The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1913-03-25
Perpetual
Youth
A Case In Which 1t Would
Not Work Well
BY F. A. NIT H E L

81 see by the newspapers" said Rein
hard, that these institute fellows who
have been substituting knee joints il
the legs of human beings and other.
wise repairing the human body claim
that they are on the way to cut Out
substances which lead to decay OIL
bring on old age and when they sue
main young"
"Hmp grunted Won Buest contemp-
tuously.
"You seem to doubt the possibility OF
such a result"
doubt it? 1t has been done long
ago.
Been done long agol What do you
mean, professory'
Professor Won Buest took his pipe
out of his mouth-he was always
smoking and, looking the other in the
eye, said:
"Reinhard, the conceit of this age is
intolerable. Most of our discoveries
are accidental, though l will admit
that nowadays our scientists are draw.
ing out natures secrets by scientific
experiment Why shouldn't what has
been accidentally discovered today
have been accidentally discovered be
foreY'
Because such discoveries electrify
the world, and we all know of them"
''Some of them do now that knowl.
edge is SO widely diffused. But you
who are German know that there still
remain in the fatherland those who in
vestigate for the love of science and
despising the world, do not always
give out their discoveries, and when
they do it is because they will benefit
mankind"
what do you mean by saying that
the elixir of life has been discovered? r
Il did not say that. Listen to me
and l will impart secret Pasteur
did not begin our present methods of
micrObe investigation. Jenner began it
a century ago. Why should the idea
lay dormant from the time of Jenner's
suggestion till Pasteur took it up and
developed it? 1t did not lie dormant.
Many scientists thought about it, and
some made experiments based on the
idea of vaccination which Jenner pro-
pounded.
1T is needless to tell you how be-
came a scientist You know all about
1t. l was born a scientist. When
was little boy was wondering what
held the clouds in position, why OBJ
jects were reflected in soap bubbles,
how animals walked. When | was six
years old killed my pet kitten to see
its works, which | supposed to be sim
liar to those of a clock. That may
seem shocking to you, but it was the
beginning of Investigations which led
me to prolong life
'At eighteen / left the university. l
had found the professors a stupid lot,
handing down what they considered
knowledge from one generation to an
other. Some of it was knowledge, but
the most of it was error The first
president of this republic. Washington,
was killed by just such men, who, fol
lowing an ancient theory of letting
blood in case of fever, bled the Father
of His Country to death. l came into
my estate soon after leaving the uni
versity, landed property in Pomera-
MIA on the Baltic sea. There, rid of the
false knowledge that flooded the world,
1 established my laboratory
81 followed up the killing of my kit
ten by an onslaught upon such inferior
animals as would give me the secrets
of nature worked twenty years, at
the end of which time l discovered an
antitoxin for the decay that accompa-
MES age"
''Why, professor interrupted Rein
hard. ''You are seventy and you look
seventy. If you discovered this anti
toxin, why did you not arrest the eff
fects of age in yourself?'
Motto fast. my friend. At the time
1 made the discovery | was forty years
old | could not bring back my youth
and the beginning of disease is the
time to arrest it, There is another rea-
son. / did not hunt for my antitoxin
because | wished to live forever, since
l knew this would bring me intolerable
misery | experimental to satisfy my
thirst for knowledge. And now | can
explain to you why the world never
got my secret. did not wish to cause
my fellow men to suffer At my pres
ent age | have lived too long Had
the physical strength of youth the
mental ennui of age would be with me
And what would this ennui be in an
other seventy or twice seventy years?
I'm the lonely region in which l lived
l had one congenial friend Weisbard
His tastes were not my tastes or
should have hated him. In his world !
found something different. something
to freshen me- To him alone I con
fided my secret | had cause to re
greet my confidence He had a daugh.
ter fifteen years old, a lovely, beauti.
full girl. Gould .you keep her as she
is today he said to me. the rest OF
my life would be supremacy happy
81 sighed, for | knew that a desire
TO preserve his daughters youth would
master him and he would pursue me
till l consented to give her perpetual
youth. paid no attention to this
first broad hint, but it came again and
again an~t finally took the form of a
definite I, Nest.
''For ear | resisted. assuring
Weisbard that if consented the DAY
would come when his daughter, VIII
helmine, would long for age, if not for
death. Her associates would grow old
while she would remain young She
would have experience which is in
compatible with youth She would
belong neither to her own generation
nor the one next below her. Having
no proper position, being identified
with no particular age, she would be a
worse enemy to herself than the mi
crobe that produces the decay of old
age. All in vain. The opportunity to
preserve his daughters youth and
beauty was too tempting for him. He
gave me no peace till consented.
when | began to give Wilhelmine
the antitoxin she was sixteen years
old. Hers was my first case and my
only one in practicing upon a human
being after having satisfied myself of
the efficacy of my remedy, and natu-
rally my efforts We're not at once sue
cessful. l did not completely arrest
Wilhelmine's natural decay till she
was midway between seventeen and
eighteen
Won Buest paused and resumed his
pipe.
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