The Savannah morning news., 1903-06-23
LENGTHENING OF LIFE.
May the Term of Years of Man Be
Extcndeds
,m the London Mail.


Prof. Elias Metchnikoff, the eminent
Russian zoologist, who has lately been
devoting himself tc independent re-
search, has fixed the minimum limit
of mans natural life. so that at last
the fear and agony of death is prom
ised to be done away with for those
willing to live by the rules of scien-
tihc hygiene. In an epoch-marking
book of what Prof. Metchnikoff des-
eribes as optimistic philosophy fear
of death is promised to become desire
for death when man, on reaching his
140th year, shall begin to feel himself
full of days"
At present man is the victim of his
great intestine This is the first thing
/ 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"
Inaudi-his brain developed abnormal
powers. He had gifted children
and the race of man began, brusquely,
unpreparedl
"A fine record for one monkey"
said.
"Our organic disharmonies, con-
tinued Prof Metchnikoff. resulting
from the brusque change have made
themselves the more felt as men have
grown more intelligent 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 it fulfills a notable function
in the digesting of raw vegetable mat
ter. In man IL Is nothing but a death
trap, one Paris hospital in five years
having treated 443 cases of appended
tbs, excluding infants, who are more
subject to it than adults.
1T is only natural that the diges-
tive organs should furnish so many
disharmonies,' continued Prof Match
nikoff. Our animal ancestors, forced
to live on roots, herbs, uncultivated
vegetables and uneooked meat, had
organs adapted to their assimilation.
Not having got rid of them, man must
endure 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 his great
intestine with the large quantity Of
waste matter 1t requires"
The Instinct of Death.
This brings us to the Pasteur Insti-
tute's great discovery of the ceIl-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 affirms to lie in a poten-
tial form in the depths of human pa-
ture.
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
cells-intellectual, sensitive, command
ing movements, etc.-gfve 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 tissues chokes the
tubes that are Indispensable for Kidding
us of a quantity of substances"
How does 1t come about?"
"All over our bodies are myriads of
independent cells, capable of moving
about. endowed with a kind of sense
of haste or smell. and capable Of
choice. Ceaselessly they devour all
sorts of solid substances. Hence, they
are called 'phagocytes,' or voracioas
cells. They are our protectors against
microbes. with whom they fight terrible
battles in the most intimate recesses,
of our organism. They heal wounds
other elements out of place."
They are the soldiers, the police end
the house-cleaning servants of the
body; and If their story ended here
the phagocytes would merit all the
honors 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 theml And as
the higher cells are eaten up the con-
junctive tissue takes their place.
Have ! not heard that some of
those microbes are useful?" / asked.
Pathological Old Age.
THE uselessness of this microbfan
fora is shown by it's distribution. The
great mass of 1t exists in our waste
basket intestine, the digestive parts of
the tube being almost free Of it, Both
Madame Metchnikon and Prof. Nut
tall 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 well without the aid OF its mi
crobes"
And they bring on what we know
as old age7"
THE mass of them remain In the in
testine, 80 that our organism regular
~ triumphs over them: but their soIu-
Bile products can easily pass into the
lymph and the blood. Here are the
-.