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THE BOEDEELAND OE CHEMISTEY AND ELECTEICITY. 
resulting force of electricity without which it is supposed no action could 
take place, and it is called e ether.’ 
At one time in the history of our earth the whole of the water 
existing as seas, lakes, rivers, etc., was gaseous, and the whole of the 
material that forms the solid portion of our globe was also gaseous. 
It was a condition that existed many millions of years ago, and we 
might say that as it was a long time back we hope it'was not true; as 
a matter of fact that condition must have existed. 
The earth is a cooling body, and the latest discoveries in astronomy 
go to prove that there are possibly worlds other than ours and that 
stars and suns exist in myriads. Photography has just proved that 
the various heavenly bodies we see at night with our eyes are not 
one-millionth part of those which can be photographed on the 
bromide film. Photographs show that in space surrounding our 
earth there is a perfect wall of suns interspersed with less-lighted 
bodies and with dark bodies—dark bodies that even the most power¬ 
ful telescope fail to show to the human eye ; but telescopic photo¬ 
graphy tends to show that as space has no beginning and no end 
so material matter has no beginning and no end. The human mind 
cannot grasp the fact, but as our lives are finite, and as our bodies 
are ruled by our brains, our brain cannot vibrate to the term infinite; 
for thought is vibration. Our poor idea and invention called ‘Time’ 
has only to do with a daily spinning-round of our earth and its motion 
round the sun. Life, as we know it, has only existed upon the earth 
for an infinitesimal amount of time compared with its history, and if 
the deductions by actual experiment and observation of modern scient¬ 
ists are not counter-balanced by some other law which has still to be 
discovered, then in the progess of time the earth will become—it may 
be millions of years, it may be hundreds of thousands of years only— 
like our moon, a solid inactive body, which in the process of cooling 
will have no atmosphere, no water, no life. If the sun is cooling, and 
this great receptive body is gradually losing heat, light and electrical 
giving properties, and our planet is getting nearer to it, still the same 
must come—the zero of cold. After Professor Dewar’s experiments 
and extraordinary results by the liquefaction of air and even hydrogen 
it does not seem improbable that at some future period, it may be 
millions of years hence, the atmosphere itself will be liquefied and may 
form lakes of oxygen and nitrogen. 
In reference to chemistry and its wonderful evolution, who would 
have imagined, even a few years ago, that the fruit essences with which 
you flavour your puddings are in many cases made in Germany from 
coal-tar products. The very scents that you use are dissolved essential 
oils manufactured from the same source ; and the very photographic 
chemicals commonly used are also obtained from the same material. 
The scents are in some cases mixed with deodorized methylated spirit; 
and it is unfortunately only too true in this country that certain of its 
inhabitants, chiefly of the female sex, are in the habit of imbibing 
these scents, notably Eau de Cologne. I need hardly point out that 
