TIMELY TOPICS

Northern Advocate, 31 January 1936, Page 4

TIMELY TOPICS

POSTPONEMENT OF DEATH.

At the New York Academy of Medicine last month, Dr. Alexis Carrel, a winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine, delivered an address on "The Mystery of Death," in which he predicted that some day, by science, death might be postponed for a long period of time. There were four possibilities, Dr. Carrel said. One was that human beings might be kept in a state of suspended animation and after long intervals returned to the activity of normal life, as had been such organisms as the small arthopod tardigradum. It was a very remote possibility and not too greatly to be wished, for the artificial postponement of the death of a large number of individuals would be an even greater calamity than death itself. If the span of life were suddendy increased to, say, 100 years, civilised countries could not withstand the economic weight of populations made up of elderly persons. Discussing the hope of many persons for survival of personality after death, Dr. Carrel said science could give no assurance, j "but no one," he added, "has the right) •to say such survival is impossible," j "Death," he said, "is imminent in life.'

! There is no hope of ever conquering senescence and death. In general death is like the end of a dull, mediocre, sad day—sometimes the peace of sunset in the mountains, or rest of the hero after battle, exceptionally | the immersion of the soul in the splendour of God. In order to appreciate, beyond the realm of symbols, the true meaning of death one must i study life and not death . . . and perhaps some day in a very distant future a pleiad of geniuses greater than Galileo, Newton, or Pasteur may rise and explore the abysses of our body and our soul and unveil the mystery I of life and death."

# * * * Words of Wisdom.

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome. —Dr. Johnson.

Tale of the Day. "I'd like a book." "Yes, ma'am — something light?" "It really doesn't matter. My husband will carry it."