The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1914-12-31

or rotator, lays thirty eggs at time
and starts seventy generations every
year. If all these individuals remain
ed alive at the end Of a year their to-
tai would be so enormous as to make
a sphere larger than the known uni.
verse; -
The cynips. which produce the gals
on the oak trees, the rose lice, the phyl-
-loxera and other aphidians or insects.
which extract the sugar from plants,
multiply in enormous numbers. One
aphidian produces twenty descend
ants in single day; on the second
day we should have 25 by Is, or 625 in
dividuals; the third day 15.625, and SO
on in geometrical proportion. Ten
thousand of these insects, lighter than
ether. weigh one-twentieth of a gram
Ten consecutive generations would
make cube equal to 100000 men
weighing 200 pounds each. and this in
ten days. 49,.
One fly gives birth to about 2O,OOO,:
900 individuals in a single summer.
At the end Of Eve summers of free
propagation we should reach fan.
tastic figure-32 followed by IS zeros.-
Consider the vegetab les for mo-
ment One plant Of henbane can pro,
duce no less than 10000 seeds in a
single year. In I've years it 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?
g The destruction of life is as cruel in
the depths Of the ocean as 1t is on
earth, and the same terrible things
would happen If there were no death
in the sea- If there were no death
one cod would in six years fill the
ocean solid full and running over. OF
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
death. all the progeny of this first fish
would each deposit 100000 eggs dur.
ing that year, making total OF g..
OOO.OOOO 100000. OF 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,OS1,.
OOO.OOO.O .OOO. 900 OO0.O 100000 And
this from one Goldfish onlyl -
II there were no death. imagine
what all the Goldfish would do at this
rate! As 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. ----. --e: .'-
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 1t?
OF course such a thing as no death
ls 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 a
few minutes thought to this before
he understands why there Is death
why, after all. it is only BY death that
We live.-New York American.