VIEWS OF THE EARTH'S ORIGIN. 19 



orbit from the earth, immensely more elongated, and therefore cannot 

 be considered to have built up the mass of the earth; but they 

 demonstrate how such materials might, by the action of gravity, 

 become drawn together into a planet. And if the mineral materials 

 which have fallen to the earth are a fair sample of those which 

 move in the heavens, we obtain from them a useful idea as to 

 what the interior of a globe would be like, formed by such materials 

 being attracted towards each other. If the force which brought the 

 smaller masses together were sufficiently great to develop heat enough 

 to convert them into vapour or to melt them when their motion was 

 stopped, then no doubt the metals, being heavy, would find their way 

 towards the centre, and the rocky substances being lighter would 

 remain at the surface. By help of such considerations, we obtain 

 some clue to the origin of the earth, which, although vague, has an 

 inductive foundation. The meteorites, which Dr. Hahn, however, 

 believes to contain corals, sponges, encrinites, and other fossils, cannot 

 be accepted as evidence that life exists, or has existed, in the distant 

 heavenly bodies. 1 



1 Die Meteorite (Choudrite) und ihre Organismen. Dr. Otto Hahn 

 Tubingen, 1880. 



UNIVERSITY 



