Part 1

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OMPHALOS:

AN ATTEMPT TO UNTIE THE GEOLOGICAL KNOT.

BY

PHILIP HENRY GOSSE, F.R.S.

WITH FIFTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD.

[Greek: Auxanetai de ta zôa panta, osa echei omphalon, dia tou omphalou.]

ARIST.; _Hist. Anim._ vii. 8.

LONDON: JOHN VAN VOORST; PATERNOSTER ROW. 1857.

LONDON: R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.

PREFACE.

"You have not allowed for the wind, Hubert," said Locksley, in "Ivanhoe;" "or that had been a better shot."

I remember, when I was in Newfoundland, some five-and-twenty years ago, the disastrous wreck of the brig _Elizabeth_, which belonged to the firm in which I was a clerk. The master had made a good observation the day before, which had determined his latitude some miles north of Cape St. Francis. A thick fog coming on, he sailed boldly by compass, knowing that, according to his latitude, he could well weather that promontory. But lo! about midnight the ship plunged right against the cliffs of Ferryland, thirty miles to the south, crushing in her bows to the windlass; and presently went down, the crew barely saving their lives. The captain _had not allowed for the polar current_, which was setting, like a sluice, to the southward, between the Grand Bank and the land.

When it was satisfactorily ascertained that the heavenly body, now known as Uranus, was a planet, its normal path was soon laid down according to the recognised law of gravitation. But it would not take this path. There were deviations and anomalies in its observed course, which could in nowise be referred to the operation of any known principle. Astronomers were sorely puzzled to explain the irregularities, and to reconcile facts with laws. Various hypotheses were proposed: some denied the facts; that is, the observed places of the planet, boldly assuming that the observers had been in error: others suggested that perhaps the physical laws, which had been supposed to govern the whole celestial machinery, did not reach so far as Uranus's orbit. The secret is now known: _they had not allowed for the disturbances produced by Neptune_.

In each of these cases the conclusions were legitimately deduced from the recognised premises. Hubert's skilled eye had calculated the distance; his experience had taught him the requisite angle at which to shoot, the exact amount of force necessary, and every other element proper to insure the desired result, _except one_. There was an element which he had overlooked; and it spoiled his calculations. _He had forgotten the wind._

The master of the ill-fated brig had calculated his latitude correctly; he knew the rate of his vessel's speed; the compass had showed him the parallel on which to steer. These premises ought to have secured a safe conclusion; and so they would, but for an unrecognised power that vitiated all; he was not aware of the silent and secret current, that was every hour setting him to the south of his supposed latitude.

The path of Uranus had been calculated by the astronomers with scrupulous care, and every known element of disturbance had been considered; not by one, but by many. But for the fact that the planet had been previously seen in positions quite inconsistent with such a path, it would have been set down as beyond controversy correct. Stubborn fact, however, would not give way; and hence the dilemma, till Le Verrier suggested the unseen antagonist.

I venture to suggest in the following pages an element, hitherto overlooked, which disturbs the conclusions of geologists respecting the antiquity of the earth. Their calculations are sound on the recognised premises; _but they have not allowed for the Law of Prochronism in Creation_.

The enunciation of this principle will lie in a nut-shell; the reader will find it at p.124; or p.347. All the rest of the book is illustration.

I do not claim originality for the thought which I have here endeavoured to work out. It was suggested to me by a Tract, which I met with some dozen years ago, or more; the title of which I have forgotten: I am pretty sure it was anonymous, but it was published by Campbell, of 1, Warwick Square. Whether it is still in print I do not know; I never saw another copy. If the author is alive, and if he should happen to cast his eye on this volume, he will doubtless recognise his own bantling, and accept this my acknowledgment.

The germ of the argument, however, I have found, since these pages were written, in "The Mineral and Mosaical Geologies," of Granville Penn (1822). The state of physical science when he wrote did not enable him to press the argument to a demonstration, as I have endeavoured to do; for he could not refer to structural peculiarities as sensible records of past processes, _inseparable from newly created organisms_.

I would not be considered as an opponent of geologists; but rather as a co-searcher with them after that which they value as highly as I do, TRUTH. The path which I have pursued has led me to a conclusion at variance with theirs. I have a right to expect that it be weighed; let it not be imputed to vanity if I hope that it may be accepted.

But what I much more ardently desire is, that the thousands of thinking persons, who are scarcely satisfied with the extant reconciliations of Scriptural statements and Geological deductions,--who are silenced but not convinced,--may find, in the principle set forth in this volume, a stable resting-place. I have written it in the constant prayer that the God of Truth will deign so to use it; and if He do, to Him be all the glory!

P. H. G.

MARYCHURCH, TORQUAY,

_October, 1857_.

CONTENTS.

I

THE CAUSE.

Evidence of the Senses often delusive--Deductions of Reason fallible--Essentials sometimes overlooked--Discrepancy between Scripture and Geological Conclusions--Painful Dilemma--Efforts to escape from it--Supremacy of Truth--Various Attempts at Reconciliation--Denouncers--Opinions of Brown--Blackwood--Macbrair--Ure--Penn--Young--Cockburn-- Miller--Sedgwick--Turner--Sumner--Chalmers--Harris--Gray-- Conybeare--Hitchcock--Pye Smith--"Protoplast"--Babbage-- Powell--"Vestiges"--Amplitude of Choice _Page_ 1-29

II.

THE WITNESS FOR THE MACRO-CHRONOLOGY.

A Court of Inquiry--The Witnesses--Testimony of One--Strata of Thames Tunnel--of Hertfordshire--of Yorkshire--of the Globe--Granite--Granitic Strata--Organic Remains--Silurian System--Corals--Trilobites--Mollusks--Devonian System--Old Red Sandstone--Its Formation--Fishes--Carboniferous System--Coral Limestone--Millstone Grit--Coal--Predominance of Carbonic Acid--Extent and Thickness of Coal-Fields--Formation of Coal--Conjecture as to its Age--Antediluvian Theory untenable--Sauroid Fishes--Earliest Reptiles--Footprints of Frogs 30-53

III.

THE SAME--(_continued_.)

Disturbances of Strata--Internal Heat--Changes of Land and Sea--New Red Sandstone--Footprints--Labyrinthodon--Lias Formation--Crinoids--Ammonites--Belemnites--Fishes--Marine Reptiles--Ichthyosaur--Plesiosaur--European Archipelago--Oolitic Formation--Cycads--Megalosaur-- Bat-Lizards--Iguanodon--Hylæosaur--Earliest Mammal--Chalk Formation--Infusoria--Diatomaceæ--Their Minuteness and Numbers--Chambered Cephalopods--Mosasaur--End of Secondary Formations--Convulsions--Basalt--Uprearing of Mountain Chains--London Clay--Plants and Animals--Fishes--Reptiles--Birds--Mammals--Anoplotherium--Condition of Europe--Dinotherium--Mastodon--Mammoth--Trees--Crag Formation--Tertiary Fauna--Bone Caves--Kirkdale--Erratic Blocks--Glaciers--Sloths--Marsupials--Birds--Raised Beaches--Human Period--Moho--Present Cosmical Operations--River Deltas--Coral Beefs--Volcanoes--Changes of Level--Earthy Deposits--Stalagmite--Shells--Recapitulation. 54-101

IV.

THE CROSS-EXAMINATION.

Grandeur of the Evidence--Proposed Line of Objection--It is but circumstantial--Example of Confusion of Thought--Analysis of the Reasoning---Dependent on the exhaustive Power of Observation--Relation of Precedence and Sequence--Of Cause and Effect--Force of my Position. 102-109

V.

POSTULATES.

The Creation of Matter--The Persistence of Species. 110-112

VI.

LAWS.

The Course of Nature a Circle--Illustrations--Scarlet Runner--Lady-fern--Hawkmoth--Plumularia--Cow--Universality of the Law--Creation an Irruption into a Circle--False Witness to Past Processes--Prochronism and Diachronism--Phenomena illusory--Recapitulation 113-126

VII.

PARALLELS AND PRECEDENTS.

(_Plants._)

Ideal Tour on Creation-Day--Chronological Investigations--Queried Age of a Tree-fern--Data for the Inquiry--Development of the Leaves--Leaf-scars--Report--Its manifest Error--Selaginella--Bamboo-- Couch-grass--Screw-pine--Pashiuba--Sugar Palm--Areca--Rattan--Agave--Traveller's Tree--Butterfly Flower--Orchis--Gladiolus--Grass-tree--White Lily--Testudinaria--Caffer-Bread--Fig--Banyan--Euphorbia-- Tulip-tree--Bignonia--Loranthus--Prickly Pear--Mangrove--Silk-cotton-tree--Locust-tree--Restriction of the Inquiry--Uniform Testimony to Untruth 127-181

VIII.

PARALLELS AND PRECEDENTS.

(_Invertebrate Animals._)

Resumption of the Examination--SeaPen--Millepore-- Madrepore--Organ-pipe--Medusa--Sea-urchin--Feather-star-- Tapeworm--Serpula--Terebella--White-ant--Goliath-beetle-- Gnat--Case-fly--Melicerta--Julus--Buprestis--Shore-crab-- Barnacle--Lepralia--Botryllus--Clavagella--Prickly Venus--Scorpion Stromb--Tiger Cowry--Thorny Murex--Pearly Nautilus--Cuttlefish 182-239

IX.

PARALLELS AND PRECEDENTS.

(_Vertebrate Animals._)

Examination of the Vertebrata--Sword-fish--Gilt-head-- Laminæ of Scales--Shark--Arrangement of Teeth--Their Structure--Tree-frog--Metamorphosis--Rattlesnake-- Crocodile--Tortoise--Laminæ of Plates--Skull of Cassowary--Peacock--Humming-bird--Trogon--Structure and Growth of Feathers--Whalebone of Whale--Horn of Ibex--Horn of Stag--Teeth of Horse--Of Babiroussa--Of Hippopotamus--Tusk of Elephant--Molars of Elephant 240-273

X.

PARALLELS AND PRECEDENTS.

(_Man._)

Examination of Primal Man--Blood--Its Formation--Its Oxygenation--Nails--Hair--Bones--Teeth--All formed by successive Processes--Stature--Thyroid Cartilage--Beard--Development of Teeth--Proportion of Bloods--Condition of Skeleton--Navel--False Conclusion 274-291

XI.

PARALLELS AND PRECEDENTS.

(_Germs._)

Assumption of adult Development at Creation--Its Reasonableness--The Position waived--Assumption of the Germ-Hypothesis--Double Cocoa-nut--Coral Tree--Tulip--Earth-pea--Mangrove--Medusa--Connexion of Germs with Parent--In Echinoderms--In Annelids--In Insects--Egg of Butterfly--Of Nut Weevil--Of Bots--Of Ichneumon--Of Pill Chafer--Of Gall-fly--Of Lace-fly--Of Spider--Of Gipsy Moth--Of Coccus--Of Saw-fly--Of Cockroach--Of Dirt-dauber--Metamorphosis of Star-fish--Eggs attached to Brachionus--Viviparous Progeny of Rotifer--Of Asplanchna--Of Daphnia--Egg-purse of Shark--Economy of Surinam Toad--Egg of Fowl--Foetus of Kangaroo--Umbilicus 292-334

XII.

THE CONCLUSION.

Uniformity of Results--Prochronism of Organic Nature--Phenomena inadequate to settle Chronology--Historic Testimony alone oracular--Familiar Illustration--Objections met--Analogy between an Organism and a World--Illustration from a Tree--Analogy between the Life of a Species and that of an Individual--History Divinely Projected--Grand Plan of Nature--Diachronic Existence not necessary--Deceptive Phenomena inseparable from Created Organisms--Illustrations abundant--Hypothesis of the Life-history of the Globe--Supposition of 1857 being the Era of Creation--What its State?--Minuteness and Verity of Proofs of Life present no Difficulty--Coprolites--Fæcal Residua in newly-created Animals--_Cyclical_ not _Organic_ Condition the Test of Prochronism--Illustrations from the inorganic World--Rivers--Ocean Currents--Celestial Bodies--Velocity of Light--Records of Entities actually passed--"No Tree has Leaves"--Plates of Testudinaria--Leaf-scars of Palm--Column of Nerita--Spines of Murex--Madreporic Plate of Cribella--Hilum of Seed--Navel of Mammal--Argument of "Great and Small"--Old Hypothesis of _Lusus Naturæ_--Demonstration of a Law--Effect of this Principle on the Study of Geology--Summing up 335-372

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Geological Section of Yorkshire 35 Calymene Blumenbachii 41 Cephalaspis 44 Labyrinthodon 57 Snake-necked Marine Lizards 59 Megalosaurus Bucklandi 61 Bat-lizards 62 Hylæosaurus armatus 63 Mammoth 74 Moho 84 Germination of Scarlet-runner 114 Diagram of Bean 116 " Fern 117 " Hawkmoth 119 " Polype 120 " Cow 121 Leaf-scars of Tree-fern 132 Roots of Iriartea 139 Traveller's Tree 148 Corm of Gladiolus 153 Section of Lily-bulb 157 Testudinaria 159 Encephalartos 162 Twig of Tulip-tree 167 Young Plant of Loranthus 171 Silk-cotton Tree 175 Section of Exogenous Tree 179 Muricated Madrepore 185 Organ-pipe 187 Comatula and Young 194 Serpula 200 Goliath Beetle and Pupa case 206 Larva of Case-fly 209 Melicerta 210 Lepas 218 Botryllus 224 Clavagella 226 Dione Veneris 228 Murex tenuispina 233 Scale of Gilt-head 242 Plates of Tortoise 251 Growth of a Feather 254 Horns of Stag 258 Skull of Babiroussa 262 Skull of Hippopotamus 265 Skull of Elephant 267 Growth of Hair 278 Section of Human Tooth 282 Garden Tulip 298 Germination of Earth-pea 300 Seed of Mangrove 303 Lace-fly and Eggs 312 Brachionus with Eggs 322 Pregnant Asplanchna 323 Hen's Egg 329 Gyroceras 371

[Greek: HO OMPHALOS.]

I.

THE CAUSE.

"Is there not a cause?"--1 SAM. xvii. 29.

An eminent philosopher has observed that "nothing can be more common or frequent than to appeal to the evidence of the senses as the most unerring test of physical effects. It is by the organs of sense, and by these alone, that we can acquire any knowledge of the qualities of external objects, and of their mutual effects when brought to act one upon another, whether mechanically, physically, or chemically; and it might, therefore, not unreasonably be supposed, that what is called the evidence of the senses must be admitted to be conclusive, as to all the phenomena developed by such reciprocal action.

"Nevertheless, the fallacies are numberless into which those are led who take what they consider the immediate results of sensible impressions, without submitting them to the severe control and disciplined analysis of the understanding."[1]

If this verdict is confessedly true with regard to many observations which we make on things immediately present to our senses, much more likely is it to be true with respect to conclusions which are not "the immediate results of sensible impressions," but are merely deduced by a process of reasoning from such impressions. And if the direct evidence of our senses is to be received with a prudent reserve, because of this possibility of error, even when we have no evidence of an opposing character, still more necessary is the exercise of caution in judging of facts assumed to have occurred at a period far removed from our own experience, and which stand in contradiction (at least apparent, _primâ facie_, contradiction) to credible historic testimony. Nay, the caveat acquires a greatly intensified force, when the testimony with which the assumed facts are, or seem to be, at variance, is no less a testimony than His who ordained the "facts," who made the objects of investigation; the testimony of the Creator of all things; the testimony of Him who is, from eternity to eternity, "[Greek: HO APSEUDÊS THEOS]"!

I hope I shall not be deemed censorious in stating my fear that those who cultivate the physical sciences are not always sufficiently mindful of the "_Humanum est errare_." What we have investigated with no little labour and patience, what we have seen with our eyes many many times, in many aspects, and under many circumstances, we naturally believe firmly; and we are very prone to attach the same assurance of certainty to the inferences we have, _bonâ fide_, and with scrupulous care to eliminate error, deduced from our observations, as to the observations themselves; and we are apt to forget that some element of error may have crept into our actual investigations, and still more probably into our deductions. Even if our observations be so simple, so patent, so numerous, as _almost_ to preclude the possibility of mistake in them, and our process of reasoning from them be without a flaw, still we may have overlooked a principle, which, though perhaps not very obvious, ought to enter into the investigation, and which, if recognised, would greatly modify our conclusions.

In this volume I venture to suggest such a principle to the consideration of geologists. It will not be denied that Geology is a science that stands peculiarly in need of being cultivated with that salutary self-distrust that I have above alluded to. Though a strong and healthy child, it is as yet but an infant. The objects on which its senses have been exercised, its [Greek: ta blepomena], are indeed plain enough and numerous enough, when once discovered; but the inferences drawn from them, its [Greek: bebaia], find their sphere in the most venerably remote antiquity,--an antiquity mensurable not by years or centuries, but by _secula seculorum_. And the dicta, which its votaries rest on as certitudes, are at variance with the simple literal sense of the words of God.

I am not assuming here that the Inspired Word has been rightly read; I merely say that the plain straightforward meaning, the meaning that lies manifestly on the face of the passages in question, is in opposition with the conclusions which geologists have formed, as to the antiquity and the genesis of the globe on which we live.

Perhaps the simple, superficial sense of the Word is not the correct one; but it is at least that which its readers, learned and unlearned, had been generally content with before; and which would, I suppose, scarcely have been questioned, but for what appeared the exigencies of geological facts.

Now while there are, unhappily, not a few infidels, professed or concealed, who eagerly seize on any apparent discrepancy between the works and the Word of God, in order that they may invalidate the truth of the latter, there are, especially in this country, many names of the highest rank in physical (and, among other branches, in geological) science, to whom the veracity of God is as dear as life. They cannot bear to see it impugned; they know that it cannot be overthrown; they are assured that He who gave the Word, and He who made the worlds, is One Jehovah, who cannot be inconsistent with Himself. But they cannot shut their eyes to the startling fact, that the records which _seem_ legibly written on His created works do flatly contradict the statements which _seem_ to be plainly expressed in His word.

Here is a dilemma. A most painful one to the reverent mind! And many reverent minds have laboured hard and long to escape from it. It is unfair and dishonest to class our men of science with the infidel and atheist. They did not rejoice in the dilemma; they saw it at first dimly, and hoped to avoid it.[2] At first they believed that the mighty processes which are recorded on the "everlasting mountains" might not only be harmonized with, but might afford beautiful and convincing demonstrations of Holy Scripture. They thought that the deluge of Noah would explain the stratification, and the antediluvian era account for the organic fossils.

As the "stone book" was further read, this mode of explanation appeared to many untenable; and they retracted their adherence to it. To a mind rightly constituted, Truth is above every thing: there is no such thing as a pious fraud; the very idea is an impious lie: God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all; and that religion which can be maintained only by dissembling or denying truth, cannot proceed from "Him that is Holy, Him that is True," but from him who "is a liar, and the father of it."