The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1895-09-07
KEeFiIsu Old AlG a -A7.
Vegetarian Argument with Illustrations
Which Appeal to AL

NcSHtdh2dH hTEulncllL WIN
Which Appeal to AL
A few years ago an Italian bacteriol-
ogist proclaimed that he had discovered
the germ OF old age" The idea was
secuted by all scientific men, but there
mey be something IN it after all. At
any rate, says Modern Medicine, there
seems to be good ground for believing
that germs, il not . specific germ, are
at least one of the most important in
huences which bring on old age 1t
has long been known that the ptomains
or toxic substances produced by mi
crobes are capable of setting up various
degenerative processes. Degencrative
changes in the joints, the liver, the
kidneys and other organs, have been
directly traced to this cause The
writer has for some time held the opin-
ion that the deGenerative changes Incl
dent to advancing age are due to the
same cause; namely, the toxins alb
sorbed from the alimentary canal.
These toxins are constantly present in
greater or less quantity, according to
the extent to which Preventative and
putrefaetive processes prevail in the
stomach and intestipes. These proc
esses depend first, upon the integrity
of the digestive process, in the indi-
vidual, and, secondly, upon the char
acter of the substances introduced into
the alimentary canal as food.
These considerations suggest at once
+ the thought while all human beings
must necessarily be constantly subject
to the influence of toxic substances
generated in their own alimentary
canal, and consequently must grow old
and succumb sooner or later to the de-
generatiye process of old age, these
processes may be greatly accelerated |
by subsisting upon diet which favors
the production of toxic substances in
the alirnentary canal
If this theory is correct we should ex-
pect to find the greatest longevity
among those animals and those men
who subsist on the simplest and purest
diet, other conditions being equal. 1t
would be impossible to find sharper
contrast than that which exists in this
respect between carnivorous and vege-
tartan animals. Contrast, for example,
the dog which grows old, becomes rheu-
matte and infrm in eight or ten years,
with the donkey, who lives q useful life
to forty or fifty years, and the elephant,
which is still active and useful at one
hundred years. The same is true aIaong
men. The greatest number of persons
who now live above one hundred years
of age are to be found among Russian
PEASANTS, who rarely taste meat. These
people have been practical Tegetarians
for so many centuries-perhaps from
the earliest ages-that anatomisas have
noted distinct difference in The length
of tleir alInentary canals as compared
with those of the fcsh-catinc Germans,
whose ancestors were ca1nib;.ls. Eheu-
matism m lis proteaa forms is one of
the most constant ard distressing dis
orders OF old age The relation be-
tween English roast beef and the gout
and rhcum2tism, which prevail so ex
5ensivcl y among Englishr1eIl, YES clear {
y pointed out by that distinguished I
physician and essayist, j. Miner
Foohel gill The above considerations,
f not considered absolutely conclusive,
Ire worthy of thought.