An elixir of life was one of the things sought by the mediaeval
alchemists. Throughout the ages, man has sought a means of prolonging
life--and he is still searching!
One of the latest discoveries of modern biological science holds out
to us the hope that life may at least be prolonged for a considerable
period, and rejuvenated, by a process of grafting portions of certain
glands, which serve to stimulate the activities of the body and, to
some extent, at least, renew its youth.
It has been shown that the rapidity of growth of the body, and its
aging, depend largely upon the vitality of certain ductless glands
within it. The secretions of these glands, to a great extent, control
the life and death of the body.
Professor Voronoff, of Paris, has succeeded in restoring youth and
vigor to several patients by grafting portions of these glands onto
the inactive glands in the patient’s body. The portions which have
thus been grafted seem to restore the whole gland to a renewed life
and vigor, and the health and youth of the subject is thereby largely
restored.
These glands have been taken from the higher apes, which are blood
relations of man. The demand for apes has consequently increased so
enormously that an attempt is now to be made to “corner the market”
in apes, and a company has been formed to proceed to Africa, capture
a large number of these creatures, and breed them especially for this
purpose!
Dr. Voronoff believes that the glands obtained from the ape are better
than glands obtained from human beings, since the vitality of the ape
is higher and its health is more robust.
It is the secretions of these ductless glands, therefore, to which we
must look for our “elixir of life” at the present time, and there seems
no reason to doubt that when such operations become simplified, we
shall have here a means of extending life and rejuvenating it, in many
instances.
It is not known _why_ the human body should die at all, seeing that it
is a mechanism which has somehow learned to repair itself. The food we
eat is constantly being converted into new tissue, and in this sense it
is true that the body of a man of seventy is as young as the body of a
baby six months old! Both have been newly made from the food eaten,
and yet in one case we have an infant, and in the other, the body of an
old man.
Science does not yet know precisely the cause of this, but we are now
beginning to suspect that the causes of old age lie in the nature of
the secretions of the ductless glands, and particularly the sex glands,
and that so long as these are vigorous, youth is maintained, and that
when they become devitalized, old age and general degeneration set in.
The importance of these ductless glands, therefore, may readily be
seen; and it is possible, in view of this, that, in a generation or
two, we shall have “gland-mothers” instead of grandmothers!