Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-18
TIGHTENING OF LIFE
MAY THE TERM OF YEARS OF
MAN BE ExTENDEDp
Inquiry Into the Causes Of the Decline
Of Physical Powers
With Age.

From the London Mail
Prof. Elias Metchnikor the eminent Rus
sian zoologist, who has lately been devot-
ing himself to Independent 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 scien-
tifc hygiene In an epoch-marking book
of what Prof. Metchnikoff describes as
optimistic philosophy fear of death 10
promised to become desire :or death when
man. on reaching his 10th year, shall begin
to feel himself full of days"
At present man is the victim of his great
intestine. This is the first thing I learned
from Prof. MetchnikoT. One day. ake1
ago, the anthropoid ape gave birth TO her
extraordinary child. BY mere freak OF
nature-such brought into existence tho
Calculating boy Inaudi-his brain de-
veloped abnormal powers. He had gifted
children - and the race of man began.
brusquely, unprepared.
"A fine record for one monkey" | said
MONIES" continued Prof. Metchnikoff. Our
organic disharmonies resulting from the
brusque change have made themselves the
more felt as men have grown more intellf-
gent and sensitive. The vermiform ap-
pendx (Which we reproduce exactly from
the anthropoid ape) il mortal disharmony
for whose useful existence we must go
back to herb-eating creatures like the rab-
bit-in whom II fulils a notable function
in the digesting of vegetable matter.
In man 1t is nothing but death trap, ons
Paris hospital in five years having treated
443 cases of appendicitis, excluding infants.
who are more subject to 1t than adults.
1T is only natural that the digestive
organs should furnish SO many dishar-
MONIES" continued Prof. MatchnIkon. Our
animal ancestors, forced TO live on roots,
n ed a M
ed meat, had organs adapted to their assim-
ilation Not having got rid of them, man
must endure them. So, to be healthy. man
must always be q great eater of well-cook-
ed vegetables, not so much for their nutri.
ton as to furnish his great intestine with
the large quantity of waste matter it re-
quires."
The Instinct Of Death.
This brings us to the Pasteur Institutes
great discovery of the cell-commonweaith
of the human body and the plebeian revolc
which in due course of time brings on
nile decay before man has lived long enough
to develop the instinct of DEATH" which
Prof. Metchnikoff affirms to lie In a poten-
tial form in the depths of human nature.
Pathological old age-the wrong kind Of
old age-is distinguished by a general hard
enng," says the great Psychologist. In
the brain the nerve cells-intellectual, sensf-
tive, commanding movements etc.-give
place to the conjunctive tissue of the ner-
vouS centerS. 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 about7'
"All over our bodies are myriads of ins
dependent cells, capable of moving about,
endowed with kind of sense of taste or
smell. and capable of choice. Ceaselessly
they devour all sorts of solid substances.
Hence. they are called 'phagocytes,' or vo-
racious cells They are our protectors
against microbes. with whom they fight
terrible battles in the most intimate re-
cesses of our organism. They heal wounds
and they reassorb blood illusions and other
elements out of place"
They are the soldiers, the police and the
house-cleanng servants of the body; and
If their story ended here the phasocytea
would merit all the honors due to veterans.
Unhappily, as Prof Metchnikoff shows.
they are soldiers who cannot resist the OPP
portunity to pillage when 1t comes. 10
time they revolt against their brethren. the
higher cells and eat them! And as the
higher cells are eaten up the conjunctive
tissue takes their place.
Have 1 not heard that of those
microbes are useful?" l asked.
Pathological Old Age.
1.-The uselessness of this mcrobian flora
is shown by it's distribution. The great
mass of it exists in our waste-basket in
testine the digestive parts of the tube being
almost free of it. Both Madame Metchni-
koff and Professor Nuttall have raised new
born guinea pigs and other creatures free
from microbes. Finally, the patients who
have had their great intestine cut out have
lived very well without the aid of its mi.
crobes!''
"And they bring on what we know old
age?"
THE mass of them remain in the intes-
tine, that organism regularly
triumphs over them; but their soluble prod
ucts can easily pass into the lymph and the
blood Here are the slow poisons capable
of weakening our higher cells and provoke
ing the phenomena of Senility!
What is to be done?' continues the Pas
teur Institute professor. Man cannot wait
for his great intestine to disappear In the
course of ages
ut might be cut out?'
Perhaps in far-off future that will be
accomplished but in spite of the immense
progress of surgery we cannot at present
dream of thus relieving, each citizen. No,
the rational course is to fight the great ins
testines mass of microbes
And now we come to the great active
remedy, the miracle of the twentieth cen-
fury!
II ought to warn you that the problem is
not solved for Immediate use." says Pro-
fessor Metchnikoff; but its solution has
nothing impossible about 1t. The thing to
do is to strengthen the blood globules. the
nerve, hepatic and renal cells. the muscular
fiber of the heart and others"
I'm order to enable these higher cells to
fight off old age?' / said, to show that Z,
understood.
The Great Remedy.
1.-The task is facilitated by the discovery
of serums acting specifically on the differ
ent elements" These are Professor Metchs
nikoff's own words: THE principle of thu
preparation of these serums remains always
the same. Take the red blood globules. We
inject the cell element into animal of a
different species After a few such inJeo-
tons the serum of this animal becomes a
specific poison for the red blood globules
of the former species of animal; while lit
tie doses of it lin analogy with digitalis and
other poisons) strengthen the specific ele-
ments instead of killing or disSolving them.
So they are called cytotoxic serums. Since
their discovery by j. Bordet of the Pasteur
Institute they have been studied and con-
firmed by scientists all over the world. the
latest publication being that of Be1onovskys
at st. Petersburg Here is the rational way
to strengthen the higher elements of the
human body and prevent it growing DID,
as it does now, at sixty, seventy and eighty
years of age