The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1895-11-22
THE SPANS OF LIFE.
DIFFERENCES OF DURA1 roN IN MEN
AND ANIMALS.

|
and profound and written before The
obsession of logical theory had car
ried him into arid metaphysics, dis
oussed the duration of life in men ami
animals To many, perhaps to most
living Things, death comes unexpected.
". with an ironical indifference to the
period of the animals life or to its bus.
mess of the moment. The man may bs
preparing to be merry; the bird may b
abuilding, the butterfly not yet cry
from the chrysalis, when they are fallen
upon by blind mischance, by enemies
intent only on dinner or by unthinkins
microbes. Confronted by such extrinsir
accidents, men cry out after their kind.
| the poet attuning an Intellectual lam
entation, the moralist preaching, the
| pagan urging to the day of pleasure,
but the naturalist must be dumb. His
opportunity comes with the animals
that avoid or escape colliding fates, and
| that yet after a fixed period run down
like clock. The seeds of deaths appar.
emily have been lying inert in the body
and come to fatal maturity after lapse
of time that varies little among indi-
Fiduals of the same species, but that is
| widely different among different kinds
Of animals.
Threescore and ten is the natural
period of mans life The elephant will
five 200 years, use horse but half cen.
fury. Singing birds and fowls and pleas.
ants will live for nearly 20 years, but
parrots, eagles, falcons and swans are
known to survive their century. Some
live through nearly two centuries
Queen ants and working ants may live
for years. Sir John Lubbock kept a
queen ant alive for 10 years, during all
which period she continued to lay fer,
tile eggs, but the males live only a few
days. Queen bees live two or three
years; workers and drones few months,
although indeed Ill one sense the death
of the latter is unnatural as the work.
ers drive them away from the stores of
food, SO that they perish of starvation.
Among insects generally the period OF
adult life varies greatly. Many, like
she May flies, dance in the sun only for
a few hours; the sexes meet, the eggs
are deposited and the creatures die be-
fore nightfall. Many butterflies and
moths are unprovided with feeding or
gans and live only few hours, others
for many days.
Leaving out of count certain minor
factors, like the time required for grow.
ing to larger size and the slower
growth of animals that must waste tins
and energy in capturing living food, il
is certain that there is an intimate con.
nection all through the animal kingdom
betw cen the duration of life and the
reproductive habits. Animals, in one
sense, are like the bright and fragrant
flowers of plants; since when their
function is accomplished, when seeds
are formed, they wither and perish.
The business of the animal seems to be,
not to live its own life, but to reproduce
its own kind, and the term of life at its
disposal is adjusted accurately to the
special difficulties of this purpose.
Weismann and Alfred Russell Wallace
suggest that death comes as soon as pos.
sible after the due number of successors
has been produced, in order that each
species may always be represented by
full tale of young and vigorous indiyi
duals. Natural selection acts like con-
tractor who has undertaken to keep a
window box gay with fresh blossoms:
each plant must be removed almost be
fore its flowers fade.
But our present concern is with the
fact rather than with explanation of the
fact. Taking the needs of reproduction
as master key, we find it unlocking
the secrets of inequalities of life The
May flies live only few hours, but
their eggs are produced abundantly and
have only to be dropped into pools from
which their parents, leaving their chrys-
ais, sprang into the sunny air. The
short lived moths and butt critics SINH
larly are untroubled by family cares.
When the eggs have to be deposited on
common and abundant food plants the
females need and possess few hours in
which to accomplish their easy task.
The males, ON the other hand, have to
fly about seeking and sometimes fight.
Ing for possession of the females, and
to them longer life is allotted. But
terfies and moths that live for more
than few days are those whose cater
pillars require rarer food plant,
more carefully chosen nursery and feed.
ing ground. The females have to fly
about seeking convenient spots for their
and the eggs, instead of ripen
ing and being deposited simultaneous
ly, are laid from day to day until the
full tale be accomplished In many
tribes of bees the males play their par'
but once, and that during the nuptia'
flight of the queen. Immediately after.
ward they die or shortly after are killed
by the workers. The queens, secluded in |
the middle of the hive, produce crops |
of workers year after year, and SO their
lives are prolonged.
Among the birds and beasts parental |
cares have brought length of days with
them. The small singing birds are rapid |
breeders, sometimes producing five or
sex nestlings twice year, but THEN
tuBuISS dI0 Squh1Iy nuLuSIOus, anu uS-
spite the constant attention of the male |
and female play such havoc with the !
young THAI hardly in 20 years will
pair rear up young enough to maintain |
the species. Birds like pheasants and
fowls are still more prolific, but old |
md young like are preyed upon by a null
situde of enemies. The birds of prey are
slow breeders. Their active flight makes
it impossible that the females should |
carry with them burden of developing |
eggs, and in their long lives they leave
bahind them no more progeny than |
quicker breeding, shorter lived cre&
lures. Saturday Rev lew.
A Sound Liver Makes Well Man
Are you Bilious. Consipated or
troubled with Jaundice; Sick Head.
ache, Bad Taste in Mouth, Foul