Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-09-04
NEED NOT GROW OLD
OLD AGE NOT A CONDITION, BUT
MERELY A DISEASE.
Claim of NJ. Metchnikoff Is That Senility
Can Be Cured as Easily as Scarlet
Fever and Diphthena.

- IL POsSlDle not 10 grow Oiu NO
doubt every one win agree In recogniz-
ing the great Importance of the answer
which this question calls forth. Who,
in fact. has not felt slight annoyance
in seeing his first white hair. and did
not this observation cause sad ref1ec-
tons, passing as some people may pre-
tend them to be?
The first white hair, 1t is the first
warning; it is the sign of new raising
OF the curtain upon a horizon which is
not brilliant. it is the announcement
OF the approaching decay which charac-
terlzes old age and of which death viii
be the issue. Is it possible to put off
the date of the fatal day of reckoning
and again to bring about the ages of
the ancient pa ,riarchs of the Bible?
For Nj. MetchEikoff, who, as every one
KNOWS. has made special study of old
age, says age is not a normal phenome-
non-that is to say, a physiological one
but IS rather an abnormal phenome-
non, IS pathological in every sense of
the word, being essentially character
lied by the more and mere marked pre-
ponderance of the conjunctiye elements,
with interior functions, over the noble
elements. such as the nervous CELL the
muscular cell. of the tissues and the or
gans.
pend principally upon special bodies
named tmacrophages," which devour the
weakened cells, in replacement of which
tnere appears the conjunctive prolifera-
tons characteristic of the constitutiye
notifications of the organs, sclerosis.
According to this view, old age is thus
disease which one might call 'macro-
phagocytosis, which is perfectly cura-
bic. Therefore it is possible to foresee
from today the grand lines of the thera-
peutIcS of old age. 4 hundred years
hence. and perhaps earlier, says NJ.
Metehnikoff. old age win be treated and
cured as bronchitis and diphtheria are
treated and cured at present very
peasant prospect for our grandchildren.
In the opinion of the subdrector of
the Paris Pasteur institute the noble ele-
ments of the economy of secretion have
III their normal state a non-diffusible
protective element, which checks, as far
as they are concerned, the voracity of
the macrophages. The protective Sc
erection. il is claimed, is diminished or
abolished by different causes and prin-
cipally by the poisons furnished by the
bacteria of the large intestine, which are
reabsorbed at that point. As these bac-
terra develop by preference in alkaline
environments. the acid-forming microbes,
such as the Tactic bacillus are harmful
to them. For this reason these restrain
ing microbes are introduced, notably by
means OF sour milk, in order to preserve
the integrity of their defensive means
for the noble elements
Old age, in fact, according TO M.
Metchnikoff, is not necessity, but is
rather an ancient law which presses ON
mankind, and he claims that recent dis
coveries go to prove that the numerous
affections of the intestines and the stom-
ach which deeimate humanity proceed
from the alimentary regime. We eat
to much meat, in fact; all the sayants
have noted that the alimentation of peo-
pie of remarkable longevity is different
from our own. Their food consists of
vegetables, fruits, dairy products-in a
word, of an ensemble which constitutes
a cooling diet and which diminishes as
much as possible the intestinal fora; for
the latter may be compared to the fora
of the forests, among which, besides the
edible mushrooms, poisonous fungi crop
up.
AS principle, if it be desired to avoid
dyspepsia, appendicitis and all the dis
eases connected with intestinal auto
intoxication and to enjoy green
old age without bearing the marks Of
years it is necessary to diminish, not
by the usage of medicinal drugs but by
the aid of an appropriate diet. the alb
normal lamentations of our inteStlnes
and to defend ourselves against the
enemy which we harbor in our bodies
anu WHICH Is lne source Oh dlluOst All our
evils.
According to NJ Metehnikoff, the
more the intestinal fora is reduced the
fewer the manifestations brought about
by old age. 1t is sufficient to compare
aged mammals with aged birds in order
TO be struck by the great difference in
their external aspect. An old horse and
an old dog are easy to recognize on ae-
count of their ugliness and sluggish
movements, their worn teeth, their lus-
terless and whitened hair. A dog from
II to 10 years old, in fact, presents,
even to the most unobservant eye, all
the signs of senile decrepitude.
Birds retain their normal appearance
much better and much longer. A duck
more than 20 years old retains the
briskness of its movements and nothing
in its appearance reveals its advanced
age. Parrots and parroquets remain for
many years in a state of real youth s
certain little parroquet from 10 TO 10
years old, which had been observed
closely for long time, gave no signs,
for example, in any manner of the
symptoms of old age. 1t was very lively
and curious, paying attention to the per
sons and things about it, and its plu-
mage remained brilliant and richly col
ored. There has been for several years
at the Pasteur institute a parrot which,
according to precise information, must
De from ~ 10 t1 years OIu. NOW, II is
impossible to observe any signs of this
advanced age, its aspect is so normal
and its movements are so easy.
The examples which have been cited
conform with the general rule-that the
longevity of birds is much greater than
that of the majority of mammals. This
is because birds are less invaded bv
microbes than mammals. The mouse Is
aged after a very few years and scarce
ly lives more than four or five years.
while the canary attains fifteen and
sometimes twenty years of age. Birds,
which are lucky enough not to possess a
large intestine, do not suffer from old
age. They preserve their feathers until
their death, as well as the freedom of
their movements and the liveliness of
their appearance. The ideal state.
therefore. would be TO be deprived of
this organ with which. alasl we are af
fiicted. Let us then try to free it from
the poisons of which it may become the
receptacle as a result of the presence
of microbes which have preponieratinr |
action in the infammatory work of dif
ferent intestinal affections
In the main the whole of NJ Mefcb- |
nfkOffss theary rests on fhiS rAo,cf,,Io+ -