244 Prof. Sillimari's Address before the 



brought into existence, we are at liberty, on this topic, to make 

 any supposition not inconsistent with physical and chemical laws. 

 If we admit then, that the elements of matter were created in 

 their simple or uncombined condition, (a supposition which is in 

 no degree improbable,) then it is obvious, that a mutual and en- 

 ergetic action would be the immediate result of their first con- 

 tact; intense ignition and general combustion would follow, 

 attended by fusion, volatilization, and all the concomitants of a 

 powerful chemical conflict. The action would relent as the 

 combinations proceeded, as incombustible compounds resulted 

 from the union of the elements, and as radiation into space 

 cooled the surface. Thus, an oxydized crust would be formed 

 around the nucleus of the earth, and similar incombustible com- 

 pounds would be produced by all the agents that excite combus- 

 tion — chlorine, iodine, bromine, fluorine, and other similar ele- 

 ments, if such there be. Water would of course be formed from 

 the union of its elements, and as it obtained access through the 

 fissured crust to the still combustible interior of the planet, vio- 

 lent phenomena of combustion and explosive eruption would 

 follow, until the combustibles to which the water obtained ac- 

 cess had been thoroughly burned. The heat evolved by the 

 energetic chemical action, whether induced by combustion or by 

 any other mode of chemical action, might ignite, to a great depth, 

 the combustible materials lying beneath the crust ; thermo and 

 galvanic electricity would propagate the ignition to a profound 

 depth, and the power thus evolved as an effect, might, in its 

 turn, operate as a cause, until the entire interior became ignited, 

 softened, or even fused, more or less extensively. 



Such agencies would, of course, be attended by various and 

 powerful chemical effects ; combinations and decompositions 

 would result in the augmentation of heat, which again acting 

 thermo-electrically, would tend to perpetuate and augment its 

 own energy. Our recent experience proves, that heat may be long 

 given out by the so called perpetual batteries, so that arrange- 

 ments may be imagined among the elements or compound mate- 

 rials in the earth, by which a perpetual evolution of heat may be 

 produced, and this again in its turn may excite a perpetual flow 

 of electricity, and thus the ignition, at first produced in the crust 

 of the earth by combustion, may be made perpetual by thermo- 

 and galvano-electricity. 



