THE EVOLUTION OF DEATH 77 



I 



special importance and meaning to the outer surfaces of the 

 body, and to the consequences involved in the greater or less 

 remoteness of the single parts of the body from the outer 

 surfaces. It is very possible that these results have signifi- 

 cance for the physiological activities of the body, and it is 

 not improbable that with the increasing age the proportion of 

 the outer surfaces to the rest of the body becomes unfavor- 

 able. This interpretation with other related suppositions 

 is presented by Miihlmann. He believes further that the 

 mentioned results act to the disadvantage of the central 

 nervous system by which the gradual destruction of this 

 system is caused, a destruction which progresses until it 

 brings about natural death. Miihlmann's demonstration is 

 not convincing to me, but even if we should grant that he is 

 right, and accept his conclusion that natural death in man is 

 directly caused by degenerative alterations of the nerve cells, 

 we should still not have won a general biological theory of 

 death. As we have already heard, the death of cells plays a 

 great role during development as well as in the adult. Any 

 theory of death must reckon with these facts and cannot be 

 sufficiently valid if it does not explain both the natural death 

 of the whole body and also the natural death of the cells 

 which are continually dying off. It is a merit of the theory of 

 cytomorphosis that it maintains its 'value as an explanation 

 of all forms of death. 



We owe to Alexander Gotte 36 another theory which I 

 wish to mention briefly. According to this theory, natural 

 death is closely connected with the phenomena of sexual 

 reproduction, for it assumes that the maternal organism is 

 exhausted by the effort of reproduction, which thus causes the 

 appearance of old age. We must pay attention to the fact 

 that it was not until after the appearance of Gotte's article 



