THE DURATION OP LIFE. 25 



to renew the worn-out cell material because the nature of the cells 

 did not permit them to multiply indefinitely, but because the power 

 of multiplying indefinitely was lost when it ceased to be of use. 



I consider that this view, if not exactly proved, can at any rate 

 be rendered extremely probable. 



It is useless to object that man (or any of the higher animals) 

 dies from the physical necessity of his nature, just as the specific 

 gravity of ice results from its physical nature. I am quite ready to 

 admit that this is the case. John Hunter, supported by his ex- 

 periments on anabiosis, hoped to prolong the life of man indefinitely 

 by alternate freezing and thawing ; and the Veronese Colonel 

 Aless. Guaguino made his contemporaries believe that a race 

 of men existed in Russia, of which the individuals died regularly 

 every year on the 27th of November, and returned to life on 

 the 24th of the following April. There cannot however be the 

 least doubt, that the higher organisms, as they are now con- 

 structed, contain within themselves the germs of death. The 

 . question however arises as to how this has come to pass ; and 

 I reply that death is to be looked upon as an occurrence which 

 is advantageous to the species as a concession to the outer con- 

 ditions of life, and not as an absolute necessity, essentially inherent 

 in life itself. 



Death, that is the end of life, is by no means, as is usually 

 assumed, an attribute of all organisms. An immense number of 

 low organisms do not die, although they are easily destroyed, being 

 killed by heat, poisons, &c. As long, however, as those conditions 

 which are necessary for their life are fulfilled, they continue to live, 

 and they thus carry the potentiality of unending life in them- 

 selves. I am speaking not only of the Amoebae and the low 

 unicellular Algae, but also of far more highly organized unicellular 

 animals, such as the Infusoria. 



The process of fission in the Amoeba has been recently much 

 discussed, and I am well aware that the life of the individual is 

 generally believed to come to an end with the division which gives 

 rise to 'two new individuals, as if death and reproduction were the 

 same thing. But this process cannot be truly called death. Where 

 is the dead body ? what is it that dies ? Nothing dies ; the body 

 of the animal only divides into two similar parts, possessing the 

 same constitution. Each of these parts is exactly like its parent, 



