SPAN OF LIFE NOW LONGER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17864, 4 June 1926, Page 10

SPAN OF LIFE NOW LONGER.

AUTHORITIES TRY TO CONQUER CAUSES OF DEATH. SAX FRANCISCO. May 2. . The secret of long life that 460 years ago eluded Ponce de Leon to-day lies in every man’s grasp, authorities in New York have just claimed, and it is stated that 5000 centenarians now living in America can point out his mistake to Ponce de Leon, who died a broken old man because he would accept no substitutes for the fancied fountain of youth. • Better habits of life, they testify, and modern science, to say nothing of the stimulus of radio, provide an ample substitute for the revivifying waters. The lengthening of the average span of life, to which the four centuries since Ponce de Leon have added 37 years, and the increase in the number of those who escape death up to the age of 100, indicate, say' longevity experts, that man may again achieve the healthy old age of Moses, who “was 120 when he died, and his eye was not dim nor was his force abated.” Recipes of. 26 centenarians living in or near New York include; Hard work and lots of it; always take things easy; no smoking and drinking; three ‘ teaspoonfuls of whisky each morning and night; working, fishing, and minding your own business; taking a lively interest in other people; not wearing shoes; cultivating a soothing piety. While some experts stress heredity as the main factor in longevity, more individuals are being developed who will be the parents of centenarians of the future, says Dr Haven Emerson, of Columbia University. ‘“Thirty' years ago I saw one person of a hundred years where I see three to-day,” said Dr Frederick L. Hoffman of the Prudential Life Assurance Company of New York. “Fifty years ago 25 was the prime of life for a man, and 50 was old. To-day 40 is the prime, and there are numbers of virile men of 70 and 80. Then, women were old at 40. To-day they marry at 30 and 40, and children arc born at 50 and 60. “The main reason is that people are leading more rational lives. A healthy leanness has replaced the old idea of fat and 40. Hard work, of an intermittent and congenial kind, is appreciated as a secret of longevity.” “There is no reason why' the conquest of the causes of death should not go on,” said Dr Eugene Lyman Fiske pf the Lite Extension Institute of New York. “I don’t know of any limit to the life span. There is no underlying, complete, necessary' reason for death. Death is always caused by' poison, injury, or the failing of a substance necessary to life.” SERUMS DISCOVERED. Discovery of a serum effective in reducing high blood pressure, and in some instances restoring it to normal, is claimed by Professor Legiardi Laura, formerly assistant to Cesare Lombroso, noted psychologist. The serum, which he calls “hypotonsine” was described by Prof. Laura, in an address at a meeting of the Medical Association of New York. The Senum is . extracted from horses. All patients used in his’ experiments were more than 60 years old, Dr Laura said, and in addition to high blood pressure, thsy were suffering from diseases prevalent among the aged. The serum, he asserted, can be safely used as frequently as necessary, and no change in the diet, environment or habits of patients is necessary. Statistics of insurance companies show that approximately 2,000,000 persons in the United States are suffering from high blood pressure, an affliction that has troubled mankind for centuries. Two doctors of the Seaview Hospital made statemens supporting the discoverer's claim for the serum. Dr Leandro W. Tomarkin. a young scientist of Como. Italy, addressed an t impressive gathering of physicians and specialists at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York, and he discussed his treatment for pneumonia. In the ordinary course of events 38 per cent of pneumonia patients die in New York hospitals. Of a group of patients treated by Dr Tomarkin, in the New York hospitals only 14 per cent died, and all who received his treatment before the third day recovered. II is therapeutic agent is known as the “anti-bacterum tomarkin. ’ It is a svnthetic chemical substance evolved bv Dr Tomarkin in his laboratories in Rome. It consists of two preparations, the anti-bacterial, used early in the disease to destroy the bacteria before the harmful poisons can be generated, and anti-toxic used later in the disease to neutrali.se the. poison already formed. Dr Tomarkin is the head of the research laboratory of the King of Italy.

CANCER DECLARED MILDEW. A cablegram from Paris to New York stated that in the opinion of Professor T. Tissot, of the Paris Natural History Museum, cancer is due to an abnormal form of mildew. lie claims he has taken healthv human tissue and transformed it so that cultures develop cancerous elements, and that these elements can be reproduced as easily as cultures of microbes. The professor’s disclosures were made in a paper read before the Academy of Sciences in Paris, and all animal and vegetable organisms are nothing but highly developed organised mildew, in his view. He has transformed bacterial cultures into mildew. He has treated in this manner cultures of typhoid, cholera, diphtheria, and other diseases, and at the same time isolated and photopraphed the basis mildew of numerous animal and vegetable organisms. lie found that the mildew which caused tvphoid identical with that of the mildew of maize. Malta fever that of the orange, diphtheria that of barley, and cholera that of the poisonous mushroom. He found that the virus of measles was identical with the organism mildew of lettuce, that of scarlet fever and rabies with the mildew of the car rot. the virus of variola and smallpox that, of the potato. It is claimed by Dr Tissot that he has transformed tuberculosis culture? into mildew, identical with that of the human organism. This led him to the conclusion ihat tuberculosis develops spontaneously in man, although it car he transmitted by contamination. He deduces that the sources of most dis eases are food, but that food is danger ous only when mildewed or rotten. lie has no remedies for the disease he investigated, but thinks that epi demies, such as cholera, might be pre vented by destruction of poisonous mushrooms in the woods, and diph theria by omitting barley from chil rlren’s diet and avoiding the use of bar ley straw in cow stables. THERAPY RESTORES YOUTH. When Dr Henry Thacker. ex-M.P and former Mayor of Christchurch J New Zealand, was recently in Sa» j Francisco, he was greatly interested ii j physio-therapy, and in that myster ous branch of medicinal science he be

lieved great strides would occur in the coming years, and it may be of more than passing interest to record data given out in New York a few day's ago by Dr Peter Schmidt, of Berlin, who stopped temporarily in the big eastern metropolis on his way from Shanghai, in order to compare notes with Dr Harry Benjamin. Both surgeons worked with Professor Eugen Steinbach, in Vienna, and in the last few years have performed many* hundreds of the famous “Steinbach operations,” which are inclined to rejuvenate without the transportation of glands. Dr Schmidt, while in New York, showed photographs and records of an experiment in China, which he has already reported to the German Medical Society in a lecture delivered recently at the Academy of Medicine in New York. According to Dr Schmidt his Chinese i experiments remove the objection made by sceptics who said the rejuvenation effects were produced, not by' the operation, but by' the belief of the patient in his forthcoming rejuvenation. Through the courtesy' of the Government of the. Shanghai Settlement, Dr Schmidt said, a dozen life convicts were placed at his disposition. He could not talk to them and they had not the slightest idea of what was being done. A local anaesthetic, a few minutes of operation, two days in bed, and two more under the doctor’s observation and they were sent about their business, working for the State. „ They found their eyesight rapidly cleared up : their muscles recorded strength ; they enjoyed their food, and they slept better. UNFAIR TO CONVICTS.' “ There was no suggestion involved in their rejuvenation,” Dr Schmidt said. “ They don’t know yet what has happened to them. Yes, as you say, it is a little unfair perhaps to renew a man’s youth and then leave him in prison.” He shrugged his shoulders. “It is part of the progress of civilisation.” Dr Schmidt said that he went to China to study the Oriental manner of growing old. He said that the Chinese live a moderate, unhurried life, and consequently, instead of reaching the summit of their capacities at fifty and then rapidly declining, like the Western races, the Chinese live to a ripe old age, untroubled, in possession of their faculties. He said that the average chart of a European or American life would show a mounting line up to the fiftieth year, and then an almost immediate descent. By means of Steinbach operations, on the contrary, he said, instead of an immediate descent from the high point of a man’s life at the age of fifty, his best y r ears may be prolonged at their best, “by turning the peak of his life into a platform.” Dr Schmidt said in passing that the first Steinbach operation performed in 1916 for the rejuvenating of a human being was not the first operation that had a rejuvenating effect. He said that it has been found that an operation which has been used by the leading urologist in the United States as well as in Europe for half a century is practically the same as the Steinbach therapy, and has a rejuvenating effect. According to Dr Schmidt, many distinguished Americans whose age and clarity' of mind are remarkable owe it to the fact that an operation used Inexpensive specialists to correct certain disorders of middle age also rejuvenated them. Dr Schmidt said that discussions which he had recently in collaboration with Dr Benjamin may lead to the formation of an endowed foundation for the purpose of establishing the Steinbach therapy in America, on a basis ; which will bring it within the reach of a more general public than the millionaire patients who are now being reju • vena ted. “Tn the. present complicated state of civilisation,” Dr Schmidt, said, ‘ it. takes a man almost to his fiftieth year to acquire sufficient wisdom and instruction to be of use to the world. • Then immediately' he begins to be use- • less. That must be changed. As Dr 1 Benjamin says it so well, 4 we must add 1 life to his years.’ No, it is too early tc - talk about the details of such a foun ‘ dation.”