Miscellaneoics Papers. 231 



you will prove your statement." "Well, Mr. Newcomb, gravi- 

 tation may act near the earth's surface, but it does not extend 

 above the atmosphere, and does not reach to the moon at all." 

 "How do you know?" retorted Newcomb. "Have you been up 

 there to see?" 



Cosmogony is another of the favorite topics of scientific 

 freaks. I received an ungrammatical, misspelled mimeograph 

 letter recently, from which I quote literally: "Our Moon is a 

 skeleton of a former planet, rising too near the sun, she lost 

 her gaseous belt through combustion, being now without lift- 

 ing power, she plunged into space; her naked body ignited 

 being exposed to friction against universal matter, her interior 

 gradually burned out, and as the lava oozed out of her vol- 

 canoes, being unrestrained by atmospheric pressure, flowed 

 unhindered into space forming gigantic talcs, as she swepped 

 majestically through space. Through eruptions a multitude 

 of chambers formed in her interior, which gradually filled 

 up with gaseous matter, by which means the former planet, 

 transformed into a comet maintained her position and finally 

 collided with our planet, penetrated her gaseous belt, sank 

 deep into our atmosphere and revolutionized the whole of our 

 planetary surface, continents disappeared and reappeared 

 from ocean beds, mountains slided into oceans, and ocean beds 

 raised up gigantic peaks, confusion and terror prevailed among 

 animals, new species were created through fright and the hu- 

 man race became possible." There you have the whole story — 

 astronomical, geological and biological in two stupendous sen- 

 tences, for, "swepped" on by the irresistible current of his 

 phantasmagoria, he stops but once to breathe. No doubt the 

 above explains the statement that "We are fearfully and won- 

 derfully made !" The author further on asserts that Mars and 

 Uranus consist of hydrogen, Saturn of oxygen, and Jupiter 

 and Neptune of nitrogen, and that as these heavenly bodies 

 sweep through our atmosphere these gases mix, and combine 

 to form rain. The rings of Saturn, it seems, are gigantic 

 rainbows ! There is not a hint of hesitation or doubt through- 

 out the paper. One is reminded of the caustic criticism of a 

 similar dogmatist, "Every time he opens his mouth he sub- 

 tracts from the sum total of human knowledge!" 



The above is only one of the worst of the phantasms which 

 the freaks perpetrate upon the long-suffering public. I have 

 in my possession a bound pamphlet from an "M. D.," of 



