This section of our work may now be brought to a close by stating the conclusions at which we have arrived, leaving the results involved by them to be discussed separately, which we shall proceed to do immediately without binding ourselves so strictly, as we have done hitherto, to the avoidance of anything that may be looked upon as theorising or speculating. We believe we have conducted our operations in the most strict conformity to the law of attraction, and have no doubts whatever about the form of the interior of the earth resulting from them; but there may be some room for small variations in the details of the various densities, and the position of the interior surface of the shell, arising from the pressure of the gases in the hollow centre, and the weight they will, in consequence, add to the general mass of the earth. The conclusions are as follows:--
(1) That the earth is not solid to the centre, nor is it possible that it could be, according to the law of attraction, but is a hollow sphere.
(2) That its greatest density must be at the region where the greatest mass of matter is to be found--as must have been always the case from the time it was a globe revolving on its axis, whether gasiform, liquid, or solid--which is now at 817 miles deep from the surface; and that the greatest density may not be much more than the mean of 5·66 times that of water ascribed to it by astronomers.
(3) That the inner surface of the shell of the hollow globe cannot be much over or under 2000 to 2200 miles from the outer surface.
(4) That the hollow part of the globe must be filled by an atmosphere consisting possibly in part of vapours of the chemical elements, and by gases at a very high degree of pressure.
(5) That the region of greatest density, and the position of the interior surface of the shell, may be expressed with very approximate accuracy as follows:--The former must be at 0·7939 of the mean radius of the earth, and the latter at 0·5479 of the same; both counted from the centre.
(6) That if the earth is a hollow sphere, the same must be the case with all the major planets and their satellites, the sun, and all the suns, or stars, that are seen in the heavens; and that their interior proportions and form must be in much the same ratios to their radii as those we have found for the earth.