The Dominion. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1907. TO PROLONG LIFE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 73, 19 December 1907, Page 6

The Dominion. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1907. TO PROLONG LIFE.

To scientists the name of Professor Metchniko;fl: needs. no introductory explanation; for others it is sufficient to say that the Professor is now chief of those who carry on the high traditions of Pasteur, seeking by bacteriological research to render human beings practically immune to diseases of a fatal character,, ,or to discover the planner in whicli_ to successfully combat diseases which have secured a hold of their victim. Out of his researches of this nature the Professor has evolved a new philosophy of life, and he calls it '"'Orthobiosis," or "The Straight Way of Life," which is at once a new standard of .morality, a scientific guide to life, and a new hope for humanity against the greatest evils that encompass it. Based on his discovery that the "phagocytes," or "cell eaters," were as deadly under certain conditions of the body to the tissues as they were to the foreign intruders in the form of bacilli which threatened disease and _ death, he reasoned that human beings became prematurely old through degenerated functions caused by destroyed tissue being replaced by the phagocytes. The action then is naturally progressive, and sooner or later leads to a condition incompatible with life. Metchnikoff considers that this early senility is only one instance of the disharmonies due to the human inherited constitution. He proposes that Science shall alter these disharmonies until there shall be obtained the condition which he calls "ortho? biosis," —"a cycle from birth to death from which extraneous accidents have been removed, and in which each successive phase comes in its due course." The race is already advancing rapidly along the first stage of the process. Tear by year, as the study of diseases advances, is approaching the time when mankind will be free-from their burden of loss of health and shortening of life, and of death prematurely caused by other than natural means, that is to say, by preventable disease. Already the normal duration of life is extending in all civilised countries, owing to improvements in cleanliness, general hygiene, and greater simplicity of life, if scientific knowledge were applied to its fullest extent, the race would even now make an enormous stride towards "orthobiosis." Thus it is a definite part of , the Professor's new philosophy that tho parliaments and executive officers who have charge of human

affairs should be experts in tke new scientific knowledge. But the striking part of Metchnikoff's doctrine is an affair of the individual. It deals with the large intestine in which debris of food remains, and in which by a colony of microbes putrefaction of the contents is set up. He holds that the poisons generated-by the putrefaction not only cause immediate troubles, but are chief agents in the production of early senility. They depress the resistance of the higher cells, and increase the activity of the phagocytes, ending in the eating away of the specific elements of the tissues and their replacement by useless, degenerative material. Hence the Professor proposes to attack these intestinal microbes and prevent or reduce the intestinal putrefaction they set up. To this end he discovered that the bacilli which cause lactic fermentation, those which cause milk to go sour by transforming some of its sugar into lactic acid, are able to become acclimatised in the intestine, and that their presence under favourable conditions arrests the. activity of the microbes which cause putrefaction. It is proposed to introduce "cultures" of these bacilli into the body either in the shape of soured curds taken once or twice a day, with sugar, or in the form of tabloids taken along with a milk diet. But a stipulation is that the general diet must be as simple as possible, and alcohol in any form is barred; so are uncooked fruits and salads. This soured milk treatment has been tried with such results as to prove beyond doubt its efficacy in reducing, or almost completely preventi ing, intestinal putrefaction. To sum up, it appears that Science will be able to come to the aid of any tissue that seems, weakening before its time, and thus senility will be held in abeyance until its arrival is a perfectly natural sequence.' Thus Metchnikofi conceives that the happiness of life will be so increased by the attainment of "orthobiosis" that the "instinct of life" will last right" up to the time when the "instinct of death" will take its place as a welcome rest for a wornout body. In other words, that all human beings will die,' what practically none do now, a natural death, a mere falling to sleep permanently, just as the race now fails to sleep temporarily to rest a , wearied body. . The young,, the Professor says, have no sense of the value of life, and because of this pessimism is a phase of youth; but it is of importance that those in this phase should understand its temporary nature, and that the joy of life increases as maturity is reached- As a result of "orthobiosis" he claims that "in general affairs the rule of the young would cease. The experience and ripened faculties of the old would no longer be destroyed by bodily and mental weakness, and the affairs of mankind would be guided by men who had passed beyond the period of pessimism, who had acquired the sense of life, and who combined the experience and wisdom and calm judgment of age with the energy of an enduring youth." Of which latter claim it may be said that, as regards the youth of this Dominion, "orthobiosis" will not be looked upon with/the.eye of Unqualified favour if-it is to relegate them to a back plane. To its shame be.it said, age and experience have too little honour or reverence in this country.