have attained such a degree of attractive force as to 

 draw to itselt the whole planetary world a phenomenon 

 which is not observable. 



Basing their argument on the spherical conformation 

 of the earth, the majority of scientists conclude that it 

 existed at one time in a liquid state, since it is known 

 by a mechanical law that every fluid body revolving in 

 its axis takes this spherical form. This view is sup- 

 ported by the researches of Plefer. John Herschel and 

 Henessay, the most precise proof, by means of the 

 oscillations of the pendulum being presented by Pratt, 

 who demonstrated the thickening of the strata towards 

 the Equatorial line. The French scientist Deloney and 

 the Englishman Erie, engaged in similar researches 

 .and by their calculation it would appear that the thicke- 

 ning of the earth's crust at the equator embraces a mass 

 f}400 miles long, 1830 miles broad, and about 5 miles 

 thick. This thickening of the crust, according to Erie, 

 is the result of the attraction of the sun and moon, the 

 united action of which is the cause of the slow and 

 complicated movement of the earth's axis known to 

 astronomers as "procession" and "nutation". Zoopan, 

 however, in his "Foundations of physical geography" 

 asserts that investigations of the earth's surface and the 

 thickening of the earth's crust, conducted by means of 

 the pendulum, have not always furnished the same 

 result. 



But if there exists a school tracing the formation of 

 the earth from a molten mass, which, in consequence 

 of some cosmic accident, was torn from the substance 

 of the sun, broke in fragments, and formed the planets 

 and their satellites, there exists also another theory, 

 which asserts the formation of the planets from gaseous 

 cloud, and a representative of this theory is the Ame- 

 rican Sterry Hunt. Hunt considers that the solidification 

 of the earth took place from within. As the starting 

 point of his researches he assumes the existence of 

 a cloudy gaseous mass of a high temperature, which, 



