Probable Cause of the Displacement of Shore-lines. 405 



has been created from nothing. This would involve a con- 

 tradiction both of the principle of Energy and of Camot's 

 principle, and is the view generally held at present. 



(2) The development of magnetism in diamagnetic bodies 

 may be instantaneous, milike all other physical phenomena, 

 which require time. 



(3) The work which has been gained may have been pro- 

 duced from heat ; so that the principle of Energy stands, 

 while Carnot's principle falls. Employing this work to 

 transfer heat from a cold body to a hotter, we have a means 

 of producing inequalities of temperature — that is, a Concen- 

 tration of Energy — without external assistance. Carnot's 

 principle will then require to be modified. 



It has been shown by Clausius that for any cycle which 



JQ 

 -=0 



if the cycle be reversible, and j — <0 in other cases, Q 



being the heat absorbed when the absolute temperature is t. 

 It seems probable that these results may be true for soft para- 

 magnetic bodies, but that for diamagnetic bodies we should 



have I — = for a reversible cycle, and j -.>0 in other 



cases. We might then obtain expressions for the energy and 

 entropy of a magnetized system, and a thermodynamical 

 theory could be formed for Magnetism as easily as for 

 Electricity. 



XLIX. On the probable Cause of the Disj)lacement of Shore- 

 lines, an Attempt at a Geological Chronology. By A. 

 BlYTT*. . ''i .-- ; c r.. >, 



THIS memoir is an attempt to further develop and establish 

 ideas which 1 put forward five years ago. It contains an 

 attempt to establish a chronology in geology. It sets forth 

 what the English call "a working hypothesis,^^ without claim- 

 ing to be anything else. It was the distribution of plants 

 which first introduced the author to this great question ; but 

 the problem of a chronology in geology cannot be solved 

 without the co-operation, it may perhaps be said, of all 

 naturalists. It certainly cannot finally be solved by any 

 one man. In putting forth my hypothesis I must in the 



* Read at the General Meetings of the Society of Science of Cbris- 

 tiania, December 9, 1887, and June 1, 1888. Translated by W. S. Dallas, 

 r.L.S., from the Nyt Magazin for Naturvidenskaberne, Bd. xxxi. pp. 240- 

 297 (1889). 



