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There is reason to suppose that on Mars they may have progressed upon `
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them with some facility. `
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The internal anatomy, I may remark here, as dissection has since `
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shown, was almost equally simple. The greater part of the structure `
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was the brain, sending enormous nerves to the eyes, ear, and tactile `
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tentacles. Besides this were the bulky lungs, into which the mouth `
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opened, and the heart and its vessels. The pulmonary distress caused `
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by the denser atmosphere and greater gravitational attraction was only `
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too evident in the convulsive movements of the outer skin. `
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And this was the sum of the Martian organs. Strange as it may seem `
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to a human being, all the complex apparatus of digestion, which makes `
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up the bulk of our bodies, did not exist in the Martians. They were `
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heads--merely heads. Entrails they had none. They did not eat, much `
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less digest. Instead, they took the fresh, living blood of other `
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creatures, and _injected_ it into their own veins. I have myself seen `
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this being done, as I shall mention in its place. But, squeamish as I `
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may seem, I cannot bring myself to describe what I could not endure `
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even to continue watching. Let it suffice to say, blood obtained from `
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a still living animal, in most cases from a human being, was run `
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directly by means of a little pipette into the recipient canal. . . . `
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The bare idea of this is no doubt horribly repulsive to us, but at `
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the same time I think that we should remember how repulsive our `
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carnivorous habits would seem to an intelligent rabbit. `
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The physiological advantages of the practice of injection are `
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undeniable, if one thinks of the tremendous waste of human time and `
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energy occasioned by eating and the digestive process. Our bodies are `
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half made up of glands and tubes and organs, occupied in turning `
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heterogeneous food into blood. The digestive processes and their `
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reaction upon the nervous system sap our strength and colour our `
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minds. Men go happy or miserable as they have healthy or unhealthy `
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livers, or sound gastric glands. But the Martians were lifted above `
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all these organic fluctuations of mood and emotion. `
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Their undeniable preference for men as their source of nourishment `
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is partly explained by the nature of the remains of the victims they `
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had brought with them as provisions from Mars. These creatures, to `
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judge from the shrivelled remains that have fallen into human hands, `
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were bipeds with flimsy, silicious skeletons (almost like those of the `
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silicious sponges) and feeble musculature, standing about six feet `
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high and having round, erect heads, and large eyes in flinty sockets. `
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Two or three of these seem to have been brought in each cylinder, and `
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all were killed before earth was reached. It was just as well for `
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them, for the mere attempt to stand upright upon our planet would have `
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broken every bone in their bodies. `
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And while I am engaged in this description, I may add in this place `
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certain further details which, although they were not all evident to `
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us at the time, will enable the reader who is unacquainted with them `
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to form a clearer picture of these offensive creatures. `
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In three other points their physiology differed strangely from `
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ours. Their organisms did not sleep, any more than the heart of man `
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sleeps. Since they had no extensive muscular mechanism to recuperate, `
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that periodical extinction was unknown to them. They had little or `
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no sense of fatigue, it would seem. On earth they could never have `
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moved without effort, yet even to the last they kept in action. In `
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twenty-four hours they did twenty-four hours of work, as even on earth `
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is perhaps the case with the ants. `
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In the next place, wonderful as it seems in a sexual world, the `
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Martians were absolutely without sex, and therefore without any of the `
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tumultuous emotions that arise from that difference among men. A `
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young Martian, there can now be no dispute, was really born upon earth `
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during the war, and it was found attached to its parent, partially `
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_budded_ off, just as young lilybulbs bud off, or like the young animals `
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in the fresh-water polyp. `
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In man, in all the higher terrestrial animals, such a method of `
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increase has disappeared; but even on this earth it was certainly the `
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primitive method. Among the lower animals, up even to those first `
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cousins of the vertebrated animals, the Tunicates, the two processes `
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occur side by side, but finally the sexual method superseded its `
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competitor altogether. On Mars, however, just the reverse has `
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apparently been the case. `
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It is worthy of remark that a certain speculative writer of `
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quasi-scientific repute, writing long before the Martian invasion, did `
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forecast for man a final structure not unlike the actual Martian `
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condition. His prophecy, I remember, appeared in November or `
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December, 1893, in a long-defunct publication, the _Pall Mall Budget_, `
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and I recall a caricature of it in a pre-Martian periodical called `
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_Punch_. He pointed out--writing in a foolish, facetious tone--that the `
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perfection of mechanical appliances must ultimately supersede limbs; `
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the perfection of chemical devices, digestion; that such organs as `
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hair, external nose, teeth, ears, and chin were no longer essential `
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parts of the human being, and that the tendency of natural selection `
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would lie in the direction of their steady diminution through the `
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coming ages. The brain alone remained a cardinal necessity. Only one `
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other part of the body had a strong case for survival, and that was `
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the hand, "teacher and agent of the brain." While the rest of the `
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body dwindled, the hands would grow larger. `
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There is many a true word written in jest, and here in the Martians `
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we have beyond dispute the actual accomplishment of such a suppression `
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of the animal side of the organism by the intelligence. To me it is `
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quite credible that the Martians may be descended from beings not `
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unlike ourselves, by a gradual development of brain and hands (the `
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latter giving rise to the two bunches of delicate tentacles at last) `
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at the expense of the rest of the body. Without the body the brain `
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would, of course, become a mere selfish intelligence, without any of `
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the emotional substratum of the human being. `
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The last salient point in which the systems of these creatures `
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differed from ours was in what one might have thought a very trivial `
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particular. Micro-organisms, which cause so much disease and pain on `
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earth, have either never appeared upon Mars or Martian sanitary `
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science eliminated them ages ago. A hundred diseases, all the fevers `
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and contagions of human life, consumption, cancers, tumours and such `
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morbidities, never enter the scheme of their life. And speaking of `
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the differences between the life on Mars and terrestrial life, I may `
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allude here to the curious suggestions of the red weed. `
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Apparently the vegetable kingdom in Mars, instead of having green `
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for a dominant colour, is of a vivid blood-red tint. At any rate, the `
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seeds which the Martians (intentionally or accidentally) brought with `
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them gave rise in all cases to red-coloured growths. Only that known `
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popularly as the red weed, however, gained any footing in competition `
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with terrestrial forms. The red creeper was quite a transitory `
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growth, and few people have seen it growing. For a time, however, the `
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red weed grew with astonishing vigour and luxuriance. It spread up `
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the sides of the pit by the third or fourth day of our imprisonment, `
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and its cactus-like branches formed a carmine fringe to the edges of `
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our triangular window. And afterwards I found it broadcast throughout `
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the country, and especially wherever there was a stream of water. `
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The Martians had what appears to have been an auditory organ, a `
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single round drum at the back of the head-body, and eyes with a visual `
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range not very different from ours except that, according to Philips, `
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blue and violet were as black to them. It is commonly supposed that `
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they communicated by sounds and tentacular gesticulations; this is `
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asserted, for instance, in the able but hastily compiled pamphlet `
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(written evidently by someone not an eye-witness of Martian actions) `
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to which I have already alluded, and which, so far, has been the chief `
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source of information concerning them. Now no surviving human being `
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saw so much of the Martians in action as I did. I take no credit to `
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myself for an accident, but the fact is so. And I assert that I `
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watched them closely time after time, and that I have seen four, five, `
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and (once) six of them sluggishly performing the most elaborately `
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complicated operations together without either sound or gesture. Their `
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peculiar hooting invariably preceded feeding; it had no modulation, `
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and was, I believe, in no sense a signal, but merely the expiration of `
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air preparatory to the suctional operation. I have a certain claim to `
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at least an elementary knowledge of psychology, and in this matter I `
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am convinced--as firmly as I am convinced of anything--that the `
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Martians interchanged thoughts without any physical intermediation. `
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And I have been convinced of this in spite of strong preconceptions. `
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Before the Martian invasion, as an occasional reader here or there may `
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remember, I had written with some little vehemence against the `
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telepathic theory. `
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The Martians wore no clothing. Their conceptions of ornament and `
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decorum were necessarily different from ours; and not only were they `
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evidently much less sensible of changes of temperature than we are, `
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but changes of pressure do not seem to have affected their health at `
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all seriously. Yet though they wore no clothing, it was in the other `
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artificial additions to their bodily resources that their great `
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superiority over man lay. We men, with our bicycles and road-skates, `
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our Lilienthal soaring-machines, our guns and sticks and so forth, are `
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just in the beginning of the evolution that the Martians have worked `
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out. They have become practically mere brains, wearing different `
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bodies according to their needs just as men wear suits of clothes and `
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take a bicycle in a hurry or an umbrella in the wet. And of their `
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appliances, perhaps nothing is more wonderful to a man than the `
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curious fact that what is the dominant feature of almost all human `
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devices in mechanism is absent--the _wheel_ is absent; among all the `
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things they brought to earth there is no trace or suggestion of their `
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use of wheels. One would have at least expected it in locomotion. And `
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in this connection it is curious to remark that even on this earth `
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Nature has never hit upon the wheel, or has preferred other expedients `
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to its development. And not only did the Martians either not know of `
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(which is incredible), or abstain from, the wheel, but in their `
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apparatus singularly little use is made of the fixed pivot or `
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relatively fixed pivot, with circular motions thereabout confined `
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to one plane. Almost all the joints of the machinery present a `
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complicated system of sliding parts moving over small but beautifully `
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curved friction bearings. And while upon this matter of detail, it is `
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remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases `
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actuated by a sort of sham musculature of the disks in an elastic `
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sheath; these disks become polarised and drawn closely and powerfully `
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together when traversed by a current of electricity. In this way the `
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curious parallelism to animal motions, which was so striking and `
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disturbing to the human beholder, was attained. Such quasi-muscles `
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abounded in the crablike handling-machine which, on my first peeping `
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out of the slit, I watched unpacking the cylinder. It seemed `
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infinitely more alive than the actual Martians lying beyond it in the `
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sunset light, panting, stirring ineffectual tentacles, and moving `
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feebly after their vast journey across space. `
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While I was still watching their sluggish motions in the sunlight, `
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and noting each strange detail of their form, the curate reminded me `
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of his presence by pulling violently at my arm. I turned to a `
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scowling face, and silent, eloquent lips. He wanted the slit, which `
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permitted only one of us to peep through; and so I had to forego `
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watching them for a time while he enjoyed that privilege. `
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When I looked again, the busy handling-machine had already put `
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together several of the pieces of apparatus it had taken out of the `
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