Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Marr Peopled by OneVarf Thinking Vegetable! ODD FACTS ABOUT MARS / W\ MARS is the fourth planet from the f XWi&Xrs sun, and the nearest to our / V earth. / -WwVk It is called the red planet, and its color / is thought to be due to vegetation. /. wSfr-TL Its size and density are less than ours, / ■/ W&fjjjfc and a man weighing 200 pounds here would / V— .. t ■WsML only weigh seventy-five pounds there. I ; Mars has atmosphere, seasons, land, I » water, storms, clouds and-mountains. I ■ only 3,700 miles away and revolves around V& it m sev . ..!>■;-• \'«L. ingstar. \W< ■ The day on Mars is half an hour longer \X' than ours, and its year contains 687 days. X''’’XX j -I Professor Lowell has counted 437 ” “canals” on Mars, and 186 "oases.” The ; ‘Sk. V-''ftS® canals vary in-length from 250 miles to vi . . 3,000 miles. V'' x 'Wp?w!k A man on Mars would be able to drive Wh„ /V . golf ball fifty miles. XI X ' The strength of a man on Mars would Wf? ? '• ’p-,® . he eighty-three times greater than on the | ■. •--^£r*V vW ’earth. ‘ The atmosphere of Mars consists principally of carbonic acid gas. WMw '' The water supply of Mars is very slender, and its utilization is the greatest X nroblem of life there. ~ -- I M\RS *s the nearest planet to ns. the one which we can -co the most plainly and the first one which we shall be able to visit when science makes a Journey beyond our atmosphere possible. Mars, moreover. Is proved by as tronomy to possess air atmosphere and to be capable of supporting life in some lorm. These tacts make it natural that scientists and writers should specu late upon the character of the life upon Mars. It must as yet be spec ulation, for our means of seeing only enable us to distinguish ob jects several miles ir extent upon the planet. Many interesting theories about the life of Mars have been put forward, but all of them have been open to some objection. Professor Percival Lowell, of the Flagstaff Observatory in Arizona, has argued that the so-called canals of Mars are vast engineering works, and con sequently that the inhabitants who built them were of great intellectual development. Tho scientific novel ist, H. G. Wells, has built an ex tremely interesting story on tho * . . ;:7T r ■•*.' ■F iJy wwJIUHIInMs ■ •///W ie2lL fs’y-A W JcWgOfil j* AtAvifi .g <--?<■ > 1 In I i ; . fV Li: pl ’ ' z WrßiiO fa J ■ wl W-p t iX. * Iw rt WwuwS'rWW * n H| E r-- i main. t»- ' FiWLUffra* 1 - »*■ The Martian Was Conceived by H. G. Wells to Be an Octopus- Like Creature Without Bonv Structure but Having a Highly Developed Intelligence. Drawing by H. Lanos. * . ■ ..■■.•■•- ■:• ; _ I basis that the Martians are octopns hke creatures, without bony struc ture. but possessed of highly devel oped brains A common assumption of many speculators has been that the Martians are extremely at tenuated creatures, because the slight pressure of gravity on the surface of the planet would favor this form. New a new and exceedingly Inter esting theory concerning the life on Mars has been put forward by Professor William Wallace Camp bell. of the great Lick Observatory, California. He suggests that, all life on Mars has taken a vegetable form. This theory Is one of the most Plausible that has boon put forward. It has the support of all the facts about Mars that have been acieniiticauy established and it avo.us many of the improbabilities involved in other theories on the same subject. Ihe vegetation theory rests pri marily on tho fact proved by spec- ‘ troscopic analysis that there is an enormous proportion of carbonic acid gas in the atmosphere of M Br , which would make animal nr • iip nr the kind known to the earth ex ceedingly u.amult, if not impossible, while it would greatly tavor the development of vegetation. Before considering this theory further, we must bear in mind a few of tlie proved facts about Mars. It has atmosphere, seasons, land, water, storms, clouds and moun tains. It also rains and snows on Mars, as it does with us. Great white patches appear periodically upon its surface. These may be accumulations of snow and they have also been called “eyes.” Their nature will be discussed later. When Mars approaches nearest to the earth it is seen to have a bright red color and sometimes looks like a red lamp in the sky. It has been suggested that the vegetation for the most part is yellow or orange instead of green, as with us, thus giving the planet its color. Mars has two moons, the near est of which is but 3.700 miles awav and revolves around the planet in seven hours and a half, showing all the phases of our moon in one night. The density an d sire of Mars »r- 1r« than those „f tl.n .or rno earth, and consequently a man who weighed 200 Pounds here would only weigh 7b pounds up there. Ihe r.tmos; here and moisture of Mars are very slight, and the in habitants. if there be any, must find life a dif ficult problem there. The water is confined entirely to the poles, where it is deposited annually in the form of a thin lawyer of snow or hoar frost, only to melt away again with the advent of Summer. Ages ago lite on Mars must have concentrated itself on the problem of devising some means whereby the melting water of the polar parts might be con ducted to tholb arid re gions of the temperate - wgfeS'/Z - mV *~ . . «77*<K* r wl Mj — — Ihe Pitcher Plant Devouring a Rat, an Instance of Plant Life, Possessing Animal Powers. and torrid zones, which would still blossom if water ed. Here we may ' note one of the strongest arguments in favor of the vegetation theory of life. Professor Lowell has argued that the canals of Mars, first discovered by Professor Schiaparelli, of Milan but long considered optical illusions by many astronomers, are the ir rigation works of the inhabitants. The canals are singularly artificial in appearance. They extend toward the equator from the poles and cover the planet like a fine, netting. Each canal is the shortest dis tance between two points and in variably runs to a point called “an oasis,” where it meets other canals not in haphazard fashion, but ac cording to some plan. The “canals” vary in length from 250 miles to over 3,000 miles, a length that is astonishing when it is considered that the diameter of Mars is only 4.220 miles. All told. Professor Lowell has plotted 437 of these canals and 186 oases. It was Professor Pick ering, a close associate of Professor Lowell, who first saw these oases The canals of Mars appear and disappear with the seasons. In other words they slowly creep down from the poles each Spring and slowly retreat with the approach of Winter. If the canals are artificial in origin, this phenomenon would appear to mean that the Martians are busily engaged in digging stu pendous canals, only to fill them up again every year. Professor Pickering ingeniously avoided this embarrassing conclu sion by pointing out that we see not the canals themselves, but the vegetation which fringes their banks and thus indicates their couise. Vegetation must grow be fore the canals are visible and must disappear before the canals vanish. Here we can see why the theory that all the life on Mars is vege tation is more probable than any other. Professor Pickering admits that the signs of life we see are vegetable, but suggests that they are the work of man like creature whom we cannot see. But we kno . an* ■I'M -,&< . '» •*.* I |b : jfe# dr Ss Miff- - .-'J iik < Interesting Theory of Prof. Campbell, S of Lick Observatory, That Explains the “Canals,” “Eyes,” and Other Puz-j Problems of Our Neighbor Planet tha. ft would be almost impossible for man-like creatures to live there. It is most likely then that vegeta tion is the only life. From our knowledge of life on the earth, it is quite k conceivable that the highest type of in pX telligence might dwell in a plant, as gjgSft plants that we know KgSS-, possess more or less jjSS intelligence, and the ggjjS fact that they may TBgart not possess the high- est kind is due to vw* 4 conditions on the earth which do not W exist on Mars. The original germ of life on earth was neither animal nor vegetable. Many stages of develop ment passed before u the two forms of life j'y became separated. Low in the scale of ” fe we now see many forms of which it cannot be said posl ■\---V 5 - tively that they are X..-- •-. X •.. X. .• ‘X XX •- -ji*- Ax.vk. ; IB ■■XSJIi ■ X Art ■ - ’'X * '' ‘ - Brt-rtikx S ■■ X' ’Sk rt <■ i ■rt . .’■'•• ■ ■ ;.. • .. - •* ' -.-■ ' 1 ” ; 7.7,’/xj-X’-‘tr*, - 1 ...' ... ' '-- rs..;; 1 > ’’ " I 7; •-rt-X-x-'-?■ i / -.i “A vast eye, upon a tenuous, flex- I , ■ rt ■ -7 ' 7 r Jw“H iblc, transparent neck raises it- UXJFIi A \ \ •®||| self high above the surface of i ! ''•-prt r- 4 rail Mars and can watch the growth i ./• , ofitß . ve ß etobl f ebo » yuponany - part of the surface. x 71,6 Sma , n D* a s ra ™ B ' io . w trate the Operation of the plan- > HilL X/jJ etaryeye. antmai or vegetable. When disease bac teria were first op served it was be lieved that they were animal, but now the prevailing view is that they are vege table. Yet they pos sess the power of mo tion generally char acteristic of anima.s One of the great differences between plants and animals is that the former have not a brain and nervous system, which can be com pared to tit at of the latter. The life of the plant resides in Its •separate cells and they are only held *■> get iter by their jux taposition to one an other and not con trolled by a central system. ■. <> : x V M ■ j:' Wk ; ft But there are some plants on earth which do possess a kind of nervous system, and it is quite reasonable to believe that they ■would have developed an intelli gence at least equal to that of man if conditions had been favorable. Such conditions have prevailed on Mars. Chief among th-m is an at mosphere very favorable to plant life and very unfavorable to animal life. There are on the earth many carnivorous plants which though unmistakably vegetable in form pos sess many of the powers of animals. These plants include the butcher plant, pitcher plant, the sundew, the butter w-ort and many other forms. They range from plants that eat insects to those that are capable of devouring birds and small mammals. The pitcher plant, for instance, has a heavy flesh leaf ten inches long. With the spiked point of the leaf it strikes a rat, numbing it with the poison it contains. Then the leaf folds over the animal and it is absorbed into the body of the plant and digested. Other plants, such as the spider- . .. .... . - * wort, possess eyes, which enable it to turn toward the sunlight. These eyes bear a close resemblance to human eyes and it has been proved by photography that they receive in.... es of objects which lie in their range of vision. These facts indicate the possi bilities of vegetable intelligence. Ages ago, according to the newly advanced theory, all life on Mars took the vegetable form. Animal races then existing were con sciously or unconsciously absorbed into the vegetable races. The vegetable life, possessed of true intelligence, then evolved into one organic whole in order to ob tain the greatest, advantage from the limited means of sustenance. Life on Mars is now one vast in tellect supported by a vegetable body having its roots in the soil. Such a conception of life ■'sembles the vast being into ”’hich the Budd hists say all mon will be absorbed. As the Hummer comes on the huge being on Mars stretches its body over the planet, growing I®. bright orange colored forms. As the heat departs these forms die down and hide their life in the soil till the following season. This pro- ’ duces the appearance of “canalM to us. The reason these canals have such a regular form is that th® vegetation follows the lines of reg«p ular cracks which occurred in the crust of Mars when it was drying up. The vast Intellect of Mars is oo| cupied with the problems of gain* - ing subsistence from the dyln®R planet and then with of the boundless universe that lies'" within its sight. The white spot which we some times see on Mars is not a pile snow, but really an “eye.” Sup. ported on a tenuous flexible trans. parent column, it can raise itself miles above the surface of tha planet and watch the operations of its vegetable body at any point That the movements of this plan, etary eye should have escaped ob servation from the eye is not sufr prising. The canals on Mars hav» only been seen by a few astrono mers, and many excellent scientist® __ I- denied their existence for years after they were first observed. They continued to do so until photographs were taken of the canals. The shifting of the “eye” on Mars, al ready observed by our telescopes, may very possibly have been due to a movement on a transparent neck, as described here, tho neck itself not being visible. . The “eye” exercises the functions I of watching climatic conditions all over its vegetable body, of sending I help to parts in need and of con veying external impressions to the great central intelligence. This vegetable body possesses the power of distributing strength to its vari ous parts and of devising new means of extracting nourishment from the soil and atmosphere. When not engaged in watching the physical condition of its body, the great “eye” makes observations of the earth, sun planets, stars and the whole universe. From its vast side it is able to sea more and farther than all the telescopes of our earth 1 it together,