CHAPTER XII 
EPILOGUE 
AN epilogue after a “ conclusion ” may seem pleon- 
astic, and but a dull humour. There is a sense, 
however, in which a second conclusion may not be 
without interest in considering our main theme. 
Man’s view of his world is frankly anthropocentric. 
Certain sacred writings accord with this point of view. 
On the other hand, the study of the story of life upon 
earth, it may be said, has rendered it of a value which 
is not exhausted by thinking of it wholly in connection 
with its relation to him. Apparently zons passed in 
earth’s life-story before even the crudest progenitors 
of the human race appeared. Colossal animals had 
wandered over the world-surface, only to pass to 
oblivion, except in so far as their traces remain as 
fossil skeletons. Prof. E. Rignano has submitted in 
Scientia, and elsewhere, reasons for their disappearance, 
among which may be mentioned even 200 favourable 
conditions for their development. This operated to 
cause an increase which produced numbers that could 
not be maintained: sometimes the consequence was 
annihilation! * Attempts have been made to formulate 
the life-experiences of living forms quantitatively, and 
to develop even a mathematical theory of the struggle 
for existence.” Drs. Pearl and Reed have thought to 
show that Man’s rate of increase follows a very simple 
biological law. In certain experiments of theirs they 
* By Vita Volterra, “Une teoria matematica sulla lotta per Lesis- 
senza,” Scientia, Vol. XLI, No. 178, pp. 85-102 (1927). 
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