Year: 1874

4


The Human Race to be Exterminated,
E. G. Larue in New York Graphic.


LEE OBSERVATORY, N. Y, June 3D.


One of the great cyclic epochs in the


history of the earth is approaching


one which TO man shall be more i'm
/ portant than all except that which
rendered his existence possible. For


if the calculations which, in company
with other astronomers, have made
shall prove correct-and of their cor


rectness in mathematical and physi-


cal point OF view there is hardly room
| for doubt-but a short time remains
| for man to inhabit the earth he shall


pass away as the fossil fauna and fora


have passed away, and shall make


room ON the planet for the appearance
of other and higher organisms. The
/ time has fully come for the open and


deliberate assertion of this truth, and
| take it upon myself to assert in all
| its length and breadth that which
Professor Swift and Parkhurst have
through what hold to be an unwor-
| thy fear of consequences, not more
! than half breathed. That they kR0aC
that in passing through the tail of the
comet the physical conditions of the


earth and especially of its atmosphere
must undergo marked and well defln-


ed changes, is scarcely worth saying.
| No physicist believes that, for instance,
the addition of a milliOnth part of the
carbon which, as the spectroscope
shows, is present in such comets as
have been obsarved thus far-Donati s
would not be sufficient to preclude
the possibility of human life on the
globe. But it has not yet been dem
onstrated that that portion of eosmic
matter which appears in commets is
entirely carbon, and the probabilities
are vastly in dIsfavor of such belief.
The continuous spectrum of fecte1
light which some comets afford is not
conclusive as to the physical condition
of cometary matter, and all that has
as yet been settled in regard to these
visitors from the interstellar spaces
is that they are gaseous. What the
gas of which any particular comet is
composed must be decided in each
case. We know that in the spectra of
the sun, stars and comets lines are pre-
sented which are given by no earthly
substance with which science is ac-
quainted. Thus is opened a wide
field for conjecture which, confined
with strictly scientific limits and meth
eds, has well-defined result which l
shall endeaVor to make plain to per-
sons who have not had the advantage
of special scientific training.


In the main my observations of the
new comet, made with fully equip
ped ten-foot achromatic telescope,
agree with those made by Mr.. Park.
hust, but we differ materially, bya full
day and half, in regard to the mo-
ment when the earth and the comet
shall be in contact. l fancy that Mr..
Parkhurst makes use of logarithmic
tables which are somewhat anfiquat-
ed but as to the main point-that of
contact ut last--I think we are fully IN
accord. My calculations lead me to
believe that as early as July Goth in
stead of the 22d we shall be within the
eastern edge of the comets tail; but,
after all, that is matter rofimportance
only to the scientific world. The re-
suits which shall ensue are of impor-
tadce to US all.


The new comet is coming so nearly
directly to the earth that on or about
the 20th of July we shall enter its less
dense matter-the nucleus shall not
touch us. Such a phenomenon is not
known to have occurred before, al
though it Is surmised that once-a few
years ago-we touched upon the faint
est outskirts of the tail Of one of these
bodies. The season Immediately after
this was unusually "siekly," and for
three years afterwards continued to
be so, as have found-no one else, so
far as / know, having noted the fact
by reference to mortuary tables of
most of the European cities. The
we'll marked increase of pulmonary
and throat diseases at that time might
we'll be accounted for by the undue
prevalence, say, of chlorine, left in the
earth's atmosphere. Since the appear
ance of Donati's comet diptheria has
been very revalent-indeed, the dis
ease was hardly reconized before.
atate megely the facts here, being un-