han in the healthy state. But this
resistance only ceases entirely when death takes place. By the
artificial diminution of resistance in another part, the resistance in
the diseased organ is not, indeed, directly strengthened; but the
chemical action, the cause of the change of matter, is diminished in the
diseased part, being directed to another part, where the physician has
succeeded in producing a still more feeble resistance to the change of
matter, to the action of oxygen.

SIR CHARLES LYELL

The Principles of Geology

Sir Charles Lyell, the distinguished geologist, was born at
Kinnordy, Forfarshire, Scotland, Nov. 14, 1797. It was at Oxford
that his scientific interest was first aroused, and after taking an
M.A. degree in 1821 he continued his scientific studies, becoming
an active member of the Geological and Linnaean Societies of London.
In 1826 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and two years
later went with Sir Roderick Murchison on a tour of Europe, and
gathered evidence for the theory of geological uniformity which he
afterwards promulgated. In 1830 he published his great work,
"Principles of Geology: Being an Attempt to Explain the Former
Changes of the Earth's Surface by References to Causes now in
Action," which converted almost the whole geological world to the
doctrine of uniformitarianism, and may be considered the foundation
of modern geology. Lyell died in London on February 22, 1875.
Besides his great work, he also published "The Elements of
Geology," "The Antiquity of Man," "Travels in North America," and
"The Student's Elements of Geology."

_I.--Uniformity in Geological Development_

According to the speculations of some writers, there have been in the
past history of the planet alternate periods of tranquillity and
convulsion, the former enduring for ages, and resembling the state of
things now experienced by man; the other brief, transient, and
paroxysmal, giving rise to new mountains, seas, and valleys,
annihilating one set of organic beings, and ushering in the creation of
another. These theories, however, are not borne out by a fair
interpretation of geological monuments; but, on the contrary, nature
indicates no such cataclysms, but rather progressive uniformity.

Igneous rocks have been supposed to afford evidence of ancient paroxysms
of nature, but we cannot consider igneous rock