Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-07-31

point Mars should differ from all the other
planets. The appearance of the earth seen
from a similar distance would probably be a
dirty green, or perhaps brown. In fact, on
the earth we have no soil or rock, which @
ours in any quantity, OF the red color which
WI observe on Mars. There is therefore no
vegetation, unless We adopt the curious
theory advanced by a French Savant that in
Mars the foliage il red. Tnluckily we have
no instrument that can at all help us here;
the telescope and SIeCtrnScnpe are alike Use
les, and for the present We must content our
selves with vain c"njectureS.
TIRE E~NISTENCE or LIFE.
The next point that ought To engage our at
tention is the atmosphere, without which no
lie Is possible. Without entering into calcu
latIonS we NAV state that the pressure IF the
air at the surface Of Mars would be about
equal IA five inches nf mercury. or about one
sixth Of the normal atmospheric pressure on
ne earth. Now. given an atmosphere and q
large extent Of SEA, We would naturally eN-
pect that clouds would form a prominent
feature on the Martial surface; and observa
ton has proved this to he the case. The air
on Mars being much less dense than on the
earth, it is p~resumable that the winds would
move with much greater velocity; and for
this reason it has been thought that trees
could not grow TO any considerable height
We must, however, lsar in mind that though
the velocity would h. high, the actual force
uf the wind would probably not Ia very
great on account Of its excessive tenuity.
In an inquiry as To the probability Of the
existence Of life, one IF the most important
points to be taken into account is the amount
of heat available. Now, Mars is at such a
distance from the sun that on the whole it
would receive about two-fifths a. much solar
heat a. We do. This does not, however, give
the amount of heat that is actually received
on the surface of the planet, a considerable
proportion being absorbed 10y the atmo.
phere: and since our atmosphere is SO much
denser and thicker than that of Mars, it fol
lows that we lose a much larger percentage of
the solar heat TO calculate the exact amount
of heat absorbed by II given thickness of air
is a very difficult, if not impossible. problem;
but it seems likely that, taking everything
into account, the inhahitantso of Mars will r-
ceive more heat from the sun than we do.
This would have the effect Of making the
evaporation very large, and if 50 the martial
atmosphere would be mostly COMPOSED of
water vapOr.
According to Professor Langley, tine true
tOibT bI Tue sui II blutr uHl L NtiibN ~ Il
due to the dirt always present in the air. To
the inhabitants of Mars it would most prob
ably appear nearly white, unless, indeed, they
also have volcanoes to till the air with lava
dust.
Let us now sum up the facts as we have
stated, and determine, as far as we can, what
sort of man the inhabitant Of Mars must be-.
In the first place. the force of gravitatiOn al
81. .,,rFa,a - gplv inf .,-,,- o. third nf ir-
equivalent on the earth; a pound would,
therefore, weigh about six ouncesi in Mars. If,
therefore, we assume that the men are of such
a size that their weight and activity are tn"
same as ours. they would L. about fourteen
feet high on the average. This would make
their strength very great, for not only would
it be actually superior to ours, but, as every
weight is 50 much smaller, it would be ap-
parently ProportionallY increased.
SKILL OF THE MARTIALITEs.
We should, therefore, expect to find that
the Martialites have executed large engineer
ing works; perhaps also their telescopes are
much superior to ours, and We have been oh
jectS OF interest for their observers. With re
gard 10 telescopes, it may be interesting to
examine what is the effect Of the highest mag
nifying power we can use. At his nearest
approach, the distance from us to Mars is
about 100000 miles; and assuming that
the highest power that can be used with adj
vantage is 1900, we approach with our
telescopes TO q distance of 5000 miles, So
that houses or towns, or, indeed, any arti-
fetal works, would be hOpelessly invisible.
With regard to the supply of heat and light,
We have seen that the Martialite is not worse
off than we are. To him the sun would APP
~. - ..l,-. 11,. lf1- ,Il,,
two-thirds of the diameter that il appears to
us. The Martial day differs but slightly from
ours; his year, however, Is much longer, being
about 6S7 of our days, which is about 60
martial days. The inclination of his axis TO
the plane of the orbit is such that his seasons
would be very similar to ours. 1t is diff
fiCult to reconcile the idea OF an extensive
vegetation with his peculiar red color; it is
just possible, however, that some of the green
patches generally supposed to be seas may in
reality be large forests.
The most valid objection to the Availability
Of Mars lies in the fact of the extremely low
atmospheric pressure, which, as We have seen,
would probably average about five inches of
mercury. The lowest pressure that a man has
ever lived in, even for a short time, is about
seven inches, which was reached by Coxwell
and Glaisher in their famous balloon ascent.
The a~eronauts, however, narrowly escaped
perishing, not only on account of the low
pressure, but also because of the extreme
cold.
1t seems impossible that a man constituted
exactly as we are could live for any length of
time breathing air only one-sixth Of the dem
sity Of ours But it is rather going out Of our
way to assume that the Msrtialites would be
exactly the same as We are in every way; the
chances are a million to one against it; and
on the other hand, a very slight modification
Of the lung arrangement would suffice to
make life perfectly possible under such CON
eitions. -Chambers' Journal