New-York tribune., 1920-04-18
BY Fred B. Pitney
OW would you like to live
nineteen hundred years?

y
IL The first lady to whom
this squestion was posed re-
sponded, "What, eighteen hundred
years without any teeth? I should
say mott"
Nevertheless, the question is a
serious one, and the next hundred
years may see the problem of living
nineteen hundred years, or even
longer, solved. The League to En-
force Peace will have real job then,
for the question of the dominant
race-who is to live and populate
the earth-will be vital one.
Infinite Possibilities
The question OF the individuals to
survive among the dominant race
will be no less important. And
there may be, to start with, a great
war or series Of wars, for posses
sion of the secret Of longevity. In
fact, the most superficial contempla-
tion of this possibility, which is seri-
ously declared to be a probability,
opens up on the. one hand fields of
speculation of boundless horror,
while on the other it presents a
glorious spectacle Of race of super
men to whom nothing is impossible,
and in whose lives poverty and fail
ure have become only fast fading
legend of prehistoric time.
1t is the discovery that life is
merely a chemical reaction that has
brought life span of 1000 years
within the range of vision. This
discovery has placed in its proper
perspective the Scriptural limit of
mans life to threescore years and
ten. Life is chemical reaction that
requires seventy years to complete.
Death is the fastening of the re-
action, longevity is it's retardation.
The placing of definite, unchange.
able limits on the life span of any
living organism thus becomes alb
surd. To say that mans life is linn
tied to threescore years and ten is
ridiculous misreading Of the Old
Testament, a reading that takes no
note of the half dozen words all in
telligent people are supposed to sup
ply for themselves. Properly read,
the Psalmist declared, "(under the
present limitations Of our knowl-
edge) the days Of our years are
threesoore years and ten."
Alive, but Never Born
DR.. Alexis Carrel, Of the Rookie
feller Institute, has isolated connec-
tive tissue cells from the heart Of a
chicken embryo, and cultures from
these cells, living on The extracts
from chicken embryos, have been
kept alive for seven years, and are
still living and growing.
Consider that these tissues were
never born, as birth is commonly
known. They were taken from an
embryo, separated from it. They
are distinct entity, not part of any
living organism known to man. Yet
they live, they have the "vital
spark" they grow, the formation of
new cells can be observed under the
microscope. This thing has been
separated from all that in the COM
monty accepted idea should give it
life-and it lives.
1t is horrible. But i is true.
Why should mans life cease at
threescore years and ten?
DR.. Jacques Loeb, of the Rookie
feller Institute, said in a paper in
"The Science Monthly" for Decem-
ber, 1919:
"The French encyclopedias of
the eighteenth century defined life
as that which resists death. What
they meant by this definition was
the fact that as soon as death sets
in the body begins to disntegrate.
They argued correctly that the
forces Of disintegration were inher-
ent in the living body, but were held
in check during life. Recent prog
ress in physical chemistry permits
US to state that the spontaneous dis
integratlon of the body which sets
IN with death lat the proper tenn
perature and proper degree Of mois-
ture) is process Of digestion, COM
parable to that which the meat we
eat undergoes in our stomach and
intestines. The essential feature of
digestion is in this case the trans
formation Of the solid meat into
soluble products by two ferments-
pepsin, which exists in the stomach.
and trypsin, which exists in the in
testines. The successive treatment
OF meat by the two ferments results
IN the breaking up Of the large in
soluble molecules into the small
soluble molecules Of amino acids
which are absorbed by the blood and
carried to tho cells Of the BODY
where thew arn ,x<;I;~,l b. 1.rs