Evening star., 1936-12-30

considering the difference in size anc
life span of generation.
The lemming population remain,
relatively sparse and balanced to it.
food supply for years, when the great
squirt in numbers starts suddenly. 81
with man. In the middle of the sew.
enteenth century the population oi
the entire world was about AS 900 600
or a little over eight persons to q
square mile. The human race haC
been in existence for approximately
half a million years.
Suddenly, about the time the PHI
grims were landing on Plymouth
Rock, the birth rate started to ex-
pand. In the succeeding 300 years il
has increased approximately five-fold
to 2,073 ,000. 900. density of 40 pei
square mile This growth has fol.
lowed a mathematical curve worked
out by DR.. Pearl which shows that
it still has about $50 years to go. Un-
til three centuries ago, DR.. Pear
finds, the world population from the
beginning Of history had been stable
at around half billion.
Explosive Increase.
The explosive increase is relatively
as sensational as anything ever OBJ
served among the Jennings. 1t was
due primarily. DR.. Pearl believes, to
the opening up of new and sparsely
populated territories, improvement in
communication. and increase in food
supply through scientific discoveries.
The phenomenon of population
spurts followed by subconsciously mo-
tivated mass suicide, the Johns Hop
kinS professor said, seems to be char
acteristic of animal life IN general,
with the little Arctic rodents furnish
ing the most striking illustration of it.
DR.. Pearl had no suggestion for
escaping the dire fate, except that pa
tient and intensive study of the tele-
scoped history of races in the form of
very short-lived species might reveal
some way to circumvent a natural law
which they have not been able to
find.
An ill-tempered, solitary, voraciously
hungry little bug, recently discovered
in high ranges of the Northern Rock
les. may be the living fossil of a race
otherwise extinct for 50,000,0 900 years,
which was the evolutionary forerun-
ner of many of the insects Of today.
1t has saved itself through the ruth
less millenniums by hiding under
rocks frozen to the ground, and re-
garding every living thing as its en-
emy while its better adapted and So
ciable descendants have gone on to
dispute with man himself dominance
over the earth.
The wierd "ice bug" and its habits
were described to entomologists at
tending meetings of the association
today by Drs. Harlow B. Mills and j.
H. Pepper Of the Montana State COL
lege. It looks like q small beetle, but
belongs to no known classification Of
insects. It first was discovered in the
Canadian Rockies In 1918, and at
once attracted the attention Of sys-
tematic entomologists because of its
strange morphology, very primitive
compared with living insects, and ap-
parently a missing link" between the
crickets and the cockroaches. That
is, it was closely akin to q probable
common ancestor of both.
The picture presented today was
somewhat akin to gruesome futuristic
portrayals Of the last miserable REM
nants of mankind millions of years
hence. lurking fersomely in ice caves
Of a dying world dominated by flesh
eating monsters. A life somewhat
like that Of the ice bug, must be the
fate Of any animal life surviving On
Nam.