THE MEN OF MAKS.

Evening Star, Volume 11221, Issue 11221, 21 April 1900, Page 2

THE MEN OF MAKS.

Professor K. A. Gregory makes himself re* sponsible in tbe current number of the ‘National Review ’ for some remarkable statemonte and suggestions as to the physical conditions which prevail on the planet Mors. In dealing with the poßsiblO'fom»-of >life on that .sphere, thVwriter says it is impossible to resist the thought that it has inhabitants. That, is by no means equivalent to saying -that ■Martian folk are constituted in the same way as humanbeings are. Indeed, every consideration points to the contrary. What; ever atmosphere exists on Mars muit be much thinner than ours, and far too rare to sustain the life of any people with our limited lung capacity. A race with immense chests could live under such conditions, or a folk with gills like fishes might pass a comfortable existence in spite of the rarefied air. The charabler of life anywhere, in fact, is moulded by external Circumstances, and as these fcfls known to be different on Mars from what they are ; on the earth, Martian inhabitants must have developed peculiar characteristics, in. order to adapt them to their environments—the forms of life capable of flourishing hi attenuated air having survived, while those requiring a denser air have dropped out of existence. •

The tenuity,of the atmosphere of Mars is not the only fact, which suggests that the inhabitants of that planet arc 1 fashioned differently to terrestrial men. It is known beyond the possibility of a doubt that" the force with which a substance is attracted to the surface of Mars is hut little more than < a third os strong as it is on the earth, or, to express the point in figures, 1001b on the earth would only he 381b on Mars if tested in a spring balance. In consequence of this weaker pull it would bo possible for a human being, if he found himself on Mars, to perform astonishing feats without excessive muscular exertion. For instance, a man who could jump sft on earth would top 15ft on Mars;.' ho could lift-3owt with tho same strength needed to raise lowt here; he could spring across the road as. easily as he steps over a mud puddle; while a couple of hounds would carry him to the top of an ordinary flight of stairs. Biff paradoxical as it-may Mom, the smaller a. .planet, and, consequently p,ho lees pull of gravity , on. its surface, the’ grfeater is the possibility that its inhabitants are giants compared with, ourselves. Terrestrial .giants are generally weak in the knees—being-oppressed by their own weight—but on Mars they would only weigh one-third as much, and would consequently be able to move about in a sprightly fashion, so that a Martian elephant might he quite a nimble animal. It is computed that to place the Martians under tho same conditions as those in which wo exist- tho average inhabitant must bo considered three-times as large as the average human being, while the strength of the Mars folk must exceed ours to an even greater extent than the bulk anji weight, for their muscles would be twenty-seven times more effective. When this fact is considered in conjunction with the decreased weight of bodies on that planet it is easy id' see that one Martian could do as much work ns fifty or sixty men on earth. A coal heaver on Mars could therefore carry two and tt-half tons with ns little fatigue as his earthly prototype could shoulder lewt, and a navvy digging one of the canals of Miirs could throw out such an enor- t mous spadeful of soil as would go far to equal the out turn of tho earthly excavator for tho entire day. ■ '