Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-07-13
t115 II1IeT WITH lust and
Fragments Which Our Globe Picks
]! Up as We Rush Through Space
Worlds

them to make far flung nebula, which
will begin. obeying natural law we do
not yet understand, to whirl about itself,
form into a spiral, and after incalculable
ages give birth to suns and WORLDS like
or better than our own.
And among the factors still building up
our world the remains Of the nebula from
which came our sun and his family is not
an incOnsiderable one.
And this brings us to the very revolu-
tionary new theories Of science as to the
formation OF our earth whose foremost
protasonist is DR.. Thomas Crowder Cham
berlatn, professor Of geology OF the Uni
versity OF Chicago and one O! the few great
minds of the century. According to this
theory-enunciated by him some time ago
in remarkable address before the Amer
lean Association for the Advancement of
Science and reaffirmed recently at a cele-
bration OF the anniversary Of his connec.
ton with the university-our earth was
never bigger than it is now In fact It
was much, much smaller Instead of being
cast off by the sun in molten, semi.
gaseous state, slowly cooling, immersed
Tor ages in scalding vapors and gradually
evolving into our globe of continents and
oceans-instead OF all that there was moth.
ing like it at all.
Or as Professor Chamberlain puts this
faulty old theory:
he gaseous earth, by cooling and con.
densing, was thought TO pass into molten
2here wrapped in hot. vaporous atmos.
phere. This atmosphere was vast because
the conditions required 1t 10 contain all
the water of the globe and all the volatile
matters that have since entered into the q
waters and the body OF the earth At a
ia'er stage crust was logically made to
form over the molten sphere and IN.
waters to condense upon 1t, swaddling the
entire globe perhaps in a universe, OCEAN
by further cooling. shrinkage and deforma
'oh me waters were thought to be drawn
INTO basins, the land TO appear and the
history OF the stratigra phic record to begin.
IL is important TO note that the main
agency in this hypothetical history was
the loss OF heat.
with the gathering OF the oceans more
ana more into the basins and their absorb.
uon INTO the body OF the earth. with the
peFsisten, consumption OF the atmosnbera
ana with the progression OF the whole tba
moisture of the air was though, a,so 10
nave grown less and less. AZ first deem.
warm mantle OF vapor and cloud hypotbeti.
cai!y clothed the whole earth. and oven
nan nay down the geologic ages was
thought TO have enshrouded the globe and
10 nave given warm, sultry climates to all
!a'itudes, but this mantle at length was
mace to give place TO rifted clouds and
clearer SKIES, and later on TO mild ariditIes
Followed at length BY desert stages, which
are even now supposed to be carried out
persistently on the once fertile land. Thus
we reach our owD times at a stage when
neat and air and atmosphere are running
""sF ihan usual Thug the predestined
Gnu Is 'o!eshadowed In the not distant
future"
ms conception, says Professor Cham
perIa!n shaped Inc earth'g history aa
progress from excesa ~ emac!ation. a slid.
ING do"n the scale; y made the life hjs.
'ory only an cp!stde IL the great decline
from me too hat anf N. TOO large to tho
700 co!d and the nn li',ie.
This hypn,hna!z ea,el,p4d number q,
na"s which viii be atlerz stated later
me new thcofy, taIier the planc,esimaI
hEpo'hes!s pictures me earth. 0r., as
Patl Of "IdegDreai >t,ld nebula. a MAS
% nhciy divided ma.tGr and gases. Thia
enormous dust cloud nad s. sbiraI motion
a. various parts ri s. The matter that
'0'"cd !, began " condengc into kno,a-.