Abstract
I AM curious to know in which of his writings Sir W. Thomson makes the assertion “that there was a time when the earth rotated too swiftly for the existence of life.” I cannot see how the assertion, even if it were true, could be of the least use in determining questions as to the length of time during which the earth has been habitable. Certainly it has not the slightest connection with Thomson's argument as to the date of consolidation of the earth, founded on its figure and on the retardation of its rotation by tidal friction. Yet the assertion is distinctly ascribed to Thomson—first in the Pall Mall Gazette, May 3, 1869, and secondly in the Edinburgh Review for January last.
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H., G. Sir W. Thomson and Geological Time. Nature 1, 482 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/001482e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/001482e0
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