1865.] Carter on a Plurality of Worlds. 227 



ignorant that they imagine they may work safely if the candle burns 

 even dimly. We have heard it said that they actually advance into 

 places where the candle will not burn, leaving it behind. There are 

 also men who pay 72*. for work which could be done in pure air at 

 45s., but who still do not ventilate sufficiently ; men who risk their 

 lives, perhaps unwillingly, but because of their poverty. There are 

 men who doubt whether any of the evils of mines come from bad air, 

 although the whole history of the art presents to others one volume 

 of proof that it is really so. By whatever method pure air is 

 obtained, it is essential that it should be supplied : every miner 

 agrees that the cure is possible. If we examine any other subject 

 of complaint, the same conclusion is attained : a cure seems to 

 exist for all. We find mentioned a remedy for the wet clothes, so 

 often worn by the men on their way home — for the evils of un- 

 sheltered places where women and children take their meals — for 

 the excessively long ladders — for the unbratticed shafts— for the 

 unguarded sumps, winzes, and shoots — for the careless blasting — 

 for the lax method of reporting the condition of the mine — for the 

 bursting of boilers — for the inconvenient changing-houses — for aban- 

 doned shafts — for the too early entrance of boys underground, and 

 for the want of sick clubs.* It may be added that pure air seems to 

 promise a commercial advantage where a loss is much too common. 



It would appear as if more than enough has been shown to prove 

 that no time ought to be lost in devising a mode of encouraging those 

 means of safety already known. If attention to the subject is fostered 

 by Government, invention will introduce numberless facilities, whilst 

 difficulties which are even now few will cease. In time, workmen and 

 masters will be equally thankful for such attention, as it promises to 

 increase the wealth of both, and render longer and happier the life of 

 the whole mining community. 



ON A PLUEALITY OF WORLDS. 

 By Wm. Carter, M.B., B.Sc, Lond. 



The belief in the plurality of worlds, which has existed for the last 

 three centuries, has been engendered by different circumstances, and 

 held on very different grounds and with varying force accordingly. 

 The revelations of Astronomy, by establishing certain general resem- 

 blances between the terrestrial globe and some of the heavenly bodies, 

 and by proving the operation on all of these alike of physical influ- 

 ences, differing only in degree, were alone sufficient to cause many to 

 receive it almost as a settled truth. Others have had their belief 

 strengthened by the progress of Biology, which has shown that there 

 is no spot so insignificant, and but few conditions so strange, as to be 

 incompatible with life ; that on bare granites, as well as rich alluvium, 



* See the recommendations of the Commissioners. 



