The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1897-07-25
TO ABOLISH DEATH.
A SCIENTIST CLAIMS THAT THOUGHT
DETERMINES LONGEVITY.

DE EtWlNES LONOEW Y.
He Maintains That the Progress of Brain
Science VIII Enable Mankind to Over
come Decay and Death - Believes That
Immortal Life win BE Achieved In Time.
DR.. G. a. Stephens, a New England
man, a graduate of the Boston univer-
sity medical school and member of
many learned bodies, built laboratory
several years ago at Norway lake, near
Norway, Me-, and he spends almost all
his time there in investigating the
causes of cid age and death, with the
object of their alienation and removal.
Dr.. Stephens published from his labora-
tory the close connection of all the cells
in the brain by nerve fiber, enabling
them to feel and act together, about y
years before the discovery was an
nounced by the great Spanish physiolo.
gist, Ramon y Cajal of Madrid
DR.. Stephens says he is confident that
the progress Of brain science will enable
mankind successfully to overcome decay
and its climax, death He pointed out
that matter is indostructiblo and that
the law of the universe is Immortality.
He believes that death at threescore
and ten or Whereabouts is largely mat
ter of belief and habit. Generation after
generation is born into the world expect
ing to die at certain time, and it dies
then. He very forcibly points out that
if children were brought up with the
idea Of living forever this altered ex-
pectation would gradually but surely
extend the life limit in the course of
generations.
To prove that life length is largely
child OF habit and environment he in
stances the elephant and the swan,
whose ages run into the centuries, as
compared with infusoria and moths,
whose heydey of existence is but the
fleeting moment. His. studies have
been particularly directed toward the
microscopic examination of the brain
cells of the old and infrm. He finds
their nuclei dark and shrunken, just
like the brain cells of the fatigued
pigeons and of the honeybees so graph
ically illustrated by DR.. Hodge of Clark
university, Worcester, Mass.
DR.. Stephens raises the serious in
quiry as to whether the universal pres
ence of microscopic "dirt" may not be
potent factor of old age and decay.
He has found large quantities Of for
eign inorganic matter in old brain cells.
He shows how this dirt is brought
into the system by the inspired air Cen
cIosuroses), through the cells of the
lungs into the blood and finds its final
refuse heap in the cells themselves,
where 1t increases in amount hourly
and escapes the metabolism constantly
occurring III the minute tissues the re-
juvenatiOn of organic material and the
constant birth of fresh physiological
structures.
The vastly superior power of brain
cells to resist decay suggests to DIR. Ste
phens the invincibility of thought life
in its final victory over deaths decay.
This very suggestive experimentalist
refers to the mental change which habit
induces soon after each individual has
reached the 'prime of life" Up to that
point there are energy and hope in all the
tissues, After that point all the histo-
logical structures Of the body lose heart
and make no effort to stem the tide
which sets for the downward path to
death.
The doctor declares that the achieve
ment Of modern special education,
which enables the deaf to hear with
their eyes and tones up relaxed vocal
chords, which bringsit to pass that the
blind see with their fingers, taken in
connection with the great longevity of
ancient races, as described in the Old
Testament and as authenticated in
monuments, shows that unusual length
of life has been a fait accompli of his
tory and suggests that the determine
ton of life length is possibly and prac-
tically within the domain of thought.
AS humanity i'll its physiological ex-
preston is wholly compromise with
perfection, DR.. Stephens argues that bet
ter food selection and a more watchful
outlook against the introduction OF for
eign and inorganic material into the sys-
tenn cannot help increasing the life po-
tential of each unit Of the race.
Dr. Stephens holds that what is
known as soul" is merely cell expert
ence, the knowledge acquired by cells
collectively and Individually during
years'of hereditary transmission. This
view is the same held by Sir William
Thomson and Thomas A. Edison. He
points out that father and child, death
and life, generation after generation,
are not the ideals Of human society, but
only its makeshifts. Immortal life is
the real aim in view, and he believes it
will be achieved in time St Louis
Globe-DemOcrat
Soldiers Neglected Graves.