The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-07-05
INHABITANTS OF MARS


Is Mars inhabited by intelligent be-
ings who are trying to signal to usG
This question, says w. e. CARROT,
in the London Mail, is again brought
TO the front by the announcement that
Prof. Lowell-who of all living astron-
Omers knows most about the Red Plan
et-has just observed a brilliant pro-
lection from the edge of it's disk. The
brilliant imaginations of Mr.. II. G.
Wells have familiarized us all with
the possibilities of life on Mars, and no
one who has read The War of the
Worlds" can help -shuddering slightly
when he remembers that just such a
projection indicated the commence
nent of that terrifying invasion. Let
us be treasured. Astronomers Will tell
US that, however realistic Mr.. Wells
story seemed. 1t is practically impos-
sible that mankind should ever have to
fight for its life against Marian
army, and the hypothesis that what
Prof Lowell saw was the flash caused
by the firing of a huge gun az the earth
may be put out of court.
It is with less certainty, however,
that we can decide that the signal the
DRY is equally impossible. Indeed, one
can hardly go so far as to say that it
is entirely Inadequate to explain this
projection, though the improbability
of it's being intended for our notice
and produced by quasi-human agency
is considerable In the first place,
astronomers admit that the existence of
life somewhat akin to our own on Mars
is highly probable.
In the nature of things, there is no
ground for suppOsing that earth should
be the only planet on which evolution
has run the course which happens to
have resulted in producing our noble
selves. Setting aside the hypothesis
of a special creation and divine rea-
son for favoring the earth beyond any
other planet-which may be true, but
is not amenable to discussion by the
light Of that ordered reason which we
call science-we can all see at once
that, if all the planets are but cooled
and hardened portions of the same
original nebula, the real marvel would
be not that life should exist on other
planets, but that 1t should have come
into being on the earth alone.
Similar causes must be assumed to
produce similar effects, though man Is
too apt to think that an exceptional
interest and merit attach to the in
considerable planet that has had the
honor of bearing him.
II, then, we must assume the prob
ability that there are "other worlds
than ours other sentient beings with
in the limits of our system, where are
we to look for them?
Every argument points 10 Mars as
the most likely place. The outer plan
cts are too far from the sun for such
life as we know to maintain itself
upon them; in the remote GOODNESS of
Neptune or Uranus only algae or bac-
terra could live with any comfort, and
imagination refuses to conceive a civ
flied society of typhoid germs. Jupi-
ter is almost certainly still in state
of red heat, and one might as well
try to live in a Dutch oven as where
Mercury swims in the sunbeams. The
minor planets, those disjected members
of a planet that never was" are
barred by our knowledge of physics,
which tells us that not even the larg-
est of them can possess any vestiges
of an atmosphere; while the smaller
one are so ill-provided with gravitat-
ing force than an ordinary mans jump
would take him away into infinite
space. 1t would be rash, perhaps, to
assert that life without an atmosphere
is impossible, but We cannot con-
ceive it.
There remain. then, only our two
nearest neighbors, Mars and Venus
as the possible homes of such life as
we can imagine to exist in conditions
not too utterly unlike our own.
There are grave difficulties in the
way of studying Venus from this point
of view, and attention has been con-
centrated on Mars, where some emf
hent astronomers believe that they
have found evidence for the existence
of intelligent beings. TIE evidence
is rather thin, indeed, consisting main
ly in the demonstration that Mars is
suited for the existence of life. In the
first place, Mars possesses an atmos-
phere, much more rarifed than our
own-its pressure is probably not more
than two or three pounds to the square
inch. corresponding to a barometric
reading of five or six inches of ner-
cury-but still conceivably adequate to
support life that had been developed
in it, though man transported thith-
er or Marian suddenly brought hith-
OF would equally be unable to survive
without a diving costume.
\ This is proved not Oaly by spectre