The times., 1899-07-11
RESIGN THYSBLF TO Fate
DR.. Taber johnson DisereGits the
Curtiss Longevity Scheme.
He Does Not Believe II Possible for
They Do Now-Has No Faith in
the One Thousnnd-Year Theory
New Order OF Things Required.

In an open letter to Andrew Carnegie,
| which was made public in Chicago yester-
day, DR.. Romaine J. Curtiss. of Joliet. ILL.,.
states that if the human being will adapt
his environment to his life and the pos
sibilities of his organization he can live
| for 1000 years and the request is made
that Mr. Carnegie endow an institution
for the teaching of hygiene in order that
the term of natural life be extended to
the above number of years. The sum de-
| sired for the establishment of such an
institution is placed at $50 600, 600, but
DR.. Curtiss claims that the expenditure
would be well made as 1t would make the
donor the worlds greatest benefactor to
| mankind and would be the greatest invest
ment ever made for human welfare.
In view of the fact that DR.. Curtiss is
said to be an eminent authority and writer
on bacteriology and formerly held this
| chair in the Chicago College of Physicians
and Surgeons, the statements made in the
letter have attracted much attention and
caused some discussion. The writer as
sures the world that If he can but obtain
the funds. s50.000. .00B. for the establish
|
an early grave and those who wish may
live to be 1000 years old DR.. Curtiss
writes in part as follows:
The average longevity is from twenty five to
thirty years, and the average death rate is twen-
| ty-two per thousand. One person in 4 million
| lives to be 100 years old
| 1t is quite the fashion for newspapers to send
| a reporter to the centenarian ard see if the
science OF long life cannot be quizzed Of him.
| Unfortunately, too many of these centenaFians
J drank liquor and were tobacco users from their
! youth TO the hundredth year. How did they
! get this immunity? II acquired by natural
| selection in the great struggle of humanity
against parasitism. To live forever is the sugges-
J tiOn OF a prayer cut short by accurate fact and
| hopelessness; but am prophet enough to say
| that money is destined to make the average
/ longevity Of 1000 years. 1t Will be done
, by education in tho science OF all sciences-hy-
| giene. The absolute destruction of parasitisn
! in life. morals, and physics will do this work.
There is no law of nature which contradicts
this proposition. That the world would become
overpopulated is not true, for it is a law that
births in direct relation TO longevity-the
| larger the average of life the less births.
1t is i scientific truth that parasitisgn is the
cause OF death Therefore the absolute destruction
OF parasitisIn can increase the duration OF life
| TO 1000 years The establishment of an institu-
| ;ion. a university, in Chicago for the teaching
cf hygiene and its collateral sciences would in
| augurate in the worlds evolution more
striking and instructive than the Christian era
, 1t would sicnalize the destruction of moral and
physical parasitism, the abolition of disease and
would increase the average duration Of life to
| l,000 years Andrew Carnegie can do this work
1t will require S50,000,O00.
In speaking of the statements made by
Dr. Curtiss and of the possibility of a man
/ being able to live for a period approach
! ing coo years through the destruction OF
parasitism, DR.. Joseph Tabor Johnson, "a
prominent local physician, and an author
| ity on bacteriology and hygiene. held that
while the idea of teaching hygiene was
I splendid one there was no more chance
| CT a man living to be even 200 years old
than there is at present, and under present
conditions.
The idea is this. (" said DIR. Johnson to
| Times reporter last night. with an ao-
! solute knowledge OF how to live properl,
a man can live better while he does live
and can live with less pain and illness,
/ but he cannot prelong his life to any ex-
! tent. The statement is made that the Sc
| cret OF long life IS the destruction of para
! sitisn and that the teaching of hygiene
will effect this. and thus a man may live to
/ be LOCO years old. Why net 5000 years
/ well as 1000; or, if the parasites, which
! are the cause OF death, can be removed,
why not say that man can live forever
and never die unless ne meets with an
I cident?
| But one scientific truth is expressed In
/ the letter. This is that parastism is the
! cause of DEATH The other statements are
/ but individual theories. Then again all the
so-called parasites which destroy life and
/ tissue are not parasites in the strict sense
/ of the word, but are almost unavoidable
/ denizens of minute life in the form of
| germs and microbes. The science of hy-
! giene cannot prevent a man from eating,
| drinking breathing, or from exercising any
| OF the necessary functions and so long as
| a man is supplied with his present organ
/ ism and anatomy he will continue to ab-
! sorb germs and microbes and such life de-
| stroyers. He cannot purify the air he
| breathes on the street, Eor can he avoid
! the millions of little animalculae which
| pervade food and water.
IF we could but reconstruct the world
! and start in doing business with nice,
clean, antiseptic sphere. some little unseen
| parasite or germ would dodge in unseen
and knock all our plans on the head. The
/ idea is this. that while we can avoid
I many of the parasites which cling and
/ destroy life, we are in constant danger
! from the other germs, and these in them
/ selves cause death somewhere around
| the allotted space of three score years
and ten. Where man does live to be one
hundred years old, it is but case wherein
man who is, through physical or natural
/ selection, able to withstand the raYages
| of the life destroyers for few more years
| than others. But what is the result? He
| is deaf and nearly blind and his brain is
worn out and cannot be depended upon.
The idea of teaching hygiene is a splen-
| did one. and might tend to make life
| more easy for coming generations-ik they
will live up to the laws of living. Today
hygiene is being taught in all of the public
| SCHOOLS and few men or women are igno-
rant of the harmful and the beneficial.
Still we persist in eating what We want
and in smoking and drinking and in dress
ing and living against these very laws.
| We will have to create new order of
human beings who VIII i've like machines.
| | am afraid. or we will accomplish little.
| Thirty years of careful dieting and hygi-
enic living can be spoiled by a minute
grain OF decomposed food carried on the
hind leg of a fly. All of this Is very in
teresting. but no man can hope to live
to be much older or even as old as his
grandfather.
Il do not see why the new school of
hygiene would require $50 900, 900. There
| is not university in the country, Harvard,
Yale, Cornell, and Princeton included,
which has an endowment of over 50. 900 900
Still, let the school be established-the
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