CONDITIONS OF HABITABILITY OP A PLANET. 



99 



that there were few facts to satisfy that desire. Mr. Matthews 

 asked whether there might not be to many of the stars planets that 

 we cannot see and know nothing about, and whether there might 

 not be life upon these. Perhaps so, but as we know nothing about 

 them we cannot discuss the conditions of life there. It was again 

 inquired whether some liquid other than water might not form the 

 basis of life on some other worlds. But we find water admirably 

 fitted for its purpose on this world; and we know of no other 

 liquid that could take its place. If some other liquid could better 

 fulfil the functions performed by water we might reasonably ask 

 why that liquid has not fulfilled that purpose here. Such an 

 assumption would imply, moreover, a faulty design in the creation 

 of the Earth. It is probable that at one portion of the year on 

 Mars, the edge of the ice-cap is more plentifully supplied with 

 water than any other part of the planet, but for a period longer 

 than an entire terrestrial year that region is in total darkness and 

 exposed to the cold of space. It is far less likely to be inhabited 

 than the equatorial regions. 



Mr. Bishop asked : Would you tell us whether you think the 

 other planets may be habitable in the future 1 



Mr. Maunder : That question, of course, leads us far into the 

 unknown, but the great difficulty in the case of the outer planets is 

 that they receive so little heat from the sun at the present time, 

 and no way by which that heat can be greatly increased in the future 

 is obvious to us at the present. My desire in pointing out how 

 stringent were the conditions for life as we see them to be here, 

 was not to call in question purpose and design in the formation of 

 other worlds, but to emphasize the evidence that we have of purpose 

 and design in the formation of this world. 



Communication from Rev. A. Irving, D.Sc, B.A. : — 



Being unable to attend the Meeting on January 22nd, I beg to 

 offer one or two remarks upon this very able paper. I greatly 

 appreciate this closely reasoned paper from an expert in Astro- 

 nomical Science. It is to be hoped that it may be the prelude to 

 a more sane and sober way of dealing with matters of which we 

 have no positive knowledge ; and I think we may go entirely with 

 the author in his conclusions as to the limits of possibility of 

 the " habitability " (as he has defined the word) of either the 

 innermost planet, Mercury, or the four great outer planets of our 



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