Evening star., 1941-09-11
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas r. Henry.
An average life span of $50 years for
men and women-.
This is one of the possibilities, how
ever far-fetched it seems at present, Of
tomorrow's brave new world.
All that Is necessary is for chemists,
physiologists and physicians to work
together to keep everybody in the physi-
cal condition of 10-year-old children.
The first essential Is to find out why we
accepted hypothesis appear to be false.
The glamorous vision was accorded
members of the American Chemical So
ciety, meeting at Atlantic City, in a
symposium on the chemistry OF aging.
The death rate Of humans, said Prof.
Henry S. Simms of Columbia University,
is at a minimum at the age of 10.
Then only child in 800 dies each year.
IF the death rate remained at this
level through our whole life span," de-
clared Dr. Simms, "our life expectancy
would be $50 years instead of about 63
years, as at present. If this ratio of
to 800 which represents our intricate
resistance to disease prevailed among
people Of all ages above 10 in the
United States there would only be about
one-tenth as many deaths as occur.
The other 80 per cent, or more than
100000 a year, resulted in large part
from the progressive loss of resistance
to disease with advancing age"
What can be done about it? Possibly
great DEAL Prof. Simms believes.
First, the statistical studies show, there
appears to be some general physiological
process going on in the body which
lessons resistance-rather than lot Of
separate processes such as hardening of
the arteries which produce specific
causes of death. The latter are results
of the former.
Nobody knows what this universal
disease of getting old is. The first job
is for the doctors to find out. What is
the difference between the body of
man of Is and a boy Of 10 which makes
such a malady as pneumonia more dam
gerous to the former?
After finding out what it is, DR..
Simms pointed out. science will be in
a position to look for a cure for aging.
with the aging process retarded"
he said, deaths would result only from
accidents or from attacks of diseases
severe enough to overcome a resistance
approaching that of a child of TO-
Diseases affecting the blood vessels
cause nearly so per cent of deaths over
the age of 10 and the death probability
from such illnesses increases about IL
per cent year. Death probability from
infectious, digestive and respiratory
diseases, diseases of the nervous system
and of the skin and bones, goiter,
pellagra and arthritis rises about per
cent each year. This means that the
total probability of death increases 81
per cent yearly. Most diseases follow
the same empirical algebraic equation,
indicating that there is an underlying
aging process which causes a progress
sive lowering Of our resistance"
1t has generally been assumed that
aging results from a random accumula-
ton of injuries or degenerative changes.
His mathematical studies, DR.. Simms
said, show this to be false, or highly i'm
probable.
He experimental with rats at his
Columbia University laboratorv. AMI
mails of various ages were bled to death
and the amount of bleeding necessary
to kill was found to vary directly with
age.
For 3.6 per cent bleeding" he said,
I'VE found that the probability of death
for 100-day-old rat is 045, while that
for an 8.25-day rat is .73, or 16 times
as great. We also found that the weight
of blood, per 100 grams of body weight,
which must be removed to produce death
in about 10 minutes, diminishes with age
When these results are plotted as loga-
rithms of probability of death, curves
are obtained which approximate those
for spontaneous death in rats There
fore, with an artificial cause of death
applied to healthy animals, we have
reproduced the same type of mortality
curve which is found for spontaneous
deaths"
Dr. Henry C.. Sherman of Columbia
University has doubled the average life
span of rats with certain diets and at
the same time kept his animals in about
the physical condition of early middle
age, the prime of life.
1t seems possible. with new knowledge
of the differing vitamin requirements at
different ages, to do great deal to
halt the aging process in man, he told
the chemists.
Sheep, as well as cows, can be fed
and produce good wool and mutton on
a diet consisting partly of air, coal
and water.
This was reported before the American
Chemical Society by Drs. B. Connor
Johnson, w. B. Robinson, T. S. Hamil-
ton and H. H. Mitchell of the University
of illinois,
All animals require in their diet
certain amount of proteins-the nitrogen
containing foods of which red meat is
made Sheep usually are fed protein
concentrates, such as soybean meal.
Now, the University of Illinois expert
menters explained, the essential element
in the proteins is nitrogen. Very rich
in nitrogen is urea, white, crystalline,
water-soluble compound of very simple
chemical structure which is synthesized
from air, coal and water.
To the sheep itself urea is indigestible.
Like other animals, he has no machinery
for converting the urea into protein.