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 r, P, HUNTINGTON 
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THE 
 
 Genesis of Water 
 
 
 BY 
 
 P. W. DOONER 
 
 1894 
 
 RENSHAW & JONES, PRINTERS 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
Copyrighted by P. W. DOONER 
 June 25th, i8g4. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 IN bringing this paper before the public, the writer is 
 not unmindful of the fact that the greeting which 
 usually goes forth to the obtrusive theorist is seldom 
 either friendly or reassuring. Practical achievement is 
 the requirement of this age and its application has 
 wonderfully amplified the field of correspondence 
 between humanity and its environment. But notwith- 
 standing its many conquests, the practical side of man, 
 equally with the theoretical side, has failed to account 
 for or to explain certain physical phenomena that have 
 been continually on parade before the eyes of science 
 ever since man became a thinking animal. Take as 
 an example of the things that are known but unex- 
 plained: the Comet; the Aerolite; the Glaciation of 
 the North Temperate Zone; Gravitation; Physical 
 Life; Matter, — mysteries, all. Now, I did not begin 
 to write with any thought, whate\-cr, of invading the 
 domain of any of these problems, but with only the 
 one thought of accounting for the fact of the presence 
 of water upon the earth — a constituent of our planet 
 not accounted for by the nebular hypothesis. But as 
 I proceeded with my examination of the one subject I 
 had under consideration, my analysis gradually sug- 
 gested and unfolded certain necessarv relations and 
 conditions that could not fail to draw attention to 
 certain observed phenomena intimately connected with 
 
4 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 one or another of the subjects mentioned above. These 
 analogies between such phenomena upon the one hand, 
 and upon the other the consequences that become 
 indispensable to the truth of the theory here advanced, 
 present at least a very remarkable train of coinci- 
 dences, if they present nothing more. The conclusion 
 that I have reached, and the inevitable tendency of 
 the discussion to explain some of these phenomena are 
 accordingly now submitted. 
 
THE 
 
 GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 That the matter of the Universe has been aggre- 
 gated into suns and systems is a wonderful truth that 
 stands revealed in the face of visible nature. For all 
 the purposes of this discussion, which is intended to 
 throw light upon the mystery of the origin of water 
 and the agency by which it came upon the earth, it 
 might suffice to simply observe all that is thus forcibly 
 presented to the mind and so to let the matter rest, 
 if it were not that some of the surviving phenomena 
 of cosmic activitv that are still visible to the observer 
 of the solar disturbance will be introduced as eviden- 
 tial facts in the course of this inquiry. 
 
 Whether the nebular hypothesis of Laplace is, or 
 is not, the true explanation of the process of world- 
 building, it has at least the conceded merit of being 
 the most consistent theory ever advanced to explain 
 the formation of the suns and systems that shine upon 
 us from infinite space. 
 
 This hypothesis while essentially consistent with 
 that which I now advance is not co-extensive with 
 the latter, nor indispensable to its support, and hence 
 it does not follow from the observation of principles 
 
6 THE GKNESIS OF WATER. 
 
 that may not have a common application that both, 
 or that either, should not be true. 
 
 It will be remembered, without the aid of partic- 
 ular reference, that the nebular hypothesis holds sub- 
 stantially that the matter which now composes all the 
 bodies of our solar system was originally in a highly 
 heated, gaseous state and in such condition formed a 
 globe, the circumference of which extended beyond 
 the orbit of Neptune. That the radiation of heat into 
 space caused the cooling globe to contract upon its . 
 center and that the motion thereby developed took the 
 inevitable spiral or whirling direction, as observed in 
 whirlpools, cyclones and other phenomena. That the 
 rotary motion thus primarily instituted became estab- 
 lished as a law thereafter ordained to govern and 
 direct the movements of the radiating mass. That as 
 the rotary motion gradually increased the centrifugal 
 force overcame the attraction of gravitation operating 
 upon the outlying strata of the whirling body and as 
 a consequence a ring of condensed vapor was thrown 
 off from its surface. That other and similar rings 
 were in like manner detached in succeeding ages. 
 That those rings, retaining the motion they had at 
 the time of their separation from the interior mass, 
 continued to revolve in the same direction as that of 
 the nebulous substance within and in a common plane. 
 That the matter composing the rings gradually con- 
 densed and in each case formed a single globe which 
 thereafter pursued its course around the central body 
 and remained subject to the same law of contraction 
 and rotation that had caused its separation from the 
 parent body. That those planetary globes threw off 
 rings in a similar manner which likewise consolidated 
 and formed satellites. Saturn's rings, as suggested by 
 Dr. Mitchell, have been left unbroken to show how 
 
THE GENKSrS OK WATER. 7 
 
 worlds are made and may yet consolidate into addi- 
 tional moons. Such, in brief, is the nebular hypoth- 
 esis — between which and the theory I now advance 
 there will be found to run a chain of consistent 
 mutual support. 
 
 A few remarks upon the observed phenomena of 
 solar activity as well as upon some of the ascertained 
 truths concerning the constitution of the solar mass 
 are pertinent at this stage of these investigations. 
 Data gathered, as the result of careful observations 
 made upon the sun during the times of total eclipse, 
 show that it is enveloped in an atmosphere of incan- 
 descent Indrogen and mineral vapors, which has been 
 designated the chromosphere, outside of which is a 
 vast region composed in part of reflected light to 
 which the name corona, is given, and beneath the 
 chromosphere is the incandescent photosphere. 
 
 In the work of observing and examining these 
 several regions of the solar world with the view of 
 ascertaining the elements that are present there, the 
 spectroscope is the chief — it might be said almost the 
 only — reliance of the astronomer. 
 
 The analysis it makes of the light that comes 
 from the sun proves that the chromosphere is com- 
 posed chiefly of incandescent hydrogen intermixed, to 
 some extent, with the vapors of nearly all the min- 
 erals of which we have any knowledge as constituting 
 proportions of the crust of the earth, and of those of 
 other substances that are unknown upon our globe. 
 
 The eminent astronomer and scientist, M. Faye, 
 who has made the study of the chromosphere a spe- 
 cialty, says that the activity of this region is the 
 grandest illustration of the principle of the terrestrial 
 cyclone, on a gigantic scale, that the mind can con- 
 ceive. He has discovered a constantly descending 
 
8 THE GENESLS OF WATER. 
 
 whirling motion by which the hydrogen clouds that 
 form the outer layers of the chromosphere are 
 gathered up and whirled or sucked downward to the 
 fiery photosphere whence they are again belched forth 
 as a flaming mass, the temperature of which gradually 
 falls as the incandescent matter recedes from the solar 
 surface, until, toward the outer region of the chromos- 
 phere it is again caught up in the fiery maelstrom to 
 undergo again and again this blazing ordeal ; and that 
 the process continues without cessation. 
 
 Professor Young, of Princeton College, who has 
 devoted much time and observation to the study of 
 the chromosphere, gives a most stirring description of 
 the solar storms as observed by himself in September, 
 1 8/ 1. He had been watching the movements of a 
 hydrogen cloud, the length of which he estimated at 
 100,000 miles. This cloud hung some 50,000 miles 
 above the sun's surface at a moment when the Profes- 
 sor was temporarily interrupted and called away. 
 When he resumed his observations, half an hour after- 
 ward, he says the whole cloud had been literally 
 blown to shreds by some uprush from beneath. 
 Instead of the quiet cloud he now saw a mass of 
 detached fragments which arose with an almost per- 
 ceptible motion until in ten minutes the uppermost 
 were more than 200,000 miles from the solar surface. 
 I quote his words wherein he says: "This was ascer- 
 tained by careful measurements ; the mean of three 
 closely accordant determinations giving 210,000 miles 
 as the extreme altitude attained." 
 
 I have been particular to call special attention to 
 the result of this observation and to those of the 
 observations of Professor Faye, for the reason that the 
 same Infinite Design that has left its unmistakable 
 impress upon all interpreted Nature will be found to 
 
THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 operate for a mighty end and with consummate purpose 
 in these phenomena. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 When we stand upon the shores of a placid sea 
 and contemplate its wonderful majesty, its inconceivable 
 life and its overruling necessity as the basis of every 
 form and state of organic existence, an incredulous 
 impulse arrests the imagination whenever we attempt 
 to ascribe a common origin to this living thing and to 
 the hard, repellant, mineral formation upon which it 
 rests. The theory I advance of the origin of water 
 and the manner of its accumulation upon the earth 
 will find powerful advocacy in such contemplation. We 
 cannot summon logic to satisfy the critical instinct, as we 
 find it difficult to believe, that the Creator has placed all 
 the necessary conditions of organic life anywhere upon any 
 globe that whirls in infinite space and has withheld, 
 or now withholds, the life principle from active mani- 
 festation there ; so, on the other hand, we are as 
 powerless to believe that this living element is suffered 
 to hang idly in the chromosphere of any sun for 
 countless millions of years, while planets and satellites 
 are hungry for its presence and need this, only, to 
 supply all the conditions necessary to organic life. 
 
 I do not trifle with, nor in any manner assail the 
 nebular hypothesis, if I seek to separate the world of 
 water from the world of minerals and to claim for 
 each a separate and distinct origin. These two forms 
 of matter have comparatively little in common ; for 
 while the nebular hypothesis is apparently a logical 
 interpretation of the Divine plan so far as it applies 
 to the mineral kingdom, it is wholly incapable of 
 explaining the ordinary phenomena of the world of 
 water. It would seem far more logical even as an 
 
lO THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 apparent physical requirement to ascribe a distinct 
 origin to each ; and this impression will be found to 
 grow into and become a powerful necessity the 
 further we inquire in the origin and genesis of the 
 forms of matter. 
 
 If one mode or manner of aggregation, based 
 upon the law\s of caloric, can give as the result a 
 world of iron and copper and carbon and silicon and 
 all the rest, conglomerated and analgamated into a 
 rocky, liquified, or vaporized mass, surely the sugges- 
 tions of an untrammeled judgment would lead us to 
 search for a different mode and manner of aggregation 
 in order to produce a substance so essentially different 
 from the former as that which we find presented in 
 water, and which, speaking generally, has no property 
 in common with minerals under normal conditions. 
 Of course I take cognizance here of the well estab- 
 lished theory of the mineral basis of the various 
 earths, and may as well premise by saying now that 
 until the advent of water upon the surface of the 
 mineral globe, in the course of the creative plan, no 
 such form of matter as is now presented by any of 
 the numerous classes or kinds of earth containing oxy- 
 gen, was at all possible. It is a recognized truth of 
 chemistry that every particle of earth that rests upon 
 the rockv frame-work of our globe was at some remote 
 period of the world's history an uncombined portion of 
 one or another of the original elements known, or of 
 an element perhaps still unknown and undiscovered, 
 and that until water came upon the mineral world 
 with its oxygen there was no such process possible as 
 oxidation, or the formation of any mineral oxide — 
 hence no earthy matter as this is now presented upon 
 our continents. 
 
 At what stage of the work of world-l)uilding the 
 
TIIK GENESIS OF WATER. II 
 
 element known as oxygen began to nuuiifcst its pres- 
 ence and to perform its miracles of transformation 
 upon our globe, now demands investigation. If it was 
 contained in the cosmic (ire-mist and continued in 
 association with the mineral vapors and the gases that 
 have condensed into the chromosphere and photos- 
 phere, its presence should be manifested in some man- 
 ner in the solar flames. But such is not' the case. 
 The analytical power of the spectroscope fails to give 
 forth an\' indication of the presence of oxygen either 
 in the spectrum of the sun, or in that of any of the 
 fixed stars belonging to the first or second types, 
 according to the classification of Secchi (the white and 
 yellow stars, respectively), while some of the stars of 
 the third type, (the red stars), show the lines of 
 watery vapor and an entire absence of the hydrogen 
 lines, so abundant in the solar spectrum. 
 
 Dr. Schellen in his great work on Spectrum Anal- 
 ysis says, that neither oxygen, nitrogen, nor carbon, 
 has ever been discovered either in the spectrum of the 
 photosphere or chromosphere. He explains the absence 
 of the carbon lines by showing that the temperature even 
 of the sun is too low to allow of the conversion of 
 carbon into the gaseous form. His efforts to explain the 
 absence of oxygen and nitrogen lines is far from clear 
 or consistent, and his deduction, " That it must not 
 be concluded, from the absence of the lines of nitro- 
 gen and oxygen in both these spectra, (those of pho- 
 tosphere and chromosphere), that these substances are 
 not present in either the sun or the chromosphere,'' in 
 view of his admission that they cannot be found 
 there, is of very limited scientific importance. 
 
 It seems then to be established upon authority 
 that the solar actixity is a process of incandescence, 
 but never of oxidation or combustion. In no case, as 
 
12 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 the result of observations made, is there an indication 
 of any consumption of hydro-carbons to convert the 
 dazzlingf brilliancv of the solar surface into the sombre 
 clouds of smoke so insej^arable from indiscriminate 
 oxidation, or "burning." It is always the same 
 brilliant incandescence, the result of electric or other 
 vibration, never of the fires of combustion. 
 
 As a' further proof of the absence of oxygen from 
 the chromosphere we may mention the presence there 
 of free hydrogen in such enormous volumes that the 
 sun's atmosphere is shown to be composed chiefly of 
 this gas in a state of vibratory intandescence. From 
 all that we know concerning the properties of this gas 
 we are impelled to the conclusion that free hydrogen 
 gas at the temperature of incandescence could not 
 exist where oxygen is present as a gas, because their 
 chemical union and the formation of watery vapor 
 would be an instantaneous and inevitable consequence, 
 except in a case where the temperature should be 
 maintained so intensely high as to decompose the 
 water as soon as it should be formed, or to prevent 
 the combination of the gases in the first instance — a 
 condition of temperature which, although possible in 
 the lower portion of the chromosphere, (whither oxy- 
 gen could not penetrate), could not exist toward the 
 outer region where the temperature of the hydrogen 
 would be lower and the combining oxygen compara- 
 tively cold up to the moment of contact. 
 
 Another argument tending to show the absence 
 of oxygen from the sun is furnished by the composi- 
 tion of aerolites which, according to generally accepted 
 theory, originally, like the earth, formed part of the 
 sun's mass. These bodies frequently fall to the earth, 
 and upon being submitted to chemical analysis are 
 found to be composed mainly of pure metals such as 
 
THE GENESIS OF WATER. 1 3 
 
 iron, copper, tin, nickel and others, with only so 
 much oxygen as they would l)e likely to absorb during 
 their brief passage through the earth's atmosphere, 
 when their chemical combination with its oxygen pro- 
 duced their singularly instantaneous incandescence and 
 external oxidation. While noting these observations 
 I chance to take up a copy of a local daily newspaper 
 wherein I find the following item. It is one of many 
 analyses made of meteorites with generally an equiva- 
 lent result, it says : "A body of meteoric iron of an 
 estimated weight of 20,000 pounds has just been dis- 
 covered near San Antonio, Texas. It assays 97.5 per 
 cent, of pure iron and 2.5 per cent of nickel. There 
 are also traces of cobalt." Now let us note the fact 
 that each of these constituents are found in the crust 
 of the earth but in proportions so small compared to 
 the mass of the globe as to be inconsiderable, while 
 oxygen which forms nearly half of the explored mass 
 of the earth is not present in this visitor from the 
 realms of space. 
 
 In like manner we search in vain for the presence 
 of oxygen in the moon. According to the accepted 
 hypothesis she sprang from the body of the earth at 
 a time when the latter was a lurid mass of flaming 
 hydrogen and incandescent mineral vapors only recently 
 separated from their respective parent and grandparent, 
 the sun. It follows, therefore, that whatever were 
 the constituent elements of the moon at the time of 
 that separation, we would expect to find there now — 
 changed in form no doubt, but immutable in element- 
 ary constitution. And what do we find ? The spec- 
 troscope can give us no information beyond the fact 
 that all the light we receive from the moon is reflected 
 sunlight — having the lines of the solar spectrum. 
 
 ^W. 
 
14 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 Astronomers look in vain for any indications of an 
 atmosphere there. No clonds nor vapors of any kind 
 ever rise or hang above her naked breast. The rays 
 of a torrid snn ponr unremittingly for weeks upon a 
 single region of her surface but she makes no response. 
 It is in vain that we scan her illuminated disc for 
 signs of active combustion, or for indications of watery 
 vapor rising responsive to the thermal influence. We 
 look in vain for indications of refraction such as an 
 atmosphere should produce in the case of the occulta- 
 tion of the stars ; there is no refractive power in her 
 surroundings. Her mountains tower into the ether 
 at elevations far surpassing the loftiest peak upon 
 our globe, but their tops are destitute of snow or moist- 
 ure. In short, there is not and never has been water 
 there. Her scarred and pitted surface presents rather 
 the appearance of a once molten, mineral mixture, 
 hardened while yet in the act of bubbling, than that 
 of rocks formed by water. The whole aspect is that 
 of mineral slag in fantastic aggregation, unenlivened 
 by the familiar mountain ridges peculiar to stratified 
 rocks that were formed upon the earth after the advent 
 of water and subsequently heaved into continental 
 chains. 
 
 In view, therefore, of the observed facts that the 
 outer regions of the chromosphere consist mainly of 
 free hydrogen gas heated to the combining point with 
 oxygen to form water ; that oxygen has never been 
 found to exist in the sun, or the chromosphere ; that 
 there is not the slighest indication that it has ever 
 existed in the mass of the moon ; that it is not found 
 in aerolites that fall to the earth ; that it has never 
 been found to exist in any of the fixed stars of the 
 class to which our sun belongs, and yet that it does 
 enter so largely into the composition of the earth, the 
 
THE GENICSIS OF WATER. 
 
 15 
 
 inference would seem pretty well sustained a priori 
 that the oxygen of the earth was not originally 
 obtained from the sun. In that case we are called 
 upon to look elsewhere for its source. 
 
 Thus far I have confined my observ^ations to those 
 phenomena that tend to establish the separate and 
 independent aggregation of solids upon the one hand 
 and of the compound of oxygen and hydrogen known 
 as water, on the other ; and now, if I can show in all 
 reasonable and logical probability that water (or rather 
 oxygen which is nearly the same thing rarefied, as 
 sixteen out of every eighteen parts of water are oxy- 
 gen), has had its origin apart from the mineral moiety 
 of the terrestrial globe, I necessarily establish by the 
 same facts and reasoning the further principle, that 
 there must have been a time subsequent to that of 
 the material aggregation of the nebulous matter of the 
 solid earth, at which the union of the terrestrial ele- 
 ments as they now exist, took place. The circum- 
 stances of such union, or the law under which it 
 culmhiated, would then be the *only problem remain- 
 ing for consideration. 
 
 No argument is necessary to establish as an 
 extreme probability that if oxygen does not exist in 
 either the sun\s photosphere or chromosphere it is not 
 an element that enters into the composition of that bodv, 
 and also that if the earth, as a detached portion of the 
 sun, has now half its explored mass composed of oxy- 
 gen it must have assumed its dual constitution after 
 its separation from the parent body. The query 
 necessarily arises, whence came the oxygen that 
 enters so largely into the composition of the crust of 
 the earth, and whence came the nitrogen with which 
 it is associated in the atmosphere? 
 
1 6 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The nebular hypothesis demands the concession 
 of the primordial fire-mist endowed with energy. From 
 this beginning the harmonious order and infinite 
 variety and profusion of the solar systems of space are 
 shown to necessarily flow. It gives us for contempla- 
 tion worlds in all stages and periods of growth toward 
 maturity ; worlds mature and capable of sustaining 
 life and worlds that have grown cold and chill and 
 dead. Behind the world periods, it gives the fire-mist 
 in all stages of manifestation from imponderable gas to 
 incandescent mineral vapors. But, as will be noticed 
 from the observations already recorded, while this 
 theory accounts for and explains the origin of the min- 
 eral moiety of the terrestrial mass, the origin of the 
 other half is left wholly afloat in the realm of con- 
 jecture or speculation. There was no trace of oxygen 
 co-existent with the cooling, condensing vapors that 
 compose the frame-work of the globe and no trace of 
 oxygen in the reservoir whence it came. 
 
 The origin of water, then, and the manner of its 
 being brought into combination with the mineral sub- 
 stance of the globe are the chief points in regard to 
 which I would advance a theorv. This theorv demands 
 a single concession, it is this : That the elements, 
 oxygen and nitrogen, are not necessarily modifications 
 of any other form of matter, but that they existed at 
 the beginning relatively to the suns and nebuloe, as 
 they are found to exist at present — separate and inde- 
 pendent or simple elements. Nor is there any reason 
 to assume that these gases had their primary existence 
 in any manner of association with any other of the 
 terrestrial elements. 
 
 When, therefore, at the appointed time, the Sov- 
 ereign Fiat commanded that Light Be, the oxygen and 
 
THE GENESIS OF WATER. 1 7 
 
 nitrogen (the latter having practically no affinity in 
 the inorganic forms of matter), sprang forth and 
 roamed through the realms of space in innumerable 
 compact aggregations obedient to the first law that 
 thrilled through the night of Chaos. In this respect 
 these elements were coeval with the unillumined fire- 
 mist and hence neither form of matter enjoyed the 
 exclusive priority of being. P)Ut this compound, or, 
 at least, commingled gas, was endowed with some 
 wonderful properties, of which the most essential, con- 
 sidered as a means of securing its safety and inde- 
 pendence, was its tendency to escape from the vicinity 
 of heated bodies through its powers of indefinite 
 expansion ; also, in the case of the oxygen, its won- 
 derful and unaccountable affinity for certain other 
 forms of matter under conditions hitherto unen- 
 countered and unattained. A warm or hot breath 
 caused the \vandering mass to bound with inconceiv- 
 able rapidity away from the source of heat, and the 
 free, cold ether in the opposite direction or that of 
 non-resistance, always gave room for escape. It w^as 
 the now familiar phenomenon of the expansion of 
 heated air. 
 
 But, after the lapse of ages, when the condi- 
 tions of nebular aggregation had so far advanced that 
 heated bodies of mineral, nebulous matter had gath- 
 ered weight bv the process of concentration, the law 
 of gravitation made it imperative upon the lighter 
 body that it should visit the region and dominion of 
 the heavier. The latter, a condensing mineral globe, 
 through a process and period of solidification had 
 reached a sta2:e wherein active incandescence obtained 
 perpetually upon the surface of a liquid mass of 
 molten metals that thrilled outlying space by its 
 miofhtv enereies. It was thus that its attractive 
 
1 8 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 powers gathered to itself everything within the sphere 
 of its influence. Among the bodies that became sub- 
 ject to its relentless power there might have been 
 seen, had there been an eye to behold it, afar off in 
 the realms of space, an apparently insignificant body. 
 The light by which it could be seen was borrowed 
 from the glowing surface of the attracting body and 
 reflected. This superior body we may now designate a 
 sun, for convenience. It sends forth brilliant flames 
 of incandescent hydrogen that reach out for hundreds 
 of thousands of miles into space and light the path- 
 way of the captive body to what seems, for the time 
 being, a doom of inevitable destruction. To escape 
 from the peril it endeavors to fly off" into the cold, 
 friendly, impassive ether, but the centripetal power is 
 too strong and grows more intense, so that the wanderer 
 is hurled with inconceivable rapidity toward the cen- 
 tral flames. But, as it approaches, a property within 
 itself that was dormant while it traversed the regions 
 where reigns the absolute zero of temperature is sud- 
 denly awakened to the new danger. A wonderful 
 heat bursts upon its side. It bounds outward from 
 this repulsive energy and obeying neither force abso- 
 lutely, sweeps around the sun at a velocity often far 
 exceeding a million of miles per hour, and, with this 
 momentum to carry it past its peril, escapes into the 
 ether whence it came, but on the opposite side. 
 
 If the heat of the sun could have been reduced at 
 the moment when it caused the gaseous globe to 
 expand and so disperse toward outer space, to a tem- 
 perature of 5000 degrees, or thereabouts, there could 
 be no manner of doubt but that the stranger would 
 have been cast upon the glowing surface of the sun, 
 there to combine and remain forever. 
 
 But in this perihelion sweep, strange things have 
 
THE GENESLS OF WATER. 1 9 
 
 happened ! The oxygen has found its first affinity, 
 for, in passing, it was compelled to force its way 
 through a mighty cloud of incandescent hydrogen 
 somewhere within the chromosphere. In the case of 
 such contact, only one chief result could follow and 
 that would, at the same time, be inevitable. This 
 would be the chemical union of the flying mass of 
 oxygen with the dallying cloud of incandescent hydro- 
 gen and the formation of watery vapor. Each part of 
 the oxygen that participated in the encounter 
 instantly seized upon two parts of hydrogen, quenched 
 their fires and carried them off into space — and so the 
 daring captive of yesterday is the intrepid hero of 
 today and like the fabled Theseus of old, conquers his 
 destiny and carries of his bride. 
 
 But this encounter with the sun at such close 
 quarters has produced a wonderful complication of 
 effects. The concentration of the gases in producing 
 water has wrought a visible contraction within the 
 sphere of the hydrogen cloud as well as within that 
 of the gaseous globe, while the expansive power of 
 the solar heat is meantime driving or dispersing the 
 uncombined oxygen and the unsocial nitrogen far away 
 into space, whence they may be seen under proper 
 circumstances hereafter to be explained as immense 
 trains of reflected light extended away towards outer 
 space. 
 
 But it will now be noticed that as this flvinsf 
 globe or mass of commingled gas and watery vapor 
 recedes from the sun and advances into cooler regions, 
 a gradual contraction takes place. The dissipated par- 
 ticles, or atoms, seek their normal relation and when 
 they attain such relation and come together in their 
 native temperature there is deposited at the center of 
 the mass a new, strange and beautiful thine, — a crlobe 
 
20 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 of water, that has been condensed from the watery 
 vapor that was formed from the hydrogen that was 
 snatched by the fugitive oxygen from the chromos- 
 phere ! And thus in the beginning water was made ! 
 
 And now another circumstance may possibly 
 claim the attention of the observer wherever he may 
 be. The gaseous globe may have approached the sun 
 by a curve approximating to that of a parabola or an 
 hyperbola. Its visit to the sun being from outer 
 space, it is not necessarily moving in a closed orbit, 
 which fact is apparent from its ascertained hyperbolic 
 course. But beyond a doubt it is departing by the 
 curve of an ellipse. This is a violation of positive 
 law, and why is it? How is it possible? Let us 
 inquire. The gaseous globe is traveling with a 
 velocity of 1,000,000 miles per hour. But instanta- 
 neously the flying body effects a chemical combination 
 whereby its mass is increased and its velocity propor- 
 tionately retarded. This retardation would be in 
 accordance wdth the law of physics which prescribes 
 "that when a moving body strikes a body at rest and 
 the two move on together the ijis viva of the com- 
 bined mass is as many times less than the vis viva of 
 the first body before impact as the combined mass is 
 greater than the first." 
 
 In summarizing the special characteristics of com- 
 etary motion. Dr. Warren states the following princi- 
 ple, which is also mentioned in Chambers' Encyclo- 
 pedia as a recognized law, viz.: that "A parabolic 
 comet may become elliptic, and so permanently 
 attracted to the system by the retardations of attract- 
 ing bodies." 
 
 It would seem to follow, therefore, as a require- 
 ment of the recognized laws of physics that this gas- 
 eous body, approaching the sun by the direction of an 
 
THE GENESIS OF WATER. 21 
 
 open curve, would, if sufficienth- retarded in its 
 course, necessarily recede from the sun bv a closed 
 orbit and become permanently attached to that system. 
 The sufficiency of such retardation would therefore 
 depend upon the quantity of watery vapor formed, 
 which would again depend upon the volume of hydro- 
 gen encountered and assimilated. 
 
 If the commingled gas under consideration should 
 be executing its first contactual sweep around the sun 
 its perihelion distance would probably be removed to 
 the extreme outer strata of the chromospheric 
 envelope, and hence the quantity of hydrogen 
 encountered and the quantity of watery vapor produced 
 would be proportionately small. In such case the vis 
 viva would undergo less change and the centripetal 
 impulse would be proportionately moderate. But 
 should the body have advanced in the curve of a par- 
 abola it would be very likely to depart by a curve of 
 less divergence, lying within that of the parabola and 
 hence ensuring the return of the gas at some future 
 time. 
 
 These .recurrent revolutions around the sun would 
 be inevitable so long as the altered velocity of the 
 body remained low enough to bring its retreat within 
 the curve of the parabola. At each perihelion it 
 would necessarily approach nearer to the attracting 
 body, secure a greater accretion of its substance, a 
 gradually increased weight and suffer a greater retarda- 
 tion of velocity. 
 
 At this stage we woiild be presented with the 
 phenomena of a globe or body of oxygen and nitrogen 
 surrounding a nucleus of water whirling off through 
 space either in an elongated elliptical orbit or by an 
 open curve ; in the latter case practically independent 
 of the central orb of the svsteni from the vicinitv of 
 
22 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 which it had emerged. While it remained in the 
 neighborhood of the sun we should expect to see the 
 gaseous body under almost any and every imaginable 
 form. The weightier parts would necessarily drop 
 towards the sun and be held to a prescribed curve by 
 his attractive power while its lighter portion still fur- 
 ther rarefied by his heat would extend far off into 
 space. 
 
 But this gaseous body is, of course, transparent, 
 just as our atmosphere is transparent, and its 
 denser parts have well defined refractive prop- 
 erties. The nucleus therefore gathers up the rays of 
 the sun and sends forth a stream of focalized light 
 which serves to illuminate its dissipated substance in 
 the direction of the ray, which substance was other- 
 wise invisible in the diffused light of the interplane- 
 tary realm. By the aid of these focalized rays, then 
 we should expect to see an illuminated train extend- 
 ing from the refracting body, or nucleus, as far out 
 into space as the energy of the solar heat had suc- 
 ceeded in scattering the particles of the enveloping 
 gas. This column of light would always, of course, 
 point away from the luminous body forming a line 
 passing thence through the nucleus. The diffusion of 
 the gas, (susceptible as that form of matter is of 
 indefinite expansion) might be expected to extend for 
 millions of miles in all radial directions away from the 
 seat of the solar energy. 
 
 To an observer upon our earth while such a phe- 
 nomenon is visible anywhere in the direction of the 
 sun (provided it is not in the position of a direct 
 line), this stream of focalized light would present a 
 gradual curve, and for this reason : The illuminated 
 particles that mark the train of light by reflection, are 
 not all equally distant from the point of observation. 
 
THE GENESIS OF WATER. 23 
 
 Light travels at a speed of more than 180,000 miles 
 per second, and hence in the case of the outlying or 
 more distant particles of the gas rendered visible hv 
 reflection (as in the case of a comet having a tail of 
 the moderate length of 10,000,000 miles), the light 
 would not reach the observer on the earth for the 
 space of almost a minute after the time that he had 
 actually received the ray from the nucleus. With refer- 
 ence to the nucleus, therefore, we should never be 
 able to see the extreme outlying portion of the ray in 
 its real situation, but would always see it in the 
 direction of the place it occupied one minute before. 
 Every point between the nucleus and the extremit\' 
 of the visible rav would be similarlv affected 
 in proportion to its distance from the point of 
 observation, thus necessarily giving the ray a curved 
 appearance in the sky — the speed of the body being 
 from 5,000 to 20,000 miles a minute. 
 
 But as the gaseous body recedes from the sun and 
 escapes into the colder outlying regions — whence its 
 temperature falls and as the necessary consequence 
 its particles come together and the mass contracts — we 
 should expect to observe a rapid yet gradual diminu- 
 tion in the length of the ray of light until it should 
 nearly or entirely disappear. 
 
 I am next to inquire whether or not the observa- 
 tions of astronomers point to any heavenly bodies that 
 correspond to this picture and if so how they have 
 hitherto been regarded, accounted for and explained. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 For all that I know concerning the mysterious 
 visitors we call comets that occasionally give variety 
 and eccentricity to the majesty of the heavens, I 
 
24 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 acknowledge my indebtedness to the many great 
 minds that have given their time and energies to the 
 work of studying the mysteries of the stars. 
 
 Professor J. Dorman Steele takes up the subject 
 of comets with the frank admission that "their fiery 
 trains ; the swiftness of their flight ; the strange and 
 mysterious forms they assume — their departure as 
 unherald as their advent — all seem to bid defiance to 
 law and to partake of the marvellous." Entering 
 upon the details of his subject he further says that 
 one peculiarity of the comet is that its tail flashes out 
 at greatest magnitude as it nears the sun and dimin- 
 ishes as it recedes ; that when the comet first appears 
 there is no tail visible, but, as it approaches the sun 
 the tail shoots out from the coma and grows daily in 
 length and splendor ; that the comets at their perihelion 
 sweep very near the .sun, one in 1680 having come 
 where Newton estimated the heat to be 2000 times 
 that of red-hot iron, and executed its perihelion sweep 
 at a speed of a million miles per hour. The comet of 
 1843 had a perihelion distance from the sun of only 
 30,000 miles and doubled that body in two hours. 
 
 Dr. Warren in his "Recreations," (in which he 
 acknowledged his indebtedness to a number of men 
 eminent in science for the facts which he has col- 
 lected), says that the unsolved problems pertaining to 
 comets are very numerous and exceedingly delicate ; 
 that the conditions of matter with which we are 
 acquainted do not cover the ground presented by 
 comets ; that they are clouds of gas and shine by 
 reflected light. 
 
 Sir Robert Ball, a Fellow of the Royal Society, 
 in speaking of comets makes the following observa- 
 tions which I summarize : They visit us, we hardly 
 know from whence, except that it is from outer space. 
 
THE GENESIS OF WATER. 25 
 
 They are always changing their appearance in a 
 baffling bnt still fascinating manner. If an artist 
 tries to draw a comet he will hardly have finished his 
 picture of it in one robe before he finds it arrayed in 
 another. The astronomer has also his complaint to 
 make against comets. We can thoroughly rely upon 
 the movements of the planets, but the comets often play 
 sad pranks with our calculations. They sometimes 
 take us by surprise and blaze out just when we do 
 not expect them ; then by way of compensation they 
 frequently disappoint us by not appearing when they 
 have been most anxiously looked for. They sweep 
 around the sun at a speed one thousand times faster 
 than the swiftest rifle bullet. That a drawing of a 
 comet is wholly useless for the purpose of identifica- 
 tion — "as well try," he says, "to identify a cloud or 
 puff of smoke." Its movements are so erratic that 
 it frequently becomes entangled with other heavenly 
 bodies and quite loses all claim to identity. Conclud- 
 ing he says : "Generally speaking, great comets come 
 to us once and are never seen as^ain." 
 
 Dr. Schellen says that the physical constitution 
 of comets has presented greater difficulties to the 
 astronomer than even that of the nebuke. When they 
 first become visible their motion is evidentlv around 
 the sun, and frequently in orbits of such great elonga- 
 tion as hardly to be called elliptical ; traveling, 
 besides, in all possible planes and directions. Sev- 
 eral move in closed orbits around the sun with 
 generally fixed period of revolution ; others come 
 unexpectedly from the regions of space into our 
 system and retreat again to be seen no more. At 
 perihelion they sometimes pass so close to the sun as 
 "almost to graze its surface." The influence exer- 
 cised on the formation of the tail ]))• its approach to 
 
26 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 the sun was vSliowii in the case of the comet of i860, 
 for at its perihelion it traveled at the speed of 
 i,2i6,<Soo miles per hour and as a consequence put 
 forth a tail, in two days, 54,000,000 miles in length. 
 
 Biela's comet about the time of performing one of 
 its perihelion sweeps around the sun, in 1846, became 
 separated into two parts which retreated into space by 
 the same orbit but separated by a distance of 200,000 
 miles. When it returned in 1S52 the parts had 
 receded to the distance of 1,500,000 miles apart. It 
 was never seen again although its periodic time 
 would have required its return to perihelion in 1859 
 and again in 1866. "It seems," says Dr. Schellen, 
 "that it has been drawn out of its orbit or passed 
 into some other form of existence." 
 
 For thirty-five years Professor Dubleau, of the 
 Pohtechnic, in Paris, has made the study of comets 
 a specialty. In a recent lecture he declared that all 
 ideas and theories heretofore advanced touching the 
 subject of comets, are more or less erroneous. That 
 comets have no periodic time and that predictions of 
 their return at such and such a time, are of no value. 
 He leans towards the belief that the nucleus is a 
 mass of highly heated matter, but has convinced him- 
 self that the tail is due to light reflected from the 
 detached particles of the comet by the "combustion" 
 of the necleus. 
 
 On the other hand. Dr. Schellen shows that the 
 nucleus is always transparent and is generally affected 
 both in size and densitv h\ its approach to the sun. 
 "It might be expected," he savs, "that the coma in 
 approaching the sun would expand and l)ecome rare- 
 fied b)' extreme heat, l)ut as in the case of the 
 nucleus, exactly the reverse has often been observed." 
 
 Donati's comet measured on the first of vSeptember, 
 
THE GENESIS OF WATER. 27 
 
 1858, 13,894 miles in diameter, while on the 
 twenty-fifth of the same month, at its nearer approach 
 to the snn, its diameter had decreased to 1526 miles. 
 The like phenomenon was observed in the comet of 
 1843, the nucleus of which was almost exhausted at 
 perihelion while the tail shone with greatest splendor. 
 
 Kepler remarked that there are as many "comets 
 in the heavens as fish in the sea,'' and Arago has 
 estimated that there are 17,500,000 comets in our solar 
 system. 
 
 As to the composition of comets there is no 
 agreement among astronomers and but little expres- 
 sion of opinion by any men of authority in science. 
 The presence of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and car- 
 bon, has been detected as the result of recent observa- 
 tions. Dr. Schellen thinks they are composed of 
 matter in a gaseous condition of extreme tenuity and 
 that they shine by reflected light. The researches of 
 Arago have satisfied him that comets are not self- 
 luminous, but that they shine by reflected sunlight. 
 This he shows by their light being partially polarized ; 
 and the same conclusion has been reached bv other 
 observers who have examined the spectra of some of 
 the more brilliant of recent comets. It is also true 
 that we find the contrary opinion entertained by a few 
 scientists of note, but in every case there seems to be 
 a reliance upon the probable, suggested by reasoning 
 a posteriori rather than upon facts obtained as the 
 result of experimental or other investigations. The 
 weight of opinion, however, is very decidedly in favor 
 of the theory of reflected light. There are reliable 
 accounts of stars of even a low order of mairnitude 
 being seen through the nuclei, while stars seen through 
 the matter of the tail suffer no diminution of 
 brisjhtness. 
 
28 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 The sum of all observations hitherto made upon 
 cometary phenomena gives the following general 
 result : 
 
 I — That the density of the nucleus is very 
 inconsiderable, corresponding to matter in a gaseous 
 state while the tail corresponds to matter in an 
 almost inconceivable state of tenuity. 
 
 2 — That as they approach the sun and come within 
 the influence of the solar heat, the nucleus diminishes 
 in apparent size and the tail correspondingly increases 
 in size and brilliancy, and the reverse order of change 
 appears in proportion as they recede from the sun. 
 
 3 — That they may approach the sun by the curve 
 of an hyperbola (an open curve), and recede by the 
 curve of an ellipse (a closed curve. ) 
 
 4 — That at perihelion they sometimes sweep so 
 near the sun as necessarily to pass through the outer • 
 regions of the chromosphere. 
 
 5 — That they sweep among the planets of our 
 solar system at such distances that we are compelled 
 to believe that the latter are actually brushed, if not 
 indeed quite enveloped, in the luminous matter that 
 composes the tail. 
 
 6 — That contact of cometary matter actually took 
 place in the case of our globe in i860 and in the case 
 of Jupiter and his satellites in 1770 and again in 1866 
 but without producing any more apparent effect upon 
 the motions of either planet or upon those of their 
 satellites than would have been caused by a burst of 
 moonlight. 
 
 7 — That the comet of 1770 when last seen, was 
 tangled up among the moons of Ju])iter whence it was 
 never seen to emerge. 
 
 8 — That the last and most authoritative observations 
 
THE GENESIS OF WATER. 29 
 
 upon the nature of cometary light show that it is 
 reflected sunlio^ht. 
 
 9 — That comets travel throu.Q^h space indiscrim- 
 inately in open or closed curves and in every conceiv- 
 able plane, and are not in particular instances perma- 
 nently identified with anv solar system. 
 
 10 — That different comets are often differently 
 constituted, some of them beinf^ found to contain car- 
 bon in the form of ethylene g-as, and other substances 
 not discoverable in comets generally. 
 
 With such constitution and characteristics it now 
 only remains to trace the points of connection or 
 analogy between our primordial gases and the myster- 
 ious comet to see whether we may find at one and 
 the same time the interpretation of a mystery in 
 Nature and the evidence of infinite wisdom and 
 infinite and bencficieut desig-n. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 When we last viewed the progress of our gaseous 
 globe, it was in full retreat from the sun and bear- 
 ing awa\' from the dominion of his sovereign majesty, 
 a cloud of hydrogen, which, in its moments of perihel- 
 ion frenzy, it assimilated by the process of chemical 
 combination — changing it into watery vapor. Its center 
 of gravity, its specific weight and orbital velocity, had 
 undergone such a prodigious change at the instant of 
 combination that a retreat by the curve of a parabola 
 (or that by which it approached its perihelion) had 
 become an impossibility without, at the same time, a 
 corresponding change in the centripetal power of the 
 sun. 
 
 Fleeing, therefore, into space, whether bv a closed 
 or open curve, and from a position within the orbits 
 
30 THE CxENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 of all the planets, it would necessarily be compelled 
 to cross the orbit of each of these in order to effect 
 its escape into sidereal space. In such an eccentric 
 career, there would be ver\' evident reason to look 
 for a collision with some of the planets. Upon the 
 doctrine of chance such a collision would be inevitable 
 in time, even in the case of moving bodies unaffected 
 bv attraction ; but if we add to the probability of 
 such collision bv bare chance, the operation of the 
 principle of mutual attraction, the prospects of a 
 collision will be proportionatelv orreater. 
 
 Suppose, now, that we consider as established the 
 dual principle of physical aoforre^ation, that has been 
 suggested, what results might we expect as the neces- 
 sary consequence of such collision ? 
 
 Before answering this question in terms, let it 
 be assumed that the evolutionary plan of world- 
 building had produced an incandescent globe or sun, 
 in which there is no trace of oxvgen or nitrogen, 
 nor any manifestation of the presence of either of 
 these elements. This sun has thrown off a planet, 
 " flesh of its flesh," which is, therefore, destitute of 
 oxygen ?s well as of nitrogen, and which soon takes 
 up an independent course about its parent sun. It 
 remains a glowing mass for ages, discharging at length 
 a satellite from its surface, precisely as it was itself 
 cast off. This last offspring in like manner takes up 
 its course around the planet, meanwhile radiating its 
 vitality into space. These rotating bodies gradually 
 contract until this mutual process has at length placed 
 vast distances between them. The satellite has at 
 length receded to the distance of 240,000 miles from 
 its immediate parent, while the latter is distant 
 90,000,000 of miles from the sun. A point of time is 
 at last reached in the course of this ceaseless whirling 
 
THK GRNEvSIS OF WAPKR. 3 1 
 
 march when the heat of the smaller globe or satellite 
 is nearly exhausted and its lires extinguished, except 
 at a few volcanic points, and at the same time the 
 planet has become a glowing mass of red, molten, 
 mineral substances, but now no longer of that high 
 temperature which impels hydrogen flames into the 
 surrounding ether. 
 
 At such point of time the Sovereign Command 
 once more rang through the primeval desolation and 
 ordained that the conditions of life come forth, and 
 thereupon a w^andering globe of water, formed as we 
 have seen — in other words a comet, in its erratic course, 
 — is cast upon the glowing bosom of the planet. If 
 the collision takes place during the headlong sweep of 
 the comet toward the sun the nucleus ma\- at such 
 time be a frozen mass, containing the water produced 
 at its preceding visits to the solar atmosphere in the 
 form of ice ; but should the contact happen at the 
 time of its retreat from the sun, the precipitation 
 would doubtless be a deluge of water proportionate to 
 the magnitude of the comet. In either case a new 
 and wonderful agenc\' would be thrown into active, 
 energetic life. Chemical combinations would begin to 
 form. New compounds would be dragged forth. The 
 hungry, omnivorous ox\-geu would seize almost ever\- 
 form of matter with which it came in contact. Potas- 
 sium, calcium, sodium, and nearly all the rest of the 
 minerals would rush to the embrace of the newlv- 
 found affinity and mineral salts and rocks of various 
 kinds would in due course of time be formed and 
 assume consistency. 
 
 The ice, or water as the case may be, is con- 
 verted into steam, and the phenomena of water\- 
 vapor issuing forth from the bosom of the planet, the 
 formation of clouds and the falling of rain are seen for 
 
32 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 the first time ; but there is only the eye of Omnipo- 
 tence to look upon the scene — unless it happen that 
 somewhere an older planet has passed through all this 
 experience and produced the being man, a creature of 
 which order may, perhaps, at the moment, contem- 
 plate the whole panorama from an outlaying planet, 
 by the aid of his telescope. 
 
 But here we have found a noble use for the 
 hitherto ornamental but worse than useless comet. 
 The nebular hypothesis fails to account for its pres- 
 ence in our solar system ; but here we have seen how 
 it may have been captured in the course of its vaga- 
 bond flight, placed in an orbit from which escape was 
 impossible and ultimately applied to a necessary use 
 in the course of the creative scheme. 
 
 It was the plan of the Creator in the fulness of 
 time to extinguish the fires of His planets, and the 
 comets are, and have been from the beginning. His 
 water-bearers. Another and another of these bodies, 
 of varying volumes, may have been necessary, and 
 these may have been launched successively upon the 
 heated mineral mass until the work of superficial 
 cooling was completed ; or one may have sufficed. 
 Indeed, the quantity of water upon the earth com- 
 pared with its mineral mass, is so very small that a 
 comet of the apparent dimensions of Donati's might 
 contain sufficient water to supply all the demands of 
 our terrestrial oceans. This at first sight may seem 
 improbable, but actual calculation has shown that if 
 an orange be dipped in a vessel of water and with- 
 drawn again, the quantity of water that clings to its 
 surface will bear about the same proportion to its 
 mass that all the waters of the oceans bear to the 
 mass of the terrestrial globe. 
 
 But it does not follow that the fires of the planet 
 
THE gknp:sis ok water. 33 
 
 1)eing extiiit^uishccl there could ])e no further conietarv 
 precipitatioH. The liability to other or further collis- 
 ions continues unimpaired. 
 
 Nor are we compelled to stop here in the course 
 of reasonable speculation. '' All life proceeds from 
 life" is the maxim of the biologist. But an incan- 
 descent fylobe, in its very nature and condition, neo^a- 
 tives every presumption of the possibility of associated 
 oro-anic life. Such possibility could not exist where 
 water is not present, and much less so under expos- 
 ure to the temperature of the incandescent stage of 
 planetary existence. But as the conditions necessary 
 to life can exist only where water is to be found, it 
 would follow as an essential requirement that if w'ater 
 descended originally through the vehicle of a comet, 
 bv the same vehicle and at the same time came the 
 primordial life germ. 
 
 This would reasonablv lead to the further sugges- 
 tion that somewhere, at .some point or period of time 
 in the course of its flight through space, the comet 
 had, or became possessed of, the primordial cell or 
 germ of organic being. 
 
 But the problem that is here presented is not 
 that of the ultimate origin of life, but only the question 
 of the transferrence of the already existing germ by 
 which the phenomena of manifested life became pos- 
 sible upon the planetary worlds. With this limitation, 
 the inquiry is one that comes wnthin the domain of 
 legitimate speculation. But this branch of our subject 
 will lie further considered in the concluding chapter. 
 
 My theory, besides accounting for the phenomena 
 of comets and emphasizing the great principle of 
 intelligent design in the creative plan, goes yet further 
 and explains terrestrial and planetary phenomena that 
 luu'e hitherto baffled every effort at logical elucidation. 
 
34 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 In this direction I will refer first to the glacial period 
 of the earth's history and will introduce this phase 
 of these investigations by a quotation from our great 
 Winchell : 
 
 He says: "The glacial period was introduced 
 b\- a change in the temperature of the latitudes 
 affected. The cause of the change remains an unsolved 
 problem, but whatever may have caused the glaciers, 
 the reality of the glacial period cannot be questioned." 
 He says, further, that the northern portions of the 
 continent lay buried beneath a mass of snow and ice 
 many thousands of feet in thickness. "So suddenly 
 came the change in temperature that the long-haired 
 elephant of Siberia and Alaska were overwhelmed and 
 buried in herds to remain entombed until the age of 
 man." 
 
 Now how verv easv it l^ecomes to account for this 
 sudden calamity by the theory of cometary precipita- 
 tion. A globe or body of water descending from 
 outer space at the zero of temperature would neces- 
 sarily form a mass of ice until it should reach the 
 atmosphere of the earth, whence, until it should reach 
 the surface of the earth (by reason of the resistance of 
 the atmosphere and thereafter bv the impact of col- 
 lision), it would undergo a process of liquefaction or 
 partial melting. But much of the mass would remain 
 as ice, and that portion that might be melted in its 
 descent would soon congeal again ; for should the 
 comet be on its advance toward perihelion it would 
 bring with it from outer space a degree of cold nowhere 
 else possible upon the earth. The process of reaching 
 an equalization of temperature would necessarily begin 
 at the moment at which the comet should enter the 
 terrestrial domain and would continue until the whole 
 mass should be converted into water. This process 
 
THE GHNKSIS OF WATp:r. 35 
 
 niitrht require Llie lapse of aij;es of time during which 
 period the temperature of the affected region would 
 fall so low as to make the conditions necessary for 
 the maintenance of organic life practicall\ impossible 
 there. And this is just what would seem to have 
 taken place in the north. The earth has not yet 
 recovered from the effects of that visitation, and the 
 reservinr of absolute cold lannched upon its surface 
 from outer space still holds a vast region of the north 
 temperate zone in an icy bath. Not onh' came the 
 water to abide, and in time to replenish the earth, 
 but the chill\- breath' of cosmic space came also in its 
 embrace, and remains to temper and perhaps to purify 
 and in due time equalize. 
 
 But if we suppose that the comet was pursuing its 
 outward course from the sun at the time of the 
 contact, other and different consequences might reason- 
 ably be expected. Instead of ice a deluge of water 
 would be cast upon the earth ; and if we can place 
 reliance upon universal tradition, such visitations 
 upon the earth are well attested. Hence, with tradi- 
 tion as universal as the human race to attest the inun- 
 dation of the earth at various points by waters from 
 an unknown source, upon the one hand, and by the 
 glacial • period and the preserved bodies of extinct 
 species of mammals that still lie entombed in the 
 northern glaciers (that must have perished by thous- 
 ands in a da)), upon the other, we have a problem 
 that indicates a disastrous water\- precipitation upon the 
 earth, but from what source, or by what law, has never 
 hitherto been shown. 
 
 Whatever may be the ultimate influence of the 
 glacial period upon the temperature of the earth when 
 the era of equalization shall close, the earth has gained 
 much from the attrition of the icy mass, according to 
 
36 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 the teachings of modeni geologists, and hence 
 another link is added to the great chain of intelligent 
 design. "But meanwhile the vital heat of the earth 
 has been drawn upon for ages in order to temper the 
 frosty influence of this visitor from space, and aided 
 b\- the solar ravs has in a measure relieved the afflicted 
 region which may yet, in time, regain a temperature 
 sufficiently moderate to restore other flocks and herds 
 to the valleys and the plains where the mastodon and 
 his contemporary mammals perished before the time 
 that man appeared upon the earth. • 
 
 The conclusion reached in the foregoing pages 
 is rendered further probable bv the observations 
 recorded of the comet of 1770. This comet was seen 
 to enter among the moons of Jupiter but was never 
 seen to emerge thence, notwithstanding it was care- 
 fuUv and intelligentlv observed and studied until it 
 was no longer visible there or elsewhere. Astrono- 
 mers have been much puzzled to account for this. By 
 assuming as a fact established that it must have 
 extricated itself from Jupiter's influence, there is no 
 lack of argument, or of theory, on the part of certain 
 eminent astronomers to explain whither it fled and 
 under what circustances and where it was subse- 
 quently seen in a new orbit, coursing in a different 
 plane. But all the explanation off"ered is wanting in 
 the essential of foundation, as the observed comet which 
 has been regarded as the one captured by Jupiter has 
 neither the size, appearance, orbit, plane, nor period 
 of that which was lost. 
 
 Above all the fact remains not only admitted, but 
 established bv close observation, that the comet was 
 seen to enter the precincts of the family mansion of 
 Jupiter and that it never has been seen since. It is 
 needless to add that niv deduction is that it remained 
 
THK GENKSIS OK WATKR. 37 
 
 there and is now participatin.t^ in the o;reat work ol 
 C!X)ling off the niiohty mass of Jupiter and preparinj^ 
 him to become in his appointed time the seat of mani- 
 fested life and ultimately of human intelligence and 
 endeavor under the protecting and guiding hand of 
 Omnipotence. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 It may reasonably be claimed for the conclusions 
 reached in the preceding chapters that they are, at 
 least, a legitimate deduction from facts and phenomena 
 at once generally conceded and accepted. For any of 
 the purposes of this research, experimentation in the 
 realm of physical science were unnecessary in view of 
 the recorded achievements of the great minds of this 
 and other ages and of many lands that supply abun- 
 dant scientific data for the use of the investigator. 
 
 It is contended in support of the whole theory 
 now advanced that the conclusions reached in the 
 foregoing chapter are firmly rooted in ascertained 
 scientific truths as the same are given to and accepted 
 bv the scientific world — leaving the reader to determine 
 for himself the justice of this claim. 
 
 But something remains to be said ; and in that 
 which is to follow there will be a departure to some 
 extent from the method and authority to which refer- 
 ence has been made. In order to complete this work 
 upon a sufficiently comprehensive plan, it will be 
 necessary to indulge a brief course of speculation in 
 a direction toward which exact science has not 
 ventured to lead the wa\-. Knowing how very small 
 is the measure of indulgence that can be accorded 
 in such case, only a very little will be asked or 
 expected. 
 
 Reference has been made to the origin of life upon 
 
38 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 this planet. With the ultimate origin of life these 
 pages have not the least thing to do. That were a 
 question too deep for philosophy ; a problem that 
 must inevitably leave the presumptuous investigator 
 stranded upon the shores of the Infinite. But in 
 referring to the fact of the first appearance of organic 
 life upon the earth, we may recognize a topic of great 
 interest as well as a subject of legitimate inquirv. 
 Whence came that life ? 
 
 " Oiniic viv?i!n ex vivo! " exclaims the biologist ; 
 and when he proclaims as his scientific creed that life 
 can proceed only from antecedent life he declares a 
 scientific principle at once far-reaching and suggestive. 
 
 There must have been a time in the course of the 
 world periods at which we have glanced when neither 
 organic life nor even the least of its essential conditions 
 was at all possible, or present upon the earth. Still 
 we find ourselves in a world palpitating with life. 
 The earth, the sea and the air teem with an indescrib- 
 able profusion of busy, struggling life. It is^ but it 
 zvas not ! Whence came this all-per\^ading life ? 
 Whence came the primordial germ, if we may concede 
 organic evolution from the cell or germ ? At what 
 point or period of time and by what means came the 
 parent germ ? The purpose of this chapter is to 
 answer these questions without losing sight of the 
 reasonable demand of the biologist — that life be shown to 
 proceed always from antecedent life. 
 
 The life germ is infinitesimally minute. It is 
 everywhere diffused in the waters, in the lower strata 
 of the atmosphere and perhaps also in the intermediate 
 and higher. It is, moreover, practicalh- indestructible. 
 
 These positions are well attested h\ the experi- 
 ments of Dr. Bastian and Professor Tyndall. The 
 former having repeatedly boiled vegetal)le infusions so 
 
THE GENESIS OF WATER. 39 
 
 as to destroy, (as he supposed), all the life or animal- 
 cular therms and then hermetically sealed up the 
 boiled product in glass v^essels, the air inside of which 
 had been for hours exposed to the temperature of 
 boiling water the further to insure the destruction of 
 any contained germs, always discovered the myriad 
 animalcular life in the sealed vessel after the lapse of 
 a few days. 
 
 These experiments led Dr. Hastian to announce as 
 an ascertained scientific truth that life springs spon- 
 taneously from matter under proper conditions and not 
 necessarily from antecedent life. I>ut Professor Tyn- 
 dall, holding as a logical sequence that life can pro- 
 ceed only from life, demonstrated the truth of his 
 hypothesis. 
 
 The experiments of Profes.sor T\ndall and his fol- 
 lowers in this field of iuquir\- prove ver)- conclusiveh- 
 that only by a process of filtration of the air contained 
 in the sealed vessels and its exposure to a tempera- 
 Lure much higher than that of boiling water, could 
 the animalcular life be destroyed. 
 
 The experiments of Dr. Dallinger demonstrated 
 that the life germ which Dr. Bastian supposed he had 
 destroyed by the agency of heat, through the process 
 of boiling the vegetable infusion, was quite unaffected 
 by the temperature of boiling water and that it could 
 withstand a far greater exposure to high temperature. 
 
 As the result of this series of experiments it was 
 shown that all ordinarv means of ridding the air of 
 animalcular germs were utterly unavailing ; that onh 
 by the exercise of extraordinary care and skill and the 
 operation of a special process of filtration could the work 
 of expelling the invisible germ be effected at all ; but 
 it was also shown that by the exercise of great care 
 and skill to that end the germ could be excluded and 
 
40 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 that the infusion would fail to develop life. The 
 experiment of Dr. Bastian as thus modified was 
 repeatedly tested and a:lways failed to develop living 
 organisms in the infusion. 
 
 Thus the triad principle was established upon a 
 sound scientific and experimental basis, viz.: That 
 the invisible animalcular germ exists everywhere 
 throughout the air with which we come in contact 
 and is practically inseparable from it ; that it is not 
 materially affected b>' a degree of temperature high 
 enough to prove destructive of animal forms and func- 
 tions and always develops living organisms under pro- 
 per conditions; that living organisms do not develop 
 spontaneously. 
 
 At this point a digression becomes necessary, in 
 order to call attention to a co-ordinate branch of scien- 
 tific research, the determinations of which are essential 
 to this inquirv. 
 
 Physical science has shown in various ways that 
 heat is a condition of force and that heat and force 
 are convertible, or, in other words, that heat is 
 convertible into force and vice versa. 
 
 Bu'. chemical combination as well as material 
 solidification is always the manifestation of force 
 operating between the molecules of a substance ; from 
 which it follows that matter is always a storehouse of 
 force, or energy. This, however, is only to say, in 
 other words, that the molecules of a substance are 
 bound together bv heat. Hence, we correctly infer 
 that the quantit>' of heat in a body, or the degree of 
 temperature necessarv to effect and maintain its chem- 
 ical combination, or its normal elementary constitu- 
 tion, is a factor of great importance in this connection. 
 
 Thus, to s])ecif\- instances, we observe that the 
 temperature at which one substance will pass into the 
 
THE GENESIS OF WATER. 41 
 
 fluid State may cause comparatively slight disturbance 
 among the molecules of another, while it may dissipate 
 the molecules of a third substance which is differently 
 constituted, into the gaseous form. The normal tem- 
 perature of its environment, therefore, is the measure 
 of the quantity of heat that a substance may be said 
 to contain ; and the condition of any substance as to 
 its molecular disturbance at such temperature is the 
 measure of the thermic influence to which it is 
 ordinarily subjected. If the temperature be raised, the 
 tendency of the molecules is to separate, whereby the 
 solid will gradually pass into the liquid and thence 
 into the gaseous form. 
 
 In this process it is plain that the changing sub- 
 stance has not parted with any of its combining heat, 
 but rather that a superabundance of heat has des- 
 troyed, for the moment, that normal equilibrium 
 among the molecules which fixes the character or state 
 that we recognize as the normal condition of the sub- 
 stance affected. 
 
 We further know that in every such case, if the 
 temperature be gradually lowered, the dissipated sub- 
 stance may be made to pass from the gaseous again 
 through the fluid to the solid state. In this reverse 
 order the substance will have lost the superfluous heat 
 by radiation. 
 
 This consideration brings us back to the point 
 where we observed the mass of matter in a condition 
 of apparent quiescence, at the normal temperature of 
 its environment. But, however quiescent it indisput- 
 ably is, we must not lose sight of the fact that it is 
 still endowed with the heat or energy of combination, 
 or of elementary constitution ; that every molecule is 
 held in place by heat — force. 
 
 If, now, instead of subjecting the quiescent mass 
 
42 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 to the influence of superabundant heat in order to 
 effect its molecular disturbance, we should start it 
 forth in the opposite direction, or that of the zero of 
 temperature, a new question will be presented. If the 
 substance should be subjected to the influence of the 
 absolute zero of temperature, what would become of 
 its combining heat ? We know from experience and 
 observation that exposure to very low temperature 
 renders normally solid bodies brittle, which fact is due 
 to the radiation of their essential, heat. The break- 
 ing or crumbling tools of the northern wood-worker, 
 furnishes a familiar instance of this phenomenon when 
 the mercury falls 15° to 20° below zero. 
 
 But, in the direction toward which this inquiry 
 now tends, actual experiment cannot carry us very 
 far, because the absolute zero of temperature cannot 
 exist, or be produced, upon the earth, since force, or 
 heat, holds all the molecules of terrestrial matter 
 together. But while this is unquestionably true, (and 
 I have not lost sight of the experiments, hopes and 
 expectations of Professor Dewar to prove the contrary), 
 and while it is moreover true that the absolute zero 
 of temperature, literally considered, cannot be said to 
 be a possibility so long as the suns of other systems 
 endure, still we may postulate a condition that will 
 proclaim an absolute zero of temperature special to our 
 solar system, — if the solecism may be permitted for 
 the purpose of illustration. 
 
 For this purpose let it be conceded that the great 
 central fire of our system has become extinguished 
 and that the night of Chaos has returned and settled 
 down upon the region of force wherein the sun and 
 planets now revolve. A slow but constant and certain 
 radiation of heat into space will necessarily ensue. 
 The aggregations of solid matter that we recognize as 
 
THE GENESIS OF WATER. 43 
 
 planets and their satellites, as they exist today, will 
 then contract npon their several centers, break up and 
 disintegrate until all visible substance must take flight 
 in the condition of radiated heat, whence nothing 
 tangible will or can remain. Deprived of its combin- 
 inof heat the last molecule of matter will have been 
 driven from its fellow ; matter will have disappeared 
 and there will remain only the unknown and the 
 unknowable "atom'' — that mysterious metaphysical 
 concept of physical science. 
 
 This result would be inevitable in the presence of 
 the zero of temperature that would obtain upon the 
 extinguishment of the solar fires ; for it is evident 
 that inasmuch as heat, or force, must exist in the 
 mass of matter in order to give it form and substan- 
 tial impenetrability, it will follow as a corollary that 
 with the departure of all heat must disappear the 
 whole phenomenal universe which it sustains, — "And 
 the Heavens and the Earth will pass away;" and the 
 Earth will become a formless thing and void. 
 
 The following from the pen of the brilliant Flam- 
 marion gives a vivid picture of this process of disinte- 
 gration : 
 
 "The Heavens will have become unrecognizable, 
 the Earth decrepid, dried up, disintegrated, will have 
 fallen into fragments, which, spreading themselves 
 along the orbit, will continue to revolve around the 
 dead sun." 
 
 But he might have gone further, for, if the mass 
 must disintegrate and fall into fragments, will the 
 process of disintegration end there ? Evidently every 
 floating fragment must become exposed to the same 
 disruptive influence that shattered the parent body, 
 and the inexorable law of radiation will enforce the 
 decree of disintegration so long as one molecule shall 
 
44 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 tend to another. It must therefore follow as a neces- 
 sity of this law that the solar system shall pass 
 away and that no vestige of matter can remain ; or 
 rather, that the phenomenal universe will be trans- 
 inuted into its subjective equivalent — a universe of 
 invisible, abstract force. 
 
 But this force must continue as indestructible as it 
 was at the moment of its most exalted manifestation in 
 the forms of visible matter. It is scattered, no doubt, 
 but in nowise annihilated, and in the fulness of time 
 will concentrate and evolve again the molecules that 
 must combine to give form and substance to the worlds 
 that are to be. 
 
 But in the course and progress of world-disintegra- 
 tion what has become of the errant gaseous body we 
 saw in the toils of the solar attraction, and which was 
 subsequently cast upon the glowing surface of a cool- 
 ing planet ? We found this gaseous body wandering 
 in the solitary independence at the time when the 
 first beam of light shone from the primordial fire-mist. 
 We found it to be endowed with one chief attribute, 
 that of indefinite expansion, and hence indestruct- 
 ible in elementary constitution. We have seen in the 
 course of these deductions, the process of combination 
 by which the hydrogen in a state of incandescence was 
 captured, converted into watery vapor and carried 
 away ; and we have contemplated the unbounded energy 
 that thrilled the solar system at the moment of that 
 combination. 
 
 And now in the process of disintegration we can 
 contemplate the complementary chill of zero that with- 
 draws the force of combination and resolves the water 
 into its separate constituent gases. At that stage, 
 the energy of decomposition must 1)e the complement 
 of that combination. It would therefore necessarily 
 
THE GENESIS OF WATER. 45 
 
 follow that at the moment of the decomposition of the 
 waters of the globe an inconceiv^able energy, liberated 
 in an instant of time, would cast all the contained 
 oxygen as well as the entire atmospheric envelope of 
 the globe far out into space with a specific force and 
 velocity perhaps without a parallel in the whole realm 
 of nature. 
 
 Thus a new comet may be born and hurled forth 
 upon its impetuous course, carrying away in its flight 
 the atmosphere with which it endowed the now per- 
 ishing planet while the latter was yet only in the 
 period of its glowing infancy. 
 
 With the receding atmosphere would also be carried 
 away such watery vapor as might have escaped the 
 shock of the decomposition of the seas, together with 
 all the animalcular life germs that it would contain. 
 Thus cast away in the direction of the greatest impulse 
 and least resistance, impelled as well from the liber- 
 ated hydrogen as from the solid parts of the earth, its 
 flight would remain unimpeded until the time should 
 come again, in the distant future, when it would become 
 ripe for precipitation by the process noted in a former 
 chapter, and in that condition would have cast itself 
 again upon a cooling world somewhere in space. 
 
 Since the foregoing pages were written, my atten- 
 tion has been called to the following coincident com- 
 ment from the pen of Camille Fammarion. He says ; 
 
 "Comets seem to be an exception to the general 
 uniformity of celestial motions. Whence do they 
 come ? W' hither do they go ? The spectroscope reveals 
 the presence of carbon and hydrogen, and we know 
 that life began upon the earth by the combination of 
 these elements. Do comets bring the seeds which fec- 
 undate worlds ? Are they electric storms bringing 
 new vibrations to the atmosphere of the planets, or 
 
46 THE GENESIS OF WATER. 
 
 do they, on the contrary, receive the last sighs of dying 
 worlds ? " 
 
 But the separation of the water from the mineral 
 matter of a perishing world would necessarily take 
 place many ages before the time at which the solid 
 matter could have reached the stage of fragmentarv 
 disintegration through the process of radiation. Indeed, 
 this fact is logically demonstrable without the aid of 
 experiment. 
 
 We have seen that the cosmic fires must have been 
 maintained for many millions of years before their 
 stored-up energies developed the crude forms and con- 
 ditions of a mineral world, while on the other hand, 
 the waters are the resultant of hydrogen momentarily 
 heated to incandescence and thus combined with the 
 colder oxygen from outer space. 
 
 The respective periods of radiation, or exposure to 
 the influence of the absolute zero of temperature, 
 therefore, of the mineral and the aqueous portions of 
 the decaying world, necessary to effect their respective 
 disintegration, would be the complements of the times 
 of aggregation, which, as we have seen, would be the 
 proportion of millions of years in the one case to a 
 moment of time in the other. 
 
 But the animalcular life germs are found to abound 
 everywhere in sea and air. Their properties are 
 such as have been mentioned in this chapter ; whence 
 it follows that we have not the slightest warrant for 
 believing that the chemical decomposition of the waters 
 would destroy them, nor that they would suffer anni- 
 hilation through exposure to the temperature at which 
 that phenomenon should occur. Inseparable as these 
 germs are from the atmosphere, and practically 
 indestructible as we have seen, they would necessarily 
 be borne away with the receding atmosphere or 
 
THK GENESIS OE WATER. 47 
 
 new-born comet — the liberated sea and air of the dyinj^- 
 world. 
 
 How very symbolic of the Christian's conception 
 of mortality is the picture that is thus presented ! 
 The soul of the world, dowered with the principle of 
 imperishable life, taking its fli<^ht to another state of 
 being and leaving to destruction and decay the verit- 
 able corpse of the erstwhile living planet. Nor does 
 it fit with less exactitude the conception of mortalit}' 
 and immortality taught by the religions of the East, 
 wherein the liberated soul leaving its body to decav 
 and disintegration, enjoys the freedom of a spiritual 
 existence until the time shall come when the law of its 
 being shall cause its descent into another and another 
 body, just as the cometary soul of an extinct planet is 
 cast upon successive worlds. 
 
 And thus in the great order of the Universe, the 
 physical life of Nature is an immortal principle fostered 
 and protected b)- the hand of Omnipotence ; for cast 
 upon successive worlds, together with the comet bv 
 which it is preserved, the invisible germ will continue 
 in its eternal round to develop all the forms of organic 
 life beyond the utmost limitary conception of time. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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