Analyses of Books. 
396 
June, 
The author denies the circulation of matter. He contends 
that there is no evidence showing that the exadt amount of water 
which falls from the atmosphere is again returned to the atmo- 
sphere, and that the ether in which the earth moves affords an 
obvious and boundless material for the creation of clouds. 
We must here interrupt our exposition of the author’s views. 
When we have full proof, as Mr. Ward admits, that portions of 
water exposed to the air disappear by evaporation, it seems to us 
unwarrantable to call in another source for clouds and rainfall of 
which we have no proof whatever. The experiments of Dr. 
Wells do not demonstrate that the dew-forming vapours have 
any other origin than the moisture exhaled from the earth. 
The author then contends that entire oceans of water have 
been converted into solid rock, “ in opposition to this theory of 
the mechanical circulation of matter.” The lime, e.g., of which 
coral-reefs are foimed he supposes not to be matter which the 
water had dissolved out of the crust of the earth, and which the 
coral animalcules merely separate out in a solid form, but to be 
generated by the water. Thus “ unless replenished by condensa- 
tions from the ether, the entire ocean seems destined to be trans- 
formed into stone.” Water, we are told, begins in vapour and 
ends in salt. The saltness of the ocean is the beginning of its 
solidification. But where is the adtual evidence that pure water, 
preserved in vessels which it cannot dissolve, will ever become 
anything but water, or that we can obtain from it anything save 
the elements of water— oxygen and hydrogen ? Let Mr. Ward 
obtain from water one grain of salt or lime which is not derived 
from some extraneous source, and he will at the first vacancy be 
eledted President of the Royal Society. Salt is the only mineral 
body which we eat as such ; but does it therefore follow that the 
lime, phosphorus, iron, sulphur, &c., found in our bodies are due 
to its transformations ? All these substances can be detedfed in 
° U But°we must hasten on, for Mr. Ward has yet much to tell us. 
The chinks and fissures in the earth’s surface, the ravines, canons, 
and river valleys are the results of the earth’s expansion. Her 
outer layers crack like the bark of a growing tree. As regards 
the hypothetical growth of the earth, the author’s views coincide 
with those expressed by Capt. A. W. Drayson, R.A., in a work 
published as far back as 1859, under the title “ The Earth we 
Inhabit.” This writer states that “ whilst the most perfedt accu- 
racy was supposed to have been attained in Astronomy and 
Surveying, still, when the results obtained by the two sciences 
were compared, the most alarming differences were almost invari- 
ably found to exist. The more perfedt the instruments and the more 
skilful the observer, the more surely was a difference found.” Both 
Capt. Drayson and Mr. Ward ask, essentially, “ Is it a fadt that, 
whenever distances have been carefully measured after the lapse 
of any considerable number of years, differences have always 
