VENUS, MARS, AND OTHER WORLDS ABBOT. 171 



moon, the popular apathy would naturally be changed to the most 

 lively interest. 1 



It will be recalled that a good deal of discussion has appeared in 

 the press as to the possibility of communicating vrith other planets 

 by wireless telegraphy and even accompanied by the suggestion that 

 we are already receiving wireless signals from intelligent beings 

 outside of the earth which may in time be interpretable. The best 

 information seems to be that the wireless indications referred to are 

 merely disturbances introduced by solar or terrestrial causes as yet 

 imperfectly understood and not the work of intelligent beings trying 

 to communicate with us. At the same time, computations have been 

 published which seem to make it within the limits of possibility that 

 wireless communications might be exchanged with the nearer planets, 

 if it were worth while to do so, although at immense cost. 



Proposals have also been made from time to time of communi- 

 cating by searchlights or mirrors in the ordinary methods of helio- 

 graphing. To me, these latter proposals seem altogether too san- 

 guine. Certainly for a planet like Venus which is almost wholly 

 covered by fogs the chance of a beam of sunlight or a searchlight 

 beam penetrating to the surface where it could be observed by the 

 supposed inhabitants, notwithstanding the glare of their own atmos- 

 phere and the glare of the whole relatively immense surface of the 

 earth as compared to the surface of the reflectors or searchlights 

 employed, is quite beyond probability. If it were a case of com- 

 municating with the moon, there would be little doubt but that it 

 could be accomplished. If it were Mars or one of the still more 

 distant planets that was being considered, there seems to be not the 

 slightest probability of success by the use of lights. So far as we 

 know, then, any communications which can be made with other in- 

 telligent beings, if there are any, must be by means of wireless teleg- 

 raphy or some as yet undiscovered means of communication. 



If we could talk freely with intelligences existing on another 

 world, having a history, social customs and laws, and religious faiths 

 developed absolutely independently from those of this world our 

 conversation would be not only one of surpassing interest to science 

 and the humanities, but what a guide it might prove to statesmen and 

 sociologists ! 



1 As this paper is in press private advices come that St. John's spectroscopic studies 

 of Venus throw doubt on the existence of water vapor there. If this is confirmed the 

 habitability of Venus would seem highly improbable. It is difficult, bowever, to under- 

 stand the high reflecting power of the planet if clouds are absent, and we must await 

 further information. 



