Excerpt from The Mysteries of Nature Revealed, or the Identity of Light, Heat and Electricity Fully Established: Embracing a Variety of New and Original Subjects of Great Practical Utility A round body may be conceived to be composed of arches or rings, * decreasing in size as you approach the centre, the last one being the smallest, and this last could not possibly have any greater pressure than the external one. Geologists suppose that the centre of the earth is a liquid mass if this is the case, why dont the earth cave in, and press out this liquid matter towards the surface, which would inevitably be the case, were there such a pressure as they suppose to exist. But in all probability there is neither liquid matter nor pressure, at least to the ex tent that they suppose. We have mentioned these circumstances, in order to show that philosophers, like other classes of men, are liable to be mistaken, and that we consider it no arrogance or presumption to endeavor to undeceive them (however elevated their station in life) or to advance opinions which we consider more plausi ble than theirs. The author would further observe, that since the manuscript was first written, he has read a great many of the works of medical authors regarding the contagious nature of diseases, and he finds he has been anticipated in a great: many of his observations on that subject; however, he trusts it will be found that there are still some original and useful, which may interest the reader, and on this account he has thought it best to retain them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.