June 24, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



359- 



comprehend that although there may be no apparent money 

 value in the investigation, still it has a scientific value. 

 The scientist in an investigation rarely thinks of its practical 

 application, yet some of the greatest godsends to the human 

 race have resulted from these theoretical researches. For 

 example, medicine would have no knowledge of chloroform, 

 ether, acetanilide, antipyrin, potassium bromide, and count- 

 less other equally valuable preparations, were it not that 

 these substances were discovered during theoretical investi- 

 gations. Again, when Faraday was working on the bad- 

 smelling, dirty-looking coal-tar, who ordinarily would have 

 supposed that his isolating from this unpromising substance 

 benzine and some of its derivatives would revolutionize many 

 industries and inaugurate others that now have a capitaliza- 

 tion of millions and millions of dollars ? Faraday's re- 

 searches rendered possible the coal-tar color industry. 



Numberless instances of the practical value of theoretical 

 investigations might be given, but the above will suffice. 



There is, perhaps, a popular prejudice against the scien- 

 tific man. This prejudice was formerly directed against 

 mathematicians only, but is now being extended to other 

 scientists. There is no outcry against them, but their advice 

 and conclusions are often thought inferior to those of the so- 

 called practical man. Unfortunately for the pockets of these 

 people confiding in the judgment of the practical or rule of- 

 thumb man, their ventures nearly always come to grief. 

 I believe that the amount of money lost in this way, even 

 during the last twenty years, amounts to more than the 

 national debt. This popular idea is due entirely to ignorance 

 and to unfamiliarity with science and scientific men and 

 methods. It is hoped that this Academy of Science will be 

 able, both directly and indirectly, to help educate the people 

 to put their confidence in those that are worthy of it. When 

 this is brought about we will no longer have companies or- 

 ganized to make a Keely motor, nor to refine sugar by elec- 

 tricity, nor will we have men digging for gold in every rock, 

 or looking for bituminous coal in alluvial formations. 



I believe that with these aims before us we can make the 

 academy a success and a benefit to science. Texas has ample 

 and first-class material in her young men for the making of 

 future scientists, both pure and practical. We should en- 

 courage by every means in our power the study and prosecu- 

 tion of the exact and natural sciences, because, no matter 

 what may be said to the contrary, on them rest our comfort, 

 our welfare, our progress, physically, mentally, morally. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



#*t Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The writer's name 

 is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character 

 of the journal. 



On request in advance, one hundred copies of the number containing his 

 com^nunication will be furnished free to any correspondent. 



Causes which Produce Cold, and Mild Periods. 



In Science for Aug. 31 and Feb. 19, I pointed out what I con- 

 ceived to be the cause of the frigid and %varm periods. Still, in 

 order to make my views more plain, further explanation, and re- 

 peating, may be necessary. 



The tropical surface-waters of the ocean when moved into the 

 high latitudes in large volumes, thus adding their warmth to the 

 heat imparted by the sun, are undoubtedly able to cause a mild 

 climate. This is the opinion of most writers on climatic changes. 

 Still, it seems to me, while viewing the subject from a marine 

 standpoint, that they have only partly comprehended the manner 

 in which the ocean waters are moved in a latitudinal direction. 

 Consequently, their explanations have never proved satisfactory to 



those who have considered the subject. The only way in which 

 tropical waters are moved into the liigh latitudes, in quantities- 

 sufficient to cause a mild climate, is through the force of the great 

 prevailing winds of the globe. These winds, as is well known, 

 blow mostly from the east towards the west in the tropics, and 

 from the west towards the east in the high latitudes. This coun- 

 ter-movement of the winds, in connection with land of great 

 latitudinal extent, like the western continent, is able to move the- 

 tropical waters far into the northern and southern seas. But in 

 order to do such work perfectly, the land should extend unbroken' 

 from the Arctic to the Antarctic circles; because, under such con- 

 ditions, the westerly winds would blow the surface-waters of the 

 ocean away from the eastern shores in the high latitudes, and so- 

 cause extensive low sea-levels, while the easterly winds of the- 

 torrid zone would heap the ocean waters against the tropical 

 shores of the continent. Consequently, the warm waters of the 

 tropical high sea-level would be moved by gravitation to the low 

 sea-levels of the high latitudes, even to the Arctic and Antarctic- 

 regions, and thus afford them a mild climate. In this way we 

 account for the mild climates enjoyed by the temperate and polar 

 regions during early ages. For it is probable that during such 

 times the wide channel of comparatively shoal water, which now 

 separates the western continent from the Antarctic shores, was a 

 region of low land, and the channels leading into Bafiins Bay and 

 Davis Strait were also closed. But since the Tertiary period the 

 low land that connected Cape Horn with the southern continent 

 has been flowed by the sea; which may have been caused through 

 a tendency of the ocean waters southward, or a comparatively 

 small movement in the earth's crust. This flowed region as now 

 represented increases in depth from its northern and southern 

 shores to 1,000 fathoms in its middle portion. The channel has 

 probably been greatly deepened since its first flowage, through the 

 scouring of ice-sheets for thousands of years of successive ice- 

 periods; and it is owing to its waters separating the Antarctic 

 shores from South America that prevents the strong westerly 

 winds of that region from creating a low sea-level in the high 

 southern latitudes. Therefore, the waters of the torrid zone 

 heaped against the South American coast by the trade-winds are 

 not at this date atti'acted far into the southern seas. It is true 

 they flow along the coast of Brazil to an inferior low sea-level, 

 caused by the westerly winds blowing the surface-waters away 

 from the coasts of Argentine and Patagonia, but on gaining that 

 region they are met by the cold currents which pass through the 

 channels opening into the Pacific, and so turned away from the 

 more southern latitudes. The westerly winds further south, 

 owing to the Cape Horn channel being open, cause, as I have be- 

 fore explained, a drift current to extend around the southern por- 

 tion of the globe, which largely turns away all tropical currents 

 setting southward. And it is through this exclusion of tropical 

 waters from the high southern latitudes, ice-sheets have been 

 able to gather and will continue to gather on the southern conti- 

 nent and extend into its shallow seas, until the channel sepai'ating 

 the western continent from the Antarctic lands is closed. The 

 closing of this channel with ice is only a question of time should 

 the snowfall of that region continue to be as great as it is now. 



The Antarctic ice-sheet may have been over ten thousand years 

 in gaining its present extent and thickness, and it may require 

 as much, or more, time to perfect it. Yet it is probable that the 

 larger portion of its coast-line cannot be extended seaward, on 

 account of the great depth of the ocean bordering its shores. But 

 where the water is comparatively shoal the ice-sheet must ad- 

 vance until all the neighboring shallow seas and channels are 

 filled, and a broad isthmus of ice connects the Antarctic lands 

 with the western continent. This being perfected, the strong 

 westerly winds of the southern latitudes will blow the surface- 

 waters away from the Atlantic side of the isthmus, and so cause 

 an extensive low sea-level sufficient to attract the tropical waters 

 from the high sea levels abreast Brazil and the east coast of 

 Africa well into the southern ocean, and thus cause in time a 

 mild climate in the Antarctic regions, as I have before pointed 

 out. 



In the northern latitudes we see the Arctic channels severing^ 

 the western continent from the more northern lands; and it is 



