THE LONGER LIFE

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 August 1935, Page 8

THE LONGER LIFE

OF THE SCIENTIST.

Men and women . are..going, tp live longer. If scientists realise their present hopes people may all live to the ripe old age of 100. This is the longlife prospect ; l\eld, out,,by 22 fapapUs scientists and medical men —the greatest experts on the human nervous system in Europe and America. Their object is to add 25 years to the Biblical normal span of “three score years and ten.”

Now they believe that they are .on the verge of the secert —how to keep the human nervous system at the high level .of sensitivity that is necessary to maintain organic functions which now cease because of lack of nerve control. All the resources of laboratories in Britain, France, Russia, arid tlie United States have risen exploited in this great effort to solve the problem of why an organically sound person can die.

“Success is very near at hand now,” Professor F. M. de Fossard, the noted French scientist, told the “Sunday Chronicle.” “For 20 years my colleagues and I have been working on the theory that important organs of the body remain intact and sensitive so long as the nervous system is kept in an efficient pitch,” he said. In Russia, Professor P. P. Lazarey claims that he has demonstrated the truth of this theory. With the facilities of the Institute of Experimental Medicine at Leningrad at his disposal, he is now seeking a physico-chemical means of influencing inan’s higher nervous centres. Medico-scientists working in London hospitals have also turned their attention to the problem of prolonging life. “It is quite possible to prolong life for a short time by artificial means,” the “Sunday Chronicle” was told. “No real success can be achieved, however, until some moans is. found of keeping the higher nerve centres so toned up and active that deposits and secretions in the arteries can be freely dislodged and expelled from the body.” “Nerves function like electric cables,” it was explained. “So long as the nervous system is fresh, and offers no resistance to impulses from the brain, the organs can bo made to perform their duties efficiently.” Numerous laboratories in Russia and America have under observation centenarians and monogenarians. The study of their characteristics has convinced scientists that human life can be prolonged through careful eugenic selection Professor D. Fraser-Harris, the wellknown British physiologist, inclines to the belief that hcridity plays an important part in longevity. “Aged individuals are more frequently found among people who work with their hands, but there are also examples to be seen among writers, thinkers and scientists,” ho said.