6oo 
Correspondence. [September, 
with his usual vegetarian diet, with which he drank water, some- 
times milk, tea, or coffee. 
The following year C. P. made his second experiment, during 
which time ( seven months ) he took three meals a day, each con- 
sisting of twelve ounces of apples and twelve ounces of brown 
bread (made from the whole produdt of the grain), and as before, 
did not drink a single drop of fluid. 
The experiments were made in the years 1863-64,. when C. P. 
was about twenty-six years old. He states that during the time 
he dieted himself he was as able for his work as at any other 
period of his life. He is now forty-two — a stout, acftive man. 
He continues his teetotallism, but for the last three or four years 
has given up a stridt vegetarian diet, thinking his powers were 
giving way, but which were wholly restored on his resumption 
of an occasional meat regimen. 
In conclusion, I would say I have known C. P. for many 
years, and believe him incapable of a falsity of statement. He 
is strong, robust, and I should say an untiring worker. 
To verify my fadts I sent for C. P., who told me what I have 
stated above, and which statement is in accordance with my 
memory of the fadts gleaned soon after they occurred. There 
are probably many other particulars which a physiologist might 
require, and should any of your readers, for the purposes of 
Science, desire to test the above narrative, the address of C. P. 
is at their service, and may be obtained on application to the 
Editor. I append my name as a proof of bona fides on my part. 
— I am, &c., 
S. Billing. 
August 12, 1880. 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH. 
To the Editor of the Journal of Science. 
S IR> — Geologists, having abundance of evidence that portions 
of the surface of Earth once beneath the waters of the ocean 
had been elevated into dry land, upon the supposition that the 
matter of our planet is a fixed quantity, naturally sought for 
evidence of a corresponding depression. Mr. Darwin was sup- 
posed to have found this evidence in the formation of coral reefs 
in the Southern Hemisphere. I have shown, by reference to the 
highly interesting discoveries made in connexion with the ex- 
ploring voyage of H.M.S. Challenger, that there is “ no necessity 
to assume that the submarine coral mountains of the Pacific or 
Indian Ocean afford evidence of a subsidence of the crust of the 
