The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1911-08-11

other quality. He inherits the senden-s
Icy to live longer or shorter than the
grand average Of his ancestors them.
selves; and it is because of the indis-
criminate mixing Of all degrees Of this
potential life that the grand average.
at present hovers over the decade be-
tween 70 and so years.
But, says Metchnikof, neutralize in
the body of the man who dies at IS
the poisons generated by bacteria:
stop the ravages of the phagocytes-
those soldier-cells OF the body that feed
on the delicate mechanisms of the
nerve cells-when man grows old
and your man will live so years
longer.
Now here we have the test and turn.
ing point OF Metchnikon's claim: II 120
years be the average Of the healthy
mans life-bacterial poisons apart
some lives would be longer and some
shorter than the average, according
to the inherited potential of the indi-
vidual; and the indiscriminate mixing
Of these potentials would leave the
race in relatively the same condition,
with reference to longevity, in which
it now is. Some few men with low in
herited potential would die of old age
at 90; some would live to be two CEN
turtles old; and the average life of man
would hover around 120 years.
But there are some who go farther
than Metchnikotf and urge that the
science of the chemistry of life can ad-
vance no good reason why life should
not be prolonged for indefinite ages.
with the body In state of buOyant
youth and health-if once the work
going on in the nucleus of the cell
could be even fairly understood.
Maupas, the French biologist, re-
| juvenated" dying race of microscopic
animals whose bodies consisted of q
single cell. Now the human body is
merely great cosmos of cells held to-
gether, probably, by ties too elusive
for the microscope or for experiment
demonstration. They can scarcely be
regarded as independent individuals,
but they are true cells, none the less.
When a man dies and decays, we be-
hold the slow death of a universe OF
cells-infinite if measured from the
standpoint of the Infinitely little cells
composing it. =.
If this universe of cells-this great
family of cellraces- could be rejuve-
mated, as Maupas rejuvenated his Par
amoecia, who can say that it would not
continue in life vortually without end
Refreshen the nucleus-that micros-
copic organ whose activities determine
inheritance, length Of life, health and
the rest of it-and maintain it refresh
ened, and man may live forever!
The Frenchman Leduc has recently
published the most fascinating results
of his work with artificial cells which
behave startlingly like the living cell
itself. Fischer, the German chemist
has built up compounds identical with
the complex compounds that form the
framework of the living moIecule
Natural sugar-splitting ferments have
been found-ferments that split up
sugars that have no existence-so far
as is known-in nature, but which
have been artificially made by synthe
sis. The drug fieni can swallow with
impunity enough morphine to kill 100
men. Christian Science can, and does
through the central nervous system
produce il the body results wholly in
applicable by known facts of physiol
ogy.
Why should not some of the re.
searchers now busy with the activities
of the nucleus hit upon a method
and they are trying-not only of re.
juvenating the nucleus, or the potent
stuff contained within it, but OF keep
ing it young?
Insane dreams sometimes come true
and sometimes the brass of yesterday
is the bullion of tomorrow.
copyright. 1911, by the Columbia Pres.
Syndicate.)