598th ordinary GENERAL MEETING, 



HELD IN COMMITTEE ROOM B, CENTRAL BUILDINGS, 

 WESTMINSTER, ON MONDAY, MARCH 18th, 1918, 



AT 4.30 P.M. 



Dr. a. T. Schofield in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed. 



The Hon. Secretary announced the election of the Rev, Thomas 

 Llewellyn Edwards as an Associate, and the deaths of Miss A. R. 

 Habershon and Prof. S. E. O'Dell, Associates. 



The Chairman called on Major W. McAdam Eccles to read his paper, 

 entitled " Why we Die." The paper wss illustrated by lantern slides. 



WHY WE DIE. By Major W. McAdam Eccles, M.S. (Lend.), 

 F.R.C.S.Eng., R.A.M.C., T. 



DEATH has always been an enigma, a fascination or a horror. 

 The war has forcibly brought the fact of death into many 

 a household where its appearance was scarcely thought of 

 four years ago, and the question why we die deserves investi- 

 gation. 



The Fact of Death. 



Physical death was a fact long before man's transgression, and 

 cannot in any way be connected therewith. Death of the living 

 is a universal mundane law, and is of the highest utility. Dis- 

 solution of the animal body must not be conceived as other than 

 a most beneficent occurrence. The human body dies in order 

 that many another human body may live. Death is a necessary 

 factor in the continuance of life. The sacrifice of life means the 

 maintenance of life. 



The circumstances which surround death both in the anima 

 world and human environment may be distressing and in many 

 instances tragic ; nevertheless the beneficial purpose of the death 

 still holds good. 



The fact of death is often difficult to prove. An animal may 

 consist of a single living cell, as an amoeba ; or of a few hundred 

 cells, as an hydra ; or of many, many millions of cells, as a man. 



