The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1897-08-07
THE STARS POPULATION.
If There Are Beings on Mars They
Have Queer Lungs

Have Queer Lungs.
| The discovery of the philosophers
stone. suppostny that phrase to imply
| working scheme for transmitting an
| inferior metal into gold, would proba-
| bly, produce nothing beyond a period
| OF terrible economic confusion. or per
| haps. vast and disastrous, because
| oVerrapid transfer of property but the
! attainment of certainty that sentient
| beings with corporal incasements, act
| ing by an effort and not by pure volt
| ton, existed in any one other planet
| would only enlarge the range of hui
man thought and the force of the hui
man Imagination. Such certainty
! would either increase to an eXtraorii-
nary degree the reverence for the Gre
! ator-fOr we are all so limited that we
| reverence powers which we see exert
| Ell more than powers which know in
| theory must eXiSt-Or would compel
! mdteTialiStS to revise and widen their
| whole theory of the relation Of matter
| to mind, 1t being evident that sentence
could exist under conditions hitherto
| deemed impossible
There are certainly millions and nos
| Sihly billions, of worlds Of which no
| two are the same, and il sentont beings
were found past question III any other
world than ours the presumption thai
they existed under variety of condi-
tons and probably. therefore. in a va
rlety Of forms. practically unlimited
would become 50 violent that to reject
| The theory would soon he regarded as
an evidence of foolish. popular h4,3it
Of disbelief in the unseen.
Man has some internal dislike to be
lieve that limited beings with sentence
can exist under conditions other than
| his own and habitually assumes that
. world without air is a dead world
Gnt there is no proof that the ether
which we know 10 he everywhere, can
not support life. or that circumstances
Of which We know nothing may not
modify either its intolerahle cold or the
effect of that cold
In Mars itself there is some potency
at work, which. TO the despair for the
moment of terrestrial science. pro
duces warmth where Geld ought to
reign permanently supreme. 1t IS as
certain as any deduction from analogy
can he that air in Mars. though It en-
ISIS, is as rarified as il would be a
the top Of a mountain twice as high as
Mount Everett. and that consequently
the normal and permanent degree OF
cold ought to be terrible
The thermal income Of Mars IS less
than half that of the earth and its the
oretical mean temperature is conse-
uuently taking into account its low,
"albedo' or reflective power per unit
Of area thirty degrees centigrade he
low freezing Yet the actual climate
of Mars is mild Snow certainly meltS
rapidly that * patent TO the telescope
vapOr certainly rises that is clear
from The spectrum ANALYSIS water
flows and there arc indicat; ons. if not
proofs that 2 Sudden vegetation fol
lows the sudden thawing Of the snow.
What warns the air IS unknown. but
il is warmed past all question or doubt.
and all arguments. therefore, as to
the innvitabieneSS of cold in other
worlds must he pronounced imperfect.
as are tho<t. which show the impoSSi-
bilty of sustaining corporeal life All
We can say with certainty is that. if
Sentient beings with corporpal frames
exist in Mars the relation Of the lungs
Of the body cannot be identical with
their relation in man. which. az we are
aware of fishes, is not an impossible
exercise of the magina1ion.--Io london
Spectator.