Evening star., 1937-03-16
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS R. HENRY.

Eros and ThanatoS-
These Words-the names of the Greek
gods of love and death-conStltute an
eVer-recurring burden in the works of
the late Dr. William A. White 1t
seemed well, with the passing of the
man who for a generation has been
WashingtonS profoundest and most
practical philosopher, TO seek for his
own philosophy of the significance of
the annihilation of the individual.
1t is found most clearly expressed in
his Sigma Chi address of ten years ago.
1t is death alone that makes progress
possible. There is inherent in proto-
plasm drive for the destruction of the
temporary patterns into which it is
woven--a drive which finds its express
sion in many ways unrealized by the
individual. When man in Eden plucked
the fruit of the tree of knowledge and
thus brought toll and death into the
world he did only what his very remote
ancestors had done before him.
Said DR.. White:
THE choice Of knowledge and its her.
itage of death is precisely the choice
that life made in the very beginning,
for upon this choice depended the posi-
bilities of advance and evolution,
THE individual may and usually
does desire to go on living, but for the
species the death of the individual is not
only useful but inevitable and necessary.
In the regular progression of evolution
from the lower to the higher organisms
there is a characteristic change in the
character Of the component cells 1t
consists in the main in a gradual differ
entiation and modification in the way Of
increasing specialization in function.
The monocellular organisms contain
within themselves all the powers neces-
sary for subsistence, growth and perpet-
uation by reproduction Death with them
literally occurs only as a result of acci-
dent. They are, to all intents and pur-
poses, immortal.
"The increasing differentiation of
function in response to the increasing
need for specialization of function can
take place only by a progressive loss in
the self suflciency Of the individual cells
which must ultimately reach a point at
which their further existence is rendered
impossible. Then they die and are re-
placed by new cells. If they are vital
to the organism the organism dies and is
replaced. Succeeding generations OF
cells and organisms, starting each little
further along the pathway of possibili-
ties, render progress possible.
This capacity for progressive develop
ment and evolution in the cells is what
we call knowledge in its higher reaches
in the human mind, and it was for this
that life gave up its Immortality and
chose the path that leads to death. This
is the fundamental conflict which lies
at the basis of all life and which makes
evolution possible 1t is the eternal
struggle between the forces of self pres
ervation and the forces of creation which
demand personal sacrifice as the neces
sary requirements for a program Of
ever increasing accomplishments.
Chemical cultivation of Turkish to-
bacco in the laboratory from seed the
size of grain of sand to a giant flower
ing plant six feet tall, is reported by
DR.. Sam F. Trelease of Columbia Uni
versity.
First DR.. Trelease obtained a complete
analysis of the soil in the Near East in
which the tobacco grew best. This showed
the exact proportions of the various nu-
TRENT soils needed, Then a carefully
prepared chemical solution was made
up composed of iron, ammonium nitrate,
magnesium sulphate, potassium acid
phosphate, and calcium nitrate. There