The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-01-18
SCIENCE MAY MAKE
OLD MEN GROW YOUNG

Chicago ChronicIeJ
Reversible life is the latest discovery
/ Of Professor Jacques Loeb. the exDeri-
mental Psychologist of the University
| OF Chicago. He has just published a
I pamphlet describing a discovery that
ne has made showing that in develop
ing eggs and other forms of life he can
reverse the processes of life-that is
he can take the animal after il has
reached a certain stage of growth and
/ IS IN certain physical processes and, by
{ changing It's environment, reverse its
( growth.
Dr. Loeb says that nature has shown
| him that there is a critical point in the
Z development Of a mature egg. when
death can be avoided As the deveIop-
ment of an egg is comparable and sim
I Ilar to the growth and development of
man, why is there not a critical point
IN the life Of man when the processes
OF senility may be reversed and death
avoided?
Who can tell said DR.. Loeb. what
application this may have TO human
life when IL is worked out more fully
in the future2"
In the American Journal of Phyziol-
ogy of Jan. ]. 1901, i'm which Dr. Loeb
describes his experiments with the
polyp and egg in regard to reversible
development he says
1t Is not impossible that natural
which is present in the mature egg.
Nature has shown US the way by which
at this critical point death can be
avoided in the case of the egg. What
may nature not show US in the case of
NAM
Providing Professor I.oeb's theories
are worked out as lovers of longevity
would have them. men win be able to
live long at fast clip, giving no heed
10 the abnormal physical processes
which are bringing on seniity until
they reach the certain mysterious crit
ical point IN life. At this point they
must have an expert prescribe a new
environment for them and prescribe
new foods for them that are known to
have the power of rev ersing the proc
esses of life development Then the
man viii grow backward and If the
process continued long enough. he
would be babe in the cradle again in
time
he role of the spermatOzOOn in the
egg is explained by Professor Loeb in
his pamphlet He describes his experi-
ments in reversing the life of the egg
as follows.
Now II Is the power Of the cataIvtfc
substances which acceIerates the proc
esSes of development and saves the life
of the egg. This may be made inteIH-
giDle by the following assumption
Two kinds OF processes are going on in
the mature egg after it has left the
OVaTy- The one leads TO the formation
of substances which kill the egg. the
other leads TO the formation of sub
stances which allow growth and cell
division. and are not poisonous. The
processes that cause the death of the
egg cell and the one that cause. cell
division are at least partly antagonist
ic. They are both inhibited by low
temperature. so that in this case death
does not occur, although no cell divi-
sion is possible. IF we succeed in find
ing a substance which accelerates the
process of cell division at the normal
temperature this viii at the same time
lead to suppression or a reduction of
the antagonisttc processes that shorten
life
1T is very important to realize that
the introduction Of cataIytic sub
stances into the egg does not pr0lnne
its life unless the egg has reached
critical point determined by two sets
of conditions The one is the maturity
of the egg. the other the change of con-
GitiOns connected with the egg leaving
the ovary- AS long as the egg is I'm
mature il lives without the introduce
ton of these substances or the sperma-
toZOon, and this may be true for the
mature egg as long as it remain in the
oVary. The fact that there is an age
limit for the development or the car
may b similar phenomena.