CHAPTER XXXII 

 DEATH 



They were born for immortality. 

 — Wordsworth. 



Man's interest in the duration of life and in the death which 

 ends it is probably greater than his interest in any other biological 

 problem. From the beginning of human life upon the earth, the 

 question of death has had much more than an academic interest 

 for him. Why is he here but for a season and then hurried away? 

 Among multitudes of others, Bernard Shaw has lamented the 

 shortness of man's stay upon the earth, and in Back to Methu- 

 selah has interpreted man's failure to progress at the rate he should 

 as the result of the fact that as soon as he gets a bit of experience, 

 he must pass on and take this knowledge with him. New genera- 

 tions must begin again at the beginning, and, therefore, only by 

 lengthening the span of human life can the most profit be derived 

 from individual human progress; if we all lived to be several hun- 

 dred years old, we would have some chance to use our experience 

 and to realize, as it were, on the investment. 



The best scientific book on the general subject of death in ani- 

 mals, is that of Pearl (1922) on the Biology of Death, and much 

 of the material in this chapter dealing with animals is taken from 

 this book. Pearl calls attention to the fact that man has tried to 

 prolong his life in two ways. First, by means of the sciences and 

 improvements in surgery, medicine, etc., he has increased the 

 span of his physical life. Not only is the death rate decreasing, 

 but the average length of life has been increased about fifteen years 

 from the days of the Greeks and Romans. Secondly, by super- 

 natural means and the aid of religions, man has sought to extend 

 his mental life after the death of the physical body. Since science 

 deals with physical phenomena, the second method of prolonging 

 life lies outside its sphere, but it will be discussed briefly in the 

 final chapter, which is concerned both with philosophical specu- 

 lations and with scientific achievements. 



Science has been asked to prove that there is or is not life after 



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