CHEMICAL AND DYNAMICAL GEOLOGY. 75 



CHEMISTRY AND METALLURGY. 



CHEMICAL AND DYNAMICAL GEOLOGY. 



BY ERASMUS HAWORTH, CLASS OF '8l, KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY. 



It is SO common for students who are specialists to prepare theses showing 

 the results of original work, that one hesitates to present anything which does not 

 strictly conform to this custom. But time is often quite as profitably spent in 

 learning that which has already been discovered, in comparing the views of dif- 

 ferent scientists on the great questions which are yet unsettled, and in choosing 

 from these that which seems most reasonable, as in trying to enter new fields of 

 investigation. The investigations which are richest in results are made by those 

 who have a general idea, at least, of all the important facts and theories pertain, 

 ing to their department. It is easy to see how a young man, ambitious to gain a 

 reputation, may rush into original work before he is able properly to assimilate 

 the truths that may be presented to him. In the following pages, therefore, there 

 will be no attempt to present that which is new, but only to express in a some- 

 what orderly manner a few thoughts on chemical and dynamical geology as ad- 

 vanced by others. Occasionally I may offer objections to certain hypotheses, or 

 draw conclusions that I think would follow from given conditions. 



If we accept the nebular theory we are carried back to a time when the earth 

 with all that now belongs to it was in a gaseous condition. No man can follow 

 with absolute certainty the different phases through which it passed in being 

 brought to its present state. To the chemist and the physicist alone remains the 

 privilege of even attempting to say what must have resulted from the continual 

 radiation of heat from this aggregated gaseous body. Moderate heat generally 

 assists chemical action, but it is well known that an intense heat tends to break 

 up chemical compounds. The furnace assay of gold and silver is based upon 

 this fact. These metals are frequently found in chemical union with other ele- 

 ments. The heat of the furnace overcomes this union, drives off the other ele- 

 ments and leaves the gold and silver. From analogy we reason that the forma- 

 tion of compounds, however stable they may be in the hands of man, would 

 have been prevented by the heat necessary to hold the materials of the earth in a 

 gaseous condition. As this mass cooled by the radiation of heat, the time would 

 come when the most stable compounds could exist. We may safely say that such 

 compounds would then be formed. These would be the oxides of calcium, mag- 

 nesium, barium, aluminum, iron, copper, silicon, and perhaps the oxides of the 

 alkaline metals. The surface radiation would produce a superficial low tempera- 

 ture, so that some particles might be condensed to the liquid or solid state. 

 They would then become intensely luminous, presenting an appearance similar to 



