Fate Of The Human Race

In a lecture the other evening at Lake View, III., Prof. Paine deyelopcd araong many otber strange theories, the rapid growing belief that the great ioe period that ground the rocks into soil had been attributed to a time too remóte in the earth's history. He said it had been the quite universally accepted opinión that the great ico caps wero t'urmed by a olimate rendered cold by reaaon of changed cosmic relations. It was known that the eccentricity of the earth ' path around the sun was subject, at long period.s, to considerable change, rosultinu in earrying the earth out from the sun 15,000,000 of miles further at tiuiea than now. The earth's great aphelion, together with the chaoged conditions attributable tothe procession of the equinox, was believed to have produeed the great period of ice in the past. From this gtandpoint of reckoning Clifford claims man to bave been on earth 2,000,000 years. The professor said he believed the modern tendency of thought was in favor of a different view. During the winter in our northern hemisphere, we are 25,000,000 miles nearer to the sun than in suninier. This helps to equalize our climate, rendering the winters much more mild, and the sumraer's heat far less than it would be it' the conditions wero reversed. In the southern hemisphere tho exact reverse state of eonditions extst. They are nearer the sun in summer and farther off in winter. They have cold winter and hot sumniers. At the eouth pole there is a vast excess of' ioe over that of the uorth pole. The vast accuniulaiion of ice at the south pole attracts the water of the ocean, changing the pquilibrium of the earth's centre, moving the equator to the south, diawing off the waters of the north pole towards the south pole. Tbis accounts lor the clearly noticeable suhstance of waters in the north, and forthe fact. that there is but little dry land in the southern hemisphere. Il' the ages of iue can be charged up to these causes, a glacial period is approaching in the southern hemisphere, and will be at its greatest height in about 5,500 years. The last period of ice in the northern hemi.sphero is also of equally receut date, oecurring prubably about 0,000 years ago. The lecturer was of opinión that, if these recent views prove correct, there would be a recurrence of' the ice period in about 16,000 years in the northern huiiiisphere. This view would also shorten the lime of man's existenee on the globe. It was probably safe to say that man had not existed more than 50,000 or 100,000 years.