"OH, TO BE YOUNG AGAIN!"

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 106, 1 November 1923, Page 6

"OH, TO BE YOUNG AGAIN!"

'"The wor-ld is so full of a number of things," remarked a little girl who U famous for^the. words, "that I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." And human happiness ought to be increasing beyond that of mere kingship, because the world is getting fuller and fuller of things. We can fly about in aeroplanes not much too big to go into a hen-house; we can milk cows by water-power brought a hundred miles; we can listen to jazz music played in other lands; we can measure millionths of an inch; we can even make good resolutions in our old age, and, with the help of 1 surgery, stride back into the golden dreams and physical, vigour of youth. The feats of "aviators and electricians are tolerable -enough. A man knows, when he flies, just what risks he-runs; when he milks cows he knows 1 what to expect; when he "listens-in" he can turn bad music off at the meter.,. But when he absorbs the vitality of a healthy chimpanzee he steps, as it were, blindfold off a plank. There may be solid ground under his foremost foot; on the other hand, there may be water, unpleasantly cold and deep.

So far the chief publicity on this subject has been in the form of rather unconvincing laudation ; but the other side is now making itself heard. One South American doctor has issued a solemn warning against over-indulgence by the human race in rejuvenation processes that depend upon the transplanting of organs from the lower animals to man. He fears that a transplantation of nature may follow, and result in a degradation of the character of the race. Another warning,' seriously advanced in London, is that Voronoff's operation has seridus risks for the very old, whose bodies may be too frail for the strain which the new vitality imposes upon them. The danger of "a race of satyrs" foreseen by the conservative South American critic is offset by the apparently rarity of chimpanzees suitable for the supply of glands; but this rarity will not necessarily limit the use of rejuvenation. There are now a number of operators, and they use various methods, which are reported to involve, in some cases, no demand at all for chimpanzees. It may be possible, one of these days, to buy half-a-crown's worth of bottled youth at any, chemist's shop.