Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-09

tenor Of the life experience In quite
another direction. A series of posi-
bilities and practice bilities are being
opened to us by recent research that
amount in effect to huge artificial
extension of the fully adult stage ot
life. Homo Sapiens in the past was
a creature who normally went to
work at the end of childhood. he.
came adult, married had a large.
distressful, onerous family, lost his
teeth. lost the power of accommodate
ing his eyes to distance and came to
an end. 1t is only within quite a
short period that man has even eked
out his failing powers with glasses
and false teeth.
Nature" SAYS Sir Arthur Keith,
has worked ont the evolution Of the
human family on mean life tenure
Of As wears: she has hitherto run
the human army on short service
system" In the near future, on the
contrary, man will not work until he
is adult: he will marry much later;
he will have n small. successful fam
liz: he will then go on for some score
Of wears. It may be. before he exhibits
any Of the characteristic decadence
Of age Instead of breaking down
and being left by the way, the ocuiist.
the dentist. the surgeon. will perform
the necessary roadside repairs and
carry him on through a prolonga-
ton Of his efficiency. But that is
not all: something more than patch
ing and carrying on is possible; his
essential vitality can be and will be
prolonged.
The researches on which our be
lief in the last and most hopeful OF
these possibilities is ha sed-that Is.
the suspension of senility-are re-
cent: the great bulk of them have
been published since this century be-
gan, but they amount now to sub
stantial mass of entirely confrmatory
evidence. Metchnikoff was one of the
earliest to make the attack upon senile
decay. and his dietetic suggestions and
his schemes for a sort of hygienic
evisceration have not proved of any
great value, but since his time an In
creasing number of investigators.
working chiefly upon the internal Sc
cretIons of the animal body, have
shown more and more convincingly
that by simple and easy treatment 1t
Is possible to sustain human being
in a state of adult vigor throughout
and conceivably beyond-Shake-
speares sixth and seventh ages.
Hare gives the results Of score
of able workers In Germany. Britain,
America and other countries-Stein
ach. Lichtenstern. Noronoff and their
pupils, associates and rivals--who
have gradually built up certainties
out of speculations and experiments.
y 4
In the last month or so Prof. Cavaz-
ri of Bologna has published claims
that greatly reinforce and extend
these assurances. Adult vigor can be
restored and It can be kept up to at
least the end of the normal life. II
can probably be maintained for many
years beyond that limit. At first It
NAV be only q few prosperous and
enterprising individuals with access
to the best and most skillful advice
who will extend the span of their &C
tivity in this way, but 1t is unlikely
that ''prolongation" will be allowed to
remain the privilege of a small class.
The average active human life, we
may conclude, in the quite near fu
ture, will be not only unencumbered
but prolonged, in comparison with
any but exceptionally sturdy and
lucky lives in the past
We seem to be passing on now to-
ward a state of human society in
which there will be no children but
active and hopeful children, and
though many people will be full OF
years none will be aged: state Of
society, in fact, in which the aver
age man and woman will be of ripper
years, far maturer in outlook and
far less deeply immersed in sexual
and family affairs. 1t will be COM
munity of grown-up people to an ex-
tent quite beyond our present COM
munity. In most of our forecasts
and ina ginings Of times to come we
are apt to disregard this biological
revolution which is in progress. and
the mental and social consequences
that must follow upon it. 1t seems
to indicate the possibility of world
with different and probably graver
emotional tone, with an art and a lit
erature much less obsessed by the
love story and the elementary adven-
lures Of life and with a political and
social life less passionate and impa-
A,.A 1fy Aaf q
not g metaphor: it is a statement Of
material fact that mankind is growing
up, and that we are passing toward
a more distinctly adult life as main
stretch of existence, in comparison
with the feverishly youthful and tran
STORY life of the past.
y
The development of the specula-
lions that arise out of this statement
would carry us far beyond the scope
Of the present article. Later I hope
to return TO some of the most strik-
ing of them. But the great mass of
current discussion about moral codes
and standards of conduct, about the
ethics and sentiment of married and
business and religious life and the
like. this searching and probing into
fundamental things which makes our
cotemporafy literature and journal.
ism so different from that of the last
century, arises l believe, very largely
out of a need. felt rather than rec.
ognized, of altering and adjusting our
working habits and traditional meth
DDS TO this very imperfectly appre.
hended change in human biology
this shifting Of the center point OF
life from the twenties up toward the
f1fties-this rapid and disconcertins
change In the course of a generation
or so. Of Homo Sapiens into a more
completely developed. ionger.livina