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ver the perpendicular of Moon or Sun may be. From 

 this point of view also the hypothesis of attraction is 

 untenable. 



It seems then that we must not strive any longer to 

 find the key to this phenomenon beyond the clouds, but 

 must search for it upon the earth we live on. Is it not 

 at least a natural presumption, seeing that all the pro- 

 ducts of our earth have living breath, that the earth 

 itself, the great parent and source of life, should breathe? 

 The analogy presented by all the various vital forms 

 around should suggest the inference that the earth itself 

 is a vital form, an organism like ourselves only more 

 perfect. And if so, and we admit that this organism like 

 other organisms must breathe, we have to hand a fully 

 sufficient explanation of the ocean tides. 



And so our earth breathes twice a day, from which 

 those with a taste for calculation can easily determine 

 the breathing capacity of earth in connection with the 

 living beings which inhabit it. 



Every respiring body must have its system of circu- 

 lation and animal heat. Terrestrial circulation is a matter 

 for future scientific research, but the fact of its existence 

 can be inferred from the indisputable phenomena of ter- 

 restrial animal heat, the first of which phenomena we may 

 consider the magnetic current indicated by the fixed poin- 

 ting of the needle to North and South. 



Any dynamo will furnish a clue to the force of this 

 magnetic current: there exist already dynamic machines 

 which can instantaneously melt even platinum. The appli- 

 cation of such power we see, in practice, in cases of 

 electric lighting. One must confess that electric light re- 

 ceived through incandescence of either charcoal or plati- 

 num wire is not the light of fire; but since the visible 

 force lies in the nature of the magnet it is clear that 

 such magnetic heat is the earth's animal caloric. 



A second proof of the earth's animal heat is furnished 

 by the isothermical lines on our geographical atlases. 

 These lines which in the southern hemisphere run gene- 



