16b' LOWELL — SUPPOSED SIGNALS FROM MARS. [Dec. 6, 



Mr. Percival Lowell, of Flagstaff, Arizona, read a paper on 

 ' ' Explanation of the Supposed Signals from Mars of Decem- 

 ber 7 and 8, 1900." 



The following annual reports were read : — 



The report of the Treasurer. 



The report of the Curators. 



The report of the Hall Committee. 



The report of the Publication Committee. 



The report of the Library Committee. 



The meeting was adjourned by the presiding officer. 



EXPLANATION OF THE SUPPOSED SIGNALS FROM 

 MARS OF DECEMBER 7 AND 8, 1900. 



BY PERCIVAL LOWELL. 



{Head December 6, 1901.) 



1. On a certain morning in December, 1900, paragraphs appeared 

 in the papers throughout the United States with the startling an- 

 nouncement that Mars had been signaling the Earth the night 

 before. Lights, it was reported, had suddenly shone out upon the 

 surface of the planet, lasted for a time and then vanished. What 

 the signals meant was not so forthcoming. Vividness of headline 

 made up for meagreness of news. 



Interest was not confined to the United States. Reportorial 

 inquisitiveness was as rife in the Old World as in the New, and 

 Europe was behind America in the receipt of the message only the 

 time necessary for its transmittal. 



2. To broaden one's horizon is a good thing; and to broaden it 

 beyond the bounds where horizon itself disappears, a still better 

 one. But the broadening is apt to come not in a way we expect, 

 and to prove the more broadening for that reason. I hope, there- 

 fore, not seriously to lessen interest in the phenomena by saying 

 that they were certainly not what they were popularly taken to be, 

 and were with equal certainty much which was not supposed and is 

 quite as interesting. 



The innocent cause of the misrepresentation was a dispatch sent 



