THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



day, when this whole four million cubic miles 

 of water was still absolutely empty of all life, 

 and like the golden egg of Indian folk lore 

 merely one single tiny microscopic bacillus point 

 were sunk in this millions of cubic miles of 

 ocean. In this little point, however, the great 

 life principle of generation rules. It eats, grows 

 fat and at the summit of its existence divides 

 itself simply into two identical parts: the very 

 simplest form of reproduction. If after an hour 

 both of these poi-tions had become ripe for divi- 

 sion there would then be four, after three hours 

 eight. After twenty-four hours we find sixteen 

 million seven hundred and seventy-seven thou- 

 sand two hundred bacteria in the giant ocean. 

 What would happen then! All these sixteen 

 and three-fourth milhons of bacteria would oc- 

 cupy the space of only one-fortieth of a cubic 

 millimeter in the midst of a flood of four million 

 cubic miles of water. But the multiplication 

 mill grinds on. Two days pass. There are 

 two hundred eighty-one and a half billion bac- 

 teria. After three days four thousand seven 

 hundred and seventy-two trillion. We will sup- 

 pose that these bacteria have, as so many have, 

 the power of illumination. A glow suddenly 

 appears in the water. It grows and grows. Now 

 the whole surface of the ocean begins to shine 

 in fabulous ocean phosphorescence. But this 

 phosphorescence penetrates into greater depths: 

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