Increase and decrease of the volume of the Earth.

— Our correspondent from Sens, whose observation on the Spiritist party we published in our preceding issue, enclosed with his letter another, on the increase of the volume of the Earth, which the abundance of material obliged us to postpone.

“I further ask of you, sir, permission to submit to you a reflection that came to me, reading your latest work on Genesis. On page 161 there is this: “At the time when the terrestrial globe was an incandescent mass, it contained not one atom more nor less than today.” However, the Spirits have said that there are not two different laws for the formation of the principal bodies and of the secondary bodies; and, then, I read somewhere that plants restore to the earth more than they receive from it. I do not know whether this is well established and scientifically demonstrated, but, according to this and other data, not to mention the aerolites, which today are an incontestable fact, could it not happen that one day it should be discovered that our globe acquires still greater volume, which would contradict that assertion?” It is quite true that plants restore to the soil more than they take from it; but the globe is not composed solely of the solid part; the atmosphere is an integral part of it. Now, it is proved that plants nourish themselves as much, and even more, on the aeriform fluids drawn from the atmosphere, as on the solid elements absorbed by the roots. Considering the quantity of plants that have lived on the Earth since its origin, not to mention the animals, the atmospheric fluids would long ago have been exhausted, if they were not fed from a permanent source. This source is in the decomposition of solid matter, organic and inorganic, which release into the atmosphere the oxygen, the hydrogen, the nitrogen, the carbon and other gases that they had subtracted from it. There is, then, a constant exchange, a perpetual transformation, taking place at the surface of the globe. It happens here exactly as with water, which rises in vapors and falls again in rain, and whose quantity is always the same. The growth of vegetables and of animals, operating with the aid of the constitutive elements of the globe, their remains, however considerable they may be, do not add an atom to the mass. If the solid part of the globe were to increase from this cause, in a permanent manner, it would be at the expense of the atmosphere, which would diminish just as much, and would end up being unfit for life. At the origin of the Earth, the first geological strata were formed of solid matter, momentarily volatilized by the effect of the high temperature, and which, later, condensed by cooling, precipitated. Incontestably they raised the surface of the soil a little, which, without this, would have stopped at the granitic layer, but without adding anything to the total mass, since it was but a displacement of matter. When the atmosphere, purged of the foreign elements it held in suspension, found itself in its normal state, things followed the regular course they have had ever since. Today, the slightest modification in the constitution of the atmosphere would necessarily bring about the destruction of the present living beings. But, then, new races would probably form, under other conditions of vitality. Considered from this point of view, the mass of the globe, that is, the sum of the molecules that compose the whole of its solid, liquid and gaseous parts, is incontestably the same since its origin. Were it to undergo a dilation or a condensation, its volume would increase or decrease, without the mass undergoing any alteration. If, then, the Earth were to increase in mass by the adjunction of new molecules, it would be by the effect of a foreign cause, since it cannot draw from itself the elements necessary to its increase.

Some persons think that the fall of aerolites can be a cause of increase of the volume of the Earth; others, without concerning themselves with the ways and means, base themselves on the principle that, since animals and plants are born, grow and die, the planetary bodies must be subject to the same law.

First of all, the origin of aerolites is still problematic; for a long time it was even thought that they could form in the upper regions of the terrestrial atmosphere, by the condensation of the gasified matter coming from the Earth itself; but, supposing that they have a source foreign to our globe, that they come from the remains of detonated planets, or that they form spontaneously by the condensation of interplanetary cosmic matter, in which case they could be considered as abortions of planets, their accidental fall could not lead to a sensible and, still less, regular increase of our globe. On the other hand, the assimilation that is sought to be made between plants and planets lacks accuracy, because it would be to make of the latter organic beings, which is not admissible.

According to another opinion, the globe can increase by the influx of interplanetary cosmic matter, which it gathers throughout its course in space, and which incessantly deposits new molecules on its surface. This doctrine has nothing irrational about it, since, in this case, the growth would take place by adjunction and superposition, as for all organic bodies; but, besides one being able to ask where this growth would stop, it is still too hypothetical to be admitted as a principle. It is but a system combated by contrary systems, because, according to others, the Earth, instead of acquiring, consumes, by the effect of its movement, that is, abandons in space a part of its molecules and, thus, instead of increasing, it diminishes. Between these two theories, positive science has not yet pronounced itself, and it is probable that it will not be able to do so anytime soon, for lack of material means of observation. In this one is reduced to formulating reasonings based on known laws, which can give probabilities, but does not yet give certainties.

— Here, in response to the question proposed, is the reasoned opinion of the eminent Spirit who dictated the learned uranographic studies, reported in chapter VI of Genesis.

(Society of Paris, July 1868. — Medium: Mr. Desliens.)

“The worlds wear out as they grow old and tend to dissolve in order to serve as elements for the formation of other universes. They restore, little by little, to the universal cosmic fluid of space what they had taken from it to form themselves. Moreover, all bodies wear down through friction; the rapid and incessant movement of the globe through the cosmic fluid has the effect of constantly diminishing its mass, though by an inappreciable quantity, in a given time. n “In my opinion, the existence of the worlds can be divided into three periods: First period — Condensation of matter, during which the volume of the globe diminishes considerably, but the mass remains the same. It is the period of infancy. — Second period — Contraction, solidification of the crust, hatching of the germs, development of life up to the appearance of the most perfectible type: it is the age of virility; it loses, but very little, its constitutive elements. As its inhabitants progress spiritually, it passes into the period of material diminution; it loses, not only because of friction, but also through the disaggregation of the molecules, similar to a hard stone which, gnawed by time, ends up turning into dust. In its double movement of rotation and of translation, it leaves in space fluidified particles of its substance, until the moment when its dissolution is complete. “But, then, as the attractive force is in the ratio of the mass — I do not say of the volume — the mass diminishing, its conditions of equilibrium in space are modified; dominated by more powerful globes, to which it can constitute no counterweight, deviations are produced in its movements, in its position in relation to the Sun; it undergoes new influences and from this are born changes in the conditions of existence of its inhabitants, awaiting that it disappear from the scene of the world.

“Thus, birth, life and death; infancy, virility and decrepitude, such are the three phases through which passes every agglomeration of organic or inorganic matter. Only the Spirit, which is not matter, is indestructible.”

Galileo. n

— What becomes of the inhabitants of a destroyed world? They do what the inhabitants of a house under demolition do: they go to establish themselves elsewhere, under better conditions. For them the globes are but temporary stations; but it is probable that when a globe has reached its period of dissolution, it has long since ceased to be inhabited, because, then, it can no longer furnish the elements necessary to the maintenance of life.

Everything is an insoluble problem in Nature, as soon as one abstracts from the spiritual element; everything is explained, on the contrary, clearly and logically, as soon as one takes this element into account.

It is to be noted that, according to the order of ideas expressed in the communication above, the end of a world would coincide with the greatest sum of progress of its inhabitants, compatible with the nature of that world, instead of being the sign of a reprobation that would doom the greater part of them to eternal damnation.

[1] In its movement of translation around the Sun, the speed of the Earth is 400 leagues per minute. The Earth having 9,000 leagues of circumference at the equator, in the movement of rotation upon its axis, each point of the equator travels, then, 9,000 leagues in twenty-four hours, or 6.3 leagues per minute.

[2] [v.

Galileo.]