A GREAT SCIENTIST.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1645, 11 January 1913, Page 14

A GREAT SCIENTIST.

PROFESSOR METOHNIKOFF. IN - LONDON. ; Referring to Professor Elio Metchnikoff's recent visit to London, a writer in the "Daily Mail" states that Professor Metohnikoff holds that "death is premature if it comes before tho age of a hundred. Strong people should live to be 120. We often wonder what'is,, the übjeet of life. I believe the object-of life is to complete a physiological cycle' We are born, we grow, we conio to- the fulness'of growth, then we gradually weaken, and at last we ought to fade awny peacefully and even gladly, the instinct to lifo having been replaced by the instinct to die. '-■•'•'""..

For many years ho' has been working at the problem of premature decay. It is closely connected, ho believes,' with the food we eat. Certain bacteria cause fermentations in the body and so poison us. If wo could avoid taking these into our Bysteins or find healthy 'bacdlli which would war against them wo should last much, longer. > - . ~ ''.'■'.'■-. .In pure milk there are very few harmful organisms. In sour milk there are positively useful bacilli. Therefore, says Professor Metohnikoff, live largely on milk and also take Sour milk or ohecse made of it; then you'will be as 6trong and live as long as the Bulgarians, whose diet inoludea a great deal of 60ur milk. Yet when the professor was asked the othor day whether he attributed the ■success of the Bulgarian anny to this cause he smiled gontly and nut the question by I Tho dangerous bacteria gatner. so the professor teaches, in that part of the intestine which is the refuse-bin of the body. At one time he thougMiof rcconK mending the removal, of this, -but'' although many of us consent to'have our appendices cut out he did not see any liope of convincing 'mankind in general to take the further step. So ho nad to content himself with advising less heroic measures. '. ....-,...

One of these is to eat plenty of fresh, well-cooked vegetables. They are not, as most vegetarians imagine, very' valuable as" nutriment, but they help to fiU up the refuse-bin. This is largo and greedy, for the reason that our animal ancestors lived largely on roots, herbs, and vegetables, and therefore in their bodies thiß part of the intestine was adapted to such a diet. We have changed our way of.living, but the refuse-bin has not yet altered in accord. It asks to be kept in use. If it is not harm follows.

Professor Metchnikoff's theory that the good white organisms in the blood called "phagocytes" wage constant war against the bad.' disease-bearing'microbes, ,and that according as our "whites" are strong or weak so is our capacity to resist disease, is not nowadays accepted as a complete explanation. But tho War of the Whites and Darks was a great discovery, and had a most stimulating effect upon research.

Another of his investigations to attract world-wide attention wasthatwhioh concerned'the cause of grey hair. He announced that ho had found certain hair cellules which devoured tho colouring matter, leaving tho hair palo and. wan. But so far no popular and cheap method of stamping out this cellulo has yet been mado public.