596 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



before the earth is so broken up ; for celestial bodies pass through their 

 cosmical cj^cles in times somewhat proportional to their magnitude. 

 Tlierefore, long before the earth meets this, her final doom, the moon 

 will have been so broken up that her "lunar meteorites" will have 

 been placed in the mineralogical museums, I trust, at less than " two 

 dollars a pound." 



Accordingly, we must look for the origin of our meteorites up away 

 from the sun. \Ye believe that they are fragments of some of the 

 more minute asteroids of which hundreds yet continue to move be- 

 tween Mars and Jupiter. The frequent stony meteorites now falling, 

 therefore, probably are the foi'erunners of a period of frequent iron 

 meteorites, corresponding to the deeper portions of the same minute 

 planet, the exterior layers of which have been reaching us quite fre- 

 quently of late. The meteoric irons of our cabinets must have be- 

 longed to another asteroid, broken up at an earlier date than the as- 

 teroid now yielding the large and frequent crops of meteoric stones. 



This is not the place for a more complete development of this view. 

 But, as every reader inevitably would ask the question, " Whence these 

 meteorites ? " we deemed it best to give our answer. 



The nebular theory fully accounts for the planetary system in its 

 glory ; but this harmony is finally followed by a breaking up and de- 

 struction of each body, which then as meteorites continue to move, 

 truly cosmical fossils, until they find a temporary rest on the orbs 

 which are nearer the grand centre of our world, the glorious sun. 



-- 



HOUSE-YENTILATION. 



" /~\LD FULLER" wise, witty, and thoroughly practical pro- 

 V_/ nounced by Coleridge to be " incomparably the most sensible, 

 the least prejudiced great man of an age that boasted a galaxy of 

 great men" tells us that "houses ought to be built to live in, and not 

 to look at ; " and it seems strange that a truth so obvious should re- 

 quire to be enunciated by an authority so great. 



Since Fuller's time w^e have in all respects vastly progressed. We 

 are eminently a practical people, and are undisturbed in our utilita- 

 rian pursuits by purely (esthetic proclivities. But, if we have not real- 

 ized the beautiful in architecture, we ought at least to have advanced 

 toward the attainment of utility. Unfortunately, however, the aim 

 and development of our national characteristics have not taken the 

 useful direction of making our houses "fit to live in" but only to 

 let, and to sell ! 



To live in a house in the Fullerian sense means, of course, exist- 

 ence therein under the best attainable conditions of health, ease, com- 



