World 

 Worms 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



764 



3778. WORLD WITHOUT AN AT- 

 MOSPHERE Effects of Rarefied AirOppo- 

 sites Unite The Sun's Rays Burn amid Win- 

 try Cold. [The investigator cannot go to 

 the moon] ; but he may go if he pleases, as 

 I have done, to the waterless, shadeless 

 waste which stretches at the , eastern slope 

 of the Sierra Nevadas. . . . The sky is 

 cloudless, and the air so clear that all idea 

 of the real distance and size of things is 

 lost. The mountains, which rise in tre- 

 mendous precipices above him, seem like 

 moss-covered rocks close at hand, on the 

 tops of which, here and there, a white cloth 

 has been dropped ; but the " moss " is great, 

 primeval forests, and the white cloths large 

 isolated snow-fields, tantalizing the dweller 

 in the burning desert with their delusive 

 nearness. When I climbed the mountains, 

 at an altitude of ten thousand feet I already 

 found the coolness delicious, but at the same 

 time (by the strange effect I have been 

 speaking of) the skin began to burn, as tho 

 the seasoning in the desert counted for noth- 

 ing at all; and as the air grew thinner and 

 thinner while I mounted .still higher and 

 higher, tho the thermometer fell, every 

 part of the person exposed to the solar rays 

 presented the appearance of a recent severe 

 burn from an actual fire and a really se- 

 vere burn it was, as I can testify and yet 

 all the while around us, under this burning 

 sun and cloudless sky, reigned a perpetual 

 winter which made it hard to believe that 

 torrid summer still lay below. The thinner 

 the air, then, the colder it grows, even where 

 we are exposed to the sun, and the lower 

 becomes the reading of the thermometer. 

 Now, by means of suitable apparatus, it 

 was sought by the writer to determine, while 

 at this elevation of fifteen thousand feet, 

 how great the fall of temperature would be 

 if the thin air there could be removed alto- 

 gether; and the result was that the ther- 

 mometer would under such circumstances 

 fall, at any rate, below zero in the full sun- 

 shine. LANGLEY New Astronomy, ch. 5, p. 

 160. (H. M. & Co., 1896.) 



3779. WORLDS ALWAYS IN THE 

 LIGHT Every Star a Sun "There Shall Be 

 No Night There" (Rev. xxi, 25; xxii, 

 5). We can . . . form some idea of 

 the wonderful scene presented to the in- 

 habitants of such a world [circling round 

 one sun of a star-cluster], because in real- 

 ity it is no other than that which would 

 be presented to ourselves if all the stars 

 seen on the darkest and clearest night were 

 to grow suddenly in luster until the faint- 

 est shone with light enough alone to banish 

 night. The wonderful scene thus presented 

 must be carried round by a stately motion 

 of rotation precisely as happens with our 

 own star sphere. Suns must be always 

 rising and always setting, only the magnifi- 

 cent colors which adorn our skies at sun- 

 rise and sunset must be wanting there, ban- 

 ished by the excess of splendor. It is mani- 



fest that, at least when the sky is clear, 

 there can be no shadows in the landscapes 

 on those distant worlds, since every quarter 

 of the sky must have its suns. When the 

 sky is partially clouded there will be shad- 

 ows, tho not well-defined shadows such as 

 we recognize, but rather the lightest possi- 

 ble shade on those sides of objects which 

 lie towards the clouded portion of the sky. 

 PROCTOR Expanse of Heaven, p. 217. (L. 

 G. & Co., 1897.) 



3780. 



Night Unknown 



to Dwellers amid Star-clusters, I have spo- 

 ken thus far of but two stars out of the 

 thousands on thousands composing the star- 

 cluster. All these thousands would shine 

 with a brightness enormously exceeding that 

 of any of the stars we see, and many hun- 

 dreds among them would appear as suns, 

 smaller than the two nearest suns before 

 considered, but bright enough with their 

 sole luster to banish night. 



It follows, then, that to a globe placed 

 as we have supposed, and traveling around 

 one or other of the suns composing the clus- 

 ter, night would be absolutely unknown. 

 There would be different degrees of daylight, 

 from the broadest day on the part of the 

 globe turned fully towards the nearest sun, 

 to a less brilliant day on the opposite part 

 turned to other suns, but always day, often 

 very much brighter than our summer noon, 

 and seldom fainter, since the number of suns 

 would make up for the comparative small- 

 ness of each. PROCTOR Expanse of Heaven, 

 p. 209. (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



3781. WORLDS, OTHER, MAY BE IN- 

 HABITED Conditions of Life on Mars 

 Supposed Inhabitants. Such is the general 

 physiology of this neighboring planet [Mars] . 

 The atmosphere which surrounds it, the wa- 

 ters which irrigate and fertilize it, the rays 

 of the sun which warm and illuminate it, the 

 winds which pass over it from one pole to 

 the other, the seasons which transform it, 

 are so many elements from which to con- 

 struct for it an order of life analogous t 

 that which has been conferred on our planet. 

 The weakness of gravity at its surface must 

 materially modify this order of life in adapt- 

 ing it to its special condition. Henceforth 

 the globe of Mars should no longer be pre- 

 sented to us as a block of stone revolving 

 in the midst of the void, in the sling of the 

 solar attraction, like an inert, sterile, and 

 inanimate mass; but we should see in it a 

 living world, adorned with landscapes simi- 

 lar to those which charm us in terrestrial 

 Nature; a new world which no Columbus 

 will ever reach, but on which, doubtless, a 

 human race now resides, works, thinks, and 

 meditates as we do on the great and mys- 

 sterious problems of Nature. These un- 

 known brothers are not spirits without 

 bodies, or bodies without spirits, beings 

 supernatural or extranatural, but active 

 beings, thinking, reasoning as we do here. 



