The Saint Paul globe., 1904-01-31

| %SAN a man live for 500 years? II
! Y isn't that long since America was
| discovered. The world has changed
entirely within that space of time.
Yet there is in England large num-
Der of persons who believe they are
going to live 500 years. The leader
| of this class is one of London's well
known editors, E. J. Kibblewhite, a
| mahecredited with balance and wisdom.
! The people who have not been con-
verted to the new theory and hope Of
| longevity are standing aside and pooh
| poohing the whole idea. The biologists
| and chemists-all scientific men, in
fact-are advising. the undertakers to
get coffin measurements for these peo-
pie at once, for they are dabbling with
dangerous drugs and doing other things
that are called unwise if not perilous.
| But Kibblewhite and his friends ex-
pect to be here when the millennium
| begins. They declare the DOCTORS the
preachers and the grave diggers are
/ facing sorry times. These men have
| not been stampeded up to date.
| The people who hope and believe
| they will live as long as they want to
have been studying the habits of the
| whale, the pike, frogs and lizards. The
whale lives 300 years. The pike often
! lives to be $50 years old if some hidden
/, hook does not draw him from his fa-
vorite stream. Frogs live an indefinite
| period. They are found sealed in rocks
| that must have been centuries in form
| ing. Lizards, likewise, have an almost
| eternal lease on life.
1 yIyt,1r not tba rYractiOr1
! the live forever theorists are asking.
| The secret of long life lies in the
liberal application to the skin of glacial
| acetic acid, according to the unscien-
| tific Britishers. Persons who have
dabbled in chemistry are aware of the
| fact that acetic acid has an effect upon
| the epidermis. The effect is not al
ways a wholesome one but it is an eff
| feet just the same. Acetic acid baths
| restore the hardened and wrinkled
skin of octogenarians to the freshness
and softnesS of a childS skin, say the
believers. 1t routs death and all the
signs of approaching death. In short,
1 it makes a man over. 1t is a revised
| idea of the fiction for which Ponce
| de Leon sought in vain.
| Scientists on both sides of the At
1 lantic are having a smile at Kibble-
white
Kibblewhite meets the ridicule of
! scientists with dogmatic statements.
| He offers no arguments excepting that
of the whale, frog, lizard kind. He does
not claim to be a scientist. He is Just
a plain believer.
| "The trouble with Mr.. Kibblewhite
/ is that he is one Of those men who
| grasp at half-truth,'' says DR.. James
1 G. Herman. TT is evident that he is
not a biologist. Any biologist would
| know better. He has no working hy-
pothesis. He simply believes. The
question of longevity rests entirely out
of any such fol de rol. There is no
doubt that every man has considerable
1 control over his own body. He can
| wreck it or build it up at will, but there
are still other things which influence
1 the length of mans life. The most
particular is the growth and develop
ment during the prenatal state Biolo-
gists have So reduced this theory to
| definite knowledge that we are enabled
! to judge very we'll whether a person
will i've for long period under favor
| able circumstances.
| Mr.. Kibblewhite does not seem fully
| to understand the meaning of the word
| longevity. Suppose man should live
for 500 years. Longevity is gauged by
the period during which a man retains
| his physical and mental balance as
! judged by the only standard, which is
environment. Some men retain their
physical balance and lose their men
| tality-that is, the mentality becomes
| Of a lower degree than that Of the
| persons among whom he lives. Envi-
| ronment there Is the standard for
measuring longevity. In case like
! that mans usefulness is oyer. Added
years are of no value to him from the
scientific viewpoint. Some men. born
with bodies of inferior strength, but en-
dowed with minds of unusual bril-
| lance, have been able to extend the
period of longevity, bringing their bod
| les to last as long as their minds hold
their strength.
IF Mr.. Kibblewhite expects to pro-
long his life Indefinitely by rubbing
acetic acid on his skin he will be DOOM
| ed to disappointment. Life does not
depend upon the condition of the skin
alone The body is machine made up
of many organs, each Of which is an
Independent machine or body within
itself. If one Of these Independent ma
chimes or bodies breaks down the whole
assembled machine breaks down. Ex-
tended life depends upon the lasting
balance Of all the organs. / do not
know if any of these dreamers have
oiCus OQt luSy Will pass dWdY III que
! time and the weak idea will pass away
with them"
Mr.. Kibblewhite admits that he was
originally scoffer. Later he was
convinced and here's what he says
about 1t now:
Fifteen years ago, when an old man
called on me at my office and stated
| that ne had a plan for living 500 years
| naturally thought 1 had to deal with
a full-hedged crank.
II even came out in the columns of
my paper-the Weekly Times and Echo
and made fun of him. 1t was that
| bantering that, as it were, brought him
out; and he confided to me the secret
| of his plan of work
Proof in His Hands.
| HE showed me his hands. One of
/ them was hard. with callous skin, full
4 of wrinkles-the typical dried-up,
parched hand of a mechanic seventy
| two years of age.
| HE held out his other hand, and
asked me to examine it minutely / did
so. 1t was as fresh as a young wom-
ans OF twenty; there was not a
| wrinkle; not the slightest trace of age.
"Of course 1 became interested at
once. He even went further. In my
office he stripped, and 1 assure you
every portion of his body was like that
! of an infant The skin was smooth
! the blood fresh and quick, the heart ac-
! tiOp Hlxo that of q uoJIpcy