An Inhabitant of the Planet Mars

by Henri de Parville

  “We would therefore have, in the first epochs, creatures that could only displace themselves with difficulty—then, successively, animals better and better conformed for locomotion.

  “Reciprocal material affinities would give birth to the qualities of each individual, since instinct is the dominant character of every species. It is perfectly certain that the animals and vegetables of every period are not only dependent on one another, but that each one is dependent on many others.

  “A mathematician will say that it is the combination of the variables that determine the solution of an equation. When the equation—which is to say, the external forces—changes, the variables—which is to say, the species—inevitably change too.

  “If you will permit me, gentlemen, to direct your meditations towards a great principle that appears to govern the evolution of matter, I will define it thus: ‘Every molecular grouping tends to produce a similar molecular grouping.’

  “The force that escapes from a given aggregation tends to produce, harmonically, the same number of atoms and to create similar molecules. That is why, gentlemen, the more sediments deposit themselves numerously on the terrestrial surface, the more substances group themselves and complicate themselves, and the more organisms group themselves and complicate themselves. You will find their structure becoming increasingly complicated and dependent on neighboring materials, the atmosphere, the seas and the land; their organs, their organs putting themselves in immediate relation with their needs. Fish conform themselves to live in the sea, birds in the air, mammals on the surface of the land.

  “Each species, as we have said, cannot exist indefinitely. It is easy to calculate the duration of its existence. It has been born, in effect, under the stimulus of external forces acting on definitive molecular aggregations. The species is thus intimately linked to variations of external forces—heat, light, etc.—and consequently to variations in the substances of the globe.

  “The organisms formed by the most rudimentary molecules perpetuate themselves for the longest times; on the contrary, because the most complex molecules vary their groupings much more quickly, the most creatures higher in the scale perpetuate themselves for shorter periods.

  “A species will inevitably become extinct when it no longer encounters molecules similar to those which form it, and when the external forces become insufficient to determine its stimulation.

  “In ordinary language, every time a geological revolution has modified the environment, the species have changed; they transformed themselves, although the transition would be less evident because the previous animals and vegetables, and the ground itself, would have become more complex and more variable.

  “Thus, one can translate the preceding argument by saying that the first organisms, scarcely modified, will perpetuate themselves through almost al the ages of the Earth; that vegetables and animals, more elevated in the ascendant scale, can only perpetuate themselves for a limited time, their origin and their extinction essentially depending on the physical and geological environment; they therefore differ generally in each geological phase—much more so, if the cataclysm that rearranges the materials of the terrestrial surface is of greater magnitude itself, but much less, on the other hand, when the changes are more insignificant.51

  “With the variety of terrains comes the variety of species; with their multiplicity, the superiority and elevation of individuals.

  “You see, gentlemen, that I am not side-stepping anything. I formally deny that creation was the work of a day; I strongly oppose the opinion that gives birth all of a piece to the various species that populate the Earth.

  “Many scientists, especially in Europe, affirm that the germs of all the animals that exist, have existed or will exist, were created at the beginning of time, only commencing their evolution successively, in their turn. That is absolutely contrary to reason and to the profound study of biological phenomena.

  “No, gentlemen, species and individuals, descended from the primitive organic molecule, pass, like the globe itself, through distinct phases. A species is born, grows and dies, like an individual; it is a whole that is subject to differentiation.

  “Like the globe, though, like the planetary system to which we belong, every species, in losing its life, is destined to commence the generation of a new species; it is a simple matter of the transmission of force.

  “Cast a glance over our epoch; you will see contemporary species very similar to preceding species. There is already transformation. Our contemporary animals and vegetables will undergo transition, by imperceptible degrees into new animals and other vegetables.

  “The end of the existence of our species will correspond to the generation of successors, in correspondence with the external forces of the epoch, with its geological environments. That is inevitable; the materials and the workman change; it is necessary that the work is transformed.

  “No one is any longer astonished to see a type of rock stratum characterized by its flora and fauna, since that is exactly what regulated the evolution of organisms during the lapse of time that it has revealed.

  “With respect to the distinct varieties that each species shows, according to what we have just summarized, anyone can see at first glance that they are just as intimately related to geological and physical environments. It is the soil and the ambient environment that fabricate, chemically and physically, the species and the individual.52

  “The further the revolution of the globe proceeds, the more creatures will advance by imperceptible degrees, for the combinations of matter will become more difficult and rarer, and the species, in consequence, will be more and more dependent on one another.

  “This remark also suffices to make it evident that species, after succeeding one another with great rapidity and variety, ought to begin to become more stable and less amenable to transformation.

  “Not only has the structure of creatures been modified, but also their stature. Is it not perfectly obvious that it must have increased with the variety of disposable materials? The stored force has become greater and the possible growth of each individual more considerable.

  “It seems that we have passed the maximum and that, as the exterior forces are decreasing more quickly than the variety of combinations is increasing, the stature of species is now diminishing.

  “It is unnecessary to add that, in each phase, the largeness of a creature still depends on the latitude and has always increased from the pole to the equator. Numerous observations have always proved, in fact, that, in conformity with these deductions, the largest animals are always encountered in the equatorial regions. I shall terminate these considerations, in view of the late hour, on Monday, if the assembly will permit.”

  LETTER XI

  How we come to life. Vital release. Means of measuring it. Why the vegetable that grows in the dark weighs less than the seed that produced it. The maximum of life. Duration of existence. Mr. Ziegler disagrees with M. Flourens. Human longevity. Why do vegetables awaken in spring? Does man create his likeness? Machines for manufacturing creatures. The transmission of organic force. The Creator.

  Mr. Ziegler: “Several members of the commission wanted to raise objections to what I said yesterday, on Sunday; I fear that the physiologists have not entirely grasped my meaning, and I ask, gentleman, to say something further about the origin of life. Others have only seen my explanation as a materialist thesis without consequences; I feel compelled to enlighten the former and reassure the latter.

  “I repeat at this point the fundamental principle already cited: every molecular aggregation tends to engender a similar molecular aggregation.

  “The germ, gentlemen, is a definite and elaborate molecular aggregation produced by organic forces in function. Take a germ, a seed or an egg: if you do not put this one or that one in the required physical conditions, you will get nothing from it, absolutely nothing from one or the other. But plant the seed in a suitable environment, of a sort in which it can find around it simila
r molecules to adjoin to itself, and you will soon see vital activity develop and the seed transform itself into a plant.

  “Was the seed or the embryo, then, before its excitation by external forces, a raw, inert, inorganic entity? No, gentlemen; it was an aggregation of organic molecules not in possession of the quantity of motion required to adjoin similar molecules to itself. It was an incomplete creation, only awaiting an excess of force to transform itself. I have said that two conditions must be fulfilled before the seed can produce the plant: sufficient external forces, and the required elements of aggregation. Here, gentlemen, is an immediate verification.

  “Let us suppress, only partially, the external forces; let us, for example, place the seed in total darkness, and let us keep the elements of aggregation. Life, we have said, is the release of a stored force. Now, let us release the force stored in the seed; as we have suppressed the major part of the excitatory force, evidently the life will be very short; new molecules cannot be grouped around the old; when the quantity of motion stored is exhausted, the organism will die.

  “Now consider this: here is a seed; we have placed it in the Sun; it has germinated; then we have shut it up in a dark room. Solar excitation has given it life; the suppression of that force does not take it away. It is necessary to wait for the stored force to be exhausted; the plant will therefore continue to live, and the larger its embryo was, the longer it will live. Eventually, we shall see it wither, and then die. The plant will have exhausted all the force stored in its embryo.

  “Here, set out very simply, is the notion of the release of vital force. If an organism lives for a long time, it is incontestably due to the force that gives birth to the gradual aggregation of new molecules.

  “We should add that the loss of the force has inevitably led to the loss of molecules and that a plant that has sprouted in the dark weighs less than the seed that produced it. This seems paradoxical, gentlemen, but I have planted seeds, having weighed them, then, when the plants that sprouted in the darkness were on the point of dying, I weighed them again. The loss can be as much as 50%.53

  “By contrast, leave the seed, the excitatory forces and the molecules of aggregation in place, and you will see the plant sprout and gain weight incessantly. In this instance, in fact, the germ, far from losing quantity of motion, gains it incessantly. The molecules no longer escape combination; they enter into it. Life is thus augmented within the organism, along with its weight; in this fashion, every time the external forces increase, you will observe an increase of vital energy and a new augmentation of weight. The external forces increase every spring, when you also see buds appear and stems spring up more numerously. The phenomenon is quite simple.

  “Will the plant grow indefinitely, then, and will its life increase incessantly? No, gentlemen; as with everything else in the universe, there is a maximum, and, once it is passed, life is progressively lost, eventually disappearing entirely.

  “Life follows an ascendant curve for as long as the external forces prevail over the force of internal release and the organism gains in weight, but equilibrium is inevitably reached; the eliminatory internal force, to use the term customary in physiology, ends up by equaling the assimilatory external force. At that moment, the plant is neither gaining nor losing; life has attained its maximum; it will henceforth diminish.

  “And indeed, the external force can no longer produce further aggregation; it is entirely employed in stimulating and maintaining the molecules that have been aggregated. The stored force alone is free to act; in accordance with what has already been said, we can see that it is precisely equal to the external force that has built the organism. It has become so by virtue of the successive aggregation of molecules; it will gradually diminish by virtue of a successive and slow disaggregation.

  “More powerful now than the equilibrated external force, it will expend more material than the other cam import; it will make a gradual but incessant loss; the plant will lose weight. It is true that each new aggregation brings a new quantity of life, but, because a part of the motion engendered is employed in exciting the added molecule, there is an overall subtraction of force and a diminution.

  “Now, the external force is relatively infinite in quantity; the interior force, by contrast, is essentially finite. Being incessantly lost, it is inevitable that it will be reduced to nothing and that the organism will die. As this loss progresses, the molecules draw nearer to one another; the plant’s tissue becomes more compact; it grows old.

  “Some among you, gentlemen, will already have perceived the important consequence that emerges from the preceding facts.

  “The vital force equals, at its maximum, the level of the external force that has produced it; is that not as much as to say that, if you double the time necessary for an organism to complete its development, you will have doubled the normal duration of its life? Is it not as much as to say that the rapidity of an individual’s growth will decrease incessantly from birth to the maximum of life, and, conversely, that the rapidity of loss will increase incessantly from the maximum of life until death?

  “A given organism, therefore, will exhale more carbonic acid in its old age than in its youth , and that gives us a means of determining the age of an individual.

  “If, gentlemen, you need to measure the duration of an organism’s existence, you should have a measuring-device ready to hand. Measure it and, when it has attained its full development, it will be sufficient to double its age to calculate its normal lifespan. These facts, which are confirmed every day, lend considerable support to the theory that I have had the honor of explaining to you.”

  Mr. Newbold: “The inhabitant of Mars, Mr. Ziegler! What about the inhabitant of Mars? Will we ever get around to it?”

  Mr. Ziegler: “I’ve finished, Mr. President—or very nearly. I have briefly shown you birth, life and death in the vegetable kingdom. A few words now about the animal.”

  Mr. Williamson: “He’s off again—he’ll fill an entire book…”

  Mr. Ziegler, without paying any heed to interruptions: “Firstly, gentlemen, between an egg and a seed, there is the greatest and the most complete analogy. Judge for yourself:

  Eggs Seeds

  Albumin Albumin

  Gross matter Gross matter

  Milk sugar, glucose Starch, dextrine giving glucose

  Sulfur, phosphorus Sulfur, phosphorus

  Calcium phosphate Calcium phosphate

  Water in large proportion Water in large proportion

  -- Cellulose

  “The composition is almost identical. Cellulose must exist in the egg; it will be discovered there when someone takes the trouble to look for it.54 As with the seed, it requires determined physical conditions to excite motion among the animal molecules. Without heat, the egg remains inert.

  “The development of an animal proceeds like that of a plant; instead of extracting unelaborated nutriments it will seek out substances already prepared which, while permitting its growth, augment its vital force. It imports material incessantly from without. As with the plant, there will be a necessary terminus to that increase.

  “There will be an augmentation of the individual so long as the vital force is not equal to the force that determines the aggregation of ingested materials, but, when that limit is attained, there will be more elimination than fixation of new elements, and life will diminish imperceptibly. Here again it is not necessary to assume that the acquired materials will disappear rapidly.

  “In whatever fashion, the vital force exhales materials; by virtue of that fact, it breaks the equilibrium, and the external force enters into a new relationship with it, in which the former prevails over the latter and there is a further subtraction every day, until the complete extinction of all vital motion.

  “The law of the duration of existence that holds true for plants must hold true for animals. Every individual can determine the normal length of its life by doubling the number of years that is necessary for it to attain its full
development. If a man ceases to grow at forty, it is because he will not live longer than eighty…and a few more years to take account of the time when the organism remains stationary. The man who does not acquire his full development until he is 50 will live to be 100.55

  “It is very probable, too, that there is a relationship between the duration of existence and the time of gestation. Thus, in humans, the elaboration lasts nine months; in chickens, 21 days; in dogs, 65 days; in horses, 11 months, and the duration of their existence is, respectively, 90 years, eight years, 12 years and 20 years. If the horse has such a short lifespan, the cause must lie in the excessive work that it accomplishes; wild horses must live much longer.

  “It is also appropriate to take the mass of the embryo into account here. It is reasonably certain that the duration of existence and the time of gestation depend greatly on these elements.

  “This is another opportunity to observe the very remarkable influence of variations of external forces on the phenomena of life. When the intensity of these forces diminishes, it is clear, according to the preceding argument, that the vital force—which is entirely bound up with it—ought to diminish. That is, indeed, what happens.

  “For the plant, is it not in spring that it seems visibly to awaken from an apparent death? The external forces increase, and the vital force too; the plant or tree puts forth new growth. Every rotation of the Earth upon its axis has a similar influence; during the night, there is a diminution of vital force; there is, so to speak, sleep; the plant exhales carbonic acid. The internal force, more powerful than the external force, expels materials. When the Sun rises the effect is reversed, the external force prevails and the plant, instead of losing, produces a profit on the oxygen that it absorbs.