A SCIENTIST’S DISCOVERY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1929, 13 August 1889, Page 4

A SCIENTIST’S DISCOVERY.

Uoless a very distinguished scientist has turned babbler in his old age, the elixir of life has at length been discovered, This seems an audacious statement to make, but M. BrownSequard, one of the most distinguished physiologists in Europe, stood up before a'meeiing of the Biological Society in Paris recently to- assert that ho had made such a discovery, and was himself • living.attestßtion of its potency and value, i tie states that the experiments instituted by himself and others with respect, to the transfusion of healthy young blood; into the veins of invalids led him to reflect upon the possibi ity of transferring the living cells of a youthful and vigorous being to the system of one who was neither. After a series of experiments with animals, he found the time had arrived for testing the truth of his theory by applying it to the human being, He f®l* -that it was hazardons, and therefore be operated upon himself. He look] parcels of certain organs of very young guinea pigs, triturated them, while still palpitating, in a mortar, diluted them with distilled water, purified and clarified the; liquid thus obtained, and injected it bypoderinicaUy with a lyringe, like morphine, a cubic centimetre sufficing for,» dose. The first experiment was made on the 15'h of May, and after the second injection he felt himself entirely transformed. The report in the Figaro of his address continues Up to this time half an hour’s woik standing in his laboratory completely knocked him up. N< w he can dobtifiue for three hours at a stretch without experiencing the least fatigue. Hie appetite has impfived, his sleep is calmer and more restorative, his stomach fuifi's i's functions more perfectly, he pursues his iatelhctual labors with remarksb'e facility and lucidity, and his dynamo-raefric strength is great'r than it was by 141 b,” Tho reporter himself avers that the voice of the venpr»ble iavant Was stronger and clearer, and hia countenance more animated than heretofore, and that under his thick white eye. bfOWS his eyes seemed to glitter with the Jit of former years. “ The emotion Jaiigmented around him and the audience wis Speedily allured and convinced,” M. Brown-ecquar 1, whq is seventy-two Tears of age, concluded his by declaring that the t ffict of (he inj cMons was equivalent to the deduction often years from bis ng» ; and thunders of applause greeted the declaration. What arc,we to make of all this? It cannot be said that the alleged discovery is brought forward by a nobody. M. BrownBequard has been Professor of tho

Physiology and Pathology o the Nervous (System at Harvard TTniversilr, and Prof ssnr in the liicolo de Mel*cine at Paris, He has received several prizes from the French Academy of Sciences, and in 1878 was elected lo the Chair of Medicine in that body. He is, in fact, a physiologist of the highest rank, and in some departments there is hardly any name which carries greater authority. All we can say, pending the result of further investigations, which, we are told are being made by other scientific men, is, that either this

great man bag become the subject of a melancholy delusion in his o'd age, or he has hit upon the most surprising discovery yet recorded in the annals o( medical science.—Presr.