Is Mars Habitable?: A Critical Examination of Professor Percival Lowell's Book Mars and Its Canals, With an Alternative Explanation (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Davies, W. W. Russel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1451020082 ISBN 13: 9781451020083

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2011

Synopsis

PREFACE. THIS small volume was commenced as a review article on Professor Percival Lowell's book, Mars and its Canals, wi th the object of showing that the large amount of new and interesting facts contained in this work did not invalidate the conclusion I had reached in 1902, and stated in my book on Man's Place in th~ Universe, that Mars was not habitable. But the more complete presentation of the opposite view in the volume now under discussion required a more detailed examination of the various physical problems involved, and as the subject is one of great, popular, as well as scientific interest, I determined to undertake the task. This was rendered the more necessary by the fact that in July last Professor Lowell published in the Philosophical Magazine an elaborate mathematical article claiming to demonstrate that, nQtwithstanding its much greater distance from the sun and its excessively thin atmosphere, Mars possessed a climate on the average equal to th

Table of Contents

EARLY OBSERVERS OF MARS, I; Mars the only planet the surface of which is distinctly; visible-Early observation of the snow-caps and seasThe; 'canals' seen by Schiaparelli in I877-Double; canals first seen in I88I-Round spots at intersection; of canals seen by Pickering in I892-Confirmed by; Lowell in I 894--Changes of colour seen in 1892 and; 1894--Existence of seas doubted by Pickering and; Barnard in 1894; CHAPTER II; MR LOWELL'S DISCOVERIES AND THEORIES, 7; Observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona-Illustrated book on; his observations of Mars-Volume on Mars and its; canals, 1906-Non-natural features-The canals as; irrigation works of an intelligent race-A challenge to; the thinking world-The canals as described and; mapped by Mr Lowell-The double callaIs-Dimensions; of the canals-They cross the supposed seasCircular; black spots termed oas

About this title

About the Author:

Jane R. Camerini is a faculty associate in the department of the History of Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

About this edition

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1451020082
• ISBN 13: 9781451020083
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 132