910 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 678 



expression, a cow does about a new gate. But 

 like all sciolists lie is absolutely cocksure in 

 his views, especially when settling for all time 

 a great religious or moral problem. Young 

 students, we are told, as they see him strut- 

 ting across the museum campus are wont to 

 recite Goethe's famous lines: 



Wlio's tliat stiflF and pompous man? 



He walks with haughty paces, 

 He snuffles all he snuffle can. 



He scents the Jesuit's traces. 



Referring to a certain form of parasitism 

 he writes : " It is not confined to ants and 

 other social insects, but has analogies also in 

 human societies (trusts, grafters, criminal 

 and ecclesiastical organizations)," etc. Eccle- 

 siastical organizations are classified with 

 trusts, grafters and criminal hordes ! Whither 

 are we drifting in America, when a pigmy 

 scientist can dare to write thus in a m.agazine 

 that is widely read even by Catholics? Did 

 not Voltaire and the Encyclopedists by wri- 

 ting cheap science in the nastiest form, like 

 Wheeler, undermine Christianity in France? 

 And if the Catholic body in this country 

 supinely submits to be traduced and cari- 

 catured by every addle-pated scientist who, 

 by pull and lobbying, lands himself in a posi- 

 tion for- which he has no visible qualifications, 

 the enemies of religion, encouraged by such 

 impunity, will redouble their efforts to sup- 

 plant the kingdom of God by the Worship of 

 Mammon and materialism. 



Is the Catholic Church a parasite in the 

 United States? Th§n Marquette was a para- 

 site in Illinois. Who was a greater benefactor 

 of our sovereign state than he? Prom the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific and from Alaska to 

 the Gu,lf, almost every county has its shrine 

 that coinmemorates the heroic sacrifices and 

 the imperishable services of priests to civiliza- 

 tion and the commonwealth. Was Archbishop 

 Carroll of Baltimore, the great patriot and 

 the intimate friend of Washington, a parasite, 

 or Archbishop Hughes, Lincoln's friend and 

 ambassador to Europe, a parasite? Were the 

 sisters of our religious communities, who min- 

 istered during the civil war to the boys in 

 gray and to the boys in blue with the undis- 



criminating catholicity of their devoted hearts, 

 parasites? Is the Catholic Church in Chi- 

 cago at the present hour, educating as it does 

 100,000 children, thus saving the city more 

 than $3,000,000 annually, parasitical? But 

 what does Wheeler care about all these striking 

 facts, these sublime spiritual achievements 

 compared with the gyrations of a queen bee 

 or the evacuatipns of a Formica rufescens? 



The Popular Science Monthly has long been 

 a peril to Catholic faith and morals. We 

 know Catholic homes in which the faith has 

 been blunted in boys and girls under twenty 

 years of age through contact with that shallow 

 organ of materialistic evolution. Catholic 

 fathers and mothers would never place it 

 within reach of their offspring did they know 

 the deadly moral poison that pervades many 

 of its pages. — The New World. 



ASTRONOMICAL NOTES 



THE PLANET MAES 



Discussion as to the conditions for intelli- 

 gent life on Mars continues to hold the atten- 

 tion of the public. Many of the magazine* 

 and daily papers have contained articles on 

 the subject. Professor Percival Lowell is the 

 central figure in this discussion. He holds 

 the center of the stage not less for the bril- 

 liant manner in which he has presented his 

 views to the public, than for the enthusiasm 

 and skill with which he has carried on his 

 observations. 



The recent Lowell expedition to South 

 America, under the direction of Professor 

 Todd, well known for his extended travels in 

 search of the eclipsed Sun, has added to the 

 general interest. A site was selected on the 

 desert pampa, at a moderate elevation, near 

 Iquique, Chile, where the conditions were 

 found to be exceptionally favorable. Mars, 

 when on the meridian, was within a few de- 

 grees of the zenith. Special effort appears to 

 have been made to keep the public informed 

 of the details of the expedition, and the an- 

 nouncement was early made that photographs 

 had been obtained showing the canals double. 



What may be regarded as the human side of 

 the problem undoubtedly appeals strongly to 



