 The issue was taken up in more detail by William Whiston, a protegé of and popularizer of the theories of Isaac Newton, who argued in his book "A New Theory of the Earth" (1696) that a comet impact was the probable cause of the Biblical Flood of Noah.Whiston also attributed the origins of the atmosphere and other significant changes in the Earth to the effects of comets.This hypothesis was subsequently popularized by Minnesota congressman and pseudoarchaeology writer Ignatius L. Donnelly in his book "" (1883), which followed his better-known book "" (1882).