The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, AUGUST 25, 1906.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1843, 25 August 1906, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, AUGUST 25, 1906.

Every' pkaso of scionce Las its attract tions for thoso whoso attention has beon turned towards it, oven though, they do not romotoly understand the principles involved in the study of it, and most people are ready to extend thoir credulity to ovory allegation that is supposed to boar auy distinct re. lationship to an alloged scientific fact It is always easier to believe than to contradict any statement that depends for its verification upon either proving or disproving a scientific theory, and thus it is that a mass of leading ideas pass into the form of accepted scientific belief. Tho largest contributors to this eoudition of things are men who have some claims to scientific knowledge in some particular branch of scientific research, but who also possess a power of imagination which they cannot properly control, and which leads them into wild though seemingly correct ihcoretical specula' tions When these speculations are launched into the channels of publication they readily assume the form of a confirmed scientific belief, and too often pass for scientific truth Of this class of contributors to the general store of knowledge are such men as M. Flammarian, tho French as'ronomor, who so often soared into most entertaining flights of fancy in his descriptions of the possible conditions that affect the planot Mars, and our estimable countryman, Mr Clement Wraggo, who has dono sterling service as a meteorologist, but whose unbridled fancy leads him off the track of tru9 scientific research which takes nothing for granted and endorses only that which is indisputably proved from every point of scrutiny. Mr Wragge possesses genius, but he is prone to follow theories beyond the safe limits of caution, because they present themselves to his mind with a feasibleness that he readily permits to mould itself into realism without I etopping to examine and find out first whether it is supported on all sides by ascertained fact, as all true scientists never fail to do. It is sufficient for h'm to believe that his theory is feasible and therefore possible, and when ho believes that he does not hesitate to launch it forth as a truth

This explains how his statement in re

gard to earthquakes comes to us, and upon no other imaginable assumption can his conclusions bo adequately explained. Let us see how his conclusions pan out when pierced by the searchlight of known sciontilic facto.

11 Tho earthquake in Smith America,” ho nays, “is n sign that tho solar 1,4 maximum is dosing, and tho minimum gradually approaching, whon proiiounood seismic action will bo trails'- nc forrod to tlio Southern Hemisphere witli docliniug rainfall.” Wo cannot, in tho lirst place, without moro direct proof, iiccopt tho assertion that thoro is so closo a counootion between tho p unfortunate ovont in Chili and tho (c condition of tho sun’s surfaco, becauso (; tliero are otlior scientific thoorios to r account for that ovont, and because v; there is nothing moro than uioro assor- J tion to support this viow ; but tho Htutonmnt itself is simply inoxplicablo, b for it supplies its own contradiction, fc If it be true that tho “ solar maximum

is dosing, and tho minimum gradually <] approaching,” and wo have no reasou r to dou'bt it, thoro yot remains to bo accounted for tho lapse of livo and a luilf yours that must, according to aU b scientific authority, occur botwoen tho r ono ovont and tho other, for they f cannot occur almost simultaneously and so (perhaps) causo seismic action, t as must bo inforred from Mr Wraggo’s c own words if tho cablegram correctly * reports thorn. From maximum to maximum of solar activity there is a period of about eleven years, and that | boiug so, if Mr Wraggo’s theory is tho \ true ono, we would naturally find '

corroboration of it in the past history I of great earthquakes, for they would occur at or nearly simultaneous times ; but tho records do not support that viow, nor dooa it appear that tho minimum periods afford any better proof, Wo may, therefore, safely dispense with Mr Wraggo’s further dogmatism that “such action is duo to otheric waves sot up by solar conditions, which control tho earth’s inherent forces, and emanate from particular meridians of the sun. More earthquakes may bo expected, especially south from the equator, during tho next few years.” It is quite conceivable that t tiis action of the sun has its effects upon our climate, and that Mr Wragge’s close study of it has enabled him to make the reputation ihat he enjoys as a “ weather prophet ” ; but whon ho endeavours to extend the influences of tint action into tho bowols of the earth he takes at least ono stop into tho domain of pure speculation. Indeed there aro many facts to support his and othors’ viow that tho onormous variations of solar energy indicated by sun spots, and fairly accurately gauged through our telescopos, do exercise a distinct iciluenco for good or bad upon tho atmosphere that surrounds our own little globe per the medium of “ etberie waves,” but that earthquakos aro duo to quite extraneous causes is equally clear. Besides, we havo tho moro natural explanation for them that water linding its way through fissures ■ into tho molton mass at the earth’s centre is suddenly converted into its constituent gases, and explosion must take place in exact proportion to the quantity of water thus dissolved. It must find a vent somewhere, and, 1 following the lino of least resistance / it selects the weakest parts of the earth’s crust for destruction, though it may not necessarily escape there but travel along subterranean passages to ■ tho noarest vent hole—it may be ■ at Vesuvius or Etna. This is not - only feasible but natural, whereas the opposing Wraggian theory is not feasible, though it may be natural. To accept it we would havo to assume that the terrific solar molecular energy, which affects millions of square miles of the sun’s surfaco and shoots its . pellets visibly into the surrounding ether for millions of miles in every direction with inconceivable speed, would become concentrated upon a small portion of this little earth, selecting for its fury Mounts Erebus i aud Terror, threatening New Zealand with its wrath, and leaving SouthWest Australia to slumber in peace. i The order is too large for acceptance even upon the ipsi dixit of Mr Clement Wragge.