The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1914-12-31
The MAGIC OF LIFE
Unchecked 1t Would XIII Every
body and Everything.
ONLY BY DEATH Do WE EXIST.

Goldfish Alone, If All Were Allowed to
Live and Propagate Freely. Would
In a Few Years Smother the Earth
and Be Dropping OFF into Space.
Suppose for moment that the equi.
librium between life and death were to
cease-imagine death arrested In its
work. What would happen7 The
number of living beings upon the sur
face of the earth would be so great
there would be no room for them. The
atmosphere would be transformed into
a compact mass of birds and insects
which would be impenetrable even by
the rays of the sun In it's super.
abundance life would suffocate and
crush out life itself, and then death
would rule supreme all at once In
few days all organic life would have
disappeared from the earth 1t would
be nothing but a waste and a desert
That microscopic animal, the rotifer
or rotator, lays thirty eggs at time
and starts seventy generations every
year. If all these individuals remain
ed alive ut the end OF year their to-
tai would be so enormous as to make
sphere larger than the known uni
verse.
The cynips. which produce the gals
on the oak trees, the rose lice, the phyi-
loxera and other aphidians or insects,
which extract the sugar from plants,
multiply in enormous numbers One
aphidian produces twenty five descend.
ants in single day; on the second
day we should have % by 25. or 625 In
dividuals; the third day 1925, and SO
on in geometrical proportion Ten
thousand of these insects, lighter than
ether. weigh one-twentieth of gram.
Ten consecutive generations would
make a cube equal to 100000 men
weighing 200 pounds each, and this In
ten days.
One fly gives birth to about 10000
600 individuals in a single summer
At the end of Eve summers of free
propagation we should reach a fan
tastic flgure-32 followed by 35 zeros
Consider the vegetables for a mo-
ment One plant of henbane can pro-
duce no less than 10000 seeds in a
single year. In Ave years 1t would
have covered the entire surface OF the
earth with an impenetrable layer. And
what about all the mushrooms that
multiply SO rapidly In a few days as
to make all other vegetable life almost
impossible?
The destruction of life is as cruel In
the depths of the ocean as IL is on
earth, and the same terrible things
would happen If there were no death
In the sea. II there were no death
one cod would In six years fill the
ocean solid full and running over or
course the original Goldfish wouldn't do
it alone, but she would be responsible
for It. One cod lays about 100000
eggs in the year after she Is three
years old.
Three years later, If there were no
would each deposit 100000 eggs dur
ing that year, making total OF 81,
000,000000,00 or course these figures
are so great that they mean nothing
to us except perhaps gasp Of aston
ishment Now, take another three
years making six in all from the time
the first cod deposited her eggs-each
OF these cod deposits 100000 eggs
making the total OF six years 64,0S1,
000.000, 1000 600, 200, 900. .00O,0O0O00 And
thiS from ono goldfish OniVt
II there were no death. imagine
what all the Goldfish would do at this
rate! AS a matter of fact, taking cod
fish alone, If there were no death
among them, they would smother ev
erything to death with their numbers
In the first three years and leave the
old earth dripping Goldfish into stellar
space.
Medusae are destroyed In enormous
numbers by aquatic animals. but the
stomach of each medusa contains more
than 100000 of those microscopic ma
rine algae called diatoms. One whale
at single mouthfui swallows billions
of these marine animalculae.
From the bottom TO the top OF the
scale the scene is the same The great.
er the propagating power of specie the
greater and more rapid is the work OF
death. so as to preserve the equilib.
rum, without which all life would
cease. Nature seems cruel to US but
is it?
OF course such thing as no death
is a great deal like an irresistible force
striking an immovable body, for in an
unbelievable short time the earth
would be covered with animal and
vegetable matter. the air packed solid
with birds and all flying things and
the seas made solid by fish The re
suit would actually be a paradox, to
the effect that If there were no death
everything would promptly be smoth
cred to death. One need but give
few minutes thought to this before
be understands why there is death
why. after all II is only by death than
we nve.-New York American