The Dynamical Theory of the Formation of the Earth

Front matter

THE DYNAMICAL THEORY OF THE FORMATION OF THE EARTH. BY ARCHIBALD TUCKER RITCHIE. " Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by tlie Word of God'; so that tilings which are seen were not made of things which do appear." Hebrews xi. 3. VOL. I. LONDON : LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCL. GREENWICH; PRINTED BY W. U. CROCKFORD. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. Theorems Nos. 1 to 10 relating to Astronomy. Nos. 11 and 12 to Geography. Nos. 13 to 37 to Geology. Nos. 38 to 44 to Light. Nos. 45 to 50 to Light and Light and Heat. Nos. 51 to 55 to Physics. Nos. 5 G to 58 to the Atomic Theory, Radiation, and Evaporation. Nos. 59 to 66 to Electricity and Magnetism. Nos. C7 to 82 to Mechanics and Dynamics. No. 83 to Friction. Nos. 84 to 88 and 94 to Meteorology. Nos. 89 to 93 and 95 to 97 to Fluids, Liquids, and Evaporation.

Nos. 98 to 104 to Earths and Soils. Nos. 105 to 108 to Ores, Metals, and Native Salts. Nos. Ill to 112 to Crystallization. Nos. 113 to 124 to Botany. Nos. 125 to 127 to Fossil Botany. No. 128 to Vegetable Decomposition. Nos. 129 to 137 to the Animal Kingdom. Nos. 138 and 139 to Animal Respiration and Decomposition 1

Chapter I

Preliminary Observations. Subject of Argument in the present Section. Early Conception of a Principle of Limitation involved in the Mosaic Record. " The Moving Thing that hath Life." Definition of the Living Principle. Faint Line of Separation between Vegetable and Animal Vitality. Difference determined ; and also that between Vertebrate and Invertebrate Animals. The former accurately defined and described for the purpose of being eliminated from the argument. The same method adopted with respect to certain Mollusca, Articulata, and Radiata. Apulmonic Tribes of animals defined generally. Described particularly and very fully, and confirmed by general testimony. Enquiry into the supposed Nature and Habits ofthe Extinct Races of Inferior Animals. Evidences of the Extinction of their Races, and of the successive Creation of others. The Design and Object of their Temporary Existence briefly alluded to, with a view to resume, and dwell, in the sequel, upon both of these points

Chapter II

Review of the progress made in the previous Chapter. Followed up by exhibiting the description of Fossil Animal Remains which have been discovered in the older formations. Consolidated Lists of their Exuviæ from the Chalk downwards. General Notices respecting the same. The whole compared with the Animal Remains which, by dependance on Scripture, might have been expected to have been disembedded from the older Strata, and found substantially, and with few exceptions, to correspond. Some Explanations respecting the points of disagreement. Remains of Vertebrate Animals discovered in localities supposed to belong to the Formations of the Anti-rotatory Period 12" CONTENTS. IV 152 185 210

Chapter III

Adaptation of the Apulmonic Invertebrate Animals to the state of the creation previous to the Earth's rotation around its axis. Origin of Calcareous Rocks, and the influential part which the primitive Animal Organisms performed in producing them. Increase of these rocks in an ascending series. Evidences for their existence deduced from geological writers. And a summary of the subjects treated of in this section, with an application of the whole to the progressive development of the Dynamical Theory

Chapter IV

The subject of argument of this Section stated. The Vegetation of the Non-rotatory period neither flowering nor of seed-bearing plants. Striking analogy in this respect to the apulmonic creatures which were the subject of the previous Section, pointing to a common cause ; and, therefore, requiring to be treated in a similar manner. The Dicotyledonous class of plants fully described. The Monocotyledonous also minutely characterised, and both of these great divisions eliminated from the argument as having been formed during the Mosaic week. These, however, not comprising the entire Vegetable Kingdom, leave the Acotyledons as a residue, which are considered to have been willed into existence during the period of non-rotation. This latter class closely delineated, and their functions particularized

Chapter V

Summary application of what has been established in the foregoing Chapter. Dicotyledons comprehend all plants " bearing fruit whose seed is in itself upon the earth." Monocotyledons embrace " the herbs yielding seed." But the Vegetable Kingdom being examined into, a third description of plants is discovered, bearing neither flowers, fruits, nor seed3, called Acotyledons, and these are supposed to have been created during the non-rotatory period. Lists of Fossil Plants, given in corroboration, from the chalk formation downwards, and from two distinct sources — from Geological writers, and from the works of Fossil Botanists. General observations confirmatory of these lists. Brief explanations respecting vestiges of flowering plants occasionally included in the foregoing lists. Review of the progress made thus far.

Adaptation of the imperfect, flowerless plants to the state of the creation during the anti-rotatory period ; and their capability of having grown and propagated in a submerged condition confirmed, by contrast with the incapability of flowering plants to have existed without either light, atmosphere, or dry land

Chapter VI

The assumed condition of the primitive vegetation compared with Botanical descriptions of Cryptogamous plants. Characters and habitats of these given in detail, and found to coincide with the supposed state of the submerged vegetation of the anti-rotatory period. Motives for supposing that there was only one general elevation of the terraine portion of the earth. The absence, in lists of fossil flora, of certain orders of Acotyledonous plants accounted for. Capability of plants growing in the waters of the primeval ocean, although this held in solution saline materials CONTENTS. V. 304 329

Chapter VII

Another brief review of the progress made, and its application to the development of the general argument. Adaptation of the Plants of the non-rotatory period to the state of creation during that epoch. Fronds and folliacious appendages of Cryptogames described — contrasted with the respiratory expansions of Phanogames ; and the design* of the former being demonstrated, they are shown to be in harmony with the effects which the flowerless plants were intended to produce, namely, absorption from the surrounding water, retention of carbonic acid, and deposition, by their roots, to assist in forming the carboniferous strata. Short concluding observation : the continuity with which the subject has been traced to the present convergent point 269

Chapter VIII

The subject of argument of the present Section succinctly stated. Deposition of the stratified masses. Proof that the materials which compose the strata existed in the primeval ocean. The Earth accurately weighed before the deposition commenced, and after it ceased, and found, in either case, to be the same. In continuation, several sources of doubt respecting the origin of the strata removed, and clearly shown that underneath the stratified masses of the Earth's crust there is an impervious base of amorphous crystalline rock. Order of superposition laid down, in accordance with the classification of M. de la. Beche. Table given, and corroborated by general extracts. Wherever the surface of the Earth has been geologically examined it is found to have been, at one time, submerged in the waters of the ocean. And, in conclusion of this Chapter, that all stratified rocks afford evidence of having been deposited from water

Chapter IX

Further inferences respecting the existence of the elements of the strata in the primitive ocean ; and of the crystalline base on which they universally repose. Attendant circumstance of the Earth in perfect accordance with the work of deposition then going on. Character and component elements of the lower stratified, or non-fossiliferous rocks, given with the design of showing that their elements existed in the primitive menstruum. Endeavours to describe the process by which these elements were abstracted from the water with which they were thus combined. The immediate influence of the luni-solar current exemplified by the theory of the tides. Geological construction of the non-fosiliferous rocks — confusedly crystalline. Their specific gravity given, and the influence of attraction in their formation.

Aqueous crystallization, and the predominating influence which it exercised at this early stage of the creation. Capacity of water for becoming chemically impregnated with mineral elements shown and corroborated by the waters of Carlsbad and other mineral springs. Chemical affinity; its universality and influence. Brief summary in conclusion of this, as a preparation for succeeding Chapters

Chapter X

Position assumed, that the primeval water was chemically saturated with the mineral elements of the strata ; and could, therefore, according VI CONTENTS. to the laws of affinity, arrive at a static condition of chemical equilibrium. To produce" any change of this state there must have been the intervention of a power beyond materialism, and the employment of an agency exempted from the law of gravitation. Aqueous crystallization apparently the first means made use of to produce that change by the Creator : evidences of this discoverable in the earlier strata. Animal and vegetable vitality next introduced to continue the same effect. Wisdom shown by the sequence of these agencies, and their influence on the progressive work of the creation. The vast extent and depth of the calcareous formations.

Beneficence in the design of the relative position which these hold in the order of superposition. The mineral elements — how dissolved and held in combination by the primitive menstruum and their affinities ; how they operated in causing deposition when the general equilibrium was disturbed by aqueous crystallization, and by animal and vegetable life. The wise adaptation of these constraining agencies to over come chemical affinities, and to form substances which otherwise would have been injurious to future life. In conclusion, animal death, and the effects produced by the gaseous exhalations arising from their decomposition ........ 362

Chapter XI

The consequence of the introduction of any new element into chemical compounds of numerous ingredients. Evidences to show that clays, sandstones, and shales are composed of the same materials, which are assumed to have been held in solution by the primitive ocean. Chemical agency in the formation of the Old Red Sandstone. Geological evidence for the existence of extensive stratified masses of clays, sandstones, and shales underneath the Coal Measures. The succession of animal life during the period alluded to clearly deduced from the progressive change of the primitive ocean, and confirmed by the results of geological research. Wisdom of the arrangement which placed calcareous strata underneath the coal deposits, and between the latter aud the igneous rocks which were ejected, amidst such intense heat, arising from the friction occasioned by the protorotation of the earth around its axis 401

Chapter XII

Prefatory observations respecting the universal warmth which prevailed in the water of the non-rotating sphere. Chemical action the principal secondary agency employed in producing that result. Effects of animal and vegetable vitality again alluded to. The consequences arising also from the death and decomposition of animals and plants particularly investigated with reference to the purification of the ancient ocean ; more especially the effects of ammoniacal exhalations arising from the putrefaction of animal remains. Geological data, and actual results adduced in corroboration. The "blending" and the "thinning out" of the strata attempted to be accounted for by the Dynamical Theory. And, in conclusion, an endeavour to explain, according to the same principles, by what means the primitive ocean changed its character from turbid, fresh water, to the saline and pellucid seas of the present period ...... 420

Chapter XIII

Prefatory observations. Condition of the earth during the period alluded to. Introduction of Light into the material universe. Contrast CONTENTS. VII 461 488 between the prolonged operations of the non-rotatory period, and the sudden completion of the work of creation during the Mosaic week. The relative qualities of Light — its cuasi-ubiquitj-, expansion through visible space, velocity of propagation, and viridity. Heat the cause of expansion in material bodies. The source of external Light and Heat received by the Earth. Identity of these two subtile influences. Sun-light the direct cause of Heat. Attraction and Ex pansion the antagonistic forces which maintain all matter in its con stitutional state of equilibrium. Deduction from these facts, that Darkness, in the language of Genesis, means Attraction. Philolo gical and scientific analogies in favour of the same conclusion

Chapter XIV

Explanation as to the possibility of the Earth and other planets, with their respective satellites having, in accordance with astronomical laws, revolved in space around the common centre of the system, long previous to the illumination of the sun. Further proofs that Darkness, in the language of Genesis, implies Attraction. Consequence of this fact upon the development of our Theory. Existence of the primeval Light before it was divided from the Darkness, and the important bearing of this truth on the subject under discussion. A few concluding observations on the subjects treated of in this chapter

Chapter XV

Some ofthe immediate effects of the Light with reference to its dynamical power. During the first three days it was not concentrated around the Sun, consequently different from the light at present received. The expansive influence of Light and Heat act in opposition to Attraction. The repulsive power of Light investigated and established. The introduction of Light into the material universe equal to the introduction of a new force. Laws of force and motion investigated with reference to this event. Expansion being a force, and the bodies of the solar system being incapable of expanding beyond their prescribed orbits, they must have expended or met this new force by rotation around their respective axis — show that the Earth has a double movement in space, and that the diurnal rotation is perfectly independent of the periodical revolution around the Sun.

Scriptural corroborations of these important conclusions. Sunlight the residue of the primary light. Evidences to prove the enormous amount of Heat and Light which come from the Sun, and the application of this to our general argument . . . . .501

Chapter XVI

Geological Phenomena in proof of the Earth's period of Non-rotation, divided into external and internal evidences, the former consisting of abstract mechanical laws applied to geological manifestations. Centrifugal impetus, engendered by rotation, the admitted cause of the equatorial protuberance of the Earth, and of the oblate form of other planets of our system. Geographical data in corroboration of the former assumption. Internal or geological evidences to the same effect. Origin of Continental Ridges and of Oceanic Hollows. Mechanical-dynamic Laws brought forward to account for the elevation of the horizontal concentric strata of the non-rotating sphere. Their change of position, and the vast extension of surface occasioned by the spherical earth having been suddenly transformed into a spheroid of rotation CONTENTS. VIII 539 549

Chapter XVII

Geological evidences required for the application of the dynamical influences of protorotation. Relative thinness of the earth's crust when compared with its semi-diameter. The existence of this " outer shell" of the earth established. Relative densities of the materials composing the amorphous, and the stratified formations of which it consists. Concluding deduction from these investigations — that the relative distances from the centre of gyration being considered equal, the greater density of the older amorphous masses would occasion their being impelled further from the centre ; and consequently cause them to perforate, or to raise up the superincumbent or lighter strata, when the whole concentric mineral envelope of the non-rotating sphere burst asunder and became transformed into continental ridges, oceanic hollows, hill and dale, by the centrifugal impetus of the Earth's protorotation, occasioned by the introduction of the Light and its division from the Darkness

Chapter XVIII

Introductory advertencies. Modification, according to latitudinal zones, of the dynamical influence of the Earth's first diurnal motion. Several distinct effects which proceeded coevally from the centrifugal impetus engendered by protorotation. Evidences of this having taken place after the stratiform masses had been deposited and become indurated, deducible from the diversified surfaces assumed by the terraine and by the aqueous portions of the Earth, as co-results of the same cause. Evidences to the same effect derived from the great continental ridges and oceanic depressions of the globe. And finally, the strong testimony which these geological and geographical manifestations, together with the filling up of the equatorial inequalities with deep and widely-spread masses of travelled, mineral debris and earthy matter, bear to the correctness of the Dynamical Theory FORMATION OF THE EARTH.

Section I. Scriptural Evidences And Scientific Theorems

Theorems Nos. 1 to 10 relating to Astronomy. Nos. 11 and 12 to Geography. Nos. 13 to 37 to Geology. Nos. 38 to 44 to Light. Nos. 45 to 50 to Light and Light and Heat. Nos. 51 to 55 to Physics. Nos. 56 to 58 to the Atomic Theory, Radiation, and Evaporation. Nos. 59 to 66 to Electricity and Magnetism. Nos. 67 to 82 to Mechanics and Dynamics. No. 83 to Friction. Nos. 84 to 88 and 94 to Meteorology. Nos. 89 to 93 and 95 to 97 to Fluids, Liquids, and Evaporation. Nos. 98 to 104 to Earths and Soils. Nos. 105 to 108 to Ores, Metals, and Native Salts. Nos. Ill to 112 to Crystallization. Nos. 113 to 124 to Botany. Nos. 125 to 127 to Fossil Botany. No. 128 to Vegetable Decomposition. Nos. 129 to 137 to the Animal Kingdom. Nos. 138 and 139 to Animal Respiration and Decomposition. Many years have elapsed since the fundamental principles of the Cosmographical Theory, whose development occupies the following pages, presented themselves to our mind.

Some of these have been passed under a tropical sky, and others in the more cloudy and sombre regions of our native land ; vicissitudes of circumstances, and changes in life, and, consequent thereon, variations of mental habitudes have inter vened — indeed, have intentionally been permitted to intervene — until the undeniable effects of time warn us to postpone no longer — in order that, by every possible test, we might prove the soundness of the remarkable but indestructible conclusion to which our earlier studies had led us — namely, that the EARTH DID NOT ALWAYS ROTATE AROUND ITS AXIS. B In estimating the probable effect which the announcement of this truth is likely to produce on the minds of others, especially of those whose attention may not have been directed to the studies which are indispensable for due preparation, we have considered that, naturally, as much, probably much greater, reluctance will be experienced by them in admitting this truth than what we ourselves experienced when first it presented itself to our imagination— when we even shrunk from it as if it had been a monstrous lie, seeking to insinuate itself amongst the simpler and more obvious lessons which we had been taught by philosophy !

The remembrance of these impressions, and of the anxiety which we then experienced when called upon, by its importu nate recurrence, to make our election — to admit it at once, or to thrust it away from us entirely — induces us, now, to be very considerate when similar prejudices arise in the minds of others ; and in all our arguments, to select the evidences which we may have occasion to bring forward, so as to remove every obstacle, and to make the way clear for the reception of this important truth, and of all those others, which, as natural consequences, emanate from it ; while, on the other hand, we trust that henceforward the erroneous dogma of rotation ab initio, with all the grievous errors into which it has led us, and has been the means of perpetuating, may be entirely swept away, never to re-appear.

Withal, we are fully aware that it is extremely difficult for the inhabitants of a world, wheeled round by its diurnal motion through space, and constrained to take this elementary motion into all their calculations, to believe that it was not always so — that there once was a period of non-rotation. Those, who from the moment they open their eyes on this fair earth, perceive the light of the sun, and grow up under its cheering and fostering influences, will most reluctantly give themselves up to the persuasion that there once was a time — a period of long duration, when the central orb afforded no fight, and when the earth recognised it only as the convergent centre of attraction — the great sustaining counterpoise which enabled it. to revolve through unillumined space. It is no easy task to persuade mankind, that the sparkling, briny seas, which are now so easily excited and lashed into foam by the ambient atmosphere, were once a dark, unruffled and atmosphereless mass of turgid waters, charged to repletion with the mineral elements of those stony concretions which now engirdle the terraqueous globe, and which have been thrown up as barriers to restrain the very waters from whence they themselves were deposited.

Nor is it a less arduous undertaking to convince those who delight in the invigorating influences of the health-giving atmosphere ; that, for ages, this sphere existed without so indispensable a means of sustaining voluntary motion — and that myriads of apulmonic creatures, "more numerous than the sands on the sea shore for multitudes," were all the while employed as the humble and submissive agents of the Creator, in producing one of its component elements ; in elaborating that, without which no being, endowed with the faculty of loco motion, could either have breathed, moved, or lived. All these, nevertheless, are truths : truths of the utmost importance. Of this, the perusal of the following treatise can hardly fail to convince every unbiased mind, even although our relative position towards the world's inhabitants involves the alternative, either that we are in a trance ; have been for so many years enjoying the most soul-satisfying dream, whereby the records of revelation have appeared to be at one with the discoveries of science, and to have kept pace with these wherever they have been made, where every closed lock seems to undo, and every barred door to fly open at our approach, and on the announcement, that there once was a period when the earth had no rotation; or mankind, ont he contrary, have been in a profound slumber, as regards this important fact, for nearly six thousand years !

This is our true relation to each other at the present moment. But it is full time that the spell should be broken, and the rightful position of each be justly determined. With this intention, responsible as it is to stand against the arrayed opinions of a whole world, we have resolved to be the first to break this long-continued silence, and endeavour to convince all mankind, that we have all the while been enter taining no day dream ; but that what we assert is a reality, and B stands upon the authority of the immutable word of God, from which, assisted by the discoveries of science, we can derive the necessary data to prove, that during the period called in Scripture " the beginning," the earth had, in REALITY, NO ROTATION AROUND ITS AXIS. With respect to the scientific evidences, we here take occa sion to premise — what will very soon force itself upon the reader's notice — that they are entirely derived from the writ ings and the researches of others : whatever merit attaches to them, belongs exclusively to their authors, not to us.

We are to be regarded merely as the mind through which these matured truths have been made to pass ; and by which they have been arranged, combined, and applied according as, we believe, they were designed to be, by the plan of creation ; traced out from all eternity ; progressively but slowly deve loped for many ages, but rapidly unrolled during the first six days of the Mosaic week ; when the whole was finished, and made a glorious and a perfect fabric, in which even the all-searching eye of Omniscience could discover no defect, but by Him was pronounced to be " good." The jeweller pretends neither to have made the orient pearls, nor to have formed or discovered the sparkling gems of which his work consists. Their proper selection, their arrange ment, and the workmanship of studding them are alone his.

So we, in like manner, disclaim all pretension to be the makers of those jewels of nature. Natural truths, which, like beau teous pearls, cannot be made by man ; although man's industry, in either case, is required to bring the objects of his enter prize from underneath the depths to the light of day, to re move whatever conceals them, and to display them to the admiration of the beholders. Neither do we pretend to have discovered, to have wrought up, or to have polished any of those radiant gems — residuals of ancient organisms — which the intelligence and assiduity of scientific naturalists have happily enabled them, in these latter days, to find; and whicli they have with so much skill extri cated from the embedding rocks, and fitly framed together, until they have stood forth in perfect truthfulness, in all their endless variety of strange and uncouth forms ; reflecting back upon an astonished world the almost bewildering light of antiquity ; of an incipient creation !

To none of these achievements do we put forth any preten sion. But ive do pretend to have discovered an ancient and a massive crown — once the glory of all — from which, by neglect, these beauteous gems and costly pearls have been allowed to fall ; and to have found, besides, a casket containing abundance of fine gold and of silver seven times purified, wherewith to repair the crown, and to reset the jewels. And ever since we made these discoveries, and have become their custodier, we have wrought assiduously — have given our eyes little sleep, and our eyelids little slumber, while busied with the soul satisfying labour of endeavouring to furbish the crown ; to replace those ornaments of inestimable value which conferred upon it so much lustre ; and to restore it to all its former splendour !

One after one, as we took up and handled these radiant jewels, and while we admired their beauty, we have sought anxiously and prayerfully, that we might be directed to restore it to that precise part from whence, in the lapse of ages, it had fallen ; and as each jewel assumed its place, and com mingling in radiance, shed a lustre on every other, and toge ther displayed the full symmetry and beauty of the crown on which they were thus inwrought, we have at length been made to exclaim — Behold how glorious ! How worthy of the great Creator, who by His wondrous wisdom and His power did frame and fashion them all at first ! Before, however, we proceed to the development of our cosmographical conceptions, or enter upon the intricacies of argument, it may be conducive to give a short summary of those principles of belief which will be found at the bottom of them all ; and which, indeed, alike constitute their ground work, and support their subsequent superstructure.

We believe, in the first place, that the Bible contains a revelation from God : and that " a revelation" is a discovery by God to man of Himself — that is, of His attributes, His works, or His will, over and above what he has been pleased to make known by the light of nature or reason. We believe that, as no material thing is self-created, all must possess a condition which has not emanated from materialism, and, therefore, to attain a perfect knowledge of what ever the senses make known to us, we must, after receiving all the answers which nature can give to our enquiries, appeal to a source above and beyond it. For nature cannot answer all the questions requisite to be put to it, in order to compre hend its objects thoroughly, and, having thus to apply to a source beyond nature, we must appeal to the Bible ; the only revelation from God the Creator.

We believe, besides, that the Bible can afford whatever explanation is wanting, by the light of reason, for a perfect comprehension of the works of creation ; that in it nothing is overlooked, nor is there in it anything redundant; and that the words of the first chapter of Genesis detail, in the only way in which man can be made to comprehend it, the unfolding of the plan of creation devised from all eternity; that these words embody Nature's Constitutional Code, which it cannot fail implicitly to obey ; and, therefore, to understand it thoroughly, we must become acquainted with them. We believe that whatever is mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis as having been either created, made, sus pended, or changed by God, has from thenceforth become a primary, permanent cause, with no intervening cause between it and the Creator; and, therefore, all attempts to investigate the unrelated or intimate nature or composition of such, must, as a matter of course, prove entirely fruitless.

That we can know only what is revealed respecting it, and acquire an in timacy with its relative nature in respect to other material substances around. While, all results not directly mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis, but which are implied, are secondary causes, emanating themselves from primary causes, and together pro ducing those effects which, from their persistency, are termed natural. And that all alike — of whatever description — orio-i nated from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, " without whom was not anything made that is made." We believe, that previous to the Mosaic week, and during the protracted period called the beginning, God did create certain substances, organic and inorganic, whose existence (although they are not particularly described) is assumed, and clearly inferred by the inspired historian in his subsequent narrative.

And, further, that during the six working days of the Mosaic week, each day consisting of twenty-four natural hours, these primary substances were wrought up, transformed, or modified by the Creator into the varied objects which now compose the material universe. That while unfolding the numerous conceptions which have conspired to produce the most prominent dogma of this theory, namely, that during the period abovementioned, the Earth had no rotation around its axis, we finally believe, that scien tific research has attained a state of perfection sufficient to enable us, by judiciously blending its truths with those of revelation, to produce such a system of cosmogancy as shall entirely satisfy the human mind, as shall meet all its require ments, by convincing the understanding while it invigorates our faith in the Word of God.