The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1915-01-28
THE MAGIC OF LIFE
Unchecked 1t Would Kill EVERY
body and Everything.
ONLY BY DEATH DO WE EXIST.


Live and Propagate Freely. Would
In Few Years Smother the Earth
and Be Dropping OF Into Space.
Suppose for moment that the euui-
hbrium between life and death were to
cease-imagine death arrested In its
work. What would happen? The
number of living beings upon the sur
race 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 its super.
abundance life would suffocate and
crush out life itself. and then death
would rule supreme all at once. In a
few days all organic life would have
disappeared from the earth. 1t would
be nothing but waste and a desert.
That microscopic animal, the rotifer
or rotator. lays thirty eggs at a time
and starts seventy generations every
year. Ii all these individuals remain.
ed alive at the end of year their to.
/
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-five descend.
ants in single day; on the second
day we should have 25 by 25. or CPS In
dividuals; the third day 1925. and so
on in geometrica proportion Ten
thousand of these insects. lighter than
ether. weigh onetwentieth of gram.
Ten consecutive generations would
make cube equal to 100000 men
weighing 200 pounds each. and this in
ten days
One fly gives birth to about 10000.
600 individuals in single summer
at the end Of five summers of free
propagation we should reach a fan
tastic fgure-32 followed by 80 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 five 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?
The destruction OF life is as cruel in
the depths of the ocean as It is on
earth, and the same terrible things
would happen II there were no death
In the sea II there were no death
one cod would in six years ill the
ocean solid full and running over or
course the original Goldfish wouldn't do
it alone, bur she would be responsible
for it. One cod lays about 100000
eggs In the year after she is three
years old
Three years later. II there were no
death, all the progeny of this first fish
would each deposit 100000 eggs dur
Ing that year. making total OF 81.
,O00.000.O00 OF course these figures
are SC great that they mean nothing
to us except perhaps a gasp of aston
tshment Now. take another three
years-making six In all from the time
the first cod deposited her eggs--each
Of these cod deposits 9.OOOOOO eggs.
making the total of six years 64.O81.-
900. 1000 OOO. 600, OOO. OOO. 600, OOO.OOOi And
this from one Goldfish only!
II there were no death, imagine
what all the Goldfish would do at this
ratei AS a matter of fact, taking cod
fish alone. II there were no death
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 mouthful 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 itf
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 dying things and
the seas made solid by fish The TO
suit would actually be paradox. to
the effect that II there were no death
everything would promptly DO smOth
cred TO death. One need but give q
few minntee' thought 10 thia hefora