ORTHOBIOSIS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2139, 14 March 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

ORTHOBIOSIS.

THE STRAIGHT WAY OF LIFE.

Scientific Discovery to Prolong Life arid Revolutionise the World.

(By A. Chalmers Mitchell, D.s.c., L.L.D., F. 8.5., Secretary of Zoological Society of London.

Tho title of this article is a .rough translation of tho word ‘‘Orfcholnosis, ■ invented by Professor Elio Motclnu- , koff to denote what is at once. a new standard of morality, a scientific So t" life, and a new hope for humanity against tho greatest evils that encompass ns. Every, one. know that Metchnikoff is now duet of tho.ui who carry on the .high traditions ol Pasteur, by devoting their scientiiu. knowlerlU and their disciplined ai,lnnr of investigation to the direct service of man Metchnikoff w » ■Russian of tho professional classics his elder brother was the provincial functionary whoso death, m the m--tnrity of. life, was described n o Ktni’s poignant story, tlw ut.u ff lvau llvitch.” MctchmkofV became 3,°' cs!rinl 0 " 1 “rr.rXi‘i» i ;i»iteJaS; i“!,‘ 'Sto'cKuf-. <"ij"™“ sensitive to stimulations hy som s>r;~%iWdp‘;^or<,i forei-n intruders, such .as microbes that "have invaded the tissues, these wandering cells crowd round the aftected spots and act as the agents of the vis medicatrix naturoe, msostmg and destroying the intruders, lemomn the diseased tissue, and Senei ally ai i„g in the healing process. These in ventilations are tho foundation ol tlio mrnlern dews of inflammation, and for Metchnikoff a reputation as a pathologist at least as great, and naturally much more widespread, than his fame as a zoologist. TISSUE DESTRUCTION. The special quantity of the wandering cells, of which white blood corpuscles are the examples most easy to observe, is their power of destroying other living cells, engulfing them bodily where that is . possible, or in the case of larger victims, pressing a o an “them and sucking out their contents. Metchnikoff has called tlio cells ‘‘eating cells” or ‘‘phagocytes, and the process of phagocytosis In tho main phagocytosis is beneficial to the body, and phagocytess are guardians of its wellfaro. But tho action is mechanical, in the widest sense of the term, an affair of action and reaction, of appetite and resistance, and not of orderly benevolence. When the cells of any tissue, muscle of kidney, brain or bone, are. in active health, eitliei they do not attract the phagocytes or are able to repel their embarrassing attentions. The maint en a nee o the integrity of the tissues demand a delicate balance of power between tlio higher, specific cells and the omnipresent alert phagocytes, latter are as ready to devour the tissues themselves as foreign intruders, and if they are unduly stimulated, 01 the tissues unduly weakened, tho baleful process 'of tissue destruction begins muscle tissue, brain tissue, or wnat not, is replaced by the phagocytes, and tho corresponding functions uecenerate. The action is naturally pi ogressive, and sooner or later leads o a condition incomputable with luo According to Metchnikoff, this the essential “nature of the changes that take place in old age. The activity of the phagocytes overpowers the activ ity Of the normal cells, with the remit that senile debility is produced. According to Metchnikoff, moreover, , hr the vast majority of cases, senile debility is precocious, and is due to causes which may ’-.prevented ino jjr our own generation , at least, in

sibility of intestinal putrefaction and i a relative shortness of hie amongst I vertebrate animals generally, lhe/ieI prossion, headaches, and even senous illnesses caused by prolonged retention of the contents of the lower bowel are familiar to us all, and are th« results of microbial poisons being absorbed into the blood, and so affecting the tissues generally, .these poisons, moreover, not only cause immediate troubles, but are chief agents in. tin production of precocious 50 .. 1U Thev depress the resistance ol tlio higher cells, and stimulate the actaitv of the phagocytes, so that then presence encourages the eating away of the specific elements ol the tissins and their replacement by useless, ueI'enerativematerial. Whatever may have been the original use ol tins great reservoir of waste material, it is now positively liarmiul. Although the resources of modern surgerv have nuido it possible to •‘short circuit" the intestine, shutting off the capacious lower bowel to a functionless by-pass, and although this radical interference has been most successful, 'Metchnikoff does not suggest the universal adoption of so extreme a measure. His method is to attack the flora of microbes, and prevent or reduce the intestinal putrefaction they set up. A vast number of. experiments have been made, the object of which was to render the contents of the gut aseptic by treatment with disinfecting agencies. Microbes and their spores, however, are possessed of walls highly resistant to the action of chemical agencies, and it .is impossible to introduce substances in sufficient bulk and of potency to kill tho microbes, without doing-Serious harm to the cells that form tho lining of tlio gut. It happens that tlio bacilli which cause the lactic fermentation, those which sour milk by transforming some of its sugar into lactic acid, arc unable to become acclimatised in the gut, and that their presence under favourable conditions arrests the activity of the microbes which cause putrefaction. After exhaustive investigation of the bacilli employed for souring milk in various parts of the world, Metchnikoff lias found a strain of which pure cultures can be made. These can be introducto tho body in various forms. Soured curds, prepared from boiled milk by tho addition, at the proper temperature, of a leaven containing the pure cultures, can be oaten in quantities of a little move than a teacupful once or twice a day. Taken with sugar, the curds are quite pleasant. Tabloids containing tho pure cultures in a dry condition may ho taken along with a milk diet. It is necessary, however, that the general diet should be as simple as possible. Alcohol, in any form, and even in small quantities is deleterious; it aids the process of putrefaction ,and inhibits tho action of the lactic bacilli. Metchnikoff himself -limits his own food practically to milk, chocolate and bread, but if tho diet be plain, there seem 6 to bo no reason why it should bo limited to milk and vegetables. Uncooked fruits and salads are esnecially to be avoided as they are always contaminated in a high degree with spores of moulds and of various bacilli, whilst those which have been grown in market gardens, in a large number of cases, are charged with the bacteria of specific diseases. The soured milk treatment lias been tried experimentally in a large number of cases, and its general effect on the physiological processes of the body and the health has been carefully investigated; and there appears no doubt as to its efficiency in reducing or practically completely inhibiting intestinal putrefaction. It .is impossible to give a brief account of the arguments which appear to establish the relation between such putrefaction and precocious senility, but they have convinced many cirefill observers, and deservo the close attention of every thinking person. THE INSTINCT OF LIFE

OF LIFE Precocious senility is only one i« tiance of what Metchnikoff calls disharmonies which are due to ourjnlierited constitution. In a ) oiume, the English translation of which was published ill 1903, under the title •‘The Nature of Man,” and m a second volume,. “The Pr o longu-ti°n of life” which is announced .toi this autumn he has explained m deta the nature of Ins general news. I manv wavs man is out ot geai wt his environment on account of tho fact that many of his qualities, physical mentaT, and emotional have come vim -is a legacy from his remote ancestors, and while at one tunc in the course of his evolution were p - bahlv useful adaptions, .are now not inerelv useless, hut positive y . ful 'Such disharmonies are the y.ai ource o the pessimism which has .0 deeply tte pl.teopliy Fife and rS rate of reproduction of most plants indicate . selective breed in®’ as the most effective means of nrotfucing modification, whilst in So case of man obvious considerations if only those of time, rule out selective breeding, and the long hfe affords tho opportunity of^direct unO e ‘ ification of each individ • • ‘,i i • . knowledge and scientific method to ho employed to rectify human fife and to remove it from all acquired ’or inherited disharmonies, until there can be obtained a condition of orthobiosis, a .°? cl * tMoeoiw"accich death from which extraneous accm ents have been removed, and m wlucli c,“ct S"omiv« pta» comcs >» "• ’already advancing rapidly only by. the deaths due ditcctly to ti cm but by the loss of health and life C..W.1 p < •lrmear to' have recovered. J he nor mal duration of life is m «1 civilised countries, and t ys s the result of improvements lu clcaiiliness, general hygiene, an g * . j felicity of life. Thanks to the special Investigations of Metc nnl of .l msdL we are on the eve of knmvledge will make possible the extcrTn of syphilis, a disease which, directly and indirectly is responsible in a y

it is possible, then, for science to intervene in favour of the higher cells of the body in their warfare with the phagocytes, by the conquest- of disease, and the'arrest of the process of' putrefaction, the absorbed poisons from which are a constant menace to the body. There are other methods which are now being worked out, but which already approach accomplishment. It .is possible to prepare serums that have a definite effect in stimulating the different elements of the body, and although there are great practical difficulties in the wav of making and experimenting with these, it seems probable that science will be able to come to the aid of any tissue that seems to be weakening before its due time. The attainment of orthobiosis would enormously increase the happiness of human life. Human beings would remain active and vigorous, bodily and mentally, long after the period at which most people are now a burden to themselves and others. The duration of the working period of each individual life would be enormously increased. Bat the phychological effect would be even greater. Meclinikoff has shown, by a most interesting series of studies, that in a normal human life there is a gradual succession of instincts. One of the most important of these is what. is called the instinct of life. This is almost absent in the young, and grows slowly as maturity is reached. Persons who die, or becomo precociously senile in early middle life may never acquire it. Pessimism, the expression ol absence of the sense of life, is a phase of youth. Many of tho best known Jpefijsimiats, sifcli vis Schopenhauer, nave lived to survive their pessimism, and perhaps the majority of great men, such, for instance, as Goethe, pass through pessimism to a convinced optimism. In Meclinikoff’s opinion, it is of the utmost importance that this truth should be realised, and those who are in the phase of pessimism should understand its temporary nature. Still., more interesting is the relation of orthobiosis to death. At the present time, death comes in a- vast majority of cases by some accident or disease or degeneration, and cannot lie rogarded in any way natural. Wo have as yet almost no information as to what would be tho natural limit of human life, but it may bo set down as, at least, considerably more than a century. As it nearly always comes too soon, and as the result of morbid processes, wo are ignorant as to what natural death would be. Metchnikoff, however, has collected information from a few rare cases which leads him t 0 suppose that'if it would come in its own proper season, death would be as welcome as any other normal phase of the cycle of life. In a harmoniously developed life, the sexual instinct would appear at sexual maturity, and not before time. As life went on, the sense- ol life, of instinct of life, would grow stronger, but in the end would he replaced by what Metchnikoff calls tho instinct of death. This would not come as the wish to be free from pain, but as a gentle acquiescence of mind and the emotions in the natural processes of the body. It is doubtful if truly natural death ever does occur amongst human beings, and there is no direct evidence as to its cause. It is practically certain that it is not the result," as Mis been supposed of a failure in the power of constituent cells of the body to grow and. reproduce. and general considerations drawn from stfitly of animals and plants confirm this view. Ihe most probable theory it that- it is the lcsult of gradual accumulation within the body of narcotic by-products of cellular activity, and that it is directly comparable with sleep, and that the last sleep would be received gratefully by the permanently tired body as temporary sleep is received by tho 'temporarily tired body. For such a condition to be. obtained it is necessary that life should be stretched out ' to its due limit, and is not shortened by i “accidents” or disease or habit.

iiMi degree for precocious SL ' n H'y • liralnios.t every scientific centre or tne World,* a special attack is being .made on cancer, and it too, may be soon expected to yield. Already, indeed, U scientific knowledge were applied to its fullest extent, the race would make an enormous stride towards ortliobiosis and it is a definite part of the new morality that the pnn'.lamepts and executive "officers who have charge of human affairs should be experts in scientific ’knowledge, MICROBIAL POISOMNG 01' THE BODY. , The most striking part of Metchnikoff’s doctrine, however, is an affair of the individual rather than of the State. One of the legacies that men have .inherited from their animal progenitors is the possession of a. very capacious iiitestine, in which tlip de|>ris’o'f friod remains for a considerable period. All the conditions in this organ are normally favourable to the bxistenbe and multiplication of a varied flora of microbes, amongst which the most abundant and pernicious are those which set up putrefaction of the contents. By o series of most ingenious investigations, Metchmkoli pas shown that there is a direct relation between the presence of such a pos-

INDIVIDUA L INTEGRITY Tho reproach has bin'll brought against the philosophy of Metchnikoff that it is purely seillish, considering tlio individual rather than the race. It seems obvious, however, that the race, -apart from the individuals or which it is composed, is a mere abstraction, ami that the race is most likely to survive and develop lurtnor which contains the greatest number ot vigorous, happy, and active individuals. Moreover, Metchnikoff shows that ns the scale of animal ito m considered in ascending series, tlio importance of the individual increases. Amongst single celled animals, when a colony is formed, the components are absolutely merged in the whole, various kinds of polyp colonics, the constituent individuals become specialised organs of the whole,losing thou own integrity. Amongst colonial insects, although no physical link binds the units into the whole, the difloiint individuals are incomplete, some like the drones and the queen bees being useless except for reproduction, others, like worker bees, being sterile. Amongst vertebrates n<j such loss of individual integrity occius. Each unit, however it he bound up in the welfare of the community, returns its com plots set of functions. Metclinikolf points out, however, that in a, state of orthobiosis specialisation would occur, but that it would effect the different periods ol each individual life. There is no reason, lor instance, why there should be sterile working women and women given up tlio privileges and duties or sox. Alter the neriod of early youth would come the efflorescence of sex, and after that, in the natural ordei ot events, a period' when women might devote herself, undisturbed by sex, to specialised functions m the comIn more general affairs, the t-iue of the young would cease. The experience and ripened faculties ot the old would no longer bo destroyed be bodilv and mental weakness, and tho affairs of mankind would bo guided hy men who had passed tho stage ol pessimism, who had acquired the sense- of life, and who combined with experience, wisdom, and calm judgement of age with the energy ot an enduring youth.