The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1889-08-25
THE ELIXIR OF LIFE.

DIR. BRowN-SEoUARD's late inven-
ton of a sort of Elixir of Life" is
naturally exciting a good deal of at
tention. DIR. Brown-Sequard is a
man of very wide and diversified ex-
perience. A Canadian by birth, he
has practiced in this country, in Lon
don and in France, and everywhere
has made himself remarkable by bis
boldness and originality. A full ac-
count of his latest experiments has
been published and DR.. w. A. Ham
mond, so well known as an authority |
on nervous diseases, is engaged in e1-
perimenting with his formula, with a /
slight alteration in the source from
which he obtains his elixir. He tried
, his first experiment on man OF sixty,
martyr to rheumatism, who, on the
day following the treatment, could
button his shirt collar and stroke his
back hair, two things which he had
not done for years. An elixir that
would prevent ones collar but
ton running about the floor and hid
ing in remote recesses, inaccessible to
man. is the next boon that suffering
humanity demands. DR.. Permay, at
Indianapolis, has ministered to gen.
tleman in the Hoosier state with the
result that he got up early on Monday
morning and exclaimed. Il feel like
working" This was evidently an al
most forgotten sensation, and it is to
behoped this good effect will be perma-
ment. We fear, however, that the
dose of lambs flesh was too strong,
for he added, Il feel kind O funny,
like I did twenty-five years ago."
To make a man of fifty feel ''funny,
like as if he were twenty-five" is a
triumph of art and science.
Some Philadelphia medicos say
Brown-Sequard is in his dotage, and
that Hammond is a quack. This is
Yituperation, not argument. Expert
ments continued for a long time
should be instituted before any one
can give a verdict. DIR. Hammond
confesses he has not much faith, but
he has the courage TO prosecute ex-
periments with a view to ascertain
ing the truth The world may be on
the verge of a great discovery, and
the century that has annihilated space
by electricity may annihilate time, or,
at least, check its ravages by a hypo-
dermic syringe. A century ago men
were ridiculing ng Jenner and his system
of vaccination; to-day the world does
not ridicule Pasteur and his system
of inoculation for rabies; and Brown
Sequard deserves patient hearing.
The elixir of Life" and ''The FOun-
tain of Rejuvenescence" have always
been dreams of mankind. De Soto
perished in quest of one, and many
an old alchemist lost his life by the
fumes of his own alembic while search
ing for the other. All the posi-
bilities of hypOdermic injections are
by no means exhausted. The first
American to experiment hypodermi-
cally is the rattlesnake. His poison
can be swallowed and does not affect
the skin; it is only deadly when in
jected under the skin by his fangs.
Hence, we may argue that the fact OF
the ingredients used by DR.. Ham
mond being common articles of food,
that produce no effect when eaten, is
no argument for their inefficency
when injected. In fatal poisoning by
snake bite the blood everywhere CO.
agulates with increasing damage to
the nerve centers, that keep us alive
by energizing the muscles that move
the chest walls. The respirations be-
come weaker and weaker, the chest
becomes motionless,, and the hind
legs paralyzed. Injections of per-
manganate of potash will destroy the
venom's power to kill. The symp-
toms of death by venom are not un-
like those of other diseases. Are We
to have an antidote to old age? To be
immortal would be the greatest curse.
Dante makes the most wretched of
souls those that non h0nilO SperGnzd
di mOTte; but an alienation of some
of the horrors of age is boon to be
prayed for.
The marvellous growth of our iron
and steel-making industry under the
protective tariff, is well illustrated by
the statement that the consumption
OF both has increased 128 per cent.
since 1879, and that in spite of q
marked decrease in the amount of
railway construction.
A BRITISH subsidy of e60.000 has