The Latest News about the Moon.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 192, 15 July 1873, Page 7

The Latest News about the Moon.

The following interesting article is taken from the Scientijk American received by last mail:— No celestial holy has attracted more interest than the noon, and none has given rise to more speculation ; the greater portion of the theories an utterly absurd, and in direct contradiction to observation and to positive knowledge bunded on such observation, and to the ciicumstances in which we know the moon exits. Our knowledge of the nature of its surface is more positive than of that of any other olestial body, simply by reason of the short distance it is placed from us ; while the distance of all other heavenly bodies is counted by nany millions of miles, the distance of the mom is only 30 times the diameter of our earth. The result of this is that we possess a more correct knowledge of the topographical detail of that part of its suiiacc which is always turned towards us than we do of many legions of our own planet, for instance, the interior of Africa, Asia, Australia, and Smth America, which have been either not all o- only partially investigated. *******

The study of these dctiils by means of the modern appliances has ixploded some old notions about the existence >f land aud water on the moon, and about its atmosphere, and even about its inhabitants. There is no such thing as wa'er or an atmosphere in the moon, and consequently no rain, m> seasons, no alluvial lands, no place where jlants can orow and no animals to be fed by tie plants consequently there is no life in tin moon ;'it is to all intents and purposes, a dad satellite! In order to obtain a clear insight into the conditions of nature there, we lave only to investigate the natural conditio 0 f the tops of our snow capped mountain ranges the Andes or the Himalayas. The; project so high up from the earth's surfac that we practically may consider them as vithout an atmosphere, and at mid-day the sui.pour-3 its tropical rays on their tops with on raising their temperature enough to melt tie snow. Suppose, now, that a large mountain top of this kind is raised 240,000 miles h>'g\ there is no reason to believe that the sunwould communicate more heat to the same Lid if we increase its mass to the size of the Lon the solar effect wouid be the same. This shows the absurdity of such reasoning as those which ascribe to that side of the it,on on which the sun is shining a burning hj a t and to the other side the opposite ; no dovbt the latter side is still colder than the form r , but the whole moon is always at a tempev ture far below the freezing point, and far below that of our highest mountain topi This view is corroborated by several eminen astronomers.

We must, then, conclude that the moon is. the opposite of the sun. In the latter body, a temperature prevails, perhaps excelling any heat we shall ever be able to proluee ; ill the moon the most intense cold exists. If this body has not yet cooled down to the temperature of the absolute absence of heat, which most probably is 460 degrees bebw the zero of Fahrenheit, it has at leatt readied a temperature certainly below the fjeeziiig point of water and even of mercury, of which the solidification takes place at 70deg.lower. It is, at the present day, very amuang indeed to read the old published accaints of the observations of the German astr<nomers Schroder and Groithmzen, the latter <f whom imagined, in 1822, that he saw a citv in the moon, with regular streets and surrovnded by a wall ; and in 1826, he believes he aw three new streets added, and two walls broken down, and even the colour of the vegetation change with the heat, and further "a large structure resembling the Egyptian pjramids, a temple dedicated to the adoratht of tiie stars, a public park similar to thii of the I city of Brussels (thus resembling thcCcntral- j park), and in its neighbourhood a siani fao I tory. * * * I