How is the World to End?

The terrible catastrophe in Italy which caused the inhabitants of the ill-fated City of Messina to believe that the end of the world had come is only a foretaste on a small scale of what many eminent scientists believe will be the end of the world. That eternal problem of how the world will end is, in the opinion of many, a matter for scientific investigation, and it is curious that the majority believe that the earth will open up and fly to pieces in the most gigantic earthquake ever known; an earthquake that will wipe all life from the globe before the actual destruction of the earth is complete.

H. G. Wells, whose scientific prophecies are well known, is however, of a different opinion. The world will end, he declares, by its becoming entirely frozen over. It is a well-known fact that every year more ice accumulates around the poles; in short, many millions of tons of ice in excess of that of the year previous settle about the earth's extremities each year, and in Mr. Wells' opinion this will gradually extend until the whole world is frozen over and every living thing is thus destroyed.

Several scientists are of the opinion that we shall perish by fire, and this old world of ours with us. Nikola Tesla, the great American, is convinced that, the atmosphere of the world being so fully charged with electricity, the result will be a gigantic explosion by spontaneous combustion, when the world will be entirely encircled with flame, which in the space of a few seconds will destroy all life.

Two of the world's greatest scientists firmly aver that the end of the world will be brought about by astronomical conditions. Take Prof. Marienberg, the noted Austrian student. In his opinion the earth will fly from its orbit and come in contact with one of the other planets that may chance to be in a direct line. The earth, being comparatively small, will, of course, get the worst of it, and split into fragments at the collision. But, of course, directly the world swerved from the orbit all living things would die, and such an earthquake take place which would completely put the Italian catastrophe in the shade.

Just as interesting is the prognostication of M. Camille Flammarion, one of the greatest living scientists. After many years of study he has arrived at the conclusion that the world will in the twenty-fifth century come across the path of the comet Beila, which crossed pur line a few years ago. On this occasion, however, a collision will take place, and Beila being infinitely greater than the earth, a shock may be expected which, he calculates, will be 865 times greater than the shock caused by the collision of two trains each traveling at sixty-five miles an hour. — Pittsburgh Gazette-Times.