Prophecy as the Forerunner of Science: An Instance

Vol. VII. MAY, 1904. No. 7.

PROPHECY AS THE FORERUNNER OF SCIENCE —AN INSTANCE.

BY JAMES E. TALMAGE, ph.d., f.g.s., f.k.s. (edin.) •

PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH.

This earth was organized or formed out of other planets which were broken up and remodeled, and made into the one on which we live. — Joseph Smith. (See Compendium, page 287.)

Since the early part of the eighteenth century, the nebular theory has been popularly accepted as a basis of explanation of the origin of the earth and of worlds in general. In brief, the hypothesis named may be thus expressed: — It assumes for the solar system, and, by analogy, for every other system of sun and planets, the existence of a primeval mass of vapor, incandescent and highly attenuated, at some stage having a nucleus of more condensed material. About this nucleus, the vaporous particles, by long processes of condensation, formed concentric rings, each of which in time gathered its particles together so as to form a globe or planet, still in a state of intense heat. In course of cooling, a crust formed over the interior molten mass, and the cooling pro-

cess continued with necessary wrinkling and folding of the crustal envelope, resulting in the formation of continental land- masses and ocean basins, and later of mountain ranges and separating valleys. It has long been known that the nebular hypothesis is insuffi-

cient to meet the requirements of observed facts relative to the progressive stages of earth development; but the lack of a more satisfactory hypothesis in definite and accepted form, has resulted in the retention of the theory named as a tentative, though con- fessedly incomplete, explanation. A new theory has been long assuming shape in the minds of thinkers and investigators in this field; and for the definite state- ment of this we are largely indebted to Professor Chamberlin of the University of Chicago. It is of sufficient importance to de- mand and receive respectful attention in geological societies, and the concurrence and support of many individual workers of emi- nence. To this new theory the name "Planetesimal Hypothesis" has been given. It holds, in the words of an able commentator, "that the

disseminated planet-forming matter had lost its heat while yet ex- isting in the loose form, as rings or zones, or wisps of the parent nebula, and that the globular planets were formed by the slow ac- cretion or infalling of cold, discrete bodies or particles ('planetesi- mals')."* To avoid in these pages all technical and abstruse discussion of probable causes and observed results, it may suffice to state that by the later or "planetesimal" hypothesis most of the fundamental phenomena incident to earth history are explained with a consist- ency and simplicity unknown under the old or nebular theory. Thus, it is easier, by the new theory than by the old, to ac- count for the origin of the atmosphere; the origin of ocean waters; the beginning of the sedimentary rocks or stratified deposits; the observed volcanic phenomena of earth; the source of hydrocar- bons, such as asphaltum and its allies; the genesis of metalliferous deposits; the origin of gypsum and salt deposits; the sequence of geologic climates; the cause of glaciation, and, therefore, of the gla-

*"Bulletin Geological Society of America," vol. xv, January, 1904. H. Le Roy Fairchild.

PROPHECY AS THE FORERUNNER OF SCIENCE. 483

cial period or epoch; the forces that resulted in diastrophic changes

whereby continents and oceans, mountain elevations and valley de- pressions, have been formed.* One fundamental difference between the old, or nebular, and the new, or planetesimal, theory, is that according to the latter the earth and its companion worlds are made up of particles that have gravitated together, cold, and possibly capable of harboring the germs of living organisms; whereas, according to the former, the earth-globe was originally hot, and, in that state, incapable of supporting life in any form known to us by observation. By the new or planetesimal hypothesis, the earth is composed of particles that havecome together under the force of mutual at- traction. — The question is now suggested: Is it probable or pos- sible that the particles so converging have been components of other worlds? To assist in this enquiry let us borrow the astron- omer's magic glass, and direct our gaze into outer space. Following the planets in their order of increasing distance from the sun, we shall find between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter a gap, which, according to Bode's law of planetary distribution, ought to be occupied by a planet in orderly revolution. Instead of such planet, we find a multitude of small bodies strewn along an elliptical orbit at the indicated distance, and revolving around the central sun. These are the asteroids or planetoids, of which hun- dreds have already been recognized and specified by name and posi- tion.

Professor Lockyer says, "To account for the origin of the as- teroids it has been suggested that they may be fragments of a larger planet destroyed by contact with some other celestial body."f Besides such masses as the asteroids, which revolve in a ring, there are other and yet smaller bodies moving through space, some in orbital rings immensely larger than even the orbit of Nep- tune — the outermost of all the members of the solar system. These are called meteorites, and some of them come so near the earth as to enter its atmosphere. The smaller of these, weighing in

• See Professor Fairchild's paper, before cited,

t Lockyer — "Elements of Astronomy," page 156.

many cases not more than a grain apiece, are the shooting stars those tiny bodies that plunge into our atmosphere from outer space, leaving a fiery trail as they are dissipated by the heat of concussion. The larger pieces may reach the earth's surface be- fore they are wholly dissipated by the heat of impact and that in- cident to friction caused by their passage through the atmosphere. Such bodies falling on the earth are known generically as meteorites, specifically as aerolites. While many of them weigh but a few ounces or pounds apiece, some are of considerable size, as the fol- lowing data show. The Texas meteorite, preserved in the museum of Yale University, weighs one thousand six hundred and thirty-

five pounds; another, the Pallas, now to be seen in the museum of

Vienna, weighed as it fell one thousand six hundred pounds; one that fell in Mexico, known as the San Gregorio meteorite, weighs five tons; and a meteorite found in Chaco-Guatamba, South Amer- ica, is reported as weighing nearly fifteen tons.*

Most of the larger meteorites that reach the earth are com- posed mainly of metallic iron, alloyed with nickel and other metals, sometimes containing also crystallized carbon in the form of mi- nute diamonds. Other meteorites, and particularly the smaller ones, consist of stony material, not metals in a free state; and in these, organic carbon has been found. Indeed the claim has been made that evidences of fossillized organic bodies are not wanting. Long ago, it was suggested by Lord Kelvin, then Sir William Thomp- son, that the germs of life were introduced to earth by the advent of some moss-covered fragment of a shattered world. As to meteorites in particular, and in a general way also as to the asteroids, it has long been believed by astronomers and others that they are probably fragments of pre-existing planets; if this be a true conception as to these bodies, it is equally applicable to the planetesimals, small particles abounding in space. Croll has written: "From what has been stated, it would fol- low that in most cases the stellar masses have formed out of the destruction of pre-existing masses, like geological formations out of the destruction of prior formations."!

• See Dana's "Manual of Mineralogy and Petrography," page 189.

t "Stellar Evolution," page 105.

PROPHECY AS THE FORERUNNER OF SCIENCE. 485

Lord Kelvin, one of the greatest among Britain's living scien- tists, has said: "I cannot but agree with the common opinion which regards meteorites as fragments broken from larger masses; and we cannot be satisfied without trying to imagine what were the antecedents of these masses." Mennier was honored by the Paris Academy of Science in the award of a medal for a publication in which he maintained that "so far as our present knowledge can determine, some of the me- teors once belonged to a globe developed in true geological epochs, and which has been separated into fragments by agencies with which we are not acquainted."

In this connection, certain scriptures based on revelation, ancient or modern, may well be considered. The Lord declared to Moses: "For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them."* Again: "And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof, even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works."f The statement by Joseph Smith, quoted at the beginning of and applied by some of our people this article, has been amplified in a way unwarranted by the prophet's utterance. This is no un- usual incident in connection with the announcement of a great truth bearing ihe stamp of newness. Thus, the words of the prophet have been construed as meaning that great masses of material have come together in space to form this planet, and that the broken and disturbed state of the earth's crust is an immedi- ate result of these masses falling together in a disorderly way. True, we frequently find the crustal blocks exhibiting marked un- conformity one with another; one terrane of practically horizontal beds may be found abutting against another, the strata of which are inclined at a high angle; earth blocks occur tilted and folded

• "Pearl of Great Price;" Moses 1: 35.

t "Pearl of Great Price;" Moses 1: 38.

bent and broken,— monoclines, anticlines, and great faults suc- ceeding each other within limited areas. Our own State affords striking and altogether admirable illus- trations of these disturbances, in both the eastern or plateau sec- tion, and in the western, or basin region. Every mountain range is an example of crustal disturbance, and furthermore, great faults occur in regions that are comparatively level, the escarpment, or bluff due to the vertical displacement which characterizes the fault, having been partly or wholly removed by erosion. But the assumption that this broken condition of the crust- blocks results from such blocks having been tumbled and piled to- gether in the process of world-making, lying now as they originally fell, is completely disproved by existing facts. No crustal irreg- ularity or break has yet been observed, the nature or cause of which is obscure; indeed, the relation of every block to its contig- uous formations may be demonstrated beyond question. Moreover, — by applying the most reliable test known to the geologist that of interpreting the records of the past by the phenomena of the pres- ent — we may read on the stony pages, with fair assurance of cor- rectness, the account of the formation of stratified and other de- posits, and of their subsequent dislocation and disturbance, in all their varied modes of occurrence. A clear distinction must be made between theory and fact. The observations last referred to are in no sense representative of theory, but, on the contrary, stand as demonstrated facts. The planetesimal hypothesis suggests the formation of worlds — of this earth, at least —by the coming together of small but discrete par- ticles, world-dust, if you please, but not large masses of structural character. However, the theory does not deny that during the early formative stages of the earth, ponderous masses may have thus fallen together; but neither theory nor observed facts war- rant the belief that the present structure of the outer parts of the earth is in any way due to the structure of the infal ing bodies, whether particles comparable to dust, or masses of greater size. Approximately nine-tenths of the land surface today consists of stratified or sedimentary rocks. These are composed of the debris of earlier formations, which material by erosion, transporta- tion, and re-deposition has been laid down as orderly beds at the

PROPHECY AS THE FORERUNNER OF SCIENCE. 487

bottom of ocean, sea, or lake. Even the oldest eruptive and meta- morphic rocks known to us appear to consist of the material of yet more ancient rocks, changed and made over in the construction of the formations as we now observe them. He would be rash in- deed, who would attempt to affirm that he had identified any rock formation as part of the so-called first or primitive crust. What- ever may have been the character of the planetesimal bodies, the existing structure of the earth's crust is the result of causes less — remote than the original accretion of these bodies, causes of a kind yet operating, — disintegration, removal, and re-deposition in the case of these dimentaries, volcanism and metamorphism in the case of crystalline rocks.

In the light of past events, it is apparent that this dissatisfac- tion with the nebular hypothesis, and its provisional renunciation in favor of a theory that accounts in a better way for observed phenomena, will be emphasized as another instance of the fallibility of science and the utter unreliability of theories propounded by man. It will not be strange if the loudest criticism comes from those who are least acquainted with either of the theories named, and still less conversant with the facts they were intended to ex- plain. The man of truly scientific spirit regards a theory in its real character — as a provisional and tentative explanation of phenom- ena not otherwise easy to comprehend. Theory is but the scaffold- ing necessary to the work of rightly placing the building-blocks of truth in the walls of the rising edifice of science. These build- ing blocks are demonstrated facts, truths made plain; and when they are in place, their proper relation to each other duly estab- lished, the scaffolding, which is inadequate and unsightly at best, is

torn down. Theory becomes unnecessary as our knowledge of facts increases; but without theory and hypothesis, progress in scientific work would be slow indeed. No one is more eager than the true scientist to test his theories by each new truth discovered, and to discard the hypothe- sis as soon as it is proved inadequate or wrong. Philosophy is tardy and science is slow in their enunciation o