LIVING FOR EVER.

Northern Advocate, 25 January 1922, Page 2

LIVING FOR EVER.

REMARKABLE DISCOVERY / If you wore offered the prospcet of eternal life, or of life for, say, a thousand years, would you accept it, or would you shrink from it and refuse? This is no idle question. Unless many great scientists are mistaken, life for ever is not impossible, for they are on the verge of discovering tho fabled | ''Elixir of Life," which man has been I seeking vainly for many thousands of years. "Life "without death is not impossible." That startling sentence sums up the i considered opinion of Professor Sir ! Arthur Keith, the eminent scientist; | and his opinion is shared by many othJ cr great biologists of Europe. Have you considered what it wouid mean to live for even 200 years? To go on for two centuries in the daily round of life and duty, discharging the "common task," enduring life's vicissitudes when "man's strength is labour and sorrow?" And, if a life «f two ccnturies fails to attract you, what about a lifo of a thousand years—or for ever? "Would it rot be infinitely mve intolerable; for this science which prolongs our days has no magic to take away the dreariness, the pain, and sorrow that must shadow them? AMAZING MARVELS "You know," to quote Sir Arthur Keith, "the principle of the continuous performance at the cinema. Von psy your money and see the show round. The second time you see the show, you will be bored. The third time you will go mad; and the fourth time may commit suicide!" How truly this simile applies to life which is a long sequence of normal lives, with the same narrow horizon, the same repeated experiences, the sime monotonous round varied by the same distractions. Surely the strongest wish to Mve and tlu best-balanced brain would break ui-dcr such conditions? That life can be prolonged by artificinl means has already been proved again and again. The heart of a dead child has been made to beat for days by circulating through its blood vessels a warm oxygenated solution of salts that are present in the blood. A ncw T -born baby accidentally dropped into a pail of water, has been restored i to life after 40 minutes' immersion and nr.? grown to strong womanhood. Nine years ago Dr. Carrell, the great French surgeon, took a section of the heart of a chicken in the shell, and cultivated it in the clear liquid part of the chicken's blood, daily renewed and kept at body temperature, with, the result that the muscle fibres began to bent as rhythmically as when they formed part of the embryo chicken. MAKING NEW MEN I

In other directions science has proved tha.t life can be renewed and pro longed by artificial means. Professor Mctchnikoff's method of removing intestinal bacteria (said to be the cause of decay and death) by drinking sour milk; Professor Steinach's method of tying up one of the spermacetic cords; the goat-gland treatment practised in Japan; and Dr. Dauville's freezing process—for all these it is claimed that they have restored youth and extended the span of life.

The groat,and revolutionary discovery of science is the vital part played in the human body by the tiny vessels known as glands, which, until about. I thirty years ago, had always been regarded as the shrunken and useless relof organs that had previously been of use of our remote ancestors. It was discovered that these obscure vessels, especially the thyroid gland, which is situated near the "Adam's apple," are the true sources of life and £i'o\vth. of mental and bodily energy. Amazing, almost miraculous, results followed this discovery. By means of the ..extract of the thyroid gland of sheep, dwarfed, semi-idiotic children, with hanging mouths and lustreless eyes have been restored quickly to robust mental and bodily health. Old men have been made young, throwing ori' the burden of years like a. discarded garment; 'lull eyes have become brglit, v. enk limbs strong, and a new lease of life taken 011. ' Thus, in this obscure gland, which v.C'ii'hs only about an ounce, has been found the source of our vital powers — the secret of youth and prolonged life. Although only time alone really can test the extent of its powers, there to be little doubt that by its means the span of life can be stretched considerably beyond its prosent limits; even, in the opinion of many experts, to hundreds of years, if~.not for ever.

THE KEY TO THE MYSTERY The science of prolonged life, remember, is only in its infancy. Our lii'o is really a series of chemical re-actio»s. Keep our chemical constituents functioning" properly and we shall go 011 living. Already the key to the secret is in our hands. Father discoveries will come; and one day the choice will l>e ours —to continue living for hundreds of thousands of years as scientists deck.re will be possible, or to allow Nature to take her course and bring our life to an end. Would eternal life be beneficial to humanity? Many people believe it ■would not. For instance, Sir ,T. G. Ramsay, the world-famous scientist, in a communi cation 011 this subject writes: '"LiiVj w'llvout death would not be desirable. I'.uth would have to come to an end with the end of death. Physically, the world would soon be too small for perpetual life; and mentally, cumulative knowledge would overpower the individual." Lord Levcrhulme writes: "Would perpetual life on earth be beneficial to humanity? It seems to me that this question can be answered only from experience; but I should imagine immortality being- a benefit if the prolongation of life depended on right thinking and right living. "I should say that immortality can I e attained only under conditions of life and thought that could not fill to be of benefit to all; and that, failing these, mortal decay would soon result in death. Personally, I would not wish to live for a single day longer than I was of service, and able to do useful work." Sir Arthur Keith, while declarng that eternal life is not -impossible, is strongly of opinon that life without death would not be desirable. DANGERS OF THE IDEA

"The ilesirc for prolonged life is huvd ncs*," he said. "If people would 01113 think of what life really is to them they would never entertain the idea Besides, it is directly opposed to Na turc's lav,-, -which is to use young am vigorous lives and to kill off the old Nature aims at the species and not a the individual. Her whole system i built on a period of short existences. Death is a condition of life for man and it is thus inevitable however w< n.-ay seek to avoid it.'-' There you have the opinions of m?i oC note and judgment. They are pro!) ably shared by the vast majority o: mankind. j The instinct of life is strong witl us all, but do you never ask yoursel; Burn's question:— Why am I loth to leave this earthly scene? Have I so found it full of pleasim charms— ! S'jmc drops of joy with draughts 0 | ill between— Some gleams of sunshine 'mid re newing storms? Could you, then, face the prospect 0 life, as you know it, repeated not oce-o but indefinitely, to the utmost bouih of time?