394 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



salamander's young, which never have access to water, is not a mark 

 of inferiority but of superiority ; it is, in reality, the casting off of the 

 old or larval and aquatic characters and the putting on of the new and 

 higher features of the land-animal. Even the degeneration of human 

 structures the modification of the tail which early human existence 

 exhibits, and of muscular structures well developed in lower life are 

 no proofs of inferiority, but are evidences of superiority in ourselves. 

 Thus, even in the great work of evolving higher races out of the lower, 

 to degeneration much is owing for its aid in repressing larval charac- 

 ters and the structures which belong to lower existences. While pro- 

 gressive evolution develops the great tree of life, extends each branch, 

 clothes it with verdure, and expands each blossom, it is degeneration 

 which lops the w^orn and aged stems, prunes the weakly foliage, trims 

 the budding groT\^hs, and so directs and molds the outlines of the or- 

 ganic whole. It is to evolution and progress that the world of life 

 largely owes its forward march. But hardly less is the debt of grati- 

 tude due by the living hosts to degenerative change and retrogression 

 which, though stern andofttimes cruel in their ways, nevertheless mark 

 wisely and well the pathways of life, and prevent the useless and weak 

 from cumbering the ground. Gentleman'' s 3fagazine. 



-<*-<K- 



THE PHEIS^OME^^A OF DEATH. 



By THOMAS D. SPENCEE, M. D. 



THERE seems to be no subject from which the mind so instinc- 

 tively shrinks, few thoughts more repellent to the soul, and no 

 dread vision of the night, howsoever fantastic it be, that presents to 

 the imagination so formidable an aspect as that of death. Indeed, 

 with this all nature seems at variance. The English ivy creeping over 

 fallen ruins, or the fresh moss covering the prostrate trunk of some 

 forest oak, seems as if endeavoring to hide from view the havoc which 

 death has made. Beyond the merely instinctive desire to exist, the 

 dread of death is a matter of education. Never does the child forget 

 his first sight of a corpse ; the darkened chamber, the storm of grief, 

 the white face and rigid features, all combine to form an indelible im- 

 pression on the mind. 



It is probably the extensive paraphernalia attending the funeral 

 of the present day that render death so formidable. In war on 

 the battle-field, where death assumes its most sanguinary aspect the 

 mind of the soldier, from constant association, becomes so inured, 

 that it ceases to be impressed with natural terror, and death seems 

 but another foe to be met and conquered. Although the considera- 

 tion of this topic be repugnant to the naturally healthy mind, there 



