Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-04-23
CAN MAN LIVE FOREVER?
Another Article by DR.. Hammond Oh
This Curious Tep'e-There Is
no Physiological Rsason,
Barring Accident, Why Life Should Not
BIO Prolonged fnde Fl nitely-The Orig
inssor of This Proposition.
New York Mail and EXPRESS.

New York Mail and Express.
In recent paper in which this subject
Is discussed l expressed the opinion that
there Is no physiological reason why man
should die. The article has attracted q
good deal Of criticism, some of it favor
able, some Of it adverse and some Of it
humorous. conot see why there should
have been any comment of this last-nsmed
quality. The matter in all its relations
10 certainly q serious one, and I WAS
never more earnest in my life than when
expressing the thoughts IN question. They
were necessarily frsgmenIary in charac-
ter, and, OF course, lacked that fullness CT
detail which l should have given had the
circumstances been favorable to elabors-
ton. am advised now, however, that s
few more words from me upon the SUBJ
Ject would be acceptable, inasmucn as it
appears that certain Of my observations,
as vel as the whole drift of the article,
have been oy some CT my critics greatly
misunderstood.
In the first place, it has been said that
my idea Is not original. So far as the as
ser;ion of the possibility OF not dying is
concerned, / have made no claim to
originality. But l do clsim that in
enuncistiDg the proposit on thst there is
no physiological reason for man dying
priority is mine. Even this claim, how
ever, has been disputed, aud have been
referred to little book by Mr.. Hyland
G. Kirk, entitled the POSSIBILITY OF Not
DYING" and published by Messrs. Put
mans in 1888, for the original basis of my
statemen and argument. When l wrote
my paper had not seen the book IN gues-
ton, but have since read it very thor
ougaly, and, while can heartily congrat-
ulste the suthor on his production, have
been unable 10 find any reasons for tine
eternal life Of msn in the slightest degree
similar to those l have sdduced.
But even il Mr.. Kirk had based his lit
! tie book upon the proposition which
forms the foundation of my argument, he
still would not be its original proopunder.
For in work OF my own, entitled
Treatise on Hygiene" ETC., and pub
lished in 1868, twenty years before Mr..
Kinks brochure made its appearance,
used the following words:
"The animal BODY differs from any in
organic machine in the fact that it pos
sesses the power Of self repair. In the
steam engine, for instance, the fuel
which serves for the production Of steam,
and subsequently for the creation OF
force, can do nothing towards the repair
Of the parts which have become worn cut
by use. Day by day, by constant attri-
ton and other causes, the engine be-
comes less perfect, and eventually must
be put in order by the workman. In the
animal body, however, the material which
serves for the production of force is the
body itself, and the substances which are
taken ss food are assimilated according
to their character by those organs and
parts which require them.
The body is, therefore, undergoing con-
tlnusl change. Tne hair Of yesterday is
not the h4ir of to-day; the muscle which
extends the srm is not identically the
same muscle after as before its action;
old material hiss been removed and new
has been deposited to an equal extent;
and though the weight and form, the
chemical constitution and astrological
characters have been preserved, the iden-
tity has been lost.
$50 long as these sections exactly coun-
terbalsnce each other life continues. II
1t were possible so to. adiust the repair to
the waste that neither would be in excess,
there is no physiological reason why life.
If protected against accidents, should not
continue Indefinitely. But this Is not,
with our present knowledge, possible, and
consequently decomposition eventually
becomes predominant and death from old
age results" Page go
1t has been alleged that ii man were
never to die the time would come when
the earth would be insufficient by reason
of his great numbers for his sustenance,
and that then death from starva-
ton would result. As 8 mathemat-
zeal proposition, this is doubtless
true, but practically it would be found to
be of very little importance, for the earth
is capable of supporting, il all the arable
land were properly cultivated, popula-
| ton many million times larger Than that
which it now contains. Moreover, my
argument related solely to physiological
reasons for the perpetuity Of life, and OF
course, therefore, to factors operating
within the human body. Even if man
thoroughly understood the laws OF his
| being, and were wise enough to live in
accordance with this knowledge, death
would by no means be abolished. He
would still be liable to be struck by light
ming (for with all his knowledge Of the
laws of electricity he would not be- able
always to protect himseli(, to be drowned
by foods, to be buried by earth
quakes, to DE wrecked by storms at sea,
to be run over in Broadway, to be muir
dered by his enemies, to be blown up by
dynamite, and, above all, to be killed in
war. For it is not to be supposed that
completeness Of knowledge in regard to
health would make man any more moral
or any less aggressive than he is at pres
emit.
Besides, il through the possibility of
not dying by living as he ought to live,
mankind should increase in number to
such an extent as to be beyond the sus-
tanning capacity OF the earth, the surplus
would of course die Of starvation, and
very properly, too We should have then,
on large scale, the principle Of the "sur-
vival of the ftiest' brought into action.
It would be tie worthless that would die,
and thus the balance would be continually
tending toward proper adjustment.
1t is scarcely possible however, that sill
mankind would, under the most favorable
circumstances, soquire perfect know
ledge of the laws of life and st the same
time invariably live in accordance with
those laws. There would be ignorant