Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-11-12

iuhSs' TUT Ihis REASON tne simple 1rac-
ture Of bone may be the cause OF
death, because when the patient lies ir
bed there Is no movement Of the mus.
cles 10 act as an incentive to deer
breathing.
ARTERIES AND OLD AGE
Old Beliefs Exploded by Modern Men
of Science.
Doctor" said a patient the other
day, Il am 66 years old, sleep eight
hours In "a, never eat more than two
meals a day, nor crumb after o'clock
at night. I can walk up hill and down
dale, think clearly, change my mind
and do a husky days work."
You are not 6s years old" said
you are in the heyday Of your youth y
Yet when ! felt the pulse of that man
! found his arteries hard and equal to
seventy winters Of hunger and cold
says physician interviewed by the
New York American.
Doctor Osler, that coiner Of medical
phrases, popularized the old saw, "A
man is as old as his arteries" Thus he
crystalized the medical observation
that after youth and middle age the
blood vessels that stand out like whip
cords on your forehead and temple,
and which are rolled under your doc
tors finger as he feels your pulse
(called arteries) grow hard and brittle,
1t was the conclusion of Mr.. Osler
and his contemporaries before they be-
came Oslerized that the loss of soft
ness and rubber-like elasticity In the
arteries meant the decline of youth.
Hardened arteries are the .harbingers
Of age, say these doctors.
The younger school of scientists
know better, They are not deceived
by the coincidence of stiff arteries
and premature age. neither are they
fooled by the spaghetti-like compress
sibility and softness Of arteries sew
enty years old. In word, 1t has been
proved that the brittleness or mushi-
ness Of your arteries has no more to do
with your prospects Of youth and age,
health and illness, life and death, than
has burst water pipe with the COM
fort Of your bathroom.
1t may so happen that a frozen pipe
in February will throw your bathroom
into disorder or out Of commission for
time. 1t may so occur as a coinci-
dence. There may or may not be a
close connection between that pipe and
your bathroom. Nevertheless the mat
ter will be adjusted and your house
hold will soon go on Its way rejoic-
ing.
Similarly, the arteries are the water
ways and pipes Of your body. They
feed fresh liquids to your vital organs
and carry away the refuse drainage.
To really age you they must be more
than hard. To shorten your life they
must be irreparably clogged up, brok-
en- and shut off, and many pipes Of the
system, or very vital one must be
broken.
1t requires other things then brittle
arteries to show a man ancient. AS
long as a man is critical, able to draw
up original judgments, capable Of
changing his mind, his arteries may be
ever so hard, and not even an osler
dare say he is aging. On the other
hand, not even an Osler can save him
with arteries as impressionable as wax
II he agrees to everything he hears; II
he votes somebody else's opinion; II he
follows ward boss or a political par
ty all his life, without one idea or judg-
ment Of his own.
Scientists are correct when they say
some people are born old, some ac-
quire senility very quickly and others
have age thrust upon them by getting
into ruts.
The arteries often get blamed for
the coincidence Of premature age. Prof.
Ellie Metchnikoff Of the Pasteur Insti-
tute Of Paris, has just discovered that
old age really comes from poisons
formed in the stomach and intestines
from overeating, lack of fresh air,
want Of exercise and the need of oxy-
gen to kill the food poisons that are
constantly entering the system.
A few years ago Professor Metch-
nikoff wrote a book about "Old Age
and How to Prevent 1t by Drinking
Buttermilk and Sour Milk" He had
noticed that the peasants who lived to
a great old age in Bulgaria practically
made their diet one Of milk that had
turned sour. He soon discovered that
a particular microbe-since called by
him the Bulgaricus bacillus-was al
ways present in Bulgarian soured milk,
and this was not found anywhere else.
In his book and lectures he advised
less meat and starchy foods and the
drinking Of milk into which the Bull
garicus germ was planted.
Now comes the newest discovery Of
all. Professor Metchnikoff first throws
down the gauntlet to the "A man is as
old as his arteries" fallacy, then he an
nounces that with one Of his assistants
he has discovered another microbe.
destined, thinks the savant, to double
the span Of mans life.
Uncanny as the source Of this germ
was-the parent germs were captured
in a dogs stomach and intestines-the
microbe itself has now increased and
multiplied in such quantities that the
French professor has dispatched un-
limited quantities to all parts Of the
world. These germs according to Pro-
fessor Metchnikoff, have the remark
able faculty, when once introduced into
the intestines Of man, Of gobbling up
those poisonous bodies-called by the
fearful names skatol indol and phenol
which are now believed to cause old
age,
DR.. Metchnikoff maintains that he
himself may be bit too old already to
prove his discovery sound. but his
younger assistants and all the middle
aged men who are drinking large num-
bers of this dog germ are already ex-