Seeing that the foregoing reasoning forces us to look upon the earth as
a hollow sphere, or shell, in which the whole of the matter composing
it is divided into two equal parts, attracted outwards and inwards by
each other to a common plane, or region of meeting, we shall divide its
whole volume into two equal parts radially, that is, one comprising a
half from the surface inwards, and the other a half from the centre
outwards--that is to say, each one containing one-half of the whole
volume of the earth. Referring now to our calculations, Table IV., we
find that the actual half volume of the earth is comprised in very
nearly 817 miles from the surface, where the diameter is 6284 miles,
because the total volume at 7918 miles in diameter is 259,923,849,377
cubic miles. This being the case, we cannot avoid coming to the
conclusion, after what has just been demonstrated by the pyramids that
if one-half of the whole volume is comprehended in that distance from
the surface, so also must be one-half of the mass.
But for further substantiation of this conclusion let us return to the
table of calculations. There we find that from the surface to the depth
of 817 miles--where the diameter would be 6284 miles--which comprehends
one-half of the volume--the mass at the density of water is shown to
be only 518,596,945,467 miles instead of 735,584,493,738 cubic miles,
which is the half of the whole mass of the earth reduced to the density
of water. That is, the outer half of the volume gives only 70·5 per
cent. of half the mass, while the inner half of the volume gives not
only one-half of the mass but 29·5 per cent. more; or, to put it more
clearly, the mass of the inner half-volume is 1·84 times, nearly twice
as great, as the mass of the outer half-volume. On the other hand, we
have to notice that the line of division of the mass into two halves
falls at 1163·25 miles from the surface, where the diameter is 5591·5
miles; so that on the outer half of the earth, measured by mass, 64·74
per cent. of the whole volume of the earth contains only one-half of
the mass, whereas on the inner portion, measured in the same way, 35·26
per cent. of the same whole contains the other half. All these results
must be looked upon as unsatisfactory, or we must believe that two
volumes of cosmic matter which at one time were not far from equal, had
been so acted upon by their mutual attractions that the one has come to
be not far from double the mass of the other; that the vastly greater
amount of cosmic matter at the outer part of a nebula has only one-half
of the attractive force of the vastly inferior quantity at the centre.
This we cannot believe if the original cosmic, or nebulous, matter was
homogeneous; and if it was not homogeneous we have, in order to bring
about such result, to conceive that the earth was built up, like any
other mound of matter, under the direction of some superintendent who
pointed out where the heavier and where the lighter matter was to be
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