The Wichita daily eagle., 1903-08-30
Professor Metchnikof Studies
How to Do 1t.
GREAT INTESTINE A FAULT
Mans Trouble Is Traced to
That Organ.


gist, who has been devoting himself late
ly TO independent. research, has fixed the
minimum limit of mans natural life. so
that at least 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 a remarkable book entitled Studies
in Mans Natural History" Professor
Metchnikoff promises that man will live
with ease and comfort to one hundred and
forty years.
AT present man is the~ victim OF his
great intestine. One day. ages ago. the
anthropoid ape gave birth to her eS-
traordinary child. By a mere freak of ma
ture-such as brought into existence the
calculating boy" Inaudi-his brain de-
veloped abnormal powers He had gifted
children and the race of man be-
gan, brusquely. unprepared,
The organic disharmonies resulting from
the brusque change have made themselve.
the more felt as men have grown more IN
telligent and sensitive.
The vermiform appendix (Which we re-
produce exactly from the anthropoid ape)
is a mortal disharmony for whose useful
existence We must go back to herb-eating
creatures like the rabbit-in whom II full
fills a notable function in digesting of raw
vegetable matter. In man ii Is nothing
but a death-trap.
1T is only natural that the digestive or
gans should furnish so many disha--
MONIES" said Professor Metchnikoff in q
recent interview. "Our animal ancestors.
forced TO live on roots, herbs. unculti-
waited vegetables, and uncooked meat had
organs adapted to their assimilation Not
having got rid of them. man must always
be a great eater of well-cooked vegeta-
bles. not SO much for their nutrition as TO
furnish his great intestine with the large
quantity of waste matter 1t requires"
This brings us to the Pasteur Institutes
great discovery OF the cell-commonwealth
of the human body. and the pleoian re-
volt which in due course OF time brings
on senile decay before man has lived long
enough to develop the instinct OF death.
which Professor Metchinkon affirms to lie
in a potential form in the depths OF hu-
man nature.
pathological old age-the wrong kind
of old age-is distinguished by a general
hardening" says the great psychologist
I'm the brain the nerve ceils-intellectual'
sensitive, commanding movements. ETC.
give place to the conjunctive tissue OF the
nervous centers. In the liver the hepatc
cells are replaced by like framework In
the kidneys the same tissue chokes the
tubes that are indispensable for Kidding
us of quantity of substances
How does it come about?"
"AlI over our bodies are myriads OF in
dependent 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 called 'phargocytes, or
voracious 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 reabsorb blood effusons and
other elements out of space.
They are the soldiers OF the police and
the housecleaning servants OF the body;
and if their story ended here the pha-
gocytes would merit all the honors due to
veterans Unhappily, as Professor Metch-
nikof shows. they are soldiers who can
not resist the opportunity to pillage when
il comes. In time they revolt against
their brethren. the higher cells, and eat
them! And as the higher cells are eaten
ND the conjunctive tissue takes their
place.
..Are not some of those microbes use
fuI?" asked the interviewer.
The uselessness OF this microbian fora
is shown by its distribution. The great
mass of it exists in our waste-basket in-
testine. the digestive parts Of the tube
being almost free from It, Both Nine.
Metchnikofr and Professor Nuttall have
raised newborn guinea pigs and other
creatures free from microbes. Finally.
the patients who have had their great in
testine cut out have lived very well with
out the aid OF its microbes"
And they bring on what we know as
old age?''
THE mass Of them remain In the intes-
tine. so that our organism regularly tn
umphs over them: but their soluble prod
ucts can easily pass into the lymph and
tho blood Here are the slow poisons
capable Of weakening our higher cells and
provoking the phenomena Of sentlityi
What is to be done?" continued the
Pasteur Institute professor. Man cannot
wait for his great intestine % disappear
in the course Of ages"
II might be cut out"
perhaps in a far-off future that viii Be
accomplished: but in spite Of the Immense
progress Of surgery we cannot at presen;
dream of thus relieving each citizen No.
the rational course IS TO hght the great
intestine's mass OF microbes"
And now We come 10 the great active
remedy. the miracle Of the twentieth CEN
tury:
I ought to warn you that the problem
Il not solved for immediate use. says
Professor MetchnEkon. bat II. solution
has nothing Impossible about IT, Tie
thing 10 do fs 70 strengthen the blood
blotalles the nerve. hopatic. and renal
cells the muscular fiber OF the heart and
others.
The task Is facilitated By she discovery
Of serrrs acting specifically on the differ
snt elements The principle Of The
preoa-zfscn of these se-urns rcrains al
Wy. the same Take 'he fsf tlepd
sl~-.t-es We inject sh-s cell sisrnsnt Toto
2 "a, irnal of dirsrent .p~css .sT''
a fsx s,sch xicbules Of TIRE former rpecses
Il a-sr ais: while Hstis JOS 4 q tir an
sf1.r ffh digitzus nj other Io'sors) /
-,r-aSsI er.s The specific e.sE7er.' ins'esd /
4 ;,g7iiag or dis<olvinS han - ih.s are
called cytotoxsc seruIrs since 'heir c.s- 4
cowery by J. Bordef- Of TIE Pastrer insu- 4