350 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



The first great change that had to be intro- 

 duced into Nature was the diminishing of the 

 number of young produced at a birth. As we 

 have seen, nearly all the lower animals produce 

 scores, or hundreds, or thousands, or millions, at 

 one time. Now, no mother can love a million. 

 Clearly, if Nature wishes to make care-takers, she 

 must moderate her demands. And so she sets to 

 work to bring down the numbers, reducing them 

 steadily until so few remain that Motherhood be- 

 comes a possibility. How great this change is can 

 only be understood when one realizes the almost 

 incalculable fecundity of the first created forms of 

 life. When we examine the progeny of the lowest 

 plants we find ourselves among figures so high 

 that no microscope can count them. The Pro- 

 tococcus Nivalis shows its exuberant reproductive 

 power by reddening the Arctic landscape with 

 its offspring in a single night. When we break or 

 shake the Puff-ball of the well-known fungus, the 

 cloud of progeny darkens the air with a smoke 

 made up of uncountable millions of spores. Hyda- 

 tina Senta, one of the Rotifera, propagates four 

 times in thirty-four hours, and in twelve days is 

 the parent of sixteen million young. Among fish 

 the number is still very great. The herring and 

 the cod give birth to a million ova, the frog spawns 



