Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Title in the Series
- CHAPTER I Nature of the Argument
- CHAPTER II Argument in favour of Design from the changing of Laws in Natural Events
- CHAPTER III Argument to show that the Doctrines in the preceding Chapter do not lead to Fatalism
- CHAPTER IV On the Account of the Creation, in the First Chapter of Genesis
- CHAPTER V Further View of the same Subject
- CHAPTER VI Of the Desire of Immortality
- CHAPTER VII On Time
- CHAPTER VIII Argument from Laws intermitting—on the Nature of Miracles
- CHAPTER IX On the permanent Impression of our Words and Actions on the Globe we inhabit
- CHAPTER X On Hume's Argument against Miracles
- CHAPTER XI À priori Argument in favour of the Occurrence of Miracles
- CHAPTER XII Thoughts on the Nature of Future Punishments
- CHAPTER XIII Reflections on Free Will
- CHAPTER XIV Thoughts on the Origin of Evil
- CONCLUSION
- APPENDIX
- NOTE A On the great Law which regulates Matter
- NOTE B On the Calculating Engine
- NOTE C Extract from the Theory of Probabilities of La Place
- NOTE D Note to Chap. VIII. on Miracles
- NOTE E Note to Chap. X. on Hume's Argument against Miracles
- NOTE F On the Consequences of Central Heat
- NOTE G On the Action of Existing Causes in producing Elevations and Subsidences in Portions of the Earth's Surface
- NOTE H Tables showing the Expansion of Beds of Granite variously heated
- NOTE I Extracts from Letters of Sir John Herschel
- NOTE K On the Elevation of Beaches by Tides
- NOTE L On Ripple Mark
- NOTE M On the Age of Strata, as inferred from the Rings of Trees embedded in them
- NOTE N On a Method of multiplying Illustrations from Wood-Cuts
- CORRECTIONS
NOTE M - On the Age of Strata, as inferred from the Rings of Trees embedded in them
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Title in the Series
- CHAPTER I Nature of the Argument
- CHAPTER II Argument in favour of Design from the changing of Laws in Natural Events
- CHAPTER III Argument to show that the Doctrines in the preceding Chapter do not lead to Fatalism
- CHAPTER IV On the Account of the Creation, in the First Chapter of Genesis
- CHAPTER V Further View of the same Subject
- CHAPTER VI Of the Desire of Immortality
- CHAPTER VII On Time
- CHAPTER VIII Argument from Laws intermitting—on the Nature of Miracles
- CHAPTER IX On the permanent Impression of our Words and Actions on the Globe we inhabit
- CHAPTER X On Hume's Argument against Miracles
- CHAPTER XI À priori Argument in favour of the Occurrence of Miracles
- CHAPTER XII Thoughts on the Nature of Future Punishments
- CHAPTER XIII Reflections on Free Will
- CHAPTER XIV Thoughts on the Origin of Evil
- CONCLUSION
- APPENDIX
- NOTE A On the great Law which regulates Matter
- NOTE B On the Calculating Engine
- NOTE C Extract from the Theory of Probabilities of La Place
- NOTE D Note to Chap. VIII. on Miracles
- NOTE E Note to Chap. X. on Hume's Argument against Miracles
- NOTE F On the Consequences of Central Heat
- NOTE G On the Action of Existing Causes in producing Elevations and Subsidences in Portions of the Earth's Surface
- NOTE H Tables showing the Expansion of Beds of Granite variously heated
- NOTE I Extracts from Letters of Sir John Herschel
- NOTE K On the Elevation of Beaches by Tides
- NOTE L On Ripple Mark
- NOTE M On the Age of Strata, as inferred from the Rings of Trees embedded in them
- NOTE N On a Method of multiplying Illustrations from Wood-Cuts
- CORRECTIONS
Summary
The indelible records of past events which are preserved within the solid substance of our globe, may be in some measure understood without that refined analysis on which their complete knowledge depends. The remains of vegetation, and of animal life, embedded in their coeval rocks, attest the existence of other times; and as science and the arts advance, we shall be enabled to read the minuter details of their living history. The object of the present note is to suggest to the reader a line of inquiry, by which we may still trace some small portion of the history of the past in the fossil woods which occur in so many of our strata.
It is well known that dicotyledonous trees increase in size by the deposition of an additional layer annually between the wood and the bark, and that a transverse section of such trees presents the appearance of a series of nearly concentric irregular rings, the number of which indicates the age of the tree. The relative thickness of these rings depends on the more or less flourishing state of the plant during the years in which they were formed. Each ring may, in some trees, be observed to be subdivided into others, thus indicating successive periods of the same year during which its vegetation was advanced or checked.
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- The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise , pp. 226 - 234Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1837