Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1884 — Earthquakes as Life Preservers. [ARTICLE]

Earthquakes as Life Preservers.

The theory that the earth’s internal heat is a residue of its former molten condition is losing .advocates, and the idea is gradually gaining ground that the existence <jf internal heat, as manifested in volcanic action, is due to a secondary cause, i. e., the force of gravity (or in other words, the power of attraction,) which resides in every particle of the earth's mass. This theory does not gainsay the hypothesis that the earth was once in a molten condition, but, accepting that proposition as true, goes a step farther and argues that the earth, having already reached the limit of the cooling off process, is compressing, the loss of our primal heat having left room for an inward movement of rock substances of the m-imfc unit it is the crnatiirwr ac’Eio nbfTfiese gafTiet'ifig'parficTes'TliaT produces the intense heat that finds expression in the mighty upheavels in the weaker portions of the earth’s crust — burstings forth that change the formation of vast areas, swallow up thousands of human beings, and terrorize mankind. However destructive to life in the concrete earthquakes may be, their influence upon the formation of the earth’s crust, whereby habitations are formed and maintained for such forms of life; as flourish only on solids, is essential to the existence Of life: and when, the day arrives that the particles of the earth, having been compressed to the fullest degree their attractive power will allow, are no longer .capable of producing volcanic action, then will the sea encroach upon the land unopposed until island and continent have been ground down to one common level, and there is left not even Ararat upon which man may exist. Biologists agree that the ocean is the mother of life, the shelter and nourishment of the primordial germ, and the geologist, gazing into the dim perspective of the future, approximates the number of years when the ocean, having swallowed the earth and its inhabitants, will again nourish in its boundless bosom the only terrestrial tilings that germinate and breathe.— s lP. 11. Walkin', in Midland Monthly. A MAN who, for many years, had charge df a marriage bureau in a large city, gives the following as the result of his expedience: The first question a vonng and beautiful lady asks about a candidate for matrimony is “What sort of a man is he?" but those who are more advanoed in years: “Show him to me right off.” Freedom from the risk of lead poisoning by using glazed earthenware is said to be- secured 'from varnishing the glazed Surface with borosilicate of lime.