MAN'S NATURAL AGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 25, 30 January 1926, Page 21

MAN'S NATURAL AGE.

NO USELESS PARTS.

LIFE AND FOOD,

(By PERITUS.)

More than a little astonishing were Sir Arthur Keith's argued conclusions in his Lloyd Roberts lecture, delivered in November last. Sir Arthur is a disciple of -common sense, common sense supported by reasonable proof. He has no liking for speculations or wild imaginings, and looks rather to the past than to the present and future. It is probable, lie says, that the natural age of man is nearer forty-five than a hundred years. If death should follow fruit-bearing in man, as it does in plants, perhaps he is right, for if "the average man"' has not reached success by the time he is fcTty, it is very doubtful if he will make much progress in his own particular line afterwards. The idea of being a hanger-on of life after forty-five will not come agreeably to many men. who seek rather in insurance tables than in fields of endeavour tor their prospects of endurance. Of course, most of us show signs of crumbling after forty. There is an Indian summer of life for many —a flash of revival—but, nevertheless, nerves, teeth, eyes, stomach, bowel, ami kidneys all nre worn land show it) at forty, if we could po for "spare parts" to a human garage, few of us would not be needing somotMnjr by vhat we have recklessly named '•middle age." "Men and women to-day,"' says Sir Arthur, "are descended _from those not long ago dependent upon sea, .forest, and river for their food. City life is a new experiment for Europeans, and human organs lave to adapt themselves to meet modern dietry. The body designed to serve the purposes of the hunter is under stress in modern conditions. Modern life is a vast and critical experiment." Any wild animal brought into domesticity shows for uncounted generations changes (seldom for the better), and when finally become "a domestic animal," is far inferior in nearly every way to his ancestor, or those of his species still running wild. Sir Arthur says that "no part of the body is useless/ This is in direct opDosition to those who speak and write of " vestigial structures," and surgeons who offer to remove a "useless organ." Sir Arthur sees that much of the body has been adapted to new conditions and that the rest will follow. "When ignorance is replaced by real knowledge." he says, "we shall be in a position not to adapt our bodies to our mode of living, but *nr mode of living to our bodies." The Appendix. ' No trace of disease of the appendix lias been found in wild apes, yet the organ has been proved to share in the process-of digestion in these a-nimals, yet, when in captivity, out of 61 chimpanzees dying, 10 had suffered from appendicitis. This shows, not that the appendix is superfluous —a "vestigial structure" —but changed conditions and food cause its disorganisation. In •'Trilby"' days there was much written about the '"rapid extinction of the little toe." Then came the almost general surgical craze for the extirpation of tonsils, followed by the suggestion that the simplest way to prevent disease of the appendix is to cut it out. All this time dentists have been agitating for a "clean mouth,""" which, in dentists' jargon, means "all teeth —good and uad —extracted." It appears that the process of subtraction is professionally popular. An inflamed eye is, however, at present allowed to remain in situ whilst efforts are made to discover the cause of the inflammation and measures taken to relieve it. Sir Arthur thinks that theearly age at which our eyea fail us indicates that Nature is shortening our period of useful service. Personally, 1 think -we are making a mess of things, and, by avoiding the discomforts we -were intended to endure, creating destructive conditions in their place. "Progress" is so speedy that our bodies have not, and. cannot, accommodate themselves to ever changing environment, most of "which is obviously unhealthy. "IMefc," says Sir Arthur, "la not the , cause of dental caries. There is actual deformity of the palate, and contraction of the upper jaw in every fourth or I fifth British child born." Environment ;and occupation then are blamable, yet we cannot set back the hands of time. Go on we must, and take our chance. Remedy lies, not in surgery, in medieim, or In yet further attempts to escape pain, deformity and discomforts by the abandonment of parts of our anatomy, but in so guiding our course that we approach nearer to the patriarchal existence and cultivate the love of earth and air and water as our friends is much as servants. In conclusion, the lecturer said that we had much to be thankful for in that we are not altogether extinguished by our mode of life to-day. Another factor which threatens to make our heirs yet more "unnatural" is indicated by the "Amazonian movement" in England, hereunder described by Donovan, Redelly:— Every morning I repair to a certain public park, because I prefer working in the open air and can endure the hardness of the only kind of seat that is free Here I see other husbands, dozens | of them, scores of them, and all with -.ran; and babies or toddling children. I I am the only unencumbered man for j miles. I They are always there, those husband*.! Some" of them have come to recognise mc and nod affably. Once I made a movement to cast a father's appraising eve over one of the babies, but its parent waved mc back with the whispered apology that it had "taken .him an ihour to get her off." Sometimes I have seen a husband in a secluded part of the park feeding- his infant' from a bottle, with a look of I rather anxious concentration, in his eye. j Once I stumbled upon the never-to-be r forgotten spectacle of a father rocking his child to sleep in his arms with a subtle, bumping rhythm. He crooned a little to it. Where are the mothers. There can be only one answer—at work. There is always work for women, because they are trained not to a trade but to WTien a man's tradt fails him lie is apt to be a. parasite oi the ixnntb ' ■ - —