CONTENtS. 



Atmosphere composed of hundreds of different compounds of nW 

 terials. STORMS : Sir John Herschell and Prof. Rogers on Storms. 

 Magnetic curves from the poles of the earth, the cause of wind 

 and storms. Cause of Equatorial Calms. Maury on cyclones. 

 Description of a so-called Circular Storm. Hints for Weather 

 Prophets 124^-132 



CHAPTER XX. 



ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, AND MINERAL FO6l>. 



Nothing so much to do with our discomforts as food. The body a 

 machine. Professor Lyon Playfair on Food. Liebig's classes of 

 food. Flesh formers. Heat givers, and mineral ingredients. 

 Knows nothing of the action of the last class. Contradictions. 

 Experiments by scientific men always conducted too loosely. 

 Animal food only concentrated vegetable matter. English Navvies 

 and Arabs. Sepoys and Ghoorkas. How much an Esquimaux eats, 

 according to Sir John Ross. -Canadian Indians and salt. Criminals 

 in Holland. The Scotch and Indigestion. The action of minerals 

 in the body , > . . , ... . . 183^-138. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



Fou"nd to be of vegetable origin. Prof. Rogers on Coal. Statements 

 faulty. Unacquainted with natural law. Rogers' theory. Grew 

 in a swamp. Soaked with mineral oils. Baked by the earth's 

 internal fire. A forest makes half an inch of coal. A tree said to 

 absorb carbon. Incorrect. Sir Henry De la Beche and his calcu- 

 lations. Fallacies about carbon. How carbon and hydrogen camts 

 into the coal. Our theory of coal. Prairies. Charcoal in the 

 seams. Nova Scotia mines. Inundations. No internal fire. No 

 Baking. The whole process one of petrifaction. Coal inexhaus- 

 tible. . , 139-^144. 



CHAPTER XXH. 



HOW CORAL 



Strange Chapter. Coral insects unworthy of notice. Misplaced eulogy. 

 Theories of Coral growth. The insect monument and tomb. Not 

 found below thirty fathoms. Coral found a mile and a half deep. 

 Coral on the Isthmus ot Panama, not made by insects. The Coral 

 insect a parasite merely. The cochineal. How Coral grows. 

 Millions feeding from one month. Coral grows by budding. 

 Agassiz on Florida reefs, and arguments against Darwin. Darwin's 

 curious theories on Coral reefs. Sir John Herschell. How Coral 

 commences to grow. The true theory of reefs. How a gap in * 

 Teef was billed. Coral merely the home of the irisecu . . H'S^ISS* 



