The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-12-21


20 denote what is at once a new stand
ard of morality, a scientific guide to
life, and a new hope for humanity
against the greatest evils that encom-
pass us. Every one knows that Metch-
nixon is now ~chief of those who carry
on the high traditions of Pasteur.
Metchnikoff is a Russian of the pro-
fessional classes. His older brother
was the provincial functionary whose
death, in the maturity of life. was de-
scribed in Tolstois 1.-THE Death of Ivan
Iiyitch'D He became Professor of
Zoology at Kazan and made a great
reputation among biologists by his de-
tailed studies of the structure and life
histories of some of the lower inver-
tebrate animals. Owing to political
trouble. he left Russia and Joined the
Pasteur Institute in Paris. His re-
searches on certain waterfleas had led
him to pay special attention to the be-
havior of the wandering cells that oc-
cur in all except the simplest animals,
and that appear in a familiar form as
the white corpuscles of human blood.
He found that these cells restlessly
pervade the tissues. living a semi-in-
dependent, almost parasitic life. They
are extremely mobile and sensitive to
attracted by some substances and re-
peIled by others. When there are dis
turbances in the body due to morbid
processes. or to the presence of foreign
intruders, such as microbes that have
Invaded the tissues. these wandering
cells crowd around the affected spots
ingesting and destroying the intruders.
removing the diseased tissue. and gen.
orally aiding in the healing process.
These investigations are the founda-
ton of the modern views of infiamma-
stion. and gained for Metchnikoff rep
Mutation as a pathologist at least as
great. and naturally much more vide
zlspread, than his fame as a zoologfst.
. The special quality of the wander
ing cells, of which white blood-cor-
puscles are the examples most easy
to observe, Is their power of Destroy
ing other living cells, engulfing them
bodily where that is possible; or, in
the case of larger victims, pressing
against them and sucking out their
contents Metchnikoff has called them
eating cells or "phagocytes,' and
the process is agocytosis." In the
main, phagocytosis is beneficial to the
body, and phagocytes are guardians OF
its welfare. But the action is mechan-
ical, in the widest sense of the term.
an AFFAIR of action and reaction, nf
appetite and resistance, and not OF
orderly benevolence.
HOW MEN GROW OLD"
When the cells of any Massachusetts,
or kidney, brain or bone-are in active
health, either they do not attract the
phagocytes or are able to repel their
embarrassing attentions. The main
tenance of the integrity of the tissues
demands a delicate balance of power
between the higher. specific cells and
the omnipresent phagocytes. The lat
themselves as foreign intruders, and
III they are unduly stimulated or the
Tissues unduly weakened, the baleful
process of tissue destruction begins;
muscle tissue. brain tissue. kidney it's
sue or what not, is replaced by the
phagocytes. and the corresponding
functions degenerate. The action is
naturally progressive, and sooner or
i sy@v, inc a l..
bic with life.
According to Metchnikoff, this is the
essential nature of the changes which
take place in old age. The activity
of the phagocytes overpowers the &C
tivity of the normal cells, with the re-
suit that senile debility is produced.
According to Metchnikoff. in the vast
majority of cases, senile debility comes
too early, being due to causes which
may be prevented-if not by our own
generation, at least in the future.
This early senility is only one in
stance of what Metchnikoff calls the
disharmonies due to our inherited con-
stitution In volume, the English
translation of which was published In
1903. under the title. The Nature OF
Man" and in a second volume, The
Prolongation of Life" which is an
nounced for this autumn, he has ex-
planned in detail the nature of his gem
eral views. In many ways, man is out
of gear with his environment on ac-
count of the fact that many OF MS
Qualities-physical. mental. and emo
tional-which have come TO him as
legacy from his remote ancestors and
aRhich at one time were probably use
fsl adaptations, are now positively
harmful Such disharmonies are the
real source of the pessimism which
has tinged so deeply the philosophy
and literature, the religion and the
folklore of ancient and modern times
and for which. as yet, no complete
anodyne or remedy has been found
AIetchnikoffss however, is convinced
opf1ulst. and thinks that as horticul-
piSists use their knowledge OF the con
sEitotion and qualities of plants tC
saollfy these IN definite directions. SC
e<s.N II IL xsffffaff1 the mower of science