Pike: The Utility of Death 



197 



means than chromosomes, for the com- 

 pounds successively arisinj:^ from the 

 . earlier and simpler types must have 

 borne some resemblance to those from 

 which they originated in quahtative and 

 quantitative com])osition and general 

 deportment. Variation must also have 

 been present, or no evolution would 

 have been possible. 



ELEMENTS OF LIFE 



It need occasion no surprise to find the 

 primary factors of organic evolution 

 present long before the appearance of the 

 cell upon the earth if we but reflect a 

 moment upon the nature of the funda- 

 mental processes or changes occurring 

 in living matter. These are, (1) changes 

 of form, including the visible phenomena 

 of development and growth; (2) changes 

 of position, including the visible phenom- 

 ena of motility in general; and (3) 

 changes of matter and energy, including 

 all the phenomena of metabolism, and 

 underlying all other changes in the 

 organism. (Jost.) Changes of matter 

 and energy must have been present 

 from the very beginning of the evolution 

 of living matter, since they were present 

 in the inorganic matter from which the 

 first syntheses of organic matter were 

 made. I see no good reason for sup- 

 posing that any radically new principle 

 has entered in during the course of 

 organic evolution to affect these changes 

 of matter and energy as they are mani- 

 fested in living organisms. 



Herbert Spencer has shown that 

 organisms acquire an independence of 

 the environment. It has been shown 

 that the mechanism by which this inde- 

 pendence is acquired is the increasing 

 power of the organism to regulate its 

 internal physico-chemical conditions.^ 



It has been known for many years 

 that the higher animals, i.e., birds and 

 mammals, had the power of regulating 

 the temperature of the body during 

 health. Claude Bernard noticed that 

 the concentration of sugar in the blood 

 remained relativelv constant. And as 



time has gone on, it has been found 

 that more and more of the physico- 

 chemical conditions of the organism 

 are regulated to a great degree of exact- 

 ness. There is a regulation of the 

 pressure, and of the distribution of 

 the blood, of the osmotic pressure of 

 the body fluids, of the concentration 

 of H and OH ions in the blood (Moore) 

 and, through this, of the activity of 

 the neuro-muscular respiratory mech- 

 anism (Haldane). The surface tension 

 of the blood is probably relatively 

 constant in health (Morgan). Not all 

 of these conditions are constant un- 

 der all external conditions, but varia- 

 tions are in such a direction as will 

 restore the usual condition of affairs. 

 As Haldane expresses it, "Perhaps the 

 most striking fact with regard to 

 physiological phenomena is the evidence 

 they present of activity coordinated in 

 such a manner as to conduce towards 

 the survival of either the individual or 

 the species."^ 



CONSEQUENCES OF REGULATION 



Certain consequences for organic evo- 

 lution of this power of regulation have 

 already been presented in various papers 

 (Woods, Mathews, Pike and Scott). 

 It will be sufficient simply to recapitu- 

 late here. Woods^ has considered some 

 of these consequences from the point 

 of view of the effect of the environment. 

 A clearly diminishing effect may be 

 shown in so far as changes in the environ- 

 ment affect the rate of growth, the 

 external form of the body, and the 

 modification of mental and moral traits, 

 as successively higher types of organ- 

 isms are considered. The sex ratio in 

 man is very constant over long periods 

 of time and under various social and 

 economic conditions. 



It is a possible, and even probable, 

 interpretation to say that the increasing 

 development of the mechanisms — chem- 

 ical, nervous and muscular — concerned 

 in the regulation of internal conditions 

 has led to the continued presence within 



et al. 



See the writings of Mathews, Claude Bernard, Pike and Scott, Haldane, Henderson, Huxley, 



^ Haldane, J. S. Mechanism, Life and Personality (1914). 



' Woods, Frederick Adams. Laws of Diminishing Environmental Influences. Popular 

 Science Monthly, April, 1910. 



