Evening star., 1902-04-12
THE SECRET OF LIFE
Important Discoveries of a
Chicago Scientist.
EFFECT OF HIS WORK
THROWS A NEW LIGHT ON MANY
vEXING PROBLEMS.
Source of Nerve and Muscle Stimulants
is Electrical-A Talk
With DR.. Loeb.

Written for The Evening Star by Herbert Wallace.
The fact that Prof Jacques Loeb. head
| of the biological department at Chicago
| University, has reproduced the manifesto
| tions of physical life in certain chemical
| actions and has demonstrated that the
! source Of nerve and muscle stimulus is
| electrical, means more than was first real
| iZed when the announcement of his discov
cry was made few weeks ago. DR.. Loeb
did not reveal all of the results Of his ex
| periments at that time neither did he
| stop his labors when he accomplished the
| first success. Yet he is not willing to lay
| claim to having discovered the great Sc
| cret of what life is, how it begins and why
| it ends, but he has left 1t to those who have
| seen the results of his recent expert
ments to draw the conclusion that he has
arrived very close to the most astounding
discovery of century. Certain 1t is that
| a new physiology has been born, and new
| pharmacology well. We shall have to
revise our text books and our systems of
! treating with drugs.
There will soon be announced" said DR..
| Loeb to the writer a few days ago. IAN ac-
| count of the discovery that ensymes (the
| elemental forces of life), which do not NOM
! inally exist in the human frame, may be
| actually created. Not by me is this an
nouncement to be made" he added. THE
work has been done by another scientist,
and 1 can not talk about the matter yet.
You see, there are others working on these
great problems"
Can life be created at the will of man?
Can a scientist show how to avoid death?
Is there a reasonable way of lengthening
life? These are questions which every one
asks. Formerly the answer would have
been "impossibler' Now the man in the
street is saying, possibly" and the biolo-
gists who have been watching DR.. Loebs
work are ready to say, probably.
What He Has Accomplished.
At any rate, that is the conclusion to
which a study of DR.. Loeb's experiments
inevitably leads. Here is a scientist who
has already, In a sense, created life. He
has taken unfertilized sea urchin eggs,
from which, until they are brought into
contact with the sperm, no life can develop,
and he has, by means of chemical solutions,
been able to develop these so that they are
living organisms the same as though they
had been developed in the ordinary manner
With other solutions, salts ana chlorldeS
and other unfertiliZed eggs, he has accom-
plished similar results. Other scientists
have verified these conclusions by expert
ments of their own; the result is matter
of scientific history now, and what is called
artificial pathenogenesis is a fact no
longer to be questioned.
Dr. Loeb has gone further than this,
however-further than any previous biolo-
gist He has determined that the living
organism Is protoplasm in a liquid state;
that death comes when the protoplasm
passes into a more or less soIid conoltion;
and that life itself depends on the electrical
charges of the protopla small particles. 1t
was shown some time ago that poisons
acted on the nerves in just this manner
the colloidal substance of which the nerves
are composed began to soidify under tho
action of poison. Here We may see the ap-
plication of the new pharmacology. IL is
no longer necessary to administer medlclnes
blindly. The exact effect of every drug,
every chemical can be aScertained without
difficulty. The body, in Illness or health,
must be in a certain chemical state, which
will be shown by the new methods of dag
nosis Granted that this latter may be ac-
complished, and it seems now that 1t VIII
be, it is easy to see how the proper eheml-
Gals or medicines. bearing the proper
charges of electricity in themselves, may
be used to restore the body to its normal
condition. The scientists will have shown
us a way to control physical life. Thls is
probably very near to what Prof. Loeb
meant when he said that he wished to Un-
derstand life, to take it in his hands and
play with ne chose.
On what, then, does life depend?
Life and Death.
1.-The present theory, says DR.. Loeb, rs
that an electric charge keeps our proto-
plasm in a liquid condition as to pre-
vent coagulation. Life depends on the
liquid condition of certain parts OF our
protoplasm; death comes with the coaguIa-
tion of these parts, and the forces which
make the manifestations of life possible
are first of all the electric charges of the
particles of this protoplasm."
If electricity is at the source OF living
energy mans digestive apparatus is no
longer to be regarded as heat-producing
mechanism. His stomach is dynamo and
his nerves are the connecting media-the
telegraph wires = for communication be-
tween the different parts Of the body and
the storage battery in his Uranium. His
heart is a big, muscular pump. which beats
rhythmically, because of the electrical
charges produced by chemical changes go
ing on in the body. His lungs are set Of
bellows. which suck In oxygen and expei
carbolic acid gas for a similar reason. The
cranial storage battery is the seat Of a
mechanical intelligence, which directs the
actions of its surface extremities and MAIN
tains an electrical equilibrium in the body
We have. then, in ourselves, each an air
and liquid pump, storage battery and a