Begun as a review of Percival Lowell’s Mars and Its Canals, this book grew into a full rebuttal. Wallace, in his eighties, examines the planet’s temperature, atmosphere and water vapour and concludes that Mars could not support the canal-building civilisation Lowell imagined, offering his own explanation of the markings.
A fine example of scientific argument, and a sceptic who proved right. Download the free EPUB.