4/28/82 Ed Pankowski, masseur in A.R.E. Therapy, gave GD the
following pages from the book by Sir J. Arthur Thompson and
Patrick Geddes, saying: "Edgar Cayce's readings amazingly
speak of these same principles. He gave many therapy hints
that harmonize with these notes."
CELL(S): AGING AND/OR REJUVENESCENCE
From:- "A TREASURY OF SCIENCE" - Harper & Bros. Pub. (1946
Edition)
Part 4:- "THE WORLD OF LIFE"
Section "A" :- "THE RIDDLE OF LIFE"
- from the book "LIFE:OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY"
by Sir J. Arthur Thompson and Patrick Geddes
Chapter Title: "THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANISMS"
Page 288 - "DEVELOPMENT"
DEVELOPMENT - In active tissues, like muscle or gland, wear
and tear is inevitable, especially in the less labile parts
of the cells - the furnishings of life's laboratories, such
as the for the most part ultra-microscopic films that
partition the cyptoplasm into areas. When the results of the
wear and tear over-accumulate, they tend to depress activity
and in time to inhibit it; and this means ageing, towards
death. But this decline of vitality may be counteracted by
rejuvenescence-processes in the ageing cells, or by the
replacement of worn-out cells by new ones. In some cases the
hard-worked cells go fatally out of gear, as in the brain of
the busy summer-bee, which does not usually survive for more
than six or eight weeks. In other cases, as in ordinary
muscle, the recuperation afforded by food and rest is very
perfect, and the same cell may continue active for many
years. Such cells are comparable to the relatively simple
unicellular animals, like the amoebae, which recuperate so
thoroughly that they evade natural death altogether. In
another set of cases, e.g. the lining cells of the stomach,
or the epithelium covering the lips, the senescent cells die
and drop off, but are replaced by others. The outer
epidermic layer of the skin (the stratum corneum) is
continually wearing away, and as continually being replaced
by contributions from the more intensely living and growing
deeper stratum (the stratum Malpighii). Similarly at the tip
of a rootlet there is a cap of cells which are always dying
away and being replaced from the delicate growing point which
they protect. From such replacement of cells there is an
easy transition to the re-growth of lost parts. The starfish
re-grows its lost arm, the crab its claw, the snail its horn,
the earthworm its head. From cells below the plane of
separation there is in each case a regulated growth, which
replaces what has been lost. We have already mentioned a
very striking instance, in which regrowth is normal, and in
organic and seasonal rhythm independent of any violence from
without - namely, the re-growth which gives the stag new
antlers to replace those of the previous year... The needful
renewal of embryonic tissue is rarely seen, unless there be
some recurrent need for it. Most lizards can re-grow their
long tail if that has been snapped off by a bird or
surrendered in fear or in battle, but the chameleon which
keeps its tail coiled round the branch, has not unnaturally
lost this power. Long-limbed animals like crabs, and
starfishes with their lank arms, have great regenerative
capacity, in striking contrast to the compact and swiftly
moving fishes, which cannot even replace a lost scale! The
recurrence of non-fatal injuries is not common among the
higher animals, so their power of regenerating important
parts has waned. Enough of this, however; our
present point is that the regeneration of lost parts
illustrates a renewal of that regulated growth of complicated
structure which is characteristic of embryonic development.
Out of apparently simple cells at the stump of a snail's
horn, the whole can be regrown, including the eye at the tip;
and this may occur not once only, but forty times. From the
broken portion of a Begonia leaf there buds a complete plant
- to root and shoot and flower. From such reconstruction
there is but a step to the asexual multiplication of many
plants and animals - whether by the bulbils of the lily, the
buddings of the hydra in the pond, or the halving of the
Planarian worm. When the tail-half of the dividing Planarian
worm proceeds to differentiate a new head, with
brain-ganglia, eyes, and mouth complete, there is an obvious
development - the formation of new and complex structures
out of the undifferentiated and apparently simple...
In his discussions of the characteristics of living
creatures, Huxley was wont to lay emphasis on what he called
"cyclical development." Within the embryo-sac, within the
ovule, within the ovary of the flower, a miniature plant is
formed by the division and re-division of the fertilized
egg-cell. The ovule becomes a seed; and this, when sown, a
seedling. By insensible steps there is fashioned a large and
varied fabric, of root and shoot, of leaves and flowers. But
sooner or later, after this development is complete, the
grass begins to wither and the flower thereof to fade. In
the case of an annual plant, there is soon nothing left but
the cycle anew...
Among animals the egg-cell, in many cases microscopic,
divides and redivides, and an embryo is built up. Division
of labour sets in among its units... Some cells become
nervous, others muscular, others glandular, others skeletal;
and so the differentiating process continues. Hereditary
contributions from parents and ancestors find expression,
some of fundamental important and others relatively trivial;
the past lives on in the present; often the individuals
shows, in varying degree, evidence that is is "climbing up
its own genealogical tree." Sometimes the embryo develops
steadily and directly into the likeness of its kind, as in
birds and mammals, with only traces of circuitousness, such
as notochord and gill-clefts disclose - tell-tale evidence
of the lien the past continues to hold on the present.
Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation