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>«u' VI 
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SCIENTIFIC. 
FOR THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER. 
Some weeks since you honored an article from me wit i 
a place in jmur columns. It was on Arctic matters, fo*~- 
of the earth, &c. In the article referred to I did not 
give all the reasons which I have for believing^ in 
theory there set forth, but my object was to eLciu some 
discussion on the subject; but, from some cause ox otb , 
my article remains unnoticed. Vanity forbids m^ •«•■<> * 
that the article is beneath criticism. 
Although unsolicited, I beg the liberty of giving some 
further reasons for thinking the earth to be a hollow 
spheroid. I am aware that Mr. Symmes had some theory 
in regard to the hollow form of the earth, but I know 
nothing of the reasons he adduced lor his belief; ad tin*- 
I can find on the subject is in the following extract from 
Baron Humboldt’s Cosmos: 
“These venturesome and arbitrary conjectures have 
given rise, in wholly unscientific circles, to still mo;- 
fantastic notions. The hollow sphere has by degrees 
been peopled with plants and animals, and two email suo- 
terranean revolving planets, Pluto and Proserpine, were 
imaginatively supposed to shed over it their mild light. 
As however, it was further imagined that an ever uni¬ 
form temperature reigned in these internal regions, tne 
air whichVas made self-luminous by compression, nngm 
well render the planets of this lower world unnecessary. 
I Near the north pole, at 82° latitude, whence iue po-ar 
light emanates, was an enormous opening, through which 
a descent might be made into the hollow sphere, and Sir 
Humphrey Davy and myself were publicly and irequemly 
invbed by Capt. Symmes to enter upon this subterranean 
expedition.” 
From all that can be gathered from the above extract, 
even if Capt. Symmes had taken out a patent right for his 
theory, mine would be no infringement. 
' i n order the more clearly to bring the subject forward, 
I shall have to advert to my former article. It is there 
assumed that the matter of which our earth is formed 
was once in a molten state, saying nothing of the proba¬ 
bility that it was previously in a gaseous or nebulous 
Sate Now, from the knowu laws of matter and motion, 
7* hold that, when by the fiat of the Great First Cause 
a revolving motion was given to the matter of wmen the 
earth is formed, it would assume the shape of a hollow 
SDheroiJ, not unlike au apple deeply indented at the 
ends, only that the cavity would extend through, enlarg¬ 
ing inwardly. Hence, in consequence oi tne inclination 
of the poles to the ecliptic, the sun in the summer season 
would shine far into the northern portion of the earth; 
and in consequence of its rays striking vertically upon a 
portion of tlie opening orbing there would be a tropical 
climate at least during the summer, and thus accounting 
for the unfrozen and inhabited sea now known to exist 
there Such a shape would not be a very great anomaly 
in our planetary system. The rings of Saturn, now 
known to be solid bodies, are not very unlike what we 
arc claiming for our earth; and we might readily con¬ 
ceive that there are inhabitants on the outer surface of 
those rings who know not but they are on the surface of 
