The Possibility of Life in Mars

Abstract

AT the risk of being thought by your correspondent, Mr. C. O. Bartrum, an “anthropomorphist”, I consider that Prof. Lowell in his admirable investigations of the markings of Mars is quite reasonable in ascribing the change of colour to the presence of a vegetation containing a substance allied to, if not identical with, chlorophyll. I do so because the spectroscope has shown that, not only the solar system, but the whole universe, is built up of inorganic elements similar to those found on the earth. If we find unity of plan pervading the structure of the most distant stars, surely it is not beyond credibility to assume that the organic worlds may have a like relationship to each other when other circumstances are favourable.