THE "ELIXIR OF LIFE."

Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 130, 16 October 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE "ELIXIR OF LIFE."

The following paragraph appeared iv the London Echo: — "Dr. £ucci, of Kome, a corresponding member of the Paris Geographical Society, who has taken part in several explorations, claims to have found at last the longsought ' Elixir of Life.' He is careful to explain, as we might expect from a man of science with a reputatiou to lose, that he has not invented it, but simply discovered it He asserts that theie is a plant in SouthWest Africa the enjoyment of which satisfies every need of the human body. The doctor himself, from 10th June to the last day of that month, took no other food whatever, solid or liquid, except ten drops of the juice of this marvellous vegetable, and throughout these 20 days he was strong and healthy in body and mind, and was able to walk 7000 metres in 45 minutes. He was duly watched both by scientific men and sportsmen, by doctors and gamblers, day and uight, throughout the period. Dr. Succi asserts that he is quite pi epared to live for 60 consecutive days upon nothing else but this wonderful elixir. He declares that it has also the quality of serving as an antidote to all poisons. When he first announcad his discovery to his colleagues in Rome, they threatened, in joke or seriously, to have him despatched to a public lunatic asylum. It is now his purpose to exhibit himself in his victorious contest agninst hunger in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, aud finally in London ; but before starting upon his international mission he has conseuted to undergo a scrupulous examination for 60 days by the medical professors at the University of Bologna, although these sceptics insist that, in the event of a collapse, he hall always have one cup of cofiee and one biscuit in his room." Another mention of this wonderful plant is contained in the following paragraph from the Lancet, bearing the suggestive title, "Mummifying." " This is the not particularly attractive term applied to a process which is alleged to render the animal organism so insensitive as to be almost unaffected by tonic influences, and so stable, or inert, as regards the metabolism of its constituent elements us to need very little sustenance from without. A man named Succi, who lives at Porli iv the Romagna, is said to have discovered a ' liquor extracted from various herbs' which has this marvellous effect on the bodies of persons taking it, that, as a result of its use, they can almost wholly abstain from food for a lengthened period, and cau resist the influence of certaiu poisous It cannot, wo think, be doubted that ways of reducing the interchange of elements in the organism to an extremely low grade, and of collaterally minimising the absorptive powers of the body do exist, and have been known to certain classes, and perhaps* small communities of men from very early times. This being understood, we shall regard with tentative interest the investigation said to be in progress with regard to the process and powers of Succi by Prof. Peruzzi, of Bologna."