178 
POPULAE SCIENCE I^EWS. 
[December, 1891. 
glacial theory, as understood in its absolute sense, 
is, they have generally placed a too high estimate 
on its extent and intensity. It needs but a little 
effort of the reasoning powers to come to the con- 
clusion that the earth had cooled to the degree 
that all animal and vegetable life could exist upon 
it, and that a portion of the earth's surface per- 
manently covered with snow and ice was abso- 
lutely indispensable to the existence, perpetuity, 
and well-being of animal and vegetable life. 
Again, they have attributed to the glaciers the 
rocks, gravels, and other material which they 
have found spread here and there long distances 
from the mountains. The transportation of the 
so-called erratic rocks has appeared inexplicable 
in any other way, and the piles of rock and gravel 
have been considered so many moraines, that is, 
deposits of diverse material transported by the 
glaciers. They do not regard the probability of 
other agents taking the place of glaciers, and 
undervalue the moving power of water. Water 
in liquid state has often produced analogous ef- 
fects, and it has often been the error of the gla- 
cialists to confound the one with the other. The 
erratic rocks and the moraines are undoubtedly 
the ordinary indications of the ancient gravels, 
but, taken isolately, they are not sufficient proof. 
In order to convince they should be accompanied 
with a third indication, which is the presence of 
striated rocks which we find in the neighborhood 
of our actual glaciers. When all these signs are 
together then there is hardly a possibility of 
error, but one alone is not sufficient, because it 
can be the effect of another cause. 
No doubt the temperature was really lower at 
the Quaternary Age and at the epoch generally 
assigned to man's advent in European countries, 
but the difference was not so great as some say. 
A lowering of four degrees is suflicient to explain 
the ancient extension of the glaciers. We can 
look on this figure as the maximum, for it is 
proved today that humanity played the main role 
in the glacial phenomena. The beds of rivers and 
the alluvia are there to tell that all the water was 
not in a solid state at that time, that the glaciers 
were much more extended than in our days, and 
that the courses of the rivers were infinitely more 
abundant. When this is understood we can rea- 
sonably reduce the extension of the ancient gla- 
. ciers, the lowering of the temperature at the 
Quaternary Age, and account for the uninter- 
rupted life of the fauna and flora. However, we 
must not fall into the opposite excess and assert, 
as some have done, that the glacial period is com- 
paritively recent, the traces of which are too plain 
and fresh in some localities to assign to it an age 
prior to man, and that the temperature has rather 
lowered itself since this epoch. The ancient ex- 
tension of the glaciers has been followed by a 
corresponding growth and extension of animal 
life, thus proving that the permanence of glaciers 
is a wise provision and absolutely essential to 
man and the high orders of animals and vegeta- 
tion. The ancient extension does not prove alone 
that it was much colder than in historic times, for 
the animals themselves are proof of this. At that 
time the plains of Europe, and of France in par- 
ticular, were animated by herds of reindeer, glut- 
tons, camels, and marmots, which one does not 
find today except in the higher latitudes or more 
considerable heights. The mammoth and rhinoc- 
eros are no exception to this, for naturalists know 
they were organized to live in cold countries. 
Space will not permit us to pursue this point 
further, or speculate on the probable climatic con- 
ditions of the Ice Age ; but we can carry ourselves 
back a few thousand years and describe the cli^ 
mate of Europe and neighboring countries of 
Africa and Asia. Herodotus describes the cli- 
mate of Scythia in terms which would indicate 
in our day the countries of Lapland and Green- 
land, lie shows us the country completely frozen 
during eight months of the year; the Black Sea 
frozen up so that it bore the heaviest loads ; the 
region of the Danube buried under snow for eight 
months, and watered in summer by the abundant 
rains which gave to the river its violent course. 
The historian adds that the ass cannot live in 
Scythia on account of the extreme cold which 
reigns there. The following century Aristotle 
makes the same remarks concerning Gaul. His 
contemporary, Theophrastes, tells us that the 
olive-tree did not succeed in Greece more than 
five hundred furlongs from the sea. We can 
assure ourselves that both the ass and the olive 
thrive in these countries at the present day. 
Three centuries later, Caesar speaks frequently 
and emphatically of the rigor of winters and early 
setting-in of cold in France, the abundance of 
snow and rain, and the number of lakes and 
marshes which became every moment serious ob- 
stacles to the army. He says he is careful not 
to undertake any expedition except in summer. 
Cicero, Varro, Possidonius, and Strabo insist 
equally on the rigor of the climate of Gaul, which 
allows neither the cultui-e of the vine nor the 
olive. Diodorus of Sicily confirms this informa- 
tion: "The cold of the winters in Gaul is such 
that almost all the rivers freeze up and form natu- 
ral bridges, over which numerous armies pass 
quite safely with teams and baggages ; in order 
to hinder the passengers to slip out upon the ice 
and to render the marching more secure, they 
spread straw thereon." 
Virgil and Ovid insist on the severity of cold in 
the regions of the Danube. The first describes 
the inhabitants of these miserable countries with- 
drawing themselves into caves dressed with the 
skins of wild beasts. Ovid, who had passed sev- 
eral years of his life in that region, is more pre- 
cise in his description. He says the wine has 
changed itself here (Black Sea) into a solid frozen 
mass ; one gives jt to drink by pieces. Fearing 
of being accused of poetic exaggeration he ap- 
peals to the testimony of two ancient governors 
of Moesia, who could establish the facts like him- 
self. The author who would give such accounts 
of the Black Sea in our days would risk his repu- 
tation for veracity. 
Italy, too, experienced its part of the cold in 
early days. Virgil tells us of the snows being 
heaped up, rivers which carried ice along, the sad 
winter which split the stone and bound up the 
course of large streams, — and all this in the warm- 
est part of Italy, at the base of the walls of Ta- 
ranto. Heratius affirms that the Socrates, a neigh- 
boring mountain of Rome, was whitened with thick 
snow, rivers frozen, and the country covered with 
snow. Today the snow stays very little upon the 
Socrates and never in the country around Rome. 
During the four or five centuries which followed, 
writers speak of the severity of climate in North- 
ern Italy, the lagoons on the Adriatic being frozen 
over. Algiers was nmch colder tlien than now. 
The Danube, Rhine, and other rivers in Europe, 
the Nile in Africa, the Amazon in South America, 
the Mississippi and Missouri in North America, 
had quite different volumes two thousand years 
ago than their present actual ones, and they es- 
pecially rolled much greater masses of water. 
There is everything to show a modification of 
climate in our own days. If this goes on in the 
future as in the past, there will be a marked dif- 
ference in the temperature two or three hundred 
years from now. Even a degree in a thousand 
years would effect a great change in the course of 
time. The lowering of four degrees established 
the ancient extension of glaciers, thougli it did 
not interrupt animal or vegetable life. Fifty-four 
of the fifty-seven species of Mollusca. have outlived 
the glacial age, and all our savage animals — even 
a certain number which have disappeared — date 
equally from the Quaternary, and were contempo- 
rary with the great extension of the glaciers. 
[Original In Populak Science News.] 
SULPHUR. 
* BY GEORGE L. BURDITT. 
One of the important elements used in the arts 
and in manufactures is sulphur. It is a comijara- 
tively abundant substance, wide-spread, and was 
known to the ancients by the name of brimstone. 
Beiug an active chemical element, it is found in 
numerous combinations with other elements, and 
also in the free state. Most of the free sulphur 
used in commerce comes from Sicily, but it is also 
found in Iceland, Mexico, and South America in the 
free state, and always in the vicinity of volcanoes. 
When found in this state, it is mixed with earth, 
from which it has to be separated. The separa- 
tion is carried on by heat, which melts the 
sulphur, leaving the earth. The earth is first put 
into an iron pot and heated; the sulphur melts 
and is taken out and put into cold water, where it 
solidifies. The remaining earth contains a little 
sulphur, which is obtained by distillation. It is 
placed in earthen pots in a furnace, and the sul- 
phur melts. The pots are so arranged that they 
connect with other pots outside the furnace, 
which act as condensers, and into which the 
melted sulphur flows. There is an opening at the 
bottom of the condenser, through which the sul- 
phur flows out into water, where it becomes 
solid. The sulphur is now in the rough or crude 
state, and must be purified. The process is car- 
ried on in a large brick furnace. The sulphur is 
put into an iron pot at some distance from the 
fire, where it melts and runs down through a pipe 
into another pot nearer the fire ; here it boils and 
is vaporized. The vapor passes into a large brick 
chamber, upon the walls of which it condenses in 
the form of minute crystals. When in this state, 
it is known as flowers of sulphur. Gradually the 
walls become hot, iind the sulphur melts, flowing 
down to the floor. At the bottom of the chamber 
there is an exit, through which the melted sulphur 
flows out into wooden moulds, in which it receives 
the form of a stick or roll. 
When sulphur is found in combination with 
other elements, it is separated by different 
means. Considerable quantities of it are obtained 
in England from iron and copper pyrites. In this 
process, a quantity of brush wood is spread upon 
the ground, or upon a layer of broken pyrites. 
On this brush is placed about two thousand tons 
of ore, a space being left for a flue. The pile is 
flred by dropping lighted brands into the flue, 
and, as it burns, the sulphur melts and runs out, 
collecting in cavities. About twenty tons of sul- 
phur are usually obtained from such a pile. 
Sulphur [S, II, IV, VI, sJ is a light yellow, 
solid, brittle substance, with a vitreous lustre, 
and breaking with a coucoidal fracture. It has a 
hardness of about 21/2, is very iuflanmiable, burn- 
ing with a blue flame, and is insoluble in water. 
When rubbed with hair or wool, it becomes nega- 
tively electrified, but is a bad conductor of elec- 
tricity. It melts at 110°, forming an amber- 
colored liquid. If heated above 120°, the liquid 
turns dark and grows thick. As the temperature 
