THE ELIXIR OF LIFE.
WE have seen so many marvels achieved by science within the last thirty years, that it would be rash to ignore any tale of discovery, however strange, that is not demonstrably opposed to an established law of Nature. The announcement that any one had found a means of creating matter, or perpetual motion, or a way of proving (outside politics) that two and two make five, might be dismissed off- hand. But anything short of that cannot be called incredible. There is no reason, for instance, why we should turn an abso- lutely deaf ear to the wonderful tale of the Paris correspondent of the Morning Post about the latest researches of Dr. Metsch- nikoff at the Pasteur Institute. Yet, if it be really true that we are on the verge of being able to tame, if not to abolish, the
assaults of old age, and so to increase the duration of active life, it is probable that "man, proud man," will in his usual self- centred fashion, look upon this as by far the greatest achieve- ment of the scientific era. From the earliest times man has nourished himself with the hope of one day attaining the mas- t eryover "old age and death, that come to all men." The seekers for the earthly paradise, whether Greeks of Homer's day, or Norse rovers, or Spanish conquistadores, held it for a special allurement that the fountain of Perpetual Youth was in that land, and that the "slough of grisly eld " should fall from all who drank of it, though opinions differed among the learned as to whether it could altogether stave off the ultimate approach of death. Such myths as those of Tithonus and the dwellers before the Flood, which appear in the folk-lore of almost all nations, testify to the universal hope of longer life that persisted in the most wretched conditions and barbarous societies, and contributed in no small measure to keep the race alive and ever striving upwards from the animal stage of evolution. For centuries the alchemists, who represent the best of medimval science, bestirred themselves over their crabbed scrolls and smoky furnaces to find three precious things,—the universal solvent, the philosopher's stone, and the elixir of life. Human ideals change slowly, for all the change in human environment and language, and power, riches, and length of days still represent the secret wishes of nine men out of ten. Bacon, with his usual sagacity, observed that any one who professed to have dis- covered a way of patting off old age, or of renewing youth, would not easily be believed. But he added that the thing was certainly possible, and that it was much more likely to be attained by rules which the persevering study of Nature would gradually teach mankind, than, as the alchemists who were unconsciously founding modern chemistry still hoped, by means of "a very few drops, or even scruples, of some precious liquor or quintessence." He was so far in the fashion, however, as to give three of the best receipts for the manufacture of such a liquor, though with the proviso that it was rather mind than body that these cordials were likely to affect. One consisted of potable gold, which there were many approved ways of making ; another consisted of pearls dissolved in Cleopatra's manner, or filed down into a conserve with sweetmeats; a third of powdered emeralds and jacinths, about which he was prudently not very slue ob asperitateni. Whatever might have been the virtues of such nostrums, one thing is clear,— they were hopelessly out of reach of the ordinary man, and if they had been efficient the universal longevity of the rich would have developed a more complete plutocracy than has yet been known. Bat none of them was any good, and it is only in the New Atlantis that men have yet discovered the "water of paradise very sovereign for health and prolongation of life."
The recent tendency of that science of hygiene to which Bacon looked for the increase of longevity has, oddly enough, been rather the opposite. The "Healthy Male" tables which are now used by most insurance offices show that whilst the child's "expectation of life" has notably increased in the last hundred years, that of the middle-aged man has dimin- ished. An easy explanation of the latter fact is to be found in the increased strain and complexity of modern life. There is thus all the more scope and desire for such a discovery as Dr. Metschnikoff is reported to have made. As to its details and exact bearing not much can be said at present. For one thing, the discussion of it at length would be too technical for these columns : physiology has become considerably more complex since George Henry Lewes was able to fascinate the general reader with its problems, and it has developed a language of its own which is scarcely fit for publication. For another, the details are not yet full enough for adequate con- sideration, though the correspondent to whom they are due has given us a sufficiently clear notion of their outlines. The main part of the discovery would seem to be a continuation of Dr. Metschnikoff's already classical theory of the function of the white corpuscles of the blood. It is to him that we chiefly owe the theory of the action of these " phagocytes " in destroying such hostile microbes as find their way into our little systems, and threaten them with a cessation of being. When the part played by bacteria in the dissemination of disease was first discovered, only a few years ago, men were puzzled to know why, since the air and earth were shown to
swarm with poisonous microbes, human life was able to endure against their perpetual assaults for a single hour. Mr. H. G. Wells has used this perplexity with great skill in the catastrophe of his "War of the Worlds," showing how Martians coming from a planet which did not contain bacteria were bound to succumb to the insidious germs with which our world is so thickly stocked. "These germs of disease have taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things But by virtue of this natural selection of our kind we have developed resisting-power." According to Dr. lietschnikoff's theory, which is now generally accepted, the resisting-power in the blood consists in its white corpuscles, called phagocytes from their property of eating stray germs. Wherever an army of hostile microbes finds entrance, a force of phagocytes hastens to the front and wages battle against them in the Congo fashion, absorbing them into their own amceboid bodies and digesting them. Unfortunately the phagocytes do not confine their attack to intruders; sometimes they appear to turn against the vital red corpuscles, and the civil war which ensues is supposed by some to be a cause of senile decay. This is, of course, a very crude and analogical account of the state of things that exists in our blood, but it will suffice to indicate the nature of the new discovery, which appears to consist in a method of stimulating the growth of the red corpuscles and encouraging them to resist the attack of the various forces that tend to produce the deadly anmmia which is so common in our cities. It is stated that Dr. Metschnikoff and his assistants are hopeful of being able to apply similar stimuli to the " rejuvenation " of the other chief organs of the body. His immortal fame will be sufficiently secured by such a method of acting on the blood, which we know, as did the writer of Deuteronomy, to be in truth the life of man.
All the same, what will strike the general imagination in this amazing story is the possibility that old age may be deprived of its terrors and the duration of life increased. Hitherto the advances in sanitation and medical science, much as they have improved the average health, have held out no hope of that kind. Not so long ago, the solemn language of the Psalmist would have been used to discourage effort in this direction. Can it be possible. we ask on rselves, that the twentieth century is to see the allotted three-score years and ten extended almost indefinitely, and the "labour and sorrow" which have always accompanied the last decades, save in such exceptional cases as that of Mr. Gladstone, done away with ? To such a question the only answer is to be found in a scientific suspense of judgment until some definite proof is offered. It is perhaps notable that such writers as have dreamed of this possibility have not en- couraged us to hope for its realisation. One of Nathaniel Hawthor ne's finest tales is a satire on the wish of the old to be young again. "For my own part," said Dr. Heidegger, as he doled out the miraculous water of Ponce de Leon's Fount of Youth, "having had much trouble in growing old, I am in no burry to grow young again." Tennyson touched the fable of Tithonus only to display the burden of "cruel immortality." Sir Thomas Browne, who knew all the resources of old age, did not "envy the temper of crows and daws, nor the numerous and weary days of our fathers before the Flood." The bitterest satire of all on our uniiersal yearning for longer life is Swift's terrible account of the Struldbrugs or Immortals of Luggnagg. It is true that these writers consider the gift of longevity as weighted with all the drawbacks of age increased tenfold. What the sanguine may apparently hope from Dr- Metechnikoff's researches is rather that the burden of old age should be lightened. That seems much more hopeful than that the normal duration of human life should be greatly increased. What a tremendous revolution would be worked in many unlovely and useless remnants of life, for instance, if a man could be assured of the rejuvenation of his liver when it began to lead him into peevishness and pessimism ! All this is in the meantime only speculation; but the memory of the incredulity with which the news of Dr. Rontgen's dis- covery was received about this time four years ago should discourage a too hasty rejection of the claim made for Dr. Metschnikoff.
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