Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-08-19
DEATH NOE UNIVERSAL.

Whatever lives, we hear 1t said, whether plant
or animal, must sooner or later die. 1t will.
| therefore. greatly shock many persons to learn
that this is not strictly the case. We wish here
to give room for no misunderstanding, and, if
possible, for no intentional msinterpretation.
All animals may die, but death is not in all de-
r..rtments Of the animal kingdom an inherent
absolute necessity. On the contrary in one of
the two primary divisions Of the 6himal world,
the PROTOCOL it is, though common enough.
merely casual, the result of some accident. A
prOtozoon may be swallowed up by some larger
animal; it may be crushed out of existence.
burnt, or poisoned by ''disinfectauts" introduced
into the water or other fluid which 1t inhabits.
But it has no natural term of life, and as we
shall presently see. cannot be spoken of as young
or old.
That this may be understood we must briefly
compare the life history, and especially the re-
production of the Metazoa and the Protozoa
In the former group-which includes all the
backboned animals from man down to the hum
blest fish. all the insects mollusks. as we'll as
lower forms Of life which scarcely attract popu-
lar nOtice-there is always a distinct difference
between parent and offspring. The latter is
certainly portion separated from the body of
the parent-frOm the female in all those forms
In which there exists two seXes-but it is as
compared with the parent minute in size, rud-
mentary in structure, and it has to increase in
bulk and still more to undergo Il process of
development, series OF transformations. be-
fore it reaches the normal stature aud make of
its species. When this point has been attained
it enters upon the task Of reproduction. and
gives birth to one brood of young ones, or in
the higher forms to several. With these it cock
lists for longer or shorter time, and then
dies, the matter which constituted its body
passing into decomposition. If we look at these
very familiar facts in the life of MetazOon be it
man or an oyster, find that the ideas of
birth, OF growth, of maturity, of parenthood. Of
natural term of life ending in death. at once
suggest themselves. If we examine such a
MetaZoon we can. in most cases, at once decide
whether 1T is In the immature or the adult phase
of its being.
But in the PrOtozod-as Herr Butschl has not
long ago pointed out in the ZO0lOgisctef AnzeiGer
this is distinctly different.
Let us suppose are watching through
microscope one of these minute single-cell
creatures. We see it expanding into an elli-
psoidal figure. which becomes for time longer
and longer. 1t then begins to contract about
what we may, Tor the sake OF popular ntelligi-
bility, call its equator. 1t assumes the form of
two nearly globular bodies. connected. dumb
bell like. by narrow neck. This neck becomes
narrower and narrower. and at last the two
globes are set free, and appear as two indiyid-
uals in place of One What are the relations of
these two new beings to the antecedent form
and to each other? We examine them with
care; they are equal in size, alike in compleXity
or rather simplicity. of structure. We cannot
say that either of them is more mature or more
rudimentary than the other We can find in
their separation from each other no analogy to
the separation of the young animal or the egg
from its mother, or to the liberation of a seed
from plant. Neither of them is parent and
neither offspring. Neither of them is older or
younger than the other
Or shall we try to regard them as brothers
sprung from the same parent? Ii SO, where is
that parent? If living. let it be shown; if dead
where are its remains: No organizer indeed
any Other-matter was separated out when the
two beings took their rise. All the substance of
the body OF the original Protozoon is included.
and equally included. in the bodies of the two
individuals before us. Thus we see that the es-
sential ideas of the life of the higher animals
birth, growth, maturity, parentage. brother
hood, term of life and successive generations
have. if applied to these humble and minute
beings, simply no meaning.
The process of reproduction, or rather multi
piicatlon, must, as far as we can see be repeated
in the samemanner forever. Accidents excepted,
they are immortal; and frequent as such acct
dents must be, the individuals whom they strike
might or rather would, like the rest of their
community, have gone on living and splitting
themselves up forever. 1t Is strange, when eX-
aiming certain infuSOria under the microscope,
to consider that these frail and tiny beings were
living, not potentially in their ancestors, but
really in their own persons perhaps in the Lau-
rentian epoch!
This consideration opens up another Ques-
ton. These beings are not wholly unconscious.
They experience and retain impressions, how
ever dimly and in however limiteda sphere. But
when the splitting up OF one Individual into two
distinct personalities takes place, as we have
described above we have then the curious phe
nomenOn of two distinct and equal beings
whose past life is one, who will remember the
same incidents and the same reactions to which
such incidents have given rise. Here again is a
phenomenon which we cannot realiZe-twO con-
temporary and coequal beings. possessing upto
a certain point at least, common psychical life
Let us for a moment suppose that the propaga-
ton Of the higher animals took place in a SINH
lar manner. We should see, e. g., the mature
man split up into two equal and similar men,
each remembering, knowing believing and feel
ing, up to the day of fission, all that the other
knew, believed, or felt: each. too
it might be contended by moralists, equally
sharing the merits or dement's of the antece-
dent form and each at loss to say when his
own personality took its rise.-Jommal of
Science.