Now I beg the reader to carefully note the part the Director played in this important work. Here are his words; there is no need of italicizing them. "None of the few evenings which the Director was able to give to the examination of the planet was really suitable for the purpose, and as the pressure of other duties rendered it impossible for him to supply any detailed help to the members, the section was at a very serious disadvantage." He certainly is frank enough to state the disadvantages the section was under with such a man at the head. Realizing the conditions of seeing in the fog and soot-begrimed atmosphere of England, the low altitude of Mars, and the loss to the committee of the assistance which a Director might have given to the work had he been able to approach the subject in a broad and unprejudiced manner, one is naturally led to ask what this committee would have accomplished if each member in turn had had an opportunity of observing Mars at a high altitude with a twenty-four inch refractor of remarkable definition, at an elevation of 7,000 feet above the sea-level, in an atmosphere so clear and steady that stars of the third and fourth magnitude may be seen to set at the horizon line. Mr. Maunder in speaking of the nomenclature used in his report says, "The term 'canal' has also been retained, though 'canals' in the sense of being artificial productions, the markings of Mars which bear that name, are certainly not. It is difficult, indeed, to understand how so preposterous an idea obtained currency for a moment even by the most ignorant." It is impossible to repress one's amazement at these expressions after the confessions he makes as to his official functions on the committee, and I appeal to any honest and unprejudiced mind if a more incompetent person of the class to which he belongs could have been found in England for the Directorship of such a body. In this connection we cannot refrain from giving a few paragraphs from a paper entitled "Can Organic Life Exist in the Planetary System?" by C. A. Stetefeldt. The author says: "We must, however, acknowledge that if other suns in the universe have planets--and there is no reason why they should not--many of them may present physical conditions identical with, or similar to, those existing on the Earth, and that therefore their organic life may be similar to our own. Further, I am far from denying that, under favorable circumstances, creatures may be evolved upon planets which revolve around other suns, whose mental capacity is as much superior to man's as that of the latter is to the lowest form of vertebrates." Having made these liberal admissions in regard to the universe at large he attempts to show that none of the planets outside the Earth could sustain life, and finally closes in this extraordinary manner: "In concluding this investigation we cannot help admiring the inductive acumen of the theologians who considered the Earth the most