The Washington times., 1928-12-31
SCIEN It's |
HITS SEIKE:D
CYCLE
IDEA
Ry JAMES .. KILGALLEN

BY JAMES 4. KILGALLEN
NEW YORK, Dec. 81 U.N.S.) Pre-
diction that science can find way to
further extend the span Of human
life was made today BY DR.. Eugene
Lyman Fisk, medical director Of the
Life Extension Institute Of New
York city, in an address at the con.
vention OF the American Association
for the Advancement OF Science,
which is being attended by 5000
learned men and women from all
parts of the United States.
DIR. Fisk declared it was wrong for
man to figure that his years are
numbered to the biblical ..three-score
and ten.
The human life cycle has been
greatly extended within the last 100
years by the application Of scientific
principles, he pointed out, but thsre
is room for even greater achieve
nent. Living to the age Of 100 years
and longer for many people is not
fneonceivabIe. he Indicated In his
highly technical, albeit interesting
paper.
Life Cycle Not Fixed
II am willing to admit he as
serted, that only a comparatively
limited extension lOf human life
say 10 or Is yearsca be attained
by simple adjustment OF pers0naI
hygiene and the correction OF physl-
cal defects found on periodic health
examinations. It may well be that
any great extension OF human Life,
say beyond 100 years, must be at
tanned by some specific means, es-
pecially by control OF the endOcrlne
glands. Nothing can hold back hu-
man effort in that direction.
DIR. Fisk does not believe that the
life cycle OF living organisms IS
fixed. He said there is a 'subcon-
scious conviction" that 1t is more or
less futile to attempt to Interfere
with the course of nature or the
plans of the Deity, depending on the
religious and philosophical views Of
the individual.
HAS ii been decreed somewhere,
somehow, by someone, that the tbs
sues of the human body, or OF any
other living organism, shall become
lifeIess within a certain length OF
timer" DIR. Fisk asked his audience,
composed mostly of medical scien-
lists. with those who hold such
view purely as matter Of re-
ligious conviction, have no quarrel,
but as a scientific proposition it Is
untenable."
Specialized Organisms
Disputing the view of some medi-
cal men that life cycles are fixed,
DIR. Fisk declared:
"If a turtle lives $50 years, a
horse 81 years. and human being
rarely 100 years, it is no final
answer to say that these varied life
cycles are fixed by nature"
He pointed out that it has been
claimed that shortened existence
sis the price that man pays for his
highly differentiated organism
Yet, he declared, other highly diff
ferentiated organisms have had
much longer life cycles. Witness
the turtle, the elephant and the
dinosaur.
Il am able to say from a fairly
broad experience that one of the
greatest obstacles to prolonging
human life lies in the acceptance
at least tacitly and <subconsciously
--of the thesis that the years of
man are three score and ten," DR..
Fisk asserted, land that 1t is more
important for man to study ways,
and means of having good time
during that period than in attempt
ing the impossible in endeavoring
TO work against nature. whatever
that may mean, in attempting any
emphatic prolongation of the
human life cycle"
Deaths From Infection
DIR. Fisk said that DR.. Charles H.
Mayo, the famous surgeon of Roch-
ester, Mimi, has stated that in his
own experience S5 per cent OF
deaths are due to some form of in
fection. He has also stated, the
speaker declared, that there are
probably more forms of organisms
menacing to the human race yet
to be discovered than there are now
known to exist.
Sir Clifford Allbutt, one of the
worlds greatest authorities on cir
culatory disease, has said that GER
tain forms of arterial change are
due to time and 'are immedicable as
we cannot hold back the wings of
time
This is dealing in pure allegory,"
DR.. Fisk exclaimed Fancy the
wings of time Tapping about our
arteries"
Untenable Positions
when / am asked as to the
probable duration of human life in
the remote future" said DIR. Fisk
in conclusion, II am compelled to
answer that the prolongation of
human life far beyond the present
most favorable life cycle. lies within
the legitimate bounds of scientific
effort.
II also answer that those who
say that the life cycles of living |
organisms cannot be prolonged are
facing what is known as a spen- |
cerian tragedy-to use HuXley's |
definition-that is, deduction |
killed by a fact.
Life cycles actually have been
prolonged and, even the human |
life cycle, within the last hundred |
years. has been extended about 81 |
years--if we deal with the average |
lifetime.
"It is rue~that this extension !
has been due largely to the saving !
of young lives and that the ulti-
mate span of human life has not |