46 ALTERATION IN THE 



subjacent rocks were subjected to a heat so intense 

 that their fusion was effected and their eruption 

 took place ? 



68. If in the remote past, the temperature of the 

 globe was greater than it is now, will not the density 

 of the globe, because of this, be greater now than it 

 was then ? 



69. If the innate temperature of the globe, as 

 some philosophers suppose, has been in a state of 

 constant decrease, will not the density of the globe, 

 because of this, have been in a state of constant 

 increase ? 



70. Does not the oblate spheroidal figure of the 

 earth go to prove that, in the remote past, our planet 

 was less dense than it now is, and therefore the mag- 

 nitude of the globe was greater then than it is now ? 



71- Humboldt, in his " Cosmos," states "that many 

 of the phenomena presented by our own planetary 

 system lead to the conclusion that the planets have 

 been solidified from a state of vapour." If our 

 globe has passed from a state of vapour to that of a 

 solid, or its present state of condensation, must it 

 not have passed through all the intermediate states ? 



72. Has our planet, during the whole course of 

 its past history, ceased not to increase in density, 

 and therefore ceased not to diminish in magnitude ? 



