Year: 1874

That Luminary Not Inhabited-SOm


Interesting specuIatiOns.


One of the most interesting of tn,


series of lectures now being delivered


by Prof Proctor in New York, was tina


on the moon. He said that in his lee


ture on the " Sun he mentioned thai


there were men in past times who wor


SHIPPED the sun. So, also, in past times


there were men who worshiped the


moon. 1t was noticed that she passed


rapidly over the heavens, and this CON


tinual motion suggested to the nations


of old the idea that she had power, and


that she was, SO to speak, a kind OF


goddess. Therefore men worshiped heI


on the principle of the Chaldeans, who


watched the radiant planets.


Her mass was only one-eightieth
part of the mass of the earth. Calico,
Studying the naoou with q telescope
three inches in diameter, recognized
the fact that she was covered with
mountains. He noticed that there were
many mountains of a circular kind,
and compared them to the eyes ON a
peacock's tail. He also noticed that
there was no sign of any water there.


The study of the moon progressed ;
irregularities of the surface that ap-
peared smooth were noticed and astron-
omers went on with the hope that they
might find signs that the moon might
be suitable place for living beings
But that was found to be impossible.


When Sir William Perschel's great
telescope was used signs of life were
recognized. Sir John Herschel took
one of his fathers great telescopes to
the Cape of Good Hope, and it was
then that the wonderful moon hoax
was perpetrated by compatriot of our
own, Richard A. Locke. It was strange
how people, even among the educated,
were "taken in by that. The story
was, however, we'll devised, notwith-
standing the ridicule which had been
cast upon it by Edgar Poe. We could
not wonder that no signs of habitation
had been discovered in the moon, be-
cause there appeared to be a want of
conditions which we found necessary for
life.


There appeared to be an excess of
heat at one time and an excess of cold at
another, and, so far as we could Judge,
an absence of any atmosphere what
ever. The moon, as she Grayersed in the
uCdNCuSS OD11bCldtCO a OUnA 4Ao0ct4A-
taneously from view, whereas we know
perfectly well that if our own earth
could be watched from the moon a con-
siderable time must elapse before a
like that could take
place. As the moon had no air, we
could show by the same process that it
had no water. It was almost impossi-
BILE for US, with our IDEAS of terrestrial
scenery, to picture any lunar scene, and
he therefore confined himself to a des-
cription of ring-shaped mountains which
we know to xist If there were inhab-
itants of the moon, they would never
be able to ascertain all the features that
the sun. All the more pal
pabIe features would be lost to sight In
the glow of sunlight surrounding the
dark body of the earth.


Although we might institute COM
parison between the features on the
moons surface and those on the surface
of the earth, there was no doubt that
many important differences existed 1t
might be that at one portion of oar his
tory the earth's surface was covered with
more craters than now. Many of the
features of the earth's crust
have disappeared from view, but never
theless he thought it would not be
by geologists that the earth's
surface resembled that of the moon.


In observing the moon we had almost
reached the limits that telescope appli-
ances admit of. Our great hope was
to have atelescope placed on a high part
of the earth where the atmosphere was
rarifed. So far as observations went
we had as yet no evidence of pro-
cess of change taking place in,,the moon.
her as an inhabited body, she
was unlike the earth. In The first place
she had no seasons, the change being
like that from the oath of September
to the Sd of October. For nearly fif-
teen days of our time there was day
light in the moon, and then for nearly
fifteen days there was night. During
that time the sun was pouring down his
rays without any atmosphere to shade
the lunarians. The heat of midday
there reached that of boiling water.
Then there was a rapid radiation of the
heat, and cold came on with more inten-
sity than any we are acquainted with,
and therefore the inhabitants of the
moon were exposed to alterations of
heat and cold in which no creatures of
the earth could live.


In the picture representing the null
titudinous craters of the moon we find
a problem of immense difficulty.
There was every sign that these craters
had been produced by some surface
such as bubblipgo or action
from without. The theory that the
moons atmosphere and oceans had all
become froz zen-one, by the way which
he formerly supported-was exploded.
The moon was not white, it. was more
nearly black, and he remembered Prof.
Tyndall telling him that if she was as
black as velvet she would still appear
white. Some parts of the moon were
much brighter than others, and it was
said that some parts ofwhat was known
IF it by tho name Copernicus were as
white as some of the white substances
known to us. The general light of the
moon was about equal to that of wealth
cred sandstone.


The theory that the surface had con-
;racted and that the oceans had been
brought into the interior of the planet
eft the absence of atmosphere unac-
counted for. He must confess that,
startling as the theory is, he had been
with the idea that the best
explanation of tie multitudinous era
5ers of the surface of the moon was
hat they were produced by downfall
IF large meteoric masses in some for
ner stage of our solar system-some
stage when that process of growth
which was now going on slowly was go
ing on rapidly.


A strange feature was that the moon
always showed the same face to the
earth, and that she rotated round the
earth in the same time as she revolved
IN her own axis. He conceived that
the moon came into being within the
extension of the earth's original sub
the earth was vaporous,
md when her substance extended be-
yond the moon aud then she partook
Of the rotation of the nebulOus mass
put of which the earth was formed
and she was formed in that way when
oatt of her face was toward the earth,
and that then the action of the earth
kept her in that position. In his con-
Guiding remarks the lecturer said that
astronomy was the ouly science which
seemed to point to a beginning and to
an end-if not the end of material
space, still of the system of which this
earth forms part.