Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1914-07-19

PT=HE human soul always goes to extremes
Only b hundred years ago astronomers
and poets alike wrote Of the inhabi-
tants of the Moon, the Seenites, with all OIL
the assurance of witnesses who had really
seen them and recognized in them creatures
organized just like the inhabitants Of our
planet, WITHOUT stopping to think that other
worlds might not be like ours, the conditions
of existence being so different. They even
described the landscapes, the streets and tbs
great cities, the Notifications, the industrial
establishments the smoke of factories, even
the weekly day of rest.
But all at once ideas changed From 1880
to 1910 the German astronomer Maedler de-
voted himself to a careful study Of the moon
and his beautiful map became a classic. His
work was followed by that of Schmidt director
Of the observatory at Athens, who issued a
photographic" chart which was even more
complete. Maedler thought that the terres-
trial globe would pass through no geologic
changes from our time onward, and to
the moon, in his eyes, it an ankylosed
world for ages, upon whose surface there were
no variations.
Upon the authority Of this eminent observer
an aphorisnl soon appeared in the classic
works: The moon is a dead star" And for
than half century most books repeated
this legend, with the exception of some few
thinkers WHIP do not give themselves up to
generalzations which have not been demon.
strated, but seek the truth independently, set.
ting aside all preconceived notions.
Solitary torch of night, as it moves through
the heavens, this star is the pale witness of
the vcissitudes of our earth. It's tranquil
clarity seems enveloped in mystery. It's land
scapes and monuments are all TRANSPORTED.
But this wan light if it be the image
Of nearing lethargy, is not, as has been sup
posed, the absolute image of death.
or course the aspects of our satellite do not
resemble THOSE which our earth would offer
at the same distance.
Nor have we, in observations Of the
moon, the moving variations which appear on
the planet Mars. an intense activity associated
with marked seasons and almost daily meta.
morphoses.
Nor are there the fantastic and formid
able revolutions such as we observe on that
giant world, Jupiter, just now passing through
lts period OF prlmordial elaboration. But the
attentive study OF the moon holds many sur.
prises for laturalists and astronomers.
1t seems interesting to analyze the most
precise observations made to compare them
carefully, and TO prove in how far our notions
should be modified l am especially interested
because the very first subject which l pre-
sented to the Academy of Sciences was on the
variability OF the lunar crater of Linnaeus. and
that was in 1857. So have been working up
on this article for some forty-seven years
was not the only one at that time to hold
hat the moon was not yet dead, and since then
Webb. of England; William Pickering Of the
United States and Klein, of Germany, have
agreed with me, but they are the exceptions
Some even go so far as to say that the moon
never had air, water life.
The first classic affirmation that must he
disputed is that the moon has no atmosphere
This statement is founded upon calculation
by the great astronomer Bessel, which has to
be entirely recast. Inasmuch as when the
NOON by virtue of its own motion in the
heavens, is about TO pass a star, we may fix
the precise moment of the disappearance of
the star as well as the exact instant of its
temperance and so arrive at the duration of
the occultatIon. or hiding, of the star
On the other hand, we can determine abso-
lutely by calculation what line the star follows
behind the lunar disk during its occultation
and thence deduce the time which the moon
lakes to move forward in the heavens a dis.
lance TO that line. For during the eclipses OF
stars, II the rays of light were detected ever
so little by the refraction Of lunar atmos.
phere, in place of disappearing at the precise
instant of geometrical contact, the star would
remain visible sometime afterward, because
the rays would be infected by that atmos.
phere; by the same reasoning the star would
begin to reappear on the opposite side of the
lunar disk some time before the interposition
had completely ceased; the duration of the
occultation would necessarily be decreased in
this way.
About 1880, Bessel thought that he might
state that the diameter Of the moon figured
from the duration of the occultations differed
BY less than second of an arc of the diameter
directly measured. and that the rafractinn
produced o1 these occultations by = supposed