THE BIOLOGY OF 

 DEATH 



CHAPTER I 



THE PROBLEM 



PROBABLY no subject so deeply interests human beings 

 as that of the duration of human life. Presumably just 

 because the business of living was such a wonderfully 

 interesting and important one from the viewpoint of the 

 individual, man has endeavored, in every way he could 

 think of, to prolong it as much as possible. He has had 

 recourse to both natural and supernatural schemes for 

 attaining this objective. On the mundane plane he has 

 developed the sciences and arts of biology, medicine and 

 hygiene, with the fundamental purpose of learning the 

 underlying principles of vital processes, so that it might 

 ultimately be possible to stretch the length of each indivi- 

 dual's life on earth to the greatest attainable degree. 

 Recognizing pragmatically, however, that at best the limi- 

 tations in this direction were distinctly narrow, when 

 conceived in any historical sense, he has with singularly 

 wide-spread unanimity, deemed it wise to seek another 

 means of satisfying his desires. Man's body plainly and 

 palpably returns to dust, after the briefest of intervals, 

 measured in terms of cosmic evolution. But, patent as 

 this fact is it has not precluded the postulation of an infin- 

 ite continuation of that impalpable portion of man's be- 

 ing which is called the soul. With the field thus open we 



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