El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-12-02
In the Heavens Are Shown
Abundant Evidence of the
Evolution Theory.
PROF. s. ALFRED MITCHELL.
Director observatory University of

Director observatory University Of
Virginia.
~ y one OF the cool crisp evenings
that come at this season OF the
year. we see the heavens spark
ling with countless gems Of light, ap-
parently millions in number Indeed,
most people believe that it would be
absolutely impossible TO count all the
stars that can be seen with the naked
eye; and throughout all ages Of the
worlds literature. the terms number
less as the sands Of the sea shore.
and countless as the stars" have been
regarded as synonymous but TO De
like the stars in number. would not
necessitate a very great number II
one refers IN that. 10 the stars that
may be seen with the naked eye As
a matter OF fact. we could not count
these stars up into the millions. nor
even TO hundreds Of thousands. nor yet
TO tens of thousands At any one time
only three thousand stars can De seen
without a telescope by any observer
and in the whole heavens, there are
less than six thousand stars that may
be seen with the naked eye
Even with small telescope, the
light gathered to fall on the retina- Of
the eye is many times that which
falls on the Hnaided eye, and as a con-
sequence many more stars are revealed
With greater and greater telescopes,
there are brought to our ken. fainter
and fainter Strange as il may
seem. moderate sized photo
graphic telescope with the mod
ern sensitive plate can portray
stars and nebulae which are too faint
10 be seen by the keen eye OF the as
tronomer, using even the great 40 inch
Yerkes telescope Il has been esti-
mated that the Photographic plate has
revealed no less than one hundred mil
by its own light and is, consequently.
a sun How would our own sun com
pare IN size and brilliancy with one OF
these distant orbs of light Do some
of these suns have planets circling
about them2 Do any of these planets
(if there are SUCH resemble our own
earth? Are they inhabited2 These are
Interesting questions that we can par
The Darwinian Theory.
The Darwinian theory Of evolution
explains the gradual development Of
life on this mundane sphere OF OURS.
In the heavens. We see abundant evil
dences Of evolution. changes going on
with majestic slowness, through cons
Of time. In the evolution OF these
hundreds of millions Of other suns. II
does not seem impossible for some to
have developed like our own sun. nor
does il seem unthink able for some OF
the planets belonging to these solar
systems TO be inhabited Different en-
Flronment would nave mace men on
these planets different from the aver
age American, but none the less they
may be human beings. It SENS hardly
likely that the vast universe was made
solely for our pleasure. with stars and
other systems serving no other useful
purpose than being mere points of
light in the sky.
To compare the brilliancy of our
own sun with others, we must know
the relative distances and their re1a
tive brightness. The brightest fired
star IN the heavens is the brilliant dog
star Sirius. which is found low down
10 the southeast in the early evening
The astronomer keeps track Of the