December 7, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



719 



ments. One finds in it an intense national 

 life and, at the same time, many interest- 

 ing evidences of the influence of several 

 different civilizations. Eleven different 

 languages are officially recognized by being 

 printed upon the paper money. 



0. H. TiTTMANN, 



John F. Hayford. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Mais and its Mystery. By Edward L. Morse. 

 Boston, Little, Brown and Company. 8vo. 

 Pp. 192. 



This book is distinctly a plea for the exist- 

 ence of intelligent inhabitants upon our sister 

 planet, the argument being based largely on 

 the observations of Professor Lowell at Flag- 

 staff, Arizona. The author begins by point- 

 ing out that because a man is an astronomer, 

 this fact by no means qualifies him to act as a 

 judge upon a question of this sort. It is 

 doubtless true that astronomers as a rule 

 know little of the appearance of the surface 

 of Mars, and but few of them have ever seen 

 it under favorable conditions. Nevertheless, 

 it must be admitted that a man who is 

 familiar with the difficulties of telescopic ob- 

 servations, under varying atmospheric condi- 

 tions, would be a better judge of the value of 

 telescopic evidence than one who had never 

 looked through a telescope, and took it for 

 granted that the planet looked exactly as it 

 is drawn on paper. 



A large part of the book is devoted to an 

 .examination of the views of various astron- 

 omers and amateurs as to the interpretation 

 of the various markings seen upon the planet's 

 surface. The book is marred in one or two 

 places by a rather savage personal attack upon 

 a British astronomer in good standing, partly, 

 apparently, on account of his religious con- 

 victions! Considerable attention is paid to 

 the appearance of various systems of natural 

 cracks, such as appear in pottery, dried mud, 

 and the surface of the moon. Two interesting 

 plates are given, in which these are compared 

 with maps of railway systems, canals, and the 

 markings upon Mars. The argument is 

 drawn that the last look, and are distributed. 



much more like the artificial than like the 

 natural lines. Whether such is the case or 

 not, the critic will be likely to ask "But 

 would the markings on Mars, if we could see 

 them well, really resemble the drawings that 

 Professor Morse publishes of them ? " This is 

 the very crux of the whole question, and until 

 this has been definitely decided, most astron- 

 omers will consider the existence there of in- 

 telligent inhabitants as unproved, although 

 perhaps not impossible. 



The main and generally accepted facts re- 

 lating to the planet's surface are briefly stated, 

 and are followed by an interesting and rather 

 amusing account of the author's own difficul- 

 ties in seeing even the well-known and most 

 clearly defined markings of the planet. He 

 certainly had much more difficulty than would 

 have been expected, considering the careful 

 training of his eye in his own professional 

 work. 



One of the most interesting chapters of the 

 book is that devoted to the discussion of the 

 variety of conditions under which life exists 

 upon the earth. Here our author is more 

 nearly on his own ground, and states a num- 

 ber of interesting facts, many of which it is 

 safe to say will be new to the majority of his 

 readers. Prom them he argues that the 

 slightly dissimilar physical conditions that 

 exist upon Mars would not interfere with the 

 existence there of life in some of its various 

 forms, such as we know it upon the earth. 



In closing, it may be said that the book is 

 interesting, and well worth reading to all those 

 who wish to learn the opinions of various 

 authorities on the most fascinating of all the 

 planets. William H. Pickering. 



Habvaed College Observatoky. 



First Course in Zoology. A text-book for 

 secondary schools, normal schools and col- 

 leges. By Thomas Walton Galloway, 

 Ph.D., Professor of Biology in James Mil- 

 likin University. P. Blakiston's Son and 

 Company. 



This book adds another to the list of text- 

 books in zoology, of an elementary nature, 

 which have appeared within the past half 

 dozen years, and is indicative of the growth 



