No. 4. 



Dialos:ue between a Father and Son. 



115 



ings and feet are often found wet with per- 

 spiration on removing the rubbers ; while 

 much pain in the feet, as also in the head, is 

 oftentimes experienced, during the time they 

 are worn ; the first is occasioned by the pres- 

 sure of the atmosphere upon the feet, the 

 second, for want of proper circulation and 

 evaporation ; all insensible perspiration being 

 checked by the closeness of the rubber shoes; 

 and I have no doubt much and serious illness 

 has arisen from this cause. 



Frank. — Then are not those vvaterproof 

 clothes, now so much in fashion, injurious, 

 from the same cause ] 



Father. — Undoubtedly they are, and I speak 

 from experience ; for I once had a water-proof 

 great coat, to defend me from the heavy rains 

 to which I was at that time exposed, and was 

 for some time at a loss to account for the ex- 

 treme fatigue and lassitude which I always 

 felt on wearing it, until tlie thought struck 

 me that it arose from impeded circulation and 

 checked perspiration. I never put it on again, 

 nor ever again did I feel that sense of suffoca- 

 tion and difficulty of breathing, which always 

 affected me when I wore it. 



Frank. — Thank you for this lecture on the 

 pressure of the atmosphere ; I shall now bo 

 able to account for many things which have 

 piizzled me amazingly. But there is still one, 

 which I cannot understand ; and although it 

 does not seem to have occasioned much in- 

 quiry, it appears to me very wonderful, and 1 

 should like to know more about it. I was 

 reading in the Penny Magazine the other 

 day, an account of the vast salt mines in Po- 

 land, which, although they have been worked 

 for many ages, seem, at this day, quite inex- 

 haustible. Other countries, also, are found to 

 contain mountains of this mineral in the bow- 

 els of the earth, while the never-failing salt 

 springs, which are so often met with in this, 

 and in almost every other country, might be 

 supposed, I should think, to flow from beds of 

 salt buried in the earth ; and if so, tliey must 

 be of infinite extent. I used to think this 

 salt was different from that procured from 

 sea water by evaporation ; but it is proved to 

 be identically the same, contaminated, some- 

 times, with other matters, but when purified, 

 it is, in reality, marine salt. Now the ques- 

 tion is, — how came such enormous masses of 

 sea salt to be deposited at such great depths 

 in the earth ] Were they thus formed at the 

 creation of the world '! 



Father. — This is a most interesting ques- 

 tion, and yet, strange to say, it would appear 

 that no attempt has been made to account for 

 so wonderful a phenomenon. Home Tooke 

 said, " what a man troweth, that is truth," 

 and after much thought and reflection, I have 

 adopted a theory — I suppose it might be called 

 —which, although to my own mind it is satis- 



factory; yet I should almost despair of making 

 it intelligible to others, much less to render 

 it plausible to any; but let us see what we 

 can make of it. 



I believe that the elements oF this globe, 

 earth, air, fire, and water, were all created at 

 the same time, and are dependent upon each 

 other — all being necessary for the formation 

 of the perfect whole — that the fires which are 

 now raging in the bowels of the earth, were 

 kindled at the time of the creation ; and that 

 their grand office is, to furnish the earth with 

 fresh water by distillation — the water being 

 originally salt — that this salt water passes 

 from the sea by secret channels, into the cav- 

 erns of the earth, where, coming in contact 

 with those subterranean fires, it is by them 

 converted into steam, which, ascending 

 through the crevices of the earth, is at length 

 condensed into streams of fresh water, which 

 form springs — the sources of rivers — upon the 

 surface of the earth. The saline particles of 

 the water, which cannot be made to rise by 

 distillation, are left, after this process, in the 

 bowels of the earth — the caverns formed by 

 the burning away of the earth, becoming their 

 receptacles — until they accumulate, so as to 

 form those immense mountains of rock salt, 

 which are there found at the present day, and 

 from whence flow those salt springs of which 

 you have spoken. So then, thus it would 

 seem : — The waters of the ocean are contin- 

 ually escaping through caverns — many of 

 which we have read of; particularly that 

 great whirlpool, Maelstrom, on the coast of 

 Norway, which forms a vast funnel, many 

 miles in circumference, into which, if a ship 

 enter, it is sucked, or drawn down into the 

 abyss, without the possibility of escape — 

 wliere, coming in contact witli subterranean 

 fires, they are instantly converted into steam, 

 which, on condensing, forms springs of fresh 

 water ; the residuum, which cannot be evapo- 

 rated, goes to form those enormous mountains 

 and beds of rock salt in the earth, of which 

 you have read ! Now do you understand 

 what I have been saying! 



Frank. — I believe I do, but the idea is so 

 new to me, and so astonishing, that I hardly 

 know what to say. And yet, this theory 

 seems to account for these mountains of salt, 

 in a very natural way, as also, for those hot 

 mineral springs in many parts of the world, 

 of which we so often read — boiling hot, even 

 upon the surface of the eartli, and forced up 

 to an astonishing height by some invisible 

 power; thus forming boiling foimtains. 



Father. — Yes, and this theory accounts for 

 the cause of earthquakes, and all those terri- 

 ble revolutions, which are continually taking* 

 place in different parts of the globe — it would 

 appear that they are all occasioned by the 

 power of steam.' 



