244 Prof. Silliman’s Address before the 
brought into existence, we are at liberty, on this topic, to make * 
any supposition not inconsistent with physical and chemical laws. 
If we admit then, that the elements of matter were created in — 
their simple or uncombined condition, (a supposition which is in 
no degree improbable,) then it is obvious, that a mutual and en- 
ergetic action would be the immediate result of their first con- 
tact; intense ignition and general combustion would follow, 
sitendéd by fusion, volatilization, and all the concomitants of a 
powerful chemical conflict. The action would relent as the 
combinations proceeded, as incombustible compounds resulted 
from the union of the elements, and as radiation into space 
eooled the surface. Thus, an oxydized crust would be formed 
around the nucleus of the earth, and similar incombustible com- 
pounds would be produced by all the agents that excite combus- 
tion—chlorine, iodine, bromine, fluorine, and other similar ele- 
ments, if such there be. Water would of course be formed from 
the union of its elements, and as it obtained access through the 
fissured crust to the still combustible interior of the planet, vio- 
lent phenomena of combustion and explosive eruption would 
follow, until the combustibles to which the water obtained ac- 
cess had been thoroughly burned. The heat evolved by the 
energetic chemical action, whether induced by combustion or by 
any other mode of chemical action, might ignite, to a great depth, 
the combustible materials lying betibathh the crust ; thermo 
galvanic electricity would propagate the ignition to a profound 
depth, and the power thus evolved as an effect, might, in its 
turn, operate as a cause, until the entire interior became ignited, 
softened, or even fused, more or less extensively. 
Such agencies would: of course, be attended by various and 
powerful chemical effects; combinations and decompositions 
would result in the siginentation of heat, which again acting 
thermo-electrically, would tend to perpetuate and augment its 
Own energy. Our recent experience proves, that heat may be long 
given out by the so called perpetual batteries, so that arrange 
ments may be imagined among the elements or compound mate- 
wale he earth, by which a perpetual evolution of heat may be 
