The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-07-02
CAN THE TERM OF
LIFE BE EXTENDED?
Prof. Me tchniISOff Talks About the
Fear of Death and the Instinct to
Live-OUr Animal Ancestors.

nent Russian zoologist, who has late
ly been devoting himself to independ-
ent research, has fixed the minimum
limit of mans natural life, so that at
last the fear and agony of death is
promised to be done away with for
those willing to live by the rules of
a scientific hygiene.
In an epoch-marking book of what
Prof. MetchnilSoff describes as 'op-
timistic philosophy" and entities
Studies in Mans Natural History"
fear of death is promised to become
desire for death when man, on reach
ing his one hundred and fortieth year,
shall begin to feel himself full of
days"
Curious Theory.
At present man is the victim of his
great intestine. This is the first thing
I learned from Prof .Metchnikoff. One
day, ages ago, the anthropoid ape gave
birth to her extraordinary child. BY
mere freak of nature-such as brought
into existence the calculating boy"
lnaudi-his brain developed abnormal
powers. He had gifted children
and the race of man began brusque-
ly, unprepared!
"A fine record for one monkey" I
said
Yes" says Prof. Metchnikoff. "but
the organic disharmonies resulting
from the brusque change have made
themselves the more felt as men have
grown more intelligent and sensitive"
The vermiform appendix is a mortal
disharmony for whose useful existence
we must go back to herb-eating crea-
lures like the rabbit--in whom il full
fills notable function in the digesting
of raw vegetable matter. In man ii is
nothing but a death-trap, one Paris
hospital in five years having treated
443 cases of appendicitis excluding in
fants, who are more subject to 1t than
adults
1T is only natural that the digestive
organs should furnish so many dis
harmonies," continued Prof Metchni-
kon. Our animal ancestors, forced to
live on roots, herbs, uncultivated vege-
tables, and uncooked meat, had or
gans adapted to their assimilation. Not
having got rid of them, man must en-
dure them. So, to be healthy, man
must always be a great eater of we'll
cooked vegetables, not so much for
their nutrition as to furnish this great
intestine with the large quantity of
waste matter it requires"
The Instinct of Death.
This brings us to the Pasteur Tnsti-
tute's great discovery of the cell COM
monwealth of the human body and the
plebeian revolt which In due course
of time brings on senile decay before
man has lived long enough to develop
the instinct of DEATH" which Prof.
Metchnikoff aflrms to lie in a poten-
tial form in the depths of human ma
ture.
Pathological old age-the wrong
Kind of old AGES distinguished by
general hardening" says the great
psychologist. "1n the brain the nerve
northumberland, sensitive, command
ing movements, ete.-give place to the
conductive tissue of the nervous CEN
tiers. In the liver the hepatic cells
are replaced by like framework. In the
Kidneys the same tissue chokes the
tubes that are indispensable for Kidding
us of a quantity of substances"
How does it come about?"
All over our bodies are myriads of
Independent cells, capable of moving
about, endowed with a. kind of sense
of taste or smell, and capable of choice.
Ceaselessly they devour all sorts of
solid substances. Hence they are call
| ed 'phagocytes.' voracious cells. They
| are our protectors against microbes,
| with whom they fight terrible battles
| in the most intimate recesses of our
| organism. They heal wounds, and they
reabsorb blood illusions and other ele-
ments out of place"
They are the soldiers, the police, and
the house-cleaning servants of the
body; and if their story ended here,
the phagocytes would merit all the hon
| ors due to veterans. Unhappily, as
| Prof Metchnikoff shows, they are SOL
| diers who cannot resist the opportun-
ity to pillage when 1t comes. In time
| they revolt against their brethren, the
higher cells, and eat them! And as
the higher cells are eaten up, the con-
| junctive tissue takes their place.
Have I not heard that some of
those microbes are useful?" I asked.
Pathological Old Age.
1.-THE uselessness of this microbian
flora is shown by its distribution. The
great mass of it exists in our waste
basket intestine. the digestive parts of
the tube being almost free Of it, Both
Nine. Metchnikoff and Prof. Nutta1l
have raised newborn guinea pigs and
other creatures free from microbes
Finally, the patients who have had
their great intestine cut out have lived
very we'll without the aid Of its mi
crobes"
And they bring on what we know as
old age?" q
"The mass of them remain in the
intestine. so that our organism regu-
larry triumphs over them; but their
soluble products can easily pass into
the lymph and the blood Here are the
slow poisons capable of weakening our
higher cells and provoking the phenom-
ena of senility!
what is to. be done?" continues the
Pasteur Institute professor. Man can
not wait for his great intestine to dis
appear in the course of ages"
at might be cut out?"
Perhaps in a far-off future that will
be accomplished; but in spite of the
immense progress of surgery we can
not at present dream of thus relieving
each citizen. No, the rational course
is to fight the great intestine's mass of
microbes!
And now we come to the great active
remedy, the miracle Of the twentieth
century!
81 ought to warm you that the prob
lem is not solved for immediate USE"
says Prof. Metchnikoff; but it's solu-
ton has nothing impossible about it.
The thing to do is to strengthen the
blood globu1es. the nerve, hepatic, and
renal cells the muscular fiber of the
heart and others"
"In order to enable these higher ceHs
to continue resisting the phagocytes
and so fight off old age?" 1 said, to
show that / understood.
The Great Remedy.
1.-THE task is facilitated by the dis