340 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



of millions of years ago, and ever since engaged in escap- 

 ing, should, just in our day and hour, happen so precisely 

 to match the mean surface temperature, which owes it- 

 self to a totally independent cause ! What was the tem- 

 perature a hundred feet below the surface a hundred, a 

 thousand, a million years ago f and, since theoretically so 

 much hotter than now, what should have been the effect 

 upon animal and plant life f 



If current theory were really correct, our planet 

 would be a very unsafe one to dwell upon, for a central 

 heat of 300.000 (as indicated by the temperature gradi- 

 ent) would speedily disrupt it, or, rather, there should 

 now be no earth. According to my theory, the rate of 

 such increase, being dependent on the strength of gravity, 

 must diminish the farther down we get, so that the maxi- 

 mum calculated temperature would not be more than half 

 the amount stated. As a matter of fact, it is far below 

 this figure, because of the extensive internal water-cir- 

 culation that doubtless exists. 



Were the planet ever to increase to a great size, like 

 that of Jupiter, for instance, the intense heat generated 

 would quickly dissipate the present oceans, and in time 

 cause the earth to acquire the same general characteris- 

 tics as that giant orb. 



We thus see that the earth's economy provides what 

 it demands, a running supply of heat, and a uniform one. 

 The extreme secular variation implied by the kinetic 

 theory, as currently understood, or by the radium theory, 

 would have proved just as inevitably fatal to earth-life 

 as a secular variation in the sun's temperature. Nature 

 does not dole out treasured heat, but evolves it as she 

 goes along, and with the same lavishness she displays in 

 all else. 



In this process of gravistatic-heat production we 

 have the clue to why the universe did not long ago perish 

 by agglomeration into a single mass, and why it never 

 can do so. Without some adequate dispersive force, con- 

 stant mutual attraction must prevail in the long run and 



