792 Transactions of the American Institute. 



holds in coal mines where the temperature is some eighty or ninety 

 degrees. It has been thought that if the crust of the Himmaleh moun- 

 tains was very thin, it would not sustain its immense weight. It has 

 been suggested that the motion of tlie moon would leM us to infer that 

 the greater mass of the earth is solid. The thickness of the eartli is 

 said to be at least one-sixth of the diameter, in order to make it agree 

 with the motion of the moon. The theory has also been broached 

 that the whole earth may be solid, but liquid in some places ; wliere 

 the crust is very tliick we have large surfaces such as our New York 

 system of rocks, and those in Pennsylvania, the thickness of M'hich 

 can be readily seen. 



The water of the earth will be entirely gone before the earth 

 becomes solidified. When we consider that the ocean contains all 

 the burnt up hydrogen which existed on our globe, and that the 

 oxygen left is in our atmosphere to sustain animal life. There was 

 an excess of oxygen on our globe and the result is that there was 

 more oxygen in our atmosj)here, and there was just enough hydrogen 

 to combine with the oxygen and leave enough oxygen to make 

 animal life possible, so that life on the other planets is ver}^ uncertain. 



Dr. J. F. Boynton remarked that rocks are often found with tlieir 

 edges polislied, this was no doubt owing to their first being broken 

 and then rubbed together, causing the edges to become smooth and 

 polished. In .1856 he visited the Middletown quarries in Connecticut, 

 and was there shown fissures in the rocks, and was told that the 

 workmen were on a certain time down in the rocks, when a slip of 

 some two inches of the rocks took place. This was said to be the 

 third time this had occurred. Earthquakes are as much a thing of 

 necessity as any thing else in nature, to produce a change on our 

 globe. Pennsylvania has been made what it is, by earthquakes, 

 which have taken place when the sun and moon were in a peculiar 

 position, and acting on this portion of our globe. 



After some further discussion of this subject the association 

 adjourned.. 



September 24, 1868. 



Professor S. D. Tillman in the chair ; Mr. C. E. Emery, Secretary. 

 New Gas Buknee. 



Mr., C. D. Brown exhibited his improvement in gas burners. The 

 device, consists of a thin sheet of brass, placed on the burner, which 



