\i \» Phillips's Causes of Geological Changes. 361 



other in England for its watering-places, it cannot fail to 

 become the travelling companion of the numerous intelligent 

 visiters of the south-eastern coast. 



In a future Number we may state Mr. Mantell's views on 

 the former submergence mid elevation of the Weald district, 

 and compare them with the opinions of other geologists. 



Phillips, Sir Richard : An Essay on the Physico- Astronomical 

 Causes of the Geological Changes of the Earth's Surface, 

 and of the Changes in Terrestrial Temperature, by Sir 

 Richard Phillips, with a Preface by William Devonshire 

 Saul, Esq. F.G.S. &c. 8vo, 72 pages. Sherwood and Co. 



,8lfl^8l 2 ; imuei ^a3ji k> gnwob tUbAu 9riJ yd bsbufom yd" on 

 As the author of the parent pamphlet rejects the generally 

 received doctrine of universal gravitation, his explanation of 

 the causes of astronomical phenomena and their influence in 

 changing the relative position of the sea and land on the 

 earth's surface, will not meet with the ready acceptance either 

 of astronomers or geologists. This, however, is not alone 

 sufficient to prove that these explanations are erroneous. It 

 would be foreign to our purpose to enter into the controversy 

 respecting the existence of universal gravitation ; the name 

 represents a series of constant effects, of whose cause we know 

 nothing; but all modern attempts to introduce another cause 

 in the place of gravitation appear to us to render the subject 

 more unintelligible to the astronomical student, and to impede 

 the progress of science. We will endeavour to state the 

 leading features of Sir R. Phillips's system, as applied to 

 geology. It is well known that the relative proportion of 

 land and water on our planet is very different in the two 

 hemispheres. If the surface of the two hemispheres were each 

 estimated at 500 parts; in the northern hemisphere there are 

 210 parts land, and in the southern hemisphere there are only 

 64- parts land. The cause of this inequality is here stated to 

 be the ellipticity of the earth's orbit, by which the earth is 

 brought nearer to the sun, and moves with greater velocity 

 through its orbit in the winter solstice, when the south pole is 

 turned from the sun. " This increased motion, and all the 

 combined forces, generate an increase in the tides, and ac- 

 cumulate a body of waters towards that parallel of that 

 hemisphere [the southern] in which lies the perpendicular 

 direction of the forces, or the actions and reactions." But, as 

 the line of the apsides is variable, the perihelion, or nearest 

 part of the orbit to the sun, will, in the course of about 10,000 

 years occur at the summer solstice, when the south pole will 

 be turned towards the sun, and the north pole from it ; at that 

 time the increased motion of the earth, at its perihelion 



