4o8 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



GEOLOGY AND THE DELUGE. 



To the Editor: — I have read with 

 much bewilderment an article entitled 

 'Geology and the Deluge,' contributed 

 to 'McClure's Magazine' for June, by 

 Dr. Frederick G. Wright, professor of 

 the harmony of science and religion in 

 Oberlin College. Doubtless other men 

 of science would also be gratified if 

 Professor Wright would consent to 

 make his position clear by answering 

 the following questions: 



1. You say, Professor Wright, that 

 "The Paleolithic man of science may 

 well be the Antediluvian man of 

 Genesis." Was Tubal Cain, 'an instruct- 

 or of every artificer in brass and iron,' 

 an antediluvian man, and, if so, had 

 he not learned to use smoothed stone 

 instruments? Was Noah, himself, a 

 paleolithic or a neolithic man, and did 

 he build the ark with flaked or polished 

 flint implements? 



2. You say: "But towards the close 

 of this period there were 120 years 

 (specially mentioned in the Bible as a 

 time of warning) in which the move- 

 ment was accelerated to such a degree 

 that the rising waters gave point to 

 the preaching of Noah." The period 

 of 120 years here mentioned was de- 

 duced from the statement that Noah 

 was 600 years old at the time of the 

 flood. Do you believe that Noah was 

 600 years old, and that his grandchil- 

 dren that peopled the earth were sub- 

 sequently born? 



3. You say: "During the last 371 

 days of this period the catastrophe 

 culminated in the facts specifically re- 

 lated in the Book of Genesis." Do you 

 believe that the 'facts specifically re- 

 lated in the Book of Genesis' are true? 



For example, that "every living sub- 

 stance was destroyed which was upon 

 the face of the ground, both man, and 

 cattle, and the creeping things, and the 

 fowl of the heaven; and they were de- 

 stroyed from the earth : and Noah only 

 remained alive, and they that were 

 with him in the ark." 



The readers of 'McClure's Magazine' 

 will probably understand that Profess- 

 or Wright claims to have confirmed 

 by his geological discoveries the details 

 related in Genesis. Are Professor 

 Wright's fellow geologists also to un- 

 derstand that he believes that the early 

 chapters of Genesis are in accord with 

 modern science and that they are sup- 

 ported by his recent observations in 

 Asia? 



X. Plain. 



ETHER AND CHLOROFORM. 



To the Editor: — In the course of an 

 article on 'Cocaine Analgesia of the 

 Spinal Cord,' in the July number of 

 the Popular Science Monthly, Dr. 

 JelliflTe writes, "Soon after chloroform 

 came ether, the safer anaesthetic," etc. 

 Ether was, however, introduced before 

 chloroform. On September 30, 1846, 

 Morton, of Boston, used ether in dental 

 surgei-y, and during the following 

 months it was administered in surgical 

 operations at the Massachusetts Gen- 

 eral Hospital. The news reached Eng- 

 land on December 17, 1846. It was 

 used by Simpson, of Edinburgh, in 

 midwifery practice in January, 1847, 

 and it was not until November, 1847, 

 that he announced the discovery of the 

 anaesthetic properties of chloroform. 



C. Heebman. 



