The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 12 : January to June, 1921 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 12: January to June, 1921

Within the whole span of geological history and its continuous changes recorded, the phases of purely physical history presented do not show us in any of their various aspects definite progression or trend which may be described as an evolutionary process. It was once our practice to place emphasis on the geological history of the earth as the continuation of a graded or evolution series based on the succession of stages described in the nebular hypothesis. According to this view, we seemed to see in climatic evolution a gradual move ment away from the conditions of the primitive heated earth and toward the present temperature of a cooling sphere. We once thought we saw the early atmosphere fit only for lower organisms and later cleared and purified for the higher types of life. With better under standing of climatic history, it comes out more and more distinctly that while the earth's climate fluctuated continuously, there is no clear evidence of definite progression through a series of stages dependent on gradual cooling of a once highly heated globe.

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