight or ten thousand miles an
hour. This rapid, circumferential motion
Canepd a Of ha h,Ir
the moon was born that only required
few million years to develop into the solid
orb OF night that now aids us in our noe
turnal peregrinations. From some cause,
not satisfactorily explained, the axial rev.
olution of the earth and moon have been
reduced from two or three hours when in
combination, to "a hours, and 30 1-2 days
respectively, with little variation since the
first preserved records were made.
The professor holds TO the almost uni
versal, yet doubtful theory that the moon
is the principal cause of the tides, and adds
theory of his own that will hardly be ac-
cepted by men of science without stronger
evidence than Is now at hand. He tells
us that at the same time that the waters
are piled up under the moon, they have a
repellent influence upon that planet driving
it farther and farther from the earth, enlarg-
ing its orbit, so that in time its orbital
revolution will require 80, instead of 90 1-2
days. The repellent force of the tides.
acting upon the moon is something new,
and may become a dangerous enemy to
gravitation that has, to the present time,
prevented terrestrial bodies from taking
their departure skyward. Moreover, if the
waters of our globe have repellent effect
upon the moon, why not the land, thus
driving our satellite beyond its usefulness,
and leaving terrestrial beings to grope in
darkness. But is the moon actually en-
larging its orbit, and increasing its distance
from the earth as the professor tells Us?
The earliest authentic observations of
eclipse made at Babylon in 719, 720 and
721 A. D., show that the same eclipse oc.
CURED then 81 hours sooner than it oc-
ours at the present day. Hence the or
btal motion of the moon was less rapid,
and hence its distance from the earth was
greater than it is now; for it is a law of
astronomical science that the more distant
planet from the body around which it re-
wolves the slower will be its orbital mo-
ton. Therefore, the moon has been slow
ly approaching the earth, according to au-
thentic records, for nearly 1900 years, and
it is probable that this impeachment be-
gan many thousand years earlier. Astron-
omers tell u that this impeachment will
finally cease, when the moon will recede
from the earth as gradually as she APP
preached it. This oscillation is at present
confined within immense limits not yet
discovered
Prof. Darwin's conclusion that the
moon will eventually return to the earth
is not chimerical If the hypothesis of its
origin be correct. If his subject had led
him farther on the entire solar system
might have been embraced in prodigious
catastrophe and confiagration, such an
one as is believed to have occurred in the
constellation Cassiopeia in 1872, when
brilliant light suddenly appeared that
could be seen at MONDAY. Gradually the
brilliancy diminished to an ashy paeness,
and disappeared at the end of 16 months.
The phenomenon alarmed all the astrono-
mers of Europe. :. Z. {.
Wilmington, Vt.