TO LENGTHEN EXISTENCE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 288, 9 November 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

TO LENGTHEN EXISTENCE.

EXPERIMENTS BY WHICH TVE MAY REACH 200. Within the last three centuries the a,ver<igo length of life lias risen in civilised countries from under thirty to over forty-four. Roughly speaking, everybody powadoys lives half as long again as if they had existed some centuries ago. Why, a great many scientists are asking, should this process not be hurried on ? The great improvement during the last few centuries has been due t-o the bettering of sanitary conditions and to the advance of medical science generally. Hut many investigators are trying' to iind something more speedy. The great authority on this subject is the famous Professor Metchnikoff, who declares that there is no reason whv the average length of life should not be nearer two hundred years than one.

His theory—and it is generally accepted—is that the general decay which is called old age is due to the gradual collection of microbes on the large intestine. They collect on this tube owing to iho putrefying of -particles of food, and spread their poison gradually till they cause general decay. Experiments have shown that vegetables rich in sugar, such as dates, beetroot, carrots, etc., produce none of these poisonous microbes. His idea, therefore, is to form a sugar-preducing centre in the important tube. But, as sugar consumed in the ordinary way all gets absorbed before reaching the spot, he has decided to form it by means of a microbe. If this microbe can bo firmly established in the human body, the problem of adding a century or so to the average life is solved. Lecturing before a learned body in Paris a short time ago, he announced that, after experimenting on human beings with thio microbe, which ho had obtained from the intestine of a dog, ho had found that the poisons which in time bring on old age had ceased to form. Another cure for old ago can be bought over a chemist’s counter, disguised in the pleasant form of chocolates. It is based on the same great scientist’s discovery that lactic acid, such a.s is produced by sour milk, prevents tho poisonous microbes from collecting. It has been noticed that those races which live largely on sour milk are very long-lived. There are reasons for believing that some of the Arabs of the Sahara, who live chiefly on sour camel’s milk, reach the age of two hundred and upwards. And the inhabitants of Bulgaria, where centenarians are nearly as common ars six-foot men, live largely on a preparation of sour milk, known as “ yahourth.” It is the bacillus of “ yahourth ” that M. Massol, tho French scientist, has incorporated in the sweets known as ‘‘ massolettes.” What is known as lactic cheese is also on sale in England with the same purpose. In the early part of tho Bible sour milk is often mention-id in connection with tho patriarchs, who lived for hundreds of years.

A Bulgarian sneciali.-t. Dr. Tranjen. is working on 'different lines. Certain diseases are treated nowadays by injecting into the blood of the sufferer a substance obtained from the blood of an animal which has succeeded in shaking off that disease. The reason .is that this blood must have developed 'a sort of antidote (.an anti-toxin) that has killed the disease's Twison (or toxin). So. Dr. Tranjen proposes to put into the blood of young people a preparation obtained from the tissues of old people. The blood of healthy young people should shake this poison off. It the mysterious anti-toxin formed by the young blood in order t-o do this could bo found, the secret would be solved.

Another school of scientists relies on radium .and similar rays. It has been found that, if radium rays shine on the larvae( the young) of mealworms, it delays their growth and decay. A mealworm under radium outlives several generations not under radium. If some similar treatment could be successfully applied to man, a human being would be still a child at thirty, and have a comfo.ntablo middle age lasting over ninety years.