Chapter II: Preface

Since I presented _Worlds in the Making_ and _Life of the Universe as Conceived by Man from Earliest Ages to the Present Time_ to the public--which received them with far greater interest and appreciation than I could foresee--I have had repeated occasions to treat new questions of a cosmological nature, questions largely arisen from new discoveries and observations within the scope of astronomy. Vast new vistas have been opened through the study of the relation of the stars to the “Milky Way” and through observations of our neighbour planets. The last mentioned give plain indications of the course of planetary evolution and thus enable us to surmise the changing fate and future position of the Earth. In an earlier German publication, _Das Schicksal der Planeten_ (1911), I dealt with some of these problems. As, further, the evolution of the solar system from the Milky Way nebula, to which I have devoted several lectures at home and abroad, may be considered as the pre-history of the evolution of the planets, I have given this collection of cosmogenic articles the common title _The Destinies of the Stars_. I offer as introduction a lecture delivered before the Fourth International Philosophical Congress in Bologna, 1911, dealing with the “Origin of Star-Worship.”

Hoping that this little book will, to a considerable extent, fill the gaps in my previous works, I present these treatises in remodelled form.

SVANTE ARRHENIUS.

STOCKHOLM,
_November, 1915_.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE
ORIGIN OF STAR-WORSHIP 1

Position and practical value of astronomy. Worship of stars.
Chronology. The Australian negro’s conception of the stars.
Day and night, summer and winter. Solar year. Sun-worship.
Changing phases of the moon in chronology. The Mexican
“Tonalamatl.” Moon-worship in Mesopotamia. Significance of
the moon in astrology. The sun and the heat. Agriculture’s
demand on chronology. Worship of the planet Venus by the
Mexicans and the Babylonians. The Church Calendar. The
Zodiac. The seven planets. The week. Correspondence and
sympathetic magic. The Platonic-Aristotelian philosophy.
Astrology and alchemy. Tycho Brahe. Occult sciences.
Aristarchos from Samos. Kopernicus. The progress of
Astronomy.

CHAPTER II

THE MYSTERY OF THE MILKY WAY 41

Primitive conceptions of the Milky Way. Anaxagoras and
Demokritos. Ptolemaios. Galilei. Cosmogenic speculations.
Wm. Herschel’s statistical researches regarding the
distribution of the stars. The Milky Way as the foundation
of the stellar system. The Milky Way as a nebula.
Classification according to age of the stars, their
distribution and velocity. Motion in the Orion nebula.
The planetary nebulæ. Kapteyn’s “star-drifts.” The origin
of the Milky Way. Comparison between the Milky Way and a
spiral nebula in “The Dogs of Orion.” A few details from
the Milky Way. The infinitely great and the infinitely
small. The magnitude and destiny of the Milky Way.

CHAPTER III

THE CLIMATIC IMPORTANCE OF WATER VAPOUR 84

The four elements of Aristotle. Humid-warm climates. The Congo
and Amazon basins. The carboniferous age. The effect
of cloudiness. Desert climate. Steppes. “Kevirs” and
“Bayirs.” Sand dunes. The great Kevir. Climatic changes.
Khanikoff’s description. Salt lakes. Deposits of salt
through evaporation. Huntington about the arefaction of the
earth. Humid period during the ice-age. Climatic changes
during historic time. Africa, Asia, Greece, Italy, Sicily.
West-Europe’s climate has grown more marine. Present
conditions.

CHAPTER IV

ATMOSPHERE AND PHYSICS OF THE STELLAR BODIES 119

Outer envelope of the stars. The large planets. Spectra. Mars,
Earth, Venus, Mercury. Atmosphere impossible on the moon.
The light from the Earth. The atmosphere of Mercury. The
atmosphere of Venus and its Clouds. Composition of air and
its change with height. Forced circulation. Troposphere
and Stratosphere. Hydrogen in the highest strata of the
atmosphere. Water vapour and carbonic acid in the air.
“Geokoronium.” Influence of gravity on composition of the
atmosphere. The air on Venus and Mars.

CHAPTER V

THE CHEMISTRY OF THE ATMOSPHERE 155

Inhabited Worlds. Kinship of the stellar bodies. Presence
of life. Importance of water and carbon. Importance of
temperature. All life evolved from existence in water.
Necessity of oxygen. Bacteria. Reducing substances
preponderable in the World-matter. Volcanic gases and gases
in solidified lava. Water, vapour, carbon dioxide, nitrogen
gas, and sulphurous acid. Permanent gases and hydrogen. The
poisonous character of the original air. Its purification.
The importance of plant life and necessity of a solid crust
in this process. Supply of carbonic dioxide and production
of oxygen. The work of Koene. Silica. Cooling of the Earth
and changing surface temperature. The ice-periods. Centres
of collapse and lines of fissure in the crust. General
survey of the gradual change of the air.