SPAN OF LIFE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 102, 30 March 1929, Page 2

SPAN OF LIFE.

DO WE EXIST TOO LONG?

SIR ARTHUR KEITH’S VIEWS. If I were omnipotent I would not try .to prolong human life into old age, states Professor Sir Arthur Keith. My idea would be to frame a body which would maintain its complete physical vitality and mental energy for from forty-five to fifty years, then suddenly disappear. Forty-five is nature’s ideal fey man. It is at this period that one can say that human life begins to age. Prior to the era of civilisation the normal age attained by men and women was from forty to fifty. Civilisation, acting as the world’s hot-house, gradually extended this age to between sixtyfive it d seventy-five. Nowadays some even desire it to be prolonged over the century mark. I think it is one of the most foolish of things for man to' want such a long life.

It is a selfish attitude to take. One should not forget the younger generation. Those who belong to it are entitled to their chance in life. They cannot get this chance if the older folk hang on too long. Nature prefers a short service system for her human army; she has thus more tlo choose from and all are at their best.

I am glad to think that Voronoff is promising the human race far more than ho can ever give it; there are no facts that I know of to support the doctor’s belief that the grafting of merely one of the many glands in the human body can make men live past the century mark. I am really much more in favour of experimenting with gland extracts. I believe that these will be of the utmost therapeutic value in the future..