NEW THEORY OF THE ORI(4IN OF THE EARTH. 41 



great reservoir of carbon dioxide, containing 18 times as much 

 as the atmos{)here. 



In the light of this tlieory the warm climate of the Tertiary 

 period, when suli-tropical plants flourished in the arctic regions, 

 is thought to be due to an excess of carbon dioxide in the 

 atmosphere, instead of being caused by a molten interior and 

 but recently modified tiery vapors in the air. 



This opens an entirely new field in meteorology. If some 

 means can be found of measuring tlie increase or decrease of 

 carbon dioxide in the atmosi)here. as the liarometer measures 

 the atmospheric pressure, forecasts may then be made long in 

 advance of warm and cold seasons, and of periods of wetness 

 and dryness. 



On the same princii)le the coming of t'-opical ])eriods, ages 

 hence, or the advent of glaciers may be calculated as accurately 

 as cold and hot waves are now predicted witli reasonable cer- 

 tainty by the weather bureau. 



Meteorology in the future will not be morelv a study of air 

 currents, of areas of high and low pressure; it will be a coml)in- 

 ation of chemistry and physics, of geology and astronomy. 



And now, if you are not weary of following these speculations, 

 let us go l)ack to our first inquirv. How did we get here? That 

 is, How did life originate on the earth? The generally accept- 

 ed scientific hypothesis, the nebular hypt)thesis, carries with it 

 the corollary that all our animal and vegetable life originated on 

 this planet, because no life germs could have lived through the 

 fiery incandescent vapors and mcdten nucleus of the infant 

 earth. But the new hy[)othesis ojjcns the door for a new specu- 

 lation, and makes it possilile and probaltle that life germs 

 existed in the planetesimals that formed the dust cloud from 

 which the earth originated — that life germs have come to it with 

 the dust that has been drawn from the caves of space during 

 the countless age« of its growth. These germs, like grains of 

 corn found in Egyptian mummies, took root, grew, and flourish- 

 ed whenever and wherever the conditions in which tiiey found 

 themselves were favorable, as flower seeds, appurently lifeless in 

 he f ioz< n foil, rise tVom their lowly [rison. deck themselves 



