NATURE AS AN ORGANISM 



Recife ! No gem could emit more brilliantly-flashing rays of red, 

 green and yellow than this beetle. I took it home, but all its splendour 

 was extinguished when it died. The naturalist Ohaus, observing a 

 female beetle of the Scarabaeidae family, noticed that she covered her 

 young with her body; at night they ran out in order to eat, but 

 towards morning they once more assembled under their mother's 

 body, when the whole family looked rather like a lump of bird's 

 droppings. Such a protective device enabled the beetle, although 

 it produced only twenty offspring, to maintain the species. 



A battle may be won either by well-armed and disciplined troops, 

 or by preponderance of numbers. The latter is the simpler method, 

 and so we see that Nature, if one particular species is threatened 

 with destruction, simply throws more animals into the battle-field. 

 It might seem that before the Europeans discovered America the 

 Jaguar and the Rattlesnake must have had the upper hand of the 

 Paca and the harmless Liana-snake. In reality the two latter animals 

 were just as secure of survival as the two former, for otherwise the 

 Jaguar and the Rattlesnake would have multiplied to such an 

 extent that they would finally have perished for want of food. We 

 shall always find that the well-armed or venomous creatures are 

 less numerous than the others. 



At the same time. Nature has seen to it that the trees do not 

 grow until they reach the clouds, and that to every living creature 

 is appointed an age-limit which it cannot exceed, even under the 

 most favourable circumstances. The late August Weismann of 

 Freiburg demonstrated, in an interesting essay, that natural death 

 in every species occurs at such an age that the duration of life 

 is precisely that which best secures the maintenance of the 

 species. 



On the other hand, reproduction is in a sense self-regulating. 

 Excessive multiplication leads, sooner or later, to degeneration and 

 wholesale death. Plagues of caterpillars and mice do not increase 

 and increase without limit; suddenly a great mortality inter- 

 venes, leaving the pests less numerous than before. As for the 

 inner workings of this curious method of regulation, we know as 

 yet very little. 



But one question, which must long ago have occurred to the reader, 

 may perhaps be answered. Gould not the whole machinery of life 

 have been constructed on other principles? Was it inevitable that 



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