The Life of the Fly 



against destruction. What manner of life is 

 this, which may be compared with the life of 

 a night-light whose extinction is not accom- 

 plished until the last drop of oil has burnt 

 away? How is any creature able to fight 

 against the final tragedy of corruption up to 

 the last moment in which a nucleus of matter 

 remains as the seat of vital energy? The 

 forces of the living creature are here dissi- 

 pated not through any disturbance of the equi- 

 librium of those forces, but for the want of 

 any point of application for them: the larva 

 dies because materially there is no more of it. 

 Can we be in the presence of the diffusive 

 life of the plant, a life which persists in a 

 fragment? By no means: the grub is a more 

 delicate organic structure. There is unity be- 

 tween the several parts; and none of them can 

 be jeopardized without involving the ruin of 

 the others. If I myself give the larva a 

 wound, if I bruise it, the whole body very 

 soon turns brown and begins to rot. It dies 

 and decomposes by the mere prick of a needle ; 

 it keeps alive, or at least preserves the fresh- 

 ness of the live tissues, so long as it is not en- 

 tirely emptied by the Anthrax' sucker. A 

 nothing kills it ; an atrocious wasting does not. 



44 



