The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1907-05-18
The Elixir OF Life.
-IOriginal.l

met my old college chum Disbrow We
hadn't met since we left college. twen
ty-five years before, and would moi
been introduced. Disbrow was known
to me by reputation. for lie had become
eminent in physics. | also followed
science and have achieved some repu-
tation in bacteriology When the bride
and groom entered the drawing room,
for the ceremony, Disbrow and | fol-
lowed.
What perfect picture of youthful
beauty" | whispered to Disbrow. re
ferring to the bride.
How old would you take her to be:
he asked.
twenty-five or twenty three
A singular expression passed over
his face.
suppose l should tell you she. is
over forty"
4 would doubt your sanity"
At this point the marriage service
commenced. and our remarks ceased.
When it was over and we had offered
our congratulation Disbrow and I
went to the supper room to partake of
the delicacies displayed there. Help
ing ourselves, we found a coy corner
and sat down to chat and eat.
'Estwick," said Disbrow to me. I'm
going to celebrate our meeting after so
many years by letting you into a Sc
cret. We are brother scientists; there
fore / don't consider what / am about
to tell you a breach of confidence, or,
rather, l consider the professional con-
fidenee superior to the individual obli-
cation. Do you understands"
Perfectly"
''Well, the girl we have just seen
married is forty-two years DID,
/ gave a gasp of astonishment.
"But / must go back to the begin
ming. You know when l left college
something was expected of me-"
You were considered a prodigy"
interrupted.
1T wasn't the prodigy; it was luck,
just as it was with Roentgen, only my
luck came long before his. / made
similar discovery years ago. l have
applied it as no one else has applied
it. Now, you know that from the mo-
ment we begin to live we are attacked
by microbes. Cancel the microbe, and
you cancel old age From experiments
on insects / found that by exposing the
larvae to a ray since called radium I
arrested decay. But at the same time
l arrested growth. From insects 1 ex-
perimented on frogs. kittens. dogs and
other animals. l have a pet collie fif-
teen years old as lively as a puppy"
"Disbrow, has your learning made
you madT'
"No; / am as sane as you. But /
knew that if l offered any such ideas
to the world I'd be put in limbo, and
as I dread lunatic asylums and value
my freedom l have kept my mouth
shut"
For heavens sake, go on
This is no place to give you any
thing more than preface to what 1
have proposed to tell you about the
bride. l did make my discoveries
known to one man. old Vollmar, our
professor of chemistry at college. That
was just as had made up my mind to
try to arrest decay in human beings.
Not long after that vollmar came to
me and told me that two multimillion
tunes by the marriage of a son of the
one to a daughter of the other, but the
boy was but two years of age, while
the girl was twenty flour. If they wait
ed till the boy became of age, the
girl would be too old to produce an
heir. AT least such an event would
not be likely. Besides. the difference of
age would be a. sgreat obstacle to their
The old man asked me il l
would make an effort to arrest decay
on the part of the girl"
Come. come, Disbrow, what nom
sense is this p
"Your incredulity demonstrates the
necessity of keeping my secret. If you
tell it, sooner or later they'll have me
behind closed doors. You haven't the
scientific head old vollmar had. He
Lumbled to the idea al once
go on with your yarn
sI'm not going to try amid this clat-
ter of dishes and voices to tell you my
process. / will only say that the STUN
bling block in my way was the fact that |
the electrons discharged from radium |
are obstructed in their passage through |
air. I was therefore obliged to put the |
subject in receiver and exhaust the |
air.
(Which means death"
"Ah. There's where the wonderful |
power of radium comes in. It is suf- |
icient to keep life in the subject for
IN indefinite period"
But where did you get your appa-
'atus? Sufficient radLum for the pur-
,ose would cost a fortune
.The girls father opened his bank
recount to me-
'Well:"
sMy subject was a bit. frightened
md her fatler-the only one except |
lerseif In the secret-was beside him
elf with fear. But the desire to pile
lp gold even for posterity was too
trong for him. and he did not inter-
ere with the experiment. Within
wenty-four hours | had rendered his
laughter impervious 70 the destructive
influence of germs. and she has re-
NAMED young from that day to this.
fy subject was the bride we have just
cen married.