860 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 752 



3. Now in regard to life on Mars, it is 

 sufficient to say that Professor Neweomb has 

 justly remarked that the physical conditions 

 on that planet are very similar to those pre- 

 vailing in the Himalayas of Central Asia. 

 But even the tableland of Tibet is inhab- 

 ited, and maintains a respectable civilization. 

 As LoweU has proved that there are water 

 and clouds on Mars, and the polar snows 

 melt and disappear with the advance of the 

 summer seasons on that planet, why may 

 there not be life there as well as here? Of 

 course there is life on Mars ; there is no doubt 

 about it. But I am not prepared to say how 

 far advanced the creatures on Mars may be; 

 neither am I narrow enough to deny the 

 possibility of their high development. 



Perhaps it wiU interest Professor Black- 

 welder and others to know that I have just 

 sent to the Astronomische Nachrichten and to 

 the American Philosophical Society extracts 

 from a letter of Euler, written in 1Y49, and 

 published in the Philosophical Transactions 

 of the Eoyal Society, before the cosmogonic 

 theories of Kant (1755) and Laplace (1796) 

 were put forward, in which the great Swiss 

 mathematician, then residing at Berlin, even 

 went so far as to say that the planets had 

 gradually neared the sun from a great dis- 

 tance — ^thus implying that the earliest life 

 originated on these bodies in the depths of 

 space, before they came anything like so near 

 the sun as they now are. Arrhenius holds 

 a similar view to-day, and even thinks that 

 life is carried by germs from one world to 

 another.' In the work now in press, it is 

 shown, on new grounds, that all the fixed 

 stars are attended by systems of planets. Is 

 Professor Blackwelder prepared to claim that 

 all these billions of worlds are uninhabited? 

 If not, why is he so unreasonable about the 

 habitabUity of Mars ? Lowell's view that there 

 is life in the other worlds is sure to triumph, 

 and we had as well come to it one time as 

 another. 



4. Professor Blackwelder is sure that Lowell 

 is working for "a certain notoriety and a 

 brief but undeserved credence for his pet 

 theories." Let us, in common fairness, have 



»Cf. "Worlds in the Making," Harper's, 1908. 



no assignment of motives. These are seldom 

 known in any man, either by himself or by 

 others. If Professor Blackwelder is as candid 

 as he wishes others to be, he wiU now come 

 forward and say that there is much yet to be 

 learned in every branch of science, including 

 geology, and about contemporary scientific in- 

 vestigators as well, and that according to the 

 best ethics, every tree must be judged by its 

 fruit. 



Lowell has maintained for fifteen years a 

 magnificent observatory, which has carried 

 on valuable work on Mars, and the other plan- 

 ets and satellites ; on double stars, both visual 

 and spectroscopic; on the spectra of the outer 

 planets; on comets and meteoric phenomena; 

 on meteorology as related to the best sites for 

 observatories; and on many other topics. He 

 has given many young astronomers a chance 

 to do good independent work, and the results 

 obtained are highly valued throughout the 

 world. "What has Professor Blackwelder done 

 in comparison ? And is he the one to say that 

 censure can not be too severe upon one who 

 has deserved so well of American men of sci- 

 ence as Professor LoweU has done? Let the 

 stiU voice of conscience answer! Emerson 

 says that alone all men are conscientious. If 

 so, we shall have a little more toleration, and 

 fair dealing, and less of this clique and faction 

 business, by which a man who is not in the ring 

 never can get justice or fair consideration. 

 Of all the evils which afflict American science 

 to-day the wide-spread tendency to partizan- 

 ehip and factionism and the resulting total 

 disregard of the ultimate interests of truth, is 

 undeniably the worst. As the truth is difficult 

 to discover, and in the end wiU be found only 

 among the errors of the wise, it is clear that 

 every cause must be heard, and we must pre- 

 serve a tolerant and open-minded attitude 

 towards all contemporary work. Recent revo- 

 lutions in aU branches of science have been so 

 great that no man knows, and no honest man 

 will attempt to predict, what a day may bring 

 forth, 



T. J. J. See 



U. S. Naval Obsebvatobt, 

 Maee Island, Cat.tfobnia, 

 April 30, 1909 



