NOMOS. 137 



upon her axis, and, thus changing, the result must 

 be that the consequent fusion, and expansion, and 

 bulging out, will be carried from the original point 

 in an equatorial belt around the earth to the same 

 point again. And thus we may possibly account 

 for the peculiar form of the earth without the assump- 

 tion of original fluidity, and for the so-called ff central- 

 fire" without the aid of the fire-mist or chemical 

 hypothesis, while at the same time the form of the 

 earth is seen to be intended to answer other purposes 

 besides that of fitting it for easy translation through 

 space. We may assume, moreover, that this equa- 

 torial expansion will be constant in the main, for 

 there is no time for the molten mass to cool to any 

 extent before the solar rays are again collected on 

 the same spot. We may assume this, we say, for if 

 the molten mass takes so long to cool when it chances 

 to be ejected as lava from a volcano, how much longer 

 must it retain its heat when it is covered up deep 

 within the bowels of the earth ! 



But we cannot assume that this equatorial expan- 

 sion of the earth is absolutely constant. 

 On the contrary (and this is the second 

 point to which we wished to direct attention) 



there must be certain fluctuations in this rft y s win be 



. to cause a 



expansion, by which the region imme- transitory 



diately over the focus is made to bulge in'th" region 



out more than any other part of the equa- 



torial circle. The amount of this fluctua- 



tion, moreover, must represent exactly the to the transi - 



,. , , , .^ . n-,-, tory bulging 



diurnal and annual variations of the solar out which is 



heat, and thus the expansion which obtains region imme- 

 in the region over the focus must be 



