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MEAN solar parallax, 8".80. Nutation constant, 9".21.
Aberration constant, 20".47. Annual precession, 50".2564,
Obliquity of the ecliptic, 23° 27' 8".26-0.4684 (t-1900).
Annual diminution of obliquity, 0".4684.

Moon's equatorial horizontal parallax, 57' 2".68.

Moon's mean distance from the earth (centre to centre), 238,850 mHes.
Sun's mean distance from the earth (astronomical unit), 92,894,800 miles.
Velocity of light, 186,320 miles per second.

Light travels unit of distance-viz. 92,894,800 miles in 498.566 seconds.
Length of the Year-Tropical (equinox to equinox), 365.2421988 days.
Sidereal or absolute revolution, 365.2563604 days.
AnomaHstic (from perihellon to perihelion), 365.2596413 days.
Length of the Day-Sidereal, 23 hours 56 minutes 4.091 seconds (mean solar time).
solar, 24 hours 3 minutes 56.555 seconds (sidereal time).

Mean

Length of the Month-Synodical (from new moon to new moon), 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 2.8 seconds. Tropical, 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes 4.7 seconds. Sidereal (absolute revolution), 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes 11.5 seconds. Anomalistic (from perigee to perigee), 27 days 13 hours 18 minutes 33.1 seconds. Polar radius, 3949.79 miles.

Dimensions of the Earth-Equatorial radius, 3963.23 miles.

Eccentricity of the oblate spheroid, 0.0822718.

HALLEY'S COMET.

Of the great number of comets which have temporarily visited our solar system or have become permanent members of it none has surpassed Halley's in historical associations. It has a record dating back to B. C. 240; its visitations spread alarm and consternation throughout Europe during the Middle Ages; was the first whose return was predicted by an Astronomer Royal of England, and will therefore, for these reasons, be an object of great scientific interest for all time. For the Information of those who appreciate such matters the following are the elements of its orbit as deduced from the last visitation:

Perthellon Passage 1910, April, 19.67. Greenwich Mean Time.
Eccentricity = 0.967281.
Semi-axis major 17.9468.
Perihelion distance 0.58720.

Inclination to the plane of the earth's or

bit 17° 47′ 18′′.

Longitude of the ascending node=57° 16′ 12′′.
Distance from perihelion to node 111° 42′ 16′′.
Dally motion (mean) = 46′′.669.
Period 74.424 years.*
Motion, retrograde.

The semi-axis major and the perihelion distance are expressed in terms of the earth's mean distance from the sun, taken as unity. See also article on Halley's Comet and on Comets In ALMANACS of 1910 and 1911.

The periodic time varies considerably by reason of the attraction of the planets. Its average duration is about 76.5 years.-J. M.

THE SOURCE AND MAINTENANCE OF SOLAR ENERGY.

(Prepared for THE WORLD ALMANAC by Dr. J. Morrison.)

THE solar energy is manifested in part by the radiation of heat and light on which the existence of all animated nature depends. From time immemorial the cause of the solar heat and light has been the subject of study by astronomers and scientists in all lands, and by patient and laborious observations continued for centuries, by profound research and by unremitting toll, man has at last forced nature to yield up to him these hitherto mysterious secrets. A rational explanation of the solar energy was not possible under the old theory of the cause of heat and light-not, in fact, until the promulgation of the mechanical theory of the former and the undulatory theory of the latter-two scientific achievements of the nineteenth century, a period which will go thundering down the ages as the golden age of scientific discovery and research.

In order to obtain a clear idea of the cause of heat and light It is necessary to digress a little to speak briefly of the constitution of matter. Like time and space, matter cannot be denned; we know In a general way, we may say, matter is any substance nothing of its intrinsic nature or essence.

which occupies space, and exists in three forms, viz.: gaseous, liquid and solid, according to the temperature and pressure. In whatever form it may exist, matter is not a continuous substance, that is to say, It is composed of masses of infinitesimally small portions called molecules, each of The molecules of a body, whether which consists of two or more still smaller portions called atoms.

In the gaseous, liquid or solid state, are not in absolute contact, but separated from one another by an infinitesimally small space which permits of a certain amount of motion.

THE ETHER.

This space is filled with that mysterious, invisible, colorless, odorless, and inconceivably rarified The molecules of a substance called ether, which fills all space and holds the universe in its grasp. body are never at rest, but always in motion, and this motion, Infinitesimal as it is, causes undulations or waves in the ether, and these undulations manifest themselves as heat or light, or both, according to their intensity.

Heat and light are thus manifestations of molecular motion propagated by the ether, just like In fact, heat, light, and sound sound, which is a manifestation of undulations or waves of the air. are quite similar as regards their mode of production and prepagation. Now, as regards the sun, this luminary has been radiating into space a stupendous amount of both heat and light for an inconceivably long period of time, and that, too, without any visible source of supply. Whence, then, Is the origin or source of this prodigious expenditure of energy? Is this radiation of heat and light to continue forever? Does this dissipation of energy imply a waste of the solar substance? the solar globe contain within itself the elements of its own decay and death? Stupendous questions, are they not? Let us see what answer modern science has to give to them. It is now universally accepted by astronomers and scientists that

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS

Does

originally propounded by Swedenborg and subsequently accepted by Herschell, Kant, Laplace and other distinguished scholars, mathematicians, and astronomers, is the true cosmogony of our solar system. The evidence upon which this hypothesis rests is so strong that it rises almost to the dignity of a demonstration. Without entering into all the numerous detalls which would render this paper far too long for the space afforded, it must suffice here to say that the gaseous nebula revealed in the sidereal heavens by the telescope and spectroscope, all the structural and dynamical features of the sun and planets, and the physical structure of the earth and moon, confirm the hyrothesis in a most remarkable manner. Indeed, It is hardly possible that so many concurrent circumstances could be the result of chance.

All the evidence tends to show that the Creator evolved the solar system by means of the physical laws of matter established by Himself, just as He developed the giant oaks of the forest from the tiny acorns. The nebular hypothesis assumes that the matter composing the sun and planets once existed as a vast gaseous nebula, spiral in form, having an inconceivably high temperaAs the mass cooled by ture and slowly revolving on an axis passing through its centre of gravity.

radiating heat into space, contraction of volume with accelerated axial rotation would ensue in accordance with well known dynamical principles. The centrifugal force thus rapidly increased would cause the separation of large masses, which would, by the mutual attraction of their own particles, gradually assume a spherical figure and become planets. By a repetition of this process planet after planet would be thrown off until the central glowing sun would remain.

RESULTS OF SOLAR CONTRACTION.

Assuming, then, that the sun has attained his present dimensions by the slow contraction of the original gaseous mass, the question which now confronts us is: What amount of contraction or diminu tion of volume is necessary to supply the quantity of heat and light now radiated? In order to put this in as clear a light as practicable, we will first describe an experiment whose results are quite apparent. Let a large globe of iron, say ten feet or more in diameter, be thoroughly and uniformly heated in a furnace until it has attained a white heat," or is on the point of melting, during which time it will expand until its diameter be half a foot more. If it be then taken out and suspended in space it will radiate heat and light in all directions, and, as it cools, it will not only contract in volume, but also give out a light which will gradually change in color from white to dull red, after which the surface will become dark, when heat vibrations only would be manifest.

As the cooling proceeds, the surface will contract and compress the semi-molten Interior to such a degree that it may crack and the soft material of the Interior exude through it. The temperature of the entire mass, with diminution of volume, will continue to decline until it attains the temperature of surrounding objects, when it will cease; but if it were suspended in the inter-planetary or inter stellar spaces, where it could not receive any heat from external objects, the cooling and contraction of volume would go on incessantly until the temperature reached the absolute zero point, or, in other In this condition it would probably fall into dust, the words, until all molecular motion ceased.

power which hitherto held the molecules together having become dissolved a condition which may be inferred from the fact that when an fron bar is placed for some time in liquid air or oxygen it becomes as brittle as glass, and yet the temperature of liquid air is far above the absolute zero tempera

ture. The condition of the heated Iron globe and the phenomena resulting therefrom are almost precisely similar to those of the sun, which is a huge, gaseous globe, over 866,000 miles in diameter, intensely hot, cooling off very slowly by radiating heat and light in prodigious quantity in all direc tions, and also slowly contracting under its own gravity, by which a portion of its potential energy is transformed into molecular energy manifested by heat and light.

THE THERMAL UNIT.

Heat is measured by an arbitrary unit, that is to say, the thermal unit is the amount of heat required to raise one pound of water one degree Fah. In temperature. Carefully conducted experiments show that one square yard of the earth's surface receives about twenty-five thermal units in one second when the sun's rays fall vertically, due allowance being made for atmospheric absorption, which may amount to about one-thirtieth of the whole.

From the solar parallax, viz.: 8" .81 and the well known dimensions of the earth we can easily calculate the surface of a sphere having the sun's distance as a radius, and hence also the amount of heat received by it in one second or the amount radiated by the sun in that time, and this must be, approximately, at least, equal to the amount generated in same interval by the contraction or shrinkage of the solar mass. The amount of heat generated can be approximately determined by the aid of "the mechanical equivalent of heat," which may be expressed thus: If a pound of matter (Iron, for instance) falls freely through 772 feet it will strike a blow which will raise the temperature of the body struck one thermal unit, or if 772 pounds fall one foot it will do the same thing. Instead, however, of a blow thus struck, a constant and equivalent pressure will produce the same result. By the radiation of heat and consequent contraction of volume, alded by the sun's gravity, the entire mass is gradually falling toward the centre.

By means of all the data now at hand it can be shown mathematically, by a process far too abstruse and complicated for insertion here, that a contraction or shortening of about 315 feet annually in the sun's diameter is sufficient to account for the amount of heat and light at present radiated. This result obtained from the most conservative estimate of all the factors that enter into the computation, must be regarded as an approximation, and it may be a very rough one at that, but however much it may differ from the actual condition of things, a contraction of the sun's volume due to gravity and the radiation of heat, is amply sumclent to account for the source and maintenance of solar energy.

THE FUTURE OF THE UNIVERSE.

This contraction of volume due to the above causes will of course continue, and a time must come in the far distant future how many millions of years, it is impossible to say when the sun will cease to radiate sumclent heat and light to maintain animal and vegetable life on the earth.

It is certain that all animal and vegetable existences on the earth had a beginning, and it is equally certain that they will have an end. Geology speaks to us out of the rocky strata of the earth's crust, of the extinction of numerous races of animals and plants in the remote past, There have been six grand groups or periods of animated existences on the earth, and five of these have already passed away, and that, too, long before the advent of man.

Many of our sedimentary rocks are the solid sarcophagi of countless millions of once living creatures. Our statuary halls and portrait galleries are replete with the memorials of empires and kingdoms, of dynasties and generations of men that have long since passed away. Man himself, nature's greatest paradox, must pass off the stage of his earthly existence and leave to his successors the fruits of his labors and researches.

Each day dies and sinks into the silent tomb of night before the next can be born. Every Summer gradually fades away into the cold, dreary Winter before Its successor can come forth. The grain of wheat which is cast into the ground must perish before the new grain can exist. Death thus appears to follow life, part passu, throughout the entire realm of material creation. To be born, to live and to die, appear to be the destiny of all organized bodies; the tomb of the past is the womb of the future. So, likewise, suns and their systems of planets must die in order that their successors may be born. There is strong evidence of the existence of dark or dead suns in the sidereal heavens.

At the rate of contraction just stated the sun will have shrunk to about three-fourths of its present dimensions in four or five millions of years, and during that long interval its light will gradually change from white, through blue, green, yellow, and orange to a dull red and, finally, cast a lurid glare over the dying embers of the solar system.

Ages before this animal and vegetable life will have become extinct, and on some rocky crag or frozen knoll the last man may stand shivering in the wintry blasts, and while taking his last, long, lingering look at the universal desolation produced by the appalling calamity which has overtaken the world and overwhelmed his race, he himself will expire "unknelled, uncomfined and unknown." "Sic transit gloria mundi."

THE RESTORATION.

Such is the logical sequence of the Nebular Hypothesis and such is the fate which awaits the sun and the solar system in the far distant future. There are, however, agencies at work in the sidereal heavens, by which these dead suns and systems may be restored to their original gaseous nebuke, endowed with all their pristine vigor and destined for the formation of new suns and new systems of planets, but space will not permit their discussion now.

The solar energy will continue with little or no diminution for perhaps a million of years, during which its benign influence will be felt throughout the solar system into which it Infuses life, energy and activity.

By its genial warmth and marvellous light it clothes our hills and valleys in their glorious garb of green, so pleasing to the eyes, and by the action of Its chemical rays of light it gradually changes this same green mantle into the golden tints of Autumn. It paints the maiden's cheeks in their rosy tints and the evening clouds in their gorgeous hues. It sets in motion the gentle zephyr that cools our heated brow on a hot Summer day, and it also arouses into activity the hurricane and cyclone which frequently carry death and destruction in their paths. It releases from their icy fetters the tiny streams that trickle down the sides of snow-clad mountains to form the source of the mighty rivers that irrigate our plains and facilitate commerce and International communication. It distills from our oceans and lakes enormous volumes of aqueous vapor which ascend into the atmosphere to form clouds to temper the solar heat, and by the condensation of these clouds to produce the coplous showers of rain to purify our atmosphere, to fertilize our fields, to nourish the kindly fruits of the earth for our sustenance, to raise every fainting flower and to revive all animated nature.

In remote geologic ages, a portion of the solar energy was stored away in these gigantic forests which ultimately were transformed into beds of coal, which we now exhume to warm and light our homes, to propel our ships and locomotives, to drive our mills and factories and to contribute to our comfort in a thousand ways. In short, there is not on the surface of our planet a form of energy which has not been derived directly or indirectly from the glorious orb of day.

1

FACTS ABOUT THE EARTH.

(Revised by the National Geographic Society of Washington, D. C., from the latest available figures and estimates.)

ACCORDING to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, the equatorial semi-diameter of the earth is 6,378, 283 metres, 20,926,039 feet, 3,963,265 miles, and the polar semi-diameter 6, 356, 868 metres, 20, 856, 804 feet, 3,950, 158 miles. One degree of latitude at the equator is 69. 407 miles; one degree at the poles is 68, 704 miles.

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The estimate of areas in the above table are by Professor Supan of Gotha, with the exception of the Polar Continental area. The total population figures are from the United States Sta.istical Abstract, as are also many of the continental figures of population.

The best estimates of the earth's area place the fertile regions at 29, 000, 000 square miles; steppes at 14, 000, 000 square miles; deserts at 4, 861,000 square miles; and polar regions at 6,970,000 square miles.

The population of the earth at the death of Emperor Augustus, estimated by Bodio, was 54,000,000. The population of Europe hardly exceeded 50,000,000 before the fifteenth century.-Mulhall. The population of the earth, at its present ratio of gain, will be about 4,000, 000, 000 in 2014.

The proportion of females to each 1,000 males in 1910 was: United States, 934; England, 1,068; Germany, 1, 026. In France (1901), 1,033.

The area and cubic contents of the earth are approximately as follows: Surface, 196,791,000 square miles; cubic contents 259,944,035,515 cubic miles.

The deepest trench in the seas yet discovered is off Mindanao, in the Pacific, 32,088 feet deep. Seven other soundings in the Pacific show depths greater than 30.000 feet. From the bottom of the deepest hole in the seas to the top of the highest peak on the land (Mt. Everest) there is a range of 61,090 feet, which on a globe six feet in diameter would be represented by the tenth of an inch. The deepest place yet found in the Atlantic Ocean is in Nare's Deep, to the north of the West Indies, 27,972 feet; of the Indian Ocean, 21,968 feet. According to Murray the area of the oceans approximates 139,400,000 square miles, divided between the three great oceans as follows: Atlantic, 41,321,000 square miles; Pacific, 68,634,000 square miles, and Indian, 29, 430,000 square miles.

HIGHEST AND LOWEST CONTINENTAL ALTITUDES,
H-HEST POINT.

North America.. Mount McKinley, Alaska.

South America... Mount Aconcagua, Chile-Argentina..

Elevation (ft.).j

Lowest Point,

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Below Sea Level (ft.). 276

23,0-0

Sea level...

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POPULATION OF THE EARTH ACCORDING TO RACE.

Europe

Mont Blanc, France....

Asia.

Africs..

Australia...

Mount Everest, India-China.
Kibo Peak, German East Africa.
Mount Kosciusko. New South Wales

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775,000,000

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682,000,000

Semitic (white).....

Africa, Arabia, etc...

Negro and Bantu (black).. Africa......

65,000,000 150.000.000

Malay and Polynesian
(brown)..

American Indian, North
and South (red and half
breeds)........
Total.............

For statistics of earth's population according to creed, see RELIGIOUS STATISTICS. The human family is subject to fifty principal governments. As to their form they may be classified as follows: Absolute Monarchies, Abyssinia, Afghanistan, Morocco, Siam; Limited Monarchies, Albania, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, British Empire, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Persia, Rumania, Russia, Servia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey; Republics, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Doininican Republic, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Hayti, Honduras, Liberia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Salvador, Switzerland, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela. Besides these are the undefined despotisms of Central Africa and a few insignificant independent Sates. The average duration of human life is about 33 years. One-quarter of the people on the earth die before age 6, one-half before age 16, and only about 1 persen of each 100 born lives to 65. EUROPEAN LANGUAGES SPOKEN.

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These estimates (that for 1801 being by Mulhall) exhibit the superior growth of the English language.

"OTHE GEOLOGICAL STRATAZULAT

THE strata composing the earth's crust is divided by most geologists into two great classes: 1. Those generally attributed to the agency of water. 2. To the action of fire; which may be subdivided as follows: (a) Aqueous formations, stratified, rarely crystalline (sedimentary or fossiliferous rocks; metamorphic or unfossiliferous). (b) Igneous formations, unstratified, crystalline (volcanic, as basalt; plutonic, as granite).

The geological record is classified into five main divisions or periods: 1. The Archæan, lifeless and dawn of life. 2. The Paleozoic (ancient life). 3. The Mesozoic (middle-life). 4. The Cenozoic (recent life). 5. Quaternary, the age in which man's first appearance is indicated.

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Palæozoic
Period.

1. Lower.

3. Purbeck,

Jurassic 2. Oōlite.

1. Lias.

4. Rhætic

7. Trias- 3. Upper.

sic.

2, Middle,

1. Lower.

3. Permian,

Lower Chalk. Chalk Marl.
Gault.

Neocomlán, Lower Greensand.

Wealden.

Purbeck, Portland, Kimmeridge.

Oxford Oilites. Lower or Bath Oöllte, i 1. Lower Lias, 2. Marlstone, 8. Upper

Lias.

Kössen beds, Dachstein beds; Alpine
Keuper.
[Trias, in part.

Muschelkalk Bunter-Sandstein,

2. Magnesian Limestone.

1. Lower Red Sandstone, or Rothli3. Upper Coal-Measures.

Carboniferous 2. Carboniferous. 2. Lower Coal-Measures.

Age of Coal
Plants.

Era.

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rchan Period.

2. Coniferous.

1. Oriskany. 13. Lower

Helderberg.

2. Onondaga

1. Niagara,

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Catskill Red Sandstone.

Chemung.

Portage.

Genesee Slate.

Hamilton beds,

Marcellus Shale.

Upper Helderberg, Scho-
harie, Grit.

Oriskany Sandstone.

Lower Helderberg.

Onondaga Salt Group.

Water Lime.

3. Niagara Group.

2. Clinton Group.

Old Red Sandstone.

Salina beds,

Wenlock Group.

Upper

1. Medina Sandstone. Llandovery.

3. Hudson River beds. Cincinnati
Group. Lower Llandovery.
2. Utica Shales.

1. Trenton Limestone.

Bala Limestone.
Black River Limestone.
Chazy Limestone,

{Calciferous Sandrock.

stone.

Caradoc cnd

Magnesian

"

Lower, Middle, and Upper Cambrian,,,

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