﻿THE RIGHT TO LIVE 



without the necessity of providing for the in- 

 terpolation of inhibiting periods of vi'inter 

 cold or summer dryness, the larger part of 

 productive activity would doubtless disap- 

 pear, and with it much of the fierce strife for 

 place. 



If added to other favorable conditions for 

 existence an adequate supply of food were 

 available, we can well believe that organisms 

 might become potentially immortal, that is, 

 they might live indefinitely unless killed by 

 pure accident. Such a happy environment 

 would be a true vale of Avalon: 



"Where falls not hail, orraiii, or auy snow, 

 Nor ever wind blows loudly; butit lies 

 Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns 

 And bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea." 



It would, however, be a land of continuous 

 youth, a Ponce de Leon realization, rather 

 than a haven for effete King Arthurs. 



Weismann finds an argument leading to the 

 like conclusion in the fission reproduction of 

 many unicellular animals, by which no part of 

 the organism dies during the process of mul- 

 tiplication, but each part expands into the 

 perfection of an individual. A not materially 

 dissimilar process among higher members in 

 the vegetable kingdom is the ready propaga- 

 tion by successive branching of such rhizo- 

 matous plants as certain ferns, iris and 

 grasses. As the burrowing plant body pushes 



