SCIENTIFIC PROPHETS.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 315, 21 May 1874, Page 2

SCIENTIFIC PROPHETS.

Under this heading the new Orleans Picayune very tersely gives the results of the labor of the learned scientific Americans who lately met in Portland, from which it would appear that the prospects of the deuizens of this gublnnury world is net of the most cheering character : — " Professor Young tells us that the sun i& nothing but a gigantic spherical mass of gaseous matter, which is constantly being contracted by the gradual cooling of its outside circumference. The central kernel of tbia huge star will always, according to the learned Professor, be crusted over with a thick impervious coating, through which neither light nor heat can possibly reach as. The result, as far as we are concerned, will bo total darkness, intense cold, the end of animal life, and a return to primeval chaos. " General Bernard another scientific seer — compares the earth to a hollow indiarubbcr ball filled with molten lead. The spherical shape of our globe being the result of its- rapid rotary motion, any accident such as the bursting up of some great Tolcano, the shock of a comet or of a meteoric body,, would open a vent through the thin rind upon which we live, whereupon the incandescent matter would at once project expiring humanity into vacant space. "Professor Walling denounces the sun as a spendthrift who wastes with stupendous folly his inheritance of heat and light, is fast progressing towards tba-t bou*ne whence no traveller returns — the bankruptcy court. " Professor Franklin Hough draws it more mildly, as he only threatens us with the total disappearance ot water, owing to the wanton destruction of trees and forests. " Professor De Comte has paid special attention to insects, and warns us that their frightful increase will ultimately lead I to the total destruction of the vegetable world, after which man himself will become their prey. The earth will then be a gigantic parish of Plaquemines, in which the mosquito tribe will rule supreme, until some other equally noxious vermin •hall arise and devour them." " This cheerful resume of the labours of our American savans indicates, adds the American Builder, that the human race is decidedly in a tight place. If the sun is to go oritlike a snuffed candle, and the earth to explode like an old ateam. boiler, we may a3 well overlook the lesser contingencies of rainless years and the universal prevalence of vermin. De mitumis non cured scicntia."