The Problem of Longevity.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7, 14 August 1912, Page 2

The Problem of Longevity.

Sugar is the secret of longevity. Saturate yourself with it, let it permeate your system, and you will live long. Thia is the precept of Dr. Metehnikoff, of the Pasteur Institute. If you cannot absorb enough sugar, call in a microbe to help you. The particular microbe that will do it for you is the dog's own microbe, the ‘"glyeobaeter.” Our mute friend the dog has for 6,000 years and more been; trying to do his best for us. Me have discovered at last—or, rather, Dr. Metehnikoff has discovered —what this dumb friend wanted to give us. The discovery; is enough to revolutionise existence. Dr. Metehnikoff has stated it plainly before the Academy of Science. Never before had lecturer a more attentive audience. All the listeners were or less advanced, in years.. The old age problem had a peculiar fascination for them, and Dr. Metehnikoff satisfied them. He explained how a pernicious set of microbes produced indols and phenols in the human intestine. These two products are as a slow poison to the system. They ara the poison of old age. If wc 'could only get rid of the indols and the phenols wo would never grow old. Men and women would remain eternally young. Sugar, Dr. Metehnikoff found, destroyed these indols and phenols. But it cannot always reach them, because it dissolves and is absorbed too quickly. Here i* where the "glyeobaeter” comes to the rescue. He fabricates a great quantity of sugar, and with it he fights the indols and the phenols produced by the mischievous microbes. It is not necessary, either, that we should eat. sugar to feed him. He finds the sugar in boiled potatoes and similar nutritious foods that contain a good deal of starch. Dr. Metehnikoff say it was not he who really discovered this beneficent mkrobe, but his colleague and collaborator. Dr. Wollmann, who made the researches at Dr. Metehnikoff's suggestion. The “glyeobaeter” is not found in the dog only, nor is it in all dogs. The canine race itself benefits little from its presence because of the indifference of dogs to any scientific regime. They eat anything they ean get, and thus supply material to the other microbes, the enemies of the “glyeobaeter.” At any- rate, in the human subject as well as in rats, the action of the dogs’ microbe has been very beneficent. Its presence sufficed 1 to diminish or expel altogether the noxious indols and phenols. Dr. Metehnikoff has for years been trying to solve the problem of longevity.