92 Things not generally Known. 



NO FOSSIL METEORIC STONES. 



It is (says Olbers) a remarkable but hitherto unregarded 

 fact, that while shells are found in secondary and tertiary for- 

 mations, no Fossil Meteoric Stones have as yet been discovered. 

 May we conclude from this circumstance, that previous to the 

 present and last modification of the earth's surface no meteoric 

 stones fell on it, though at the present time it appears probable, 

 from the researches of Schreibers, that 700 fall annually?* 



THE END OF OUR SYSTEM. 



While all the phenomena in the heavens indicate a law of 

 progressive creation, in which revolving matter is distributed 

 into suns and planets, there are indications in our own system 

 that a period has been assigned for its duration, which, sooner 

 or later, it must reach. The medium which nils universal 

 space, whether it be a luminiferous ether, or arise from the 

 indefinite expansion of planetary atmospheres, must retard the 

 bodies which move in it, even were it 360,000 millions of times 

 more rare than atmospheric air ; and, with its time of revo- 

 lution gradually shortening, the satellite must return to its 

 planet, the planet to its sun, and the sun to its primeval nebula. 

 The fate of our system, thus deduced from mechanical laws, 

 must be the fate of all others. Motion cannot be perpetuated 

 in a resisting medium ; and where there exist disturbing forces, 

 there must be primarily derangement, and ultimately ruin. 

 From the great central mass, heat may again be summoned to 

 exhale nebulous matter ; chemical forces may again produce 

 motion, and motion may again generate systems ; but, as in 

 the recurring catastrophes which have desolated our earth, the 

 great First Cause must preside at the dawn of each cosrnical 

 cycle ; and, as in the animal races which were successively re- 

 produced, new celestial creations of a nobler form of beauty 

 and of a higher form of permanence nitty yet appear in the 

 sidereal universe. " Behold, I create new heavens and a new 

 earth, and the former shall not be remembered." "The new 

 heavens and the new earth shall remain before me." "Let us 

 look, then, according to this promise, for the new heavens and 

 the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." North-British 

 Review, No. 3. 



BENEFITS OF GLASS TO MAN. 



Cuvier eloquently says : " It could not be expected that 

 those Phoenician sailors who saw the sand of the shores of 

 Bactica transformed by fire into a transparent Glass, should have 

 at once foreseen that this new substance would prolong the 



* Several specimens of Meteoric Iron are to be seen in the Mineral ogical 

 Collection in the British Museum. 



