Symmes's theory of concentric spheres
Subtitle: demonstrating that the earth is hollow, habitable within, and widely open about the poles
By: by a citizen of the United States
Contributors: Symmes, John Cleves, 1780-1829
Publisher: Morgan, Lodge and Fisher
Published: 1826
Place of publication: Cincinnati
Language: eng
Number of pages: 168
Subjects: Symmes, John Cleves, -- 1780-1829; Earth -- Miscellanea; geology
Genres: Science; SciFi; 19th Century; Americana
Description: Author James McBride presents John Cleve Symmes theory that the earth is constructed of a series of hollow shells and that it has large openings near the poles.  The work was presented as science in a series of lectures in the 1820s and was met with humor, sarcasm, outright denouncement, and a few true believers.  The work has value today primarily as a cautionary tale of how science based on too few facts and too much speculation, without peer review, can go far wrong.  The work has been borrowed from to create plot lines for numerous science-fiction books and films featuring humans or strange species living inside the earth.
Notes: Written by James McBride, "under the direction and with the revision of Captain Symmes." See McBride's Pioneer biography, v. 2, p.243

"A short biographical sketch of Captain Symmes": p. 157-168

Thomson, P.G.  Ohio, 740

LCCN 48032583 finds no entry in the Library of Congress catalog. This entry can be traced by Google to the Linda Hall Library of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.