Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-07-19
THE PRONUNCIATION OF LIFE.
DIR. Brown-SeQuard's "vital Principle
Not Likely to Do IL.

DIR. Brown-sequard's 'svital Principle
Not Likely to Do IL.
From the Providence Journal
1t is not to be wondered ct that the news
papers have very generally been inclined 10
ridicule or to doubt the announcement that
DIR. Brown-Sequard, the venerable French
physician, has discovered the long-sought-for
''vital principle" and produced a connection
which can indefinitely prolong human exist
ence. Men have long since ceased to seek
for the elixir Of life over which genera
tons dreamed, and most men, let us hope,
have ceased to care for it or think OF the
mysterious essence Of Margrave or Van Hell
mont save with the same amused pity with
which they read of the painful struggle of the
alchemists for the secret which should trans
form baser metals into gold. II has very nat
urally seemed absurd. then, that great physi-
ologist OF the nineteenth century should have
seriously set himself at work to prove the pos
sibility OF the end sought by man in the middle
ages, and the disposition to regard the story as
hoax Is certainly pardonable, despite the
fact that even eminent Psychologists of the
nineteenth century have expressed the opinion
that there is no physiological reason why man
should die
But the story is not altogether hoax. DIR.
! Brown-Sequard has not professed to have found
the secret of earthly Immortality, but he GER
tainly appears to have persuaded himself that
he has discovered something very nearly akin
to that vital principle" which Mr.. Alfred r.
Wallace still believes to exist The distinguished
Frenchman-so says that able review, the New
York Medical Jou1sGl-has long believed that
such a principle resides in one of the organs
OF the body, at least SO far that the
i D,SOd passing through il is enormously
from the veins OF young animals he has
| therefore for a series of years been inocu-
lating old and broken-down animals and with
| such surprising results that he has more re-
Gently been experimenting upon his own sys-
TEN. DR.. Brown-Sequard is by no means a
young man-he Is fast nearing four score-but
| these subcutaneous injections seem to have re-
Juvenated him, well as the animals upon
| which he first made his tests. An old and de-
| crepit dog became endowed anew with friski-
ness of comparative youth; and he himself. as
he tells the Paris Societe de Biologie, has felt
| his muscular strength in great measure re-
turned and his mental vigor materially in
| creased.
| This is practically all that is vet known in
| this country of the result of the doctors ex-
periments or of his deduction concerning them
| though 1t is safe to say that he has had no
| thought beyond the possibility of SO restoring
| the waste OF the system as to temporarily post
pone the day OF inevitable dissolution. But a
| claim even OF 80 much will not be received
| without much questioning and after the fullest
continuation because of its wide importance,
and more particularly because Of the radical
! and almost fundamental changes in our view of
physiological laws which it involves. Indeed
| 1t Is not easy TO believe, without the evidence
! OF years of the most careful and the widest ex-
| tended experiment and observation. that there
can be any single prophylactic against all the
| ills OF mortality. Nor is such thing to be de-
sired as that man should violate the laws of his
being and still escape the penalty of his mis-
| deeds.
| Much has been written upon this subject in re-
cent years. Mr.. II. C. Kirk published an interest
| ing little work upon 1.-The Possibility OF not Dy-
I'M" some half dozen years ago. DIVA. Ham,
| mond back in the sixtlees advanced the theory
that there is no physiological reason for death;
| Sir Spencer Wells, the famous English surgeon
| has quite recently expressed his belief that the
natural duration of human life should be at
least 100 years. with an occasional extension of
| some ten or fifteen years more; and even a CEN
| fury ago Bichat, whose intuitions wonderfully
| anticipated the conclusions of a later science
held that the normal longevity of our race
| should be at least ninety-six years, basing
his inference upon the fact that the
life term of all known mammals exceeds
at least six times the period Of their
growth. But all these have based their opinions
upon the belief that the decay of the human
organism could be prevented. not repaired
that Is, by healthful surroundings. by proper
| food and drink and clothing by abstine nee
Il
mental. And it is only long life thus obtained
| that 1t is for the good Of humanity to acquire
| The theory is simple, and il Is something more
| than plausible. The animal body differs from
any inorganic machine in the fact that il pos
sesses the power of self-repair and so long as
the repair can be precisely adjusted to the
waste life will continue, save by the Interrupt
ton of accident. The question, of course. is
whether it is practically possible to make
| these two actions exactly counterbalance
each other for an indefinite period, or even
for any very great number of years beyond
what is now considered the normal duration
OF life. Possibly not. and yet il is. on the
other hand. not little significant that the
average duration of human life has been in
creased something more than six years within
the past half century, result of our greater
sanitary knowledge and our knowledge of the
means to prevent disease. The list of prevent
able diseases is already large one and is being
| augmented from year to year. Where we shall
stop no man can say, though the ability we
have to prolong life already far exceeds our
willingness to apply the knowledge. hun
dred years may not be an oyer-estimate of the
natural limit of life few generations hence
and We ourselves might indeed be much nearer
that limit If as nations We strove honestly and
persistently after it. At least it Is to be said
that long life thus gained is the only life worth
having, and the only life which would not prove
a curse rather than a blessing to the human
race.