Observations at Mexico fully corroborated those at Flagstaff with regard to both Mars, Mercury and Venus, and enabled Mr. Douglass to make the first full determination of the markings on Jupiter’s third and fourth satellites, thus fixing their rotation periods.
Dr. See in the mean time, who while at Flagstaff had discovered a very large number of new doubles, in Mexico added to his list;...
With the spring the observatory was shipped back again to Flagstaff.
Of the particular results in planetary work obtained, several papers have been published in various astronomical journals, while of them subsequent volumes of the Annals will speak in detail. In the meantime two general conclusions to which they have led the writer may, as possessing future interest, fittingly be mentioned here:
1st, that the physical condition of the various members of our solar system appears to be such as evolution from a primal nebula would demand;
2d, that what we call life is an inevitable detail of cosmic evolution, as inherent a property of matter from an eventual standpoint as gravitation itself is from an instant one: as a primal nebula or meteoric swarm, actuated by purely natural laws, evolves a system of bodies, so each body under the same laws, conditioned only by size and position, inevitably evolves upon itself organic forms.
The reasons for the first of these conclusions have sprung directly from the writer’s study of the several members of our own solar system; his reason for the second, upon the further facts,—
1st, that where the physical conditions upon these bodies point to the apparent possibility of life, we find apparent signs of life;
2d, where they do not, we find none.
This implies that, however much its detail may vary, life is essentially the same everywhere, since we can reason apparently correctly as to its presence or absence, a result which is in striking accord with the spectroscopic evidence of a practical identity of material.