Descartes, who was deeply interested in the subject, believed himself to

have found a mode of lengthening human life. Bacon published a tract on

life and death, and in it gave advice as to how old age might be

reached; blood-letting and the use of saltpetre were parts of his

specific.

One of the oldest methods in the world consisted in bringing old men in

contact with the bodies of young girls. David, King of Israel, employed

this method, which at a much later period came into fashion.

Eighteenth-century quacks proclaimed a number of specifics, among which

was the “holy water” of Saint Germain, an infusion of senna, merely

purgative in its effects. It is certain that some of the medicines used

for the purpose, by emptying the large intestine, decreased the

bacterial flora, and so checked the formation of the poisons that are

harmful to the higher elements.

Hufeland,[309] a well-known German professor, published towards the end

of the eighteenth century, a work called “La Macrobiotique”; or, “the

Art of Prolonging Human Life.” This treatise had a great vogue in its

day, and contained many interesting and just observations. Besides

advocating cleanliness and moderation, Hufeland advised that “we should

use vegetable rather than animal food, as animal food was more liable to

putrefaction, whilst vegetable substances contained an acid principle

that retarded our mortal enemy, putrefaction.”[310] Here the physician

of a day long past anticipated one of the discoveries of modern science.

In our time scientific men have not ceased to concern themselves with

the prolongation of human life. Professor Pflüger, of Bonn, one of the

most distinguished of living physiologists, has published an essay[311]

in which he gave the results of his inquiries into this subject. He

first stated that investigations into the habits of those who had

attained a great age did not give information sufficiently exact.

Pflüger laid stress on the means of avoiding infectious maladies, and

summed up as follows: “Finally, I can do no better than to associate

myself with the advice given in all the treatises on the prolonging of

life: avoid the things that are harmful and be moderate in all things.”

A year later, a well-known German physician, Dr. Ebstein[312] published

a very careful treatise on the same subject. He had been struck by the

fact that among those who have reached a great age, there have been

several who had led an exuberant life, full of excesses, notably in the

consumption of alcohol. None the less, Ebstein advised either a complete

avoidance of alcoholic liquor, or at the most an extreme temperance in

the use of it. He prescribed in addition the simplification of the

conduct of life and the avoiding of anything that is unwholesome.

Study of such works, which are written in a scientific spirit, convinces

me that a science of the prolongation of life could be built up. An

exact investigation of the phenomena of old age would contribute to this

object. At any rate, we cannot set aside as chimerical plans to make old

age a natural process, and one easy to bear. I believe, moreover, that

attempts to prolong life deserve to be encouraged, the more so as

instances of longevity are already numerous.

Quite a number of cases of centenarians who have preserved intellect and

vigour until death have been recorded. It is unnecessary to relate the

histories of these persons, of whom some attained such ages as 120, 140,

and even 185 years (Saint Mungo of Glasgow). My friend, Professor Ray

Lankester,[313] thinks that such unusually old persons are monstrosities

comparable with those who have attained a gigantic stature. But

centenarians are more numerous than giants, and while the latter exhibit

marked signs of pathological weakness the former surprise us by their

health and vigour.

The longevity of the Israelites recorded in the Old Testament is well

known. No doubt there is much exaggeration in these naïve records. Was

it an error of exaggeration to impute an age of 969 years to Methusaleh,

or of 595 to Noah, or were these ages reckoned on a different basis?

Henseler[314] suggested that in these cases each season was counted as a

year, so that the age of Methusaleh was really only 242 years, a length

of life not so vastly greater than ages recorded in modern times.

There is evidence to show that in somewhat later Biblical times ages

were reckoned in our years. Thus in the Book of Numbers (i. 3, 20, 22)

reference is made to those “From twenty years old and upward, all that

are able to go forth to war in Israel.” The limit of age given shows

clearly that the years counted were our years. This interpretation is

supported by many other passages in the Pentateuch, notably where annual

harvest feasts are spoken of. We may therefore accept as probable the

assignment of such ages as 100 or 120 years to several Biblical

personages, such as Aaron, Moses, and Joshua. And the words put in the

mouth of Jahveh may be accepted as important evidence: “And the Lord

said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is

flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.”[315]

The longevity of that remote period must have surpassed the age of the

present time. From the circumstance that the greatest number of deaths

occurs at the age of seventy years, Ebstein[316] has inferred that

seventy years is the normal duration of life. Although there is no doubt

but that the duration of human life has become longer in the nineteenth

century, we must believe that it was still longer in Biblical times, a

fact that is not particularly surprising.

I have called attention to the important influence of syphilis in

inducing premature and pathological old age, as that disease is a chief

cause of arterial sclerosis and degeneration of the higher elements of

the body. Syphilis has an influence still more serious because its

effects are inherited. Now although the Bible refers to diseases of the

genital organs and lays stress on circumcision, there is no direct

evidence in it as to the existence of syphilis. Ebstein, in a treatise

on the medicine of the Bible,[317] is confident that there is no

reference to syphilis in that Book. Moreover, in the ancient world

generally, syphilis was either unknown or existed only in an attenuated

form. Haeser,[318] the author of the best modern treatise on the history

of medicine, thinks that if syphilis did exist in the ancient world, it

occurred in a localised form and did not become a general disease of the

system as is the case among the moderns.

Humanity would make a great stride towards longevity could it put an end

to syphilis, which is the cause of one fifth of the cases of arterial

sclerosis. The suppression of alcoholism, the second great factor in the

production of senile degeneration of the arteries, will produce a still

more marked extension of the term of life. Scientific study of old age

and of the means of modifying its pathological character will make life

longer and happier. Although modern knowledge is still imperfect, there

is no reason to be pessimistic on the subject of old age.

CHAPTER XI

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF DEATH

Theory of the immortality of lower organisms—Immortality of the sexual

cells in higher organisms—Immortality of the cellular soul—Occurrence

of natural death in the case of certain animals—Natural death in the

Ephemeridæ—Loss of the instinct of preservation in adult

ephemerids—Instinct of life in the aged—Instinct of natural death in

man—Death of old men in Biblical times—Changes in the instincts of man

and lower animals

From what I have said in the last chapter, it is plain that, perhaps

before very long, it will be possible to modify old age. Instead of

retaining its existing melancholy and repulsive character, it may become

a healthy and endurable process; it may also be that the duration of

life will be prolonged. However, it may be asked, what shall we gain by

attaining the age of 100 or 120 years instead of 70 or 80, if there

still remain for us the appalling fate of the inevitable annihilation of

death. Marcus Aurelius said that he who makes a long journey and he who

makes it short, alike meet death at the end; and that once they are

over, three years or a century are much alike. Such assertions, however,

do not take into account the difference in the values we set on a thing

at different ages. A man of the age of twenty-five years and one fifty

years old reason differently, and are affected differently by the same

surroundings. The outlook on life changes in the same individual as he

gets on in years. Young people judge of their impressions by comparison

with their ideals, and as the latter are very high, they are

dissatisfied with things as they really are. They are exacting, and

discontented with what they can get out of the real world; grown up

people and those of advanced years are more easily satisfied because

they have a clearer knowledge of the true value of things. As I have

already had occasion to point out in a previous chapter, the young are

more inclined to pessimism than the old. We see, then, that appreciation

of life changes with age. It is the same with regard to death. It has

often been said that life is only a preparation for death. Cicero said,

“From our youth upwards we must accustom ourselves to face our last

moments without fear. If not, there is an end to peace, since it is

quite certain that we must die.” Philosophy has been called the art of

preparing for death.

Before considering in what direction science may direct our steps

towards solving the problem of death, which in the words of St. Paul is

the “last enemy to be destroyed,” let us see how much is known about it.

We are so accustomed to look upon death as something natural and

inevitable, that it has long since come to be regarded as inherent in

organisms. However, when biologists investigated the matter more

carefully, they failed to discover any proof of the accepted doctrine.

Observation of members of the lowest grade of animal life, such as

infusorians and other protozoa, has shown that these reproduce by simple

division, and in a very short time multiply to an astonishing extent.

Generation succeeds generation, with the utmost rapidity and without the

intervention of death; no single corpse appears in the swarming masses

of animalculæ. From such facts, which are extremely easy to confirm,

several biologists, and in specially Bütschli and Weismann,[319] have

deduced an immortality of the unicellular organisms. When an infusorian

has divided, each daughter organism rapidly completes itself and sets

about again dividing in the fashion of its parent. The process may be

more complicated, as in the cases where a single organism breaks up into

several portions each of which contains an essential part of the parent

organism. Many unicellular organisms reproduce in such a fashion, and as

each animal divides simultaneously into a number of individuals of the

new generation, the individuality is destroyed. It is possible to admit

with Götte[320] that such a process is natural death, although there is

no actual destruction and no corpse.

In any event it cannot be disputed that lower organisms are not subject

to the natural death that comes inevitably to man and the higher

animals. It has been suggested that the debility of infusorians after a

rapid series of divisions, and before conjugation, is to be interpreted

as natural death. But the rejuvenescence that follows conjugation is

incompatible with such an interpretation. Moreover, when conjugation

does not occur, and the debility leads to death, the deaths must be

regarded as accidental.

The theory of the immortality of unicellular organisms is now generally

accepted. However, there are animals, higher in the scale of life, to

which natural death does not come. Among these occur certain forms of

considerable complexity, composed of many organs and very many cells,

such as many polyps, and some worms, especially annelid worms. Some

annelids (Fig. 17) reproduce by transverse divisions very actively.

“Throughout the summer,” said E. Perrier,[321] “the Naïdimorpha are

devoid of genital organs, and apparently (according to unpublished

observations of Maupas), they may be kept alive for several years, and

perhaps indefinitely, in this sexless condition.” This certainly may be

regarded as a case of immortality due to the indefinite power of

regeneration possessed by a complex animal.

The facts that I have cited show that death is not necessarily inherent

in living organisms. Naegeli,[322] a well-known German botanist, has

asserted even that natural death does not exist in nature. He points out

that trees, more than a thousand years old, perish not by natural death,

that is to say, by the gradual decay of their vitality, but by some

catastrophe.

[Illustration:

FIG. 17.—_Chætogaster_ about to divide into four (from a drawing by M.

Mesnil).

]

The age of the famous dragontree of the Villa Oratava at Teneriffe,

admired by Von Humboldt, was estimated at several thousand years. Its

trunk was hollow, but the huge monster continued to flourish until it

was overthrown by a storm. It was only by a catastrophe that the

long-lived giant perished. The Baobab is reputed to live for five or six

thousand years.

In a recently published essay, Jacques Loeb,[323] a distinguished

biologist in Chicago, has made a study of natural death, and has come to

the conclusion that there is no good evidence for its existence. He has

observed that ripe, but unfertilised eggs of sea hedgehogs (Echini) die

a few hours after they have been discharged. Loeb thinks that this may

be a case of natural death, but I cannot agree with this opinion, as an

egg that has not been fertilised by a spermatozoon may be compared with

an organism deprived of its nutrition and so dying of starvation. In

both cases death is purely accidental and could have been avoided.

If natural death does exist, it must have appeared on the face of the

earth long after the appearance of life. Weismann has suggested that

death arose as an adaptation for the advantage of the species, that is

to say, in relation to the surrounding conditions of existence, and not

as an absolute necessity inherent in the nature of the living substance.

He thought that as worn organisms are no longer suited for reproduction

or for the struggle for life, natural death was due to natural

selection, it being necessary to maintain the species in a vigorous

state by weeding out the debased individuals. But the introduction of

death for that purpose was superfluous, since the debility caused by old

age in itself would eliminate the aged in the course of the struggle for

existence. Violent death must have appeared almost as soon as living

things came into being. The infusorians and other low organisms, despite

their potential immortality, must have been subjected perpetually to

violent death, falling victims to larger and stronger organisms. It is

impossible to regard natural death, if indeed it actually exists, as the

product of natural selection for the benefit of the species. In the

press of the world natural death rarely could come into operation,

because maladies or the voracity of enemies so frequently cause violent

death.

No doubt a certain number of deaths are recorded in statistics as being

due to old age, without visible malady. Sometimes decrepit old men feel

no pain and seem to fall quietly into their eternal sleep; but autopsy

reveals serious lesions of the internal organs. There is reason to

believe that even such deaths are in reality violent and are usually

caused by infectious microbes. The general effect on the mind produced

by examination of the collected facts is not an acceptance of the view

that natural death is essentially inherent in living organisms, but the

production of a wish to discover if there be any real proof of its

existence.

For some time natural death has been ascribed only to the parts of the

body that are of use in the individual life. Those cells, the function

of which is to secure reproduction of the species, are, like unicellular

organisms, potentially immortal. The egg-cell of the female is

transformed into a fœtus, and so is the starting-point of the new

generation, while the sexual cells of the new generation give rise to

the third generation, and so on, in an endless chain of life. The

greater number, by far, of the eggs and spermatozoa perish; but their

death is not natural but violent, being due to harmful external

agencies. An infinitesimal minority of the sexual cells survive

indefinitely in the successions of generations.

Scientific proof exists, therefore, that our bodies contain immortal

elements, eggs or spermatozoa. As these cells not only are truly alive

but exhibit properties that are within the category of psychical

phenomena, it would be possible to build up a serious thesis on the

immortality of the soul.

Observations on protozoa, and especially on the infusorian group of

protozoa, show that these simple beings, each of which is composed of no

more than a single cell, possess a high degree of sensibility. They

select their food, distinguish living from dead animalculæ,[324] seek

out their mates for conjugation, avoid danger, and hunt their prey; in

fact, they are in possession of a set of qualities that must be included

in psychical phenomena. Although such phenomena are very much lower in

the case of the infusorians than in the case of higher animals, it is

possible to speak of the soul of protozoa. Moreover, as the body is

immortal by reason of its indefinite power of reproduction by division,

the soul also of these creatures is immortal. However, the soul is so

primitive that it is impossible to speak in definite terms about it.

As the sexual cells of the human body are immortal, like the protozoa,

the problem arises if these too be endowed with an immortal soul. Our

existing knowledge makes it impossible to doubt that ova and spermatozoa

have sensibility in a degree as high as that of the protozoa. The ova

shed secretions that arouse the sensibility of the spermatozoa, and the

latter, directed by this specific “odour” (the occurrence being known

technically as chemotaxis), make their way to the ovum and penetrate it.

Some substances, arousing the spermatozoa into activity and movement,

attract them, others repel them. The phenomena of chemotaxis were shown

for the first time in the case of cryptogams by Pfeffer, the

distinguished botanist, and since then the male cells of many plants and

different kinds of animals have been proved to possess sensibility.

When ova and spermatozoa succeed in conjugating, they produce an

individual of the next generation, to which they transmit what Haeckel

has called the “cellular soul.”[325] This soul, then, is really

immortal, inasmuch as the bodies of the reproductive cells are immortal.

Although it is true that our bodies contain elements endowed with

immortal souls, it by no means follows that our conscious souls are

immortal. In an earlier chapter, I have already pointed out that the

psychical phenomena of many of the cells of our body and the cellular

souls of these are outside our consciousness. We have no consciousness

of the perpetual battle waged by the phagocytes against the microbes

that endeavour to obtain a foothold in our tissues. None the less the

phagocytes are elements endowed with mobility and sensibility and

possessing a cellular soul like that of the protozoa.

A woman has no consciousness of the numerous spermatozoa, with their

cellular souls, that enter her body, nor of those that fertilise her

egg-cells; she is even without consciousness of the much more highly

developed soul of the fœtus. A child before birth possesses psychical

qualities much more numerous and more perfect than those of the

reproductive cells. It is capable of responding to certain sensations

and of performing movements. A child, in the later months of its

prenatal existence, possesses the senses of touch and taste and, within

limits, the sense of sight.[326] This soul is outside the consciousness

of the mother. The mother cannot even tell by her consciousness if she

bears under her girdle one or two embryonic souls. And so the

immortality of the cellular soul has no relation to the problem of

death.

It is a common opinion that only the reproductive cells of man and

animals are immortal, and that the other elements of the body are

mortal, the latter, if they escape violence, dying a natural death. A

contrast has been drawn between the mortal cells in which is resident

the life of the body and the immortal cells on which the species

depends. However, when non-reproductive cells possess the power of

regeneration, it is impossible to deny their immortality. When a polyp

or a worm reproduces by division, a large number of cells go to form the

new individual, and these cells are immortal in the fashion of the

infusoria.

Immortal animals occur only among the lower invertebrates. The power of

regeneration fades away in the higher ranks of the scale of life. Whilst

worms may be divided in several pieces, each piece being capable of

regeneration so as to form a new worm, when molluscs are cut they

display only a limited capacity for regeneration. If the antennæ of a

snail be amputated they will be renewed, but if the whole creature be

cut in pieces death follows. Some of the lower vertebrates, such as

newts and salamanders, can renew the tail and the limbs, but they cannot

reproduce by division. Birds and mammals, the higher vertebrates, have

very little power of regeneration, and tail and limbs are never reformed

in their cases.

It seems to be the case that the advance in the general organisation of

animals has involved a loss in the reproductive capacity of the cells

and tissues. Even in the highest animals, some organs, such as the

liver, still possess regenerative capacity; but, on the other hand, many

cells have lost the power of regeneration completely. The nervous cells,

in particular, which are the highest and most perfectly organised

elements of the body, cannot reproduce themselves. After their initial

appearance in the course of embryonic development, they pass their lives

without regenerating or reproducing. In acquiring the highest qualities,

that is to say, their psychical activity, they have lost completely the

power of reproduction, the distinctive feature of immortal cells. If

cells doomed to natural death really exist, it is in the nervous tissues

that we must look for them.

[Illustration:

FIG. 18.—Ephemerids.

]

The existence of natural death in the animal world cannot be denied, but

it is very rare. The best example is that of the curious insects known

universally as ephemerids (Fig. 18). Swarms of these delicate and

graceful insects are to be seen in the summer months round lights. The

perfect insects emerge from water, in which the six-legged larvæ feed on

the organic débris contained in fresh water. The larvæ are not

predaceous, and escape from their numerous and hungry foes by agility.

They are long-lived, some of them passing two or three years in the mud

of streams, and in the end become winged insects after a rapid

metamorphosis. Near Paris, anglers have a popular name (_manne_, manna)

for one species (_Palingenia virgo_) which emerges in swarms after

sundown from the waters of the Seine and Marne. The swarms fly in huge

numbers, like heavy snow-flakes, for a very short time, and then fall

into the water (Fig. 19). The flight of these insects lasts only an hour

or two, and then, in an enfeebled condition, they fall down in vast

numbers. They are attracted by the lanterns lighted by fishermen, and

are collected to be used as bait. The life in the winged condition is

truly ephemeral and lasts no more than a few hours. The structure of the

insect is adapted to this short life. The larvæ have powerful jaws, used

in the mastication of food; the winged insects possess only vestiges of

jaws. They are unable to feed, and so are adapted only for the briefest

existence. Their hour of aerial life is devoted to love. As soon as they

emerge the males and females unite, and the packets of eggs, which are

deposited at once, fall into the water, and in a few weeks the young

larvæ hatch out.

The mode of life and the organisation of the adult ephemerids show

plainly that they are adapted to natural death. Death comes to them not

because they are without food, or because the environment fails to

provide something necessary to life, but merely because they emerge from

the larval state in a non-viable condition, without the organs necessary

to the maintenance of life.

[Illustration:

FIG. 19.—Swarms of _Palingenia virgo_.

]

Once it is granted that natural death actually exists, it is necessary

to study its mechanism as closely as the existing state of knowledge

permits. To exclude the possibility of the death having to be

interpreted as violent, it would be necessary to know that some very

rapid infectious disease does not attack these insects as soon as they

emerge from the water. This possibility, although remote, must be

examined. Instances are known of large numbers of insects dying very

rapidly as the result of attack by a species of mould which causes an

epidemic. Every one has seen, especially in autumn, dead flies anchored

to the window pane by a little tuft of white fluff. As so many

individuals die about the same time, we might be disposed to assign the

fact to natural death. The actual cause, however, is an infectious and

fatal disease caused by a parasitic mould.

The occurrence of some terrible epidemic may be excluded from

consideration in the case of ephemerids. I have made investigations

which show that such an epidemic does not occur. The bodies of the dying

ephemerids contain no microbe which could be the cause of death. Their

death must be regarded as natural, as the result of their organisation,

as essentially a part of the nature of the insects. Among the cells of

their body there are many active phagocytes. Is it possible to attribute

death to ravages that these cells may cause among the higher cells and

tissues? Microscopic examination, so far from supporting such a

possibility, shows that the organs are quite normal in their intimate

structure. The brain and central nervous system, the muscles and other

organs, show no signs of that invasion by phagocytes found in cases of

senile degeneration. In this example of natural death there is certainly

no possibility of phagocytic intervention.

Some biologists have suggested that the rapid death of ephemerids and of

some other insects is due to debility caused by the great effort of

depositing the male and female sexual cells. On this supposition, the

case would be analogous to the shock which is sometimes the consequence

of a surgical operation. This hypothesis, however, may be excluded, for

among the dead ephemerids there are many males that have not united with

females. Among ephemerids males are much more numerous than females;

many males have no opportunity of undergoing the sexual shock and of

emptying the reproductive organs, and these, none the less, die as

rapidly as the others.

As yet we do not know if all the tissues of the ephemerids die

simultaneously in natural death. Most probably the cells of the nervous

centres perish first, and so bring death on the others. The

investigation ought to be made.

Death comes to the ephemerids in the midst of love, at the moment when

their sexual instincts are satisfied. It would be very interesting to

know the sensations of these creatures as they feel death come on them

in the act of reproduction. Naturally it would be impossible to obtain a

full answer to the question, but many interesting facts regarding it may

be ascertained. All the ephemerids, not only those the life of which is

so brief, but those that live for several days (_Chloë_, for instance),

are extremely easy to capture. It is unnecessary to take them unawares

or to use a net as in the case of flies, wasps, and many other insects.

Ephemerids may be taken with the fingers in the simplest way, because

they offer no resistance and show no desire to escape, although they

have six legs and two or four wings. This is not an isolated case, for

some other insects (as, for example, winged ants and aphides) allow

themselves to be captured with the same carelessness.

Although the adult ephemerids are careless, the wingless larvæ are

timid. When a tube is brought near them, among the water plants, with

the object of capturing them, they rapidly move off. It often requires

much patience and quickness to capture these larvæ (Fig. 20). The

instinct of preservation of life displays itself by rapid flight.

[Illustration:

FIG. 20.—Larva of an ephemerid (_Chloërufulum_).

]

It is remarkable that the adult insect has lost the instinct of

self-preservation. If it be touched it may move a short distance off,

but it does not take to flight although its wings are very large, and

its body, which of itself weighs little, is still lighter because the

digestive tube is filled with air and not with food. As a rule, an

ephemerid that has been touched does not even move off, but allows

itself to be captured without any resistance. It would not be accurate

to say that the larva’s instinct of self-preservation has been replaced

in the adult by an instinct for death; but it must be admitted that the

instinct of preservation has been totally lost. The lack of resistance

cannot be explained by any defect in the organs of sense. Not only are

the eyes of the larval stage fully preserved in the adult, but the adult

males have enormous eyes to enable them to recognise the female in the

turbulent flight which takes place at the close of the day. Ephemerids

of all ages possess well developed tactile organs, and it is thus in

spite of a highly organised sensory system that the adults offer no

resistance to enemies.

It is no mere accident that the most striking examples of natural death

occur among insects, for these creatures display an unusual stability in

their cellular structure with a corresponding lack of the power of

regeneration, in these particulars resembling man and the higher

animals. The cells of the nervous system are very complex, and are well

adapted for the highest function, that is to say, the psychical

function. These highly endowed cells, however, are devoid of the power

of reproduction. Many experiments have been made in relation to this,

and it has been proved clearly that in cold-blooded vertebrates the

brain and spinal cord with the nerve cells contained in them are capable

of regeneration, whilst among mammals only extremely rare cases are

known in which there has been any regeneration of the nervous elements.

It is to be expected, then, that cases of natural death occur in the

higher animals and especially in man. However, no case is known so plain

as that presented by the ephemerids. I have already stated that of

deaths apparently due to senile debility in man, a large proportion are

certainly due to various infectious diseases that affect the old, such

as pneumonia and nephritis. Close examination of the tissues confirms

this conclusion, for the destruction of the higher elements by

phagocytes produces what is really violent death and not a natural death

like that of the ephemerids.

Natural death in man is probably a possibility rather than an actual

occurrence. Old age is not a true physiological process but exhibits

many morbid characters. That being the case, it is not surprising that

it seldom ends in natural death. It is probable, however, that natural

death occasionally occurs in very old men.

Attempts have been made to estimate the natural limits of human life.

Flourens[327] based a calculation on the duration of the period of

growth. If the latter be taken as one fifth the natural life, then human

life ought to last a century. As centenarians are rare, the vast

majority of deaths, which happen before that age has been reached, must

be regarded as violent or accidental. The rule of Flourens, however, is

arbitrary, and there is no evidence to show that it is exact. Probably

in the human race, as in the case of ephemerids, the natural duration of

life varies and cannot be expressed by a definite figure. In most cases

it ought to be more than a hundred years, and only in rare cases ought

it to be much less than that term. Probably there is a variation in the

duration of life just as there is a variation of the date of sexual

maturity for which rules may be laid down but not without anticipating

numerous exceptions.

The existing pathological character of old age vitiates all conclusions

as to natural death, and it is still impossible to be exact in speaking

of that subject. It is known that certain organs and tissues remain

alive for some time after death. In the case of certain infectious

diseases, the heart may be removed from a human body more than thirty

hours after death, and if placed under proper conditions will renew its

life, and beat for several hours. The white corpuscles, the spermatozoa

and the cilia of a corpse, may retain their power of movement. Does this

also happen in the rare cases of natural death? That question must be

answered in the future. The most important question relating to natural

death is the following: Is the appearance of natural death in man

accompanied by the disappearance of one instinct, the instinct of self

preservation, and by the appearance of another instinct, the instinct of

death? Do the phenomena of the ephemerids give us any indication as to

this? An exact answer is not to be expected. As old age is generally

what may be called an unnatural phenomenon, it is extremely rare for

persons to approach the age of natural death with their faculties

unclouded. I have had under observation a centenarian old woman, who

still remembered some incidents of her youth; in her the desire to live

was still strong, but her intellectual faculties were partially dim.

Moreover, her brain, of which I have already spoken (p. 241), showed a

marked degeneration of the nerve cells due to the activity of

macrophages.

I have obtained much information about a centenarian who was alive in

Rouen in 1900, but a single glance at her photograph was enough to show

that she no longer was in full possession of intelligence.[328] She was

infirm in many ways. So also, Chevreul, the celebrated chemist, who died

at the age of one hundred and three years, showed not the faintest wish

for death; he clung to life, but his mental powers had grown weak.

The cases to which I have referred are typical, but there are exceptions

worthy of close attention. Tokarski, in the essay on the fear of death,

to which I referred in the sixth chapter, quoted the case of a female

centenarian who stated as follows: “If you come to live as long as I

have lived, you will understand not only that it is possible not to fear

death, but to feel the same need for death as for sleep.” A new feeling

had come into existence in the very old person, a feeling

incomprehensible to those less old. Apparently this was a case in which

the instinct of natural death had appeared in a centenarian whose mental

faculties had been retained in a sufficiently perfect state.

I wish very much that I had myself been a witness of this old woman’s

remarkable instinct in even one case of the many that I have observed.

But all that have been pointed out to me as subject to this new desire

have turned out to have been possessed of very different ideas. Some

were old invalids, weary of pain and ready to exchange the sorrows of

life for death, but who would have preferred to be healed and to live on

in comfort. When the possibility of recovering health was suggested to

them, they showed signs of pleasure and of the renewal of hope.

Investigations that I have made in homes for the aged have led to

negative results on this subject. No case showed the slightest sign of

the approach of the instinct of death. However, I have learned from Dr.

Fauvel of one case to add to the instance noticed by Tokarski. It was

the case of an old lady whose health and circumstances were comfortable

and who before her death showed a real desire for it and stated it in

much the same language as that quoted by Tokarski. In Fauvel’s case,

however, the old lady had reached the age of only eighty-five years. It

seems probable that this was a second genuine case of the appearance of

the instinct of death, and it is therefore interesting to notice that

that instinct, like the sexual instinct, is subject to variation in the

date of its appearance.

In my search for instances of the instinct of death, I made use of the

large collection made by Lejoncourt,[329] but found that the information

given by this author was very incomplete as to the mode of life and the

last moments of his cases.

The Bible testifies to the frequency of old age in ancient times and to

the complete preservation of the faculties in the aged. It also contains

some references that may be interpreted as instances of the instinct of

death. I may take its account of the death of some of the patriarchs.

“And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived,

an hundred threescore and fifteen years. Then Abraham gave up the ghost,

and died in a good old age, an old man, and _full of years_.”[330] “And

the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years. And Isaac gave up

the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and

_full of days_: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.”[331] “After

this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his

sons’ sons, even four generations. So Job died, being old and _full of

days_.”[332] It is probable that the phrase “old and full of days,”

which sounds strange in our ears, simply refers to the instinct of

death, developed in well preserved old men who had attained ages of from

140 to 180 years.[333] The Biblical phrase is not merely a commonplace

phrase applied to the death of celebrities for the references to deaths

of other persons were put in different language. “And these are the

years of the life of Ishmael, an hundred and thirty and seven years: and

he gave up the ghost and died; and was gathered unto his people.”[334]

“And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age

of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.”[335] “And Aaron was an

hundred and twenty and three years old when he died in Mount Hor.”[336]

“And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was

not dim, nor his natural force abated.”[337] In only one of these later

cases had the individual reached the age of one hundred and forty years,

at which age, apparently, the instinct of natural death appeared.

It may seem altogether surprising and improbable to us that an instinct

for death should arise in man, since we are imbued with an instinct of

an opposite nature. From the facts that I collected in my sixth chapter,

it was to be inferred plainly that the desire of life and the fear of

death are manifestations of an instinct deep-rooted in the constitution

of man. That instinct is of the same order as the instincts of hunger

and thirst, of the need of sleep, of movement and of sexual and maternal

love. The devotion and care bestowed on their young by female birds and

mammals are known universally. And yet these instincts can be reversed.

There is no sacrifice of which the mothers are not capable if it serve

to save the life or promote the well-being of their offspring. Such

devotion is a manifestation of the maternal instinct, which is one of

the strongest instincts known to us. And yet that love, so tender and so

absolute, lasts only for the time during which the wants of the young

need to be satisfied. As soon as the young begin to be independent, the

maternal love changes to indifference or to dislike. At the next

breeding-period, maternal love reappears again, so that there is a

periodic ebb and flow of the instinct.

The new-born babe takes an instinctive delight in the milk of his

mother, which seems to him the only good food in the world. As soon as

he can show his feelings, his intense satisfaction as he is suckled is

plain. But this instinct lasts only during the period of lactation. As

soon as the child begins to take different kinds of food, he ceases to

be pleased with his mother’s milk, and may dislike it for the remainder

of his life. Several adults to whom I have offered human milk would not

even taste it, so disgusting did it seem to them. And yet the taste had

nothing intrinsically disagreeable in it. Here again is an example of a

strong instinct that changes completely.

Children often eat to repletion of some kind of substance, and for long

afterwards that substance disgusts them instead of being coveted by

them. It is said that apprentices to pastry-cooks and makers of

sweetmeats are allowed at first to eat as much as they please. They soon

come to have a profound dislike for the sweet things that children like

so much.

A mother who adores her child, or a child who is extremely fond of

sweetmeats cannot understand how any mother could dislike her offspring

or any apprentice have a distaste for sweets. In the same way, human

beings full of the desire for life, believe more easily in eternal life

than in the possibility of an instinct of death. And yet the instinct of

death seems to lie, in some potential form, deep in the constitution of

man. If the cycle of human life followed its ideal course according to

physiological function, then the instinct of death would appear in its

time, after a normal life and an old age healthy and prolonged.

In reality, human life is subject from its very beginning to the

pernicious disharmonies in the constitution of man. This evil influence

increases with the passing of the years and leads to an old age ruined

by abnormalities. It is not surprising that under such circumstances men

wish neither to grow old nor to die. Old men, in spite of their

attachment to life, do not attain the capacity to know all that is good

in it, and die, in the fear of death, without having known the instinct

of death. They may be compared with unhappy women who have married

before their sexual instincts have awakened and who have died in

childbirth, without ever having known the real joy of loving. Formerly,

the number of women in such a case was large. In some parts of

Abyssinia, girls married when they were still very young and before

their physical development was mature. According to Hassenstein,[338]

nearly one third of these young women died in childbirth. They quitted

life before they had known the true sexual instinct. The advancement of

civilisation and of medical knowledge has greatly reduced the number of

such unhappy women. We must hope that the progress of knowledge will

bring about a similar advance in relation to the instinct of death. With

that progress, the number of men who will live until the instinct has

been attained will become greater and greater.

CHAPTER XII

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Disharmonies in the human constitution as the chief source of our

sorrows—Scientific data as to the origin and destiny of man—The goal

of human existence—Difficulties in the way of scientific investigation

of the problem—What is progress?—Difficulty of including the whole

human race in a scheme of progress and morality—The instincts of life

and of natural death—Application to real life of the doctrines set

forth in this book

Man, who is a descendant of some anthropoid ape, has inherited a

constitution adapted to an environment very different from that which

now surrounds him. Man is possessed of a brain very much more highly

developed than that of his ancestors, and has entered on a new path in

the evolution of the higher organisms. The sudden change in his natural

conditions has brought about a large series of organic disharmonies

which become more and more acutely felt as he becomes more intelligent

and more sensitive. And thus there has arisen a number of sorrows which

poor humanity has tried to relieve by all the means in its power. The

disharmonies in the sexual functions have brought into existence

attempted remedies of the strangest kind. The greatest disharmony of the

constitution is that of the morbid nature of old age and the

impossibility of reaching the instinct of natural death; this has

produced childish and erroneous conceptions of the immortality of the

soul and of the resurrection of the body, and many other strange

doctrines that have been imposed upon us as revealed truth.

Human intelligence, in the course of its progressive evolution, has

rebelled against these naïve palliatives. Finding the restoration of the

much-desired harmony beyond its power, humanity became resigned to a

passive fatalism, and believed even that the existence of man was a kind

of bad joke, a _faux pas_ in the evolution of sentient organisms. Exact

science, developing slowly, but surely, has at last tried to master the

situation. Moving step by step, passing from the simple to the complex

and from the particular to the general, science has established a set of

truths which all the world must accept.

Humanity in its misery has put question after question to science, and

has lost patience at the slowness of the advance of knowledge. It has

declared that the answers already found by science are futile and of

little interest. From time to time it has preferred to turn back, and to

delude itself with the beautiful mirages offered by religions and

systems of philosophy.

But science, confident of its methods, has quietly continued to work.

Little by little, the answers to some of the questions that have been

set have begun to appear. Whence do we come? science has been asked

unceasingly. Is not man a being unlike other beings, made in the image

of God, animated with the divine breath, and immortal? No, science

answers. Man is a kind of miscarriage of an ape, endowed with profound

intelligence and capable of great progress. His brain is the seat of

processes that are very complex, and much higher than those of other

animals, but these functions are incompatible with the existence of an

immortal soul.

Whither are we going? That question above all other things has absorbed

the attention of man, and naturally so, for it is less important to know

our origin than to know our destiny. Does death mean absolute

extinction, or is it a gateway leading to a new and everlasting life?

And if the latter alternative be untrue, how are we to face inevitable

death?

Science cannot admit the immortality of the conscious soul, for

consciousness is a function of special elements in the body that

certainly cannot live for ever. Immortality exists only for very low

organisms that renew their lives by repeated divisions with complete

regeneration, and that have no highly developed consciousness.

Death brings absolute extinction, and it seems unbearable because of the

condition in which it surprises us. It comes before man has finished his

physiological development, and when the instinct of life is still

strong.

Ever since man has begun to look a little beyond his daily and immediate

wants, he has asked if there be a goal for his life, and what that goal

may be. As he has generally failed to find such a goal, he has gone the

length of believing life to be a mere accident, and of thinking it idle

to seek a goal. He has formed depressing and pessimistic conclusions.

Humanity may be compared to a boy that has not yet acquired the sexual

instinct, but has asked the meaning of the reproductive organs. As these

organs play no part in the functions of his life, he might easily think

their existence not only absolutely useless but absurd.

Man, because of the fundamental disharmonies in his constitution, does

not develop normally. The earlier phases of his development are passed

through with little trouble; but, after maturity, greater or lesser

abnormality begins, and ends in old age and death that are premature and

pathological. Is not the goal of existence the accomplishment of a

complete and physiological cycle, in which occurs a normal old age

ending in the loss of the instinct of life and the appearance of the

instinct of death.

The pessimistic school has often spoken of death as the true goal of

human life. Schopenhauer,[339] for instance, said: “Death must really be

regarded as the true goal of life; when it comes it at once adjusts all

that has been preparing in the course of life.” Baudelaire[340] has

exactly the same idea in his verse:

“C’est la mort qui console, hélas! et qui fait vivre;

_C’est le but de la vie_, et c’est le seul espoir

Qui, comme un élixir, nous monte et nous enivre

Et nous donne le cœur de marcher jusqu’au soir.”

“Alas! it is death that comforts and gives us life; it is the goal of

our days, it is our only hope that like a wine goes to our head and

makes us drunk, and puts heart into us to journey on till the night.”

The normal end, coming after the appearance of the instinct of death,

may truly be regarded as the ultimate goal of human existence. But

before attaining it, a normal life must be lived: a life filled all

through with the feeling that comes from the accomplishment of function.

Knowledge of the true goal of life clears up the problem and shows us

the right conduct of life. In my first chapter, I tried to lay before

the reader a summary of the views that have been held as to right

conduct. Ever since the attempt has been made to discover a rational

basis of morality, human nature, regarded essentially as good, has been

taken as that basis. Religions and systems of philosophy, on the other

hand, which have tried to find another foundation for morality, have

regarded human nature as vicious at the roots. Science has been able to

tell us that man, the descendant of animals, has good and evil qualities

in his nature, and that his life is made unhappy by the evil qualities.

But the constitution of man is not immutable, and perhaps it may be

changed for the better.

Morality should be based not on human nature in its existing vitiated

condition, but on human nature, ideal, as it may be in the future.

Before all things, it is necessary to try to amend the evolution of the

human life, that is to say, to transform its disharmonies into harmonies

(_Orthobiosis_). This task can be undertaken only by science, and to

science the opportunity of accomplishing it must be given. However, even

in the most civilised countries, science is far from being in this ideal

condition. Obstacles lie in its way and retard its advance.

To make the human constitution better, it would be necessary to know it

thoroughly. How can we try to transform to a normal and physiological

condition old age, at present utterly pathological, unless we first

understand the most intimate details of its mechanism? Deeply rooted

prejudices make it very difficult to examine the organs of the aged

dead. The difficulties surrounding post-mortem investigations are almost

insurmountable. According to the regulations enforced in France,

autopsies cannot be made until twenty-four hours after death. An autopsy

cannot be made except when the corpse has not been claimed by any

relatives in the direct line, husband or wife, brothers, sisters,

uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces. If kinsmen put in no claim, co-operative

societies may take possession of the corpse and oppose the holding of an

examination. Even when an examination has been permitted, it must extend

only to “the ascertaining of exact facts, and this must be taken as

excluding the mutilation of the corpse by the removal of any organ or

portion of the anatomy, however interesting scientifically such material

might be.” (Circular of the Director of “Assistance publique,” January

20, 1900.[341]) It is easy to see that such regulations make extremely

difficult the investigation of senile degeneration, and the search for

means of preventing it, especially by the use of serums obtained after

injecting emulsions of human organs. These difficulties in reality arise

from the prejudice in favour of the existence of a life beyond the grave

and a resurrection of the body.

Almost similar difficulties stand in the way of obtaining the bodies of

old animals. Their owners prefer to keep animals, after they are

useless, until they die, and to bury the bodies instead of devoting them

to the scientific investigation that is so important to humanity.

As soon as we come to believe that the solution of the problems of human

happiness will come not from religions nor from systems of metaphysical

philosophy, but from exact science alone, the obstacles to progress will

be removed. That scientific methods will redress the disharmonies of the

human constitution is the more probable inasmuch as the old age of human

beings was more physiological, and their death more natural, in earlier

times than they are to-day.

The study of the human constitution not only denotes the real goal of

our existence, but indicates to us what is meant by true culture and

real progress.

In earlier chapters, I have shown that philosophers have recognised the

existence in man of a tendency to culture and progress. But what do they

mean by these two words? Attempts have been made to define them as

clearly as possible, and Herbert Spencer, the greatest of living

philosophers, has devoted a special essay to the subject. He examined

those phenomena that he regarded as progressive, first in the inorganic

world, next, in the world of living things, and, finally, in humanity.

He regards as progressive only the changes that tend to increase human

happiness, and it is precisely on account of that tendency that he

regards them as progressive. In order to define progressive phenomena

Spencer thinks it necessary to make parallel studies of them in man and

the animal world. He finds that progress is marked always by a

transformation from the simple and uniform to the complex; and that it

produces constant differentiation, in the evolution of the planetary

world, in the embryonic development of the individual, and in the

societies of men and animals. But differentiation is not a complete

account of progress, for in the latter must be included the change of

the indefinite into the definite. Spencer identifies progress with

evolution, and his well-known definition of evolution is, that it is “an

integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion; during

which the matter passes from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a

definite, coherent heterogeneity; and during which the retained motion

undergoes a parallel transformation.” Such a formula embraces too much,

so that he is rather vague, especially when he applies it to human

affairs. Differentiation in itself is not the whole of progress. It is

necessary in each concrete case to inquire into its limits and

modifications.

The application of his theory of progress and evolution led Spencer, in

his investigation of the basis of morality, to define human progress as

the tendency towards a life as full and as long as possible. By fulness

he means complexity, if I interpret his argument correctly. Civilised

life as compared with savage life, is a realisation of progress.

Civilised man, according to Spencer, uses food in a better regulated

fashion, in accordance with the call and degree of his appetite; the

food is of better quality, it is freed from contamination, is much more

varied and is better prepared. The same differentiation distinguishes

the clothing, the homes and so forth of civilised man. According to

Spencer, all such progress helps real happiness, that is to say the

fulness and the prolongation of life.

It is easy to see, however, that such an interpretation of progress is

inexact, like the conception of the goal of life associated with it. If

the complication of the mode of life, which is so marked in modern

civilisation, is really the best way of reaching happiness, there are no

reasons to arrest the tendency in that direction. If, on the other hand,

my view be correct, that true progress consists in the elimination of

the disharmonies of human nature and in the cultivation of physiological

old age followed by natural death, the conditions for realising progress

would be different and very clear. The great complexity of life in

modern civilisation is a sign of progress according to Spencer, but I do

not agree with him. Spencer speaks of the variety and preparation of

food. It is certain that this complexity militates against physiological

old age, and that the simpler food of uncivilised races is better. I do

not wish to write an essay on domestic hygiene, and I shall be content

with saying that most of the delicate dishes provided in the homes,

hotels, and restaurants of the rich, stimulate the organs of digestion

and secretion in a harmful way. It would be true progress to abandon

modern cuisine and to go back to the simple dishes of our ancestors. One

of the conditions that enabled the Jews of the earlier Biblical times to

live longer than civilised people, was, beyond all doubt, the greater

simplicity of their diet. True hygiene, which is in open disagreement

with the elaborated art of cookery, is also opposed to the

differentiation of modern dress and dwellings. Progress thus would

consist in simplifying many sides of the lives of civilised people.

The luxury which has done so much harm to mankind, and which would be

included in the formula, “passage from indefinite homogeneity to

definite heterogeneity,” is founded not on a general law of evolution of

the whole universe, but on a particular conception of life, quite

different from mine according to which the rectifying of the abnormal

human cycle to a normal cycle is the true goal of life.

Perhaps one of the oldest conceptions of life that has tended to luxury

is to be found in the book of Ecclesiastes. Having reached the

conclusion: “For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth

knowledge increaseth sorrow” (i. 18), and having said: “Then I beheld

all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done

under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall

not find it, yea farther; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall

he not be able to find it.”[342] Solomon laid down the rules of life as

follows: “Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a

merry heart: for God now accepteth thy works.”

“Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.”

“Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life

of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of

thy vanity; for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour

which thou takest under the sun.”

“Whatsoever thy hand findest to do, do it with thy might; for there is

no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither

thou goest.”[343]

The wisdom of Solomon was to enjoy this life as much as possible, since

man is unable to solve the problem of the goal of life. His precepts

have been taken as a guide, and have led to an organisation of life that

could only become more and more epicurean.

As soon as the goal of life has been seen clearly, luxury ceases to be

true happiness as it hinders the making perfect of the normal cycle of

human life. Young people, instead of abandoning themselves to all the

pleasures because they have nothing before them but a sad prospect of

morbid old age and death, ought to make ready for physiological old age

and natural death. The apprenticeship certainly will be long. In our

time the years of study already last much longer than occurred even a

century ago. As the body of knowledge grows greater, the time to acquire

it will become prolonged, but this period of preparation will serve as

the prelude to ripe maturity and ideal old age.

Old age is repulsive at present, because it is an old age devoid of its

true meaning, full of egoism, narrowness of view, incapacity and

malignancy. The physiological old age of the future assuredly will be

very different. In the societies of animals, especially as they occur

among insects, the members show a high degree of differentiation. Some

individuals are adapted to the reproductive functions, while others are

sterile and are fitted for the care of the young and to supply the wants

of the community. This differentiation, which is of social value, has

arisen independently in different groups. Thus, in the societies of bees

and ants the workers are sterile females, while in the case of termites,

individuals of both sexes may be sterile. In the human race, evolution

is following another path. There is no sign of the appearance of a

sterile class; but, as the life of man is longer than that of insects,

it is divided into two periods, a reproductive period and a sterile

period. Old age, at present practically a useless burden on the

community, will become a period of work valuable to the community. As

the old man will no longer be subject to loss of memory or to

intellectual weakness, he will be able to apply his great experience to

the most complicated and the most delicate parts of the social life.

Young men are usually very bad politicians, and in countries where they

take a large share in public affairs they do much harm because they are

without the necessary practical knowledge. Their incapacity is clearly

shown by the great changes in their political views as they advance in

years and gain experience. In the future, old men will have charge of

all complex and difficult social functions. Thus, vast improvements will

be made in politics and in justice, which at present are defective

because of their insufficient foundations.

As soon as every one has recognised the true goal of human life, and has

assumed, as the ideal, the realisation of the normal cycle of life, a

real guide to life will have been found. We shall know at least whither

we are going, and as yet we are ignorant of that. We have wished to make

life better, but we have not known how or for whom to make the attempt.

Formerly it was assumed that, in the future, love would spread and

become generalised. Family love had spread to the tribe and then had

been transformed to patriotism; it was held that no obstacle stood in

the way of its embracing all humanity. Such an idea was prevalent in the

eighteenth century, and became a common ground of all systems of

philosophy, morality and politics. But, since means of communication

have been improved so vastly and since the most distant voyages are

within the power of almost every one, the vague notion of “humanity” has

been replaced by exact knowledge of the native savages in many parts of

the earth. We have come to disbelieve in “humanity” in the old sense of

the word, so great is the difference between savage and civilised

peoples. And many modern theories have rejected the inclusion of the

lower races in the sentiment of humanity. In the fifth chapter, I quoted

the view of the moralist, Sutherland, on the advantages that have come

about from the English seizure of the forests that belonged to the

natives of Australia. Moreover, it is well known that a profound hatred

exists between white men and black men in several parts of the earth,

notably in America and the Antilles. Such instances could be multiplied.

How then are we to emerge from this difficulty? At what point is the

love of the future to be stayed, if it cannot spread to all humanity?

In a recently published treatise on natural philosophy, Ostwald,[344] a

very distinguished German physical chemist, has discussed this question.

He calls good “the actions that made easier the existence of other men.”

But to what other men are we to apply this rule? “What is the size of

the circle of altruistic love,” asked Ostwald. “The general feeling,” he

said, “is that it should cover the family and the nation. The feeling

that it should cover all humanity appears to most of us as a theoretical

demand rather than something practical. And thus have not most of us the

tendency to limit our altruistic actions much more in the case of men

beneath us than in the case of our social comrades (Stadesgenossen)?”

According to this formula, moral action would not stretch beyond our

compatriots, and humanity as a whole would be excluded from it.

Here we have entered on a problem relating to the principles of normal

life. In former times, religion was the chief bond among men. Later on,

religion gave way to patriotism, which in default of anything better

still holds its place. Community of language unites the individuals of a

nation, but the advance of civilisation has undermined the foundation of

that source of differentiation. Naturally, when a number of men spoke

only one and the same language, great solidarity was the result, as

ideas spread only by language. But such a monoglottism is not the end of

human progress. As means of communication have improved, the nations

have been brought in contact with each other. The knowledge of foreign

languages is an elementary necessity of modern life. And so the bonds of

nationality certainly will become looser, in this respect following the

bonds of family. The dislike that we have to people whose language we do

not understand, becomes changed into a feeling of unity with them as

soon as we can understand them. In that respect an active development is

in progress, and we shall have to seek out some new principle on which

to base international solidarity. A good deal has been made of the

possession by different nations of the same culture, but the vagueness

of the phrase has not been realised. Recognition of the true goal of

life and of science as the only means by which that goal may be attained

would form an ideal on which men might unite; they would group

themselves around that, as in former days men were held together by

religion.

I think it extremely probable that the scientific study of old age and

of death, two branches of science that may be called _gerontology_ and

_thanatology_, will bring about great modifications in the course of the

last period of life. All that we know on these subjects confirms my

view. But will it lead to the development of an instinct of death? That

instinct lies deep in the roots of the human constitution? Will the

means be found to bring it to the surface? Has not the enormous period

during which it has remained latent led to its atrophy? The science of

the future alone can answer that question. But the persistence of organs

and structures that are extremely ancient, as for instance, the survival

of the mammary glands in males and of the vermiform appendage in

anthropoid apes and man, gives us the hope that the instinct of natural

death may emerge from its latent condition when old age has become a

normal process.

The mammary glands of males are functionless rudiments. They must be

interpreted as vestiges of organs that were more highly developed in

remote ancestors among which both sexes gave milk to nourish the young.

This function exists in a latent condition in the males of living

mammals. Extremely rare cases have existed in which males possessed

large glands secreting enough milk to feed the young. These males, it is

true, had the genital organs either very badly developed or in a

condition approaching hermaphroditism.[345] But in other authentic cases

(perfectly developed) he-goats and rams have been known to provide milk

in considerable quantities, whilst married men have suckled children

with milk secreted by unusually developed glands. It is stated that the

secretion of milk can be excited by stimulation of the nipples.[346]

Such examples of the reappearance of a latent property that has been

lost for untold ages are extremely important.

Probably actual cases of the instinct of natural death in man are as

rare as instances of the secretion of milk by males. But favouring

circumstances and some education of the instinct of death would probably

reawaken it and develop it fully. There is much work to be done before

so great an object can be achieved. But it is the peculiar feature of

science to be eager for much labour, while religions and systems of

metaphysical philosophy are content with passive fatalism and silent

resignation. The mere hope of being able to solve the great problems of

humanity in the more or less distant future brings much satisfaction.

When Tolstoi, agonised by the impossibility of solving the great

problems, and haunted by the fear of death, asked if the love of our

children is not able to sooth our souls, he found that such a hope was

vain. “What is the good,” he said, “of rearing children who will soon

find themselves in the same difficult position as their parents?” “Why

should they live? why should I love them and protect them and foster

them? Is it that they may come to the same despair as I am in myself or

else grow imbecile? As I love them, I do not wish to hide the truth from

them, for each step in knowledge will lead them nearer to it. But the

truth is—death.” I can understand that many persons would abstain from

having children if they had come to these pessimistic conclusions.

The point of view that I have exposed in this book will make life more

possible. Our generation has no chance of attaining physiological old

age and normal death; but it may take real consolation from the thought

that those who are now young may advance several steps in that

direction. It may reflect that each succeeding generation will get

closer and closer to the solution and that true happiness one day will

be reached by mankind.

The slow advance to happiness will demand many sacrifices. Already, men

of science sacrifice their health and sometimes their life to reach the

solution of some important problem, as for instance, to clear up a

medical question, and so be ready to heal or to save the lives of their

fellows.

Before it is possible to reach the goal, mankind must be persuaded that

science is all-powerful and that the deeply rooted existing

superstitions are pernicious. It will be necessary to reform many

customs and many institutions that now seem to rest on enduring

foundations. The abandonment of much that is habitual and a revolution

in the mode of education will require long and painful effort.

Definition of the goal of human existence will bring great precision to

the principles of morality. True policy will have to be reared on new

foundations. The politics of to-day are in the condition in which

medicine still remained in days long past. In the old days any one was

allowed to practise medicine, because there was no medical science and

nothing was exact. Even at the present time, among less civilised

people, any old woman is allowed to be a midwife. In some cases the

mother attends the labour of her daughter, or (as for instance in a

caste of natives in Malabar), it may be the mother-in-law who does the

duty. Very often friends act as midwives. Among more civilised races,

differentiation has taken place, and childbirths are attended by women

of special training, who are midwives by diploma. In the case of nations

still more civilised, the trained midwives are directed by obstetric

physicians who have specialised in the conducting of labour. This high

degree of differentiation has arisen with, and has itself aided, the

progress of obstetric knowledge.

Politics, as they exist to-day, correspond to the early stages of

obstetric practice. Every adult male is thought fit for exercising

functions so difficult as those of an elector or a juryman. The only

excuse for this condition is that political science is in its infancy.

When sociology is more advanced, there will come about a differentiation

like that in medicine. When that has taken place, old persons who have

acquired great experience, and who because of their physiological

constitutions have preserved all their faculties, will give most

valuable services to the society of the future.

In the progress towards the real goal of life, men will lose much of

their liberty, but will receive in exchange a new feeling of solidarity.

As knowledge becomes more and more extensive and exact, freedom to

neglect it will be more and more limited. Formerly any one was at

liberty to teach that whales were fish; but now that it has been proved

that whales are mammals, the mistake is not to be pardoned. Since

medicine has become more of an exact science, the liberty of doctors has

been restrained. Practitioners have already been sentenced for

neglecting antisepsis and asepsis. Other forms of freedom, such as the

freedom to neglect vaccination against smallpox, to spit on the floor,

or to let dogs run loose without being muzzled, are worthy of savage

days and will cease as civilisation advances.

On the other hand, the knowledge that the goal of human life can be

attained only by the development of a high degree of solidarity amongst

men will restrain actual egotism. The mere fact that the enjoyment of

life according to the precepts of Solomon is opposed to the goal of

human life will lessen luxury and the evil that comes from luxury.

Conviction that science alone is able to redress the disharmonies of the

human constitution will lead directly to the improvement of education

and to the solidarity of mankind.

In progress towards the goal, nature will have to be consulted

continuously. Already, in the case of the ephemerids, nature has

produced a complete cycle of normal life ending in natural death. In the

problem of his own fate, man must not be content with the gifts of

nature; he must direct them by his own efforts. Just as he has been able

to modify the nature of animals and plants, man must attempt to modify

his own constitution, so as to readjust its disharmonies.

Breeders form a conception of the ideal result when they are about to

attempt the production of some new variety which shall be pleasing

esthetically and of service to man. Next, they study the existing

individual variations in animals and plants on which they wish to work,

and from which they will select with the minutest care. The ideal result

must have some relation to the constitution of the organisms selected.

To modify the human constitution, it will be necessary first, to frame

the ideal, and thereafter to set to work with all the resources of

science.

If there can be formed an ideal able to unite men in a kind of religion

of the future, this ideal must be founded on scientific principles. And

if it be true, as has been asserted so often, that man can live by faith

alone, the faith must be in the power of science.

INDEX

Abortion, artificial, 102, 103, 104, 105

as a religious ceremony, 164

Abstinence, Hartmann on sexual, 186

Aged, fear of death by, 131

murder of, by low races, 129, 130

treatment of, by modern society, 130

Albius, and artificial fertilisation, 20

Alcohol, and length of life, 259

as producer of sclerosis, 247

Altruism, limitations of, 296

Anæsthetics, influence of, compared with death, 159

Ancestor-worship, in China, 144

by Confucius, 145, 146

by Kaffirs, 150

quotations from Tylor on, 150

Animism, Tylor on, 138, 139, 140

_Anisoplia_ and light, 36

Annelids, vegetative reproduction of, 264

Annihilation, Büchner on, 220

Mailaender on, 188

Anthropoid apes, relationship to man, 55

social instincts of, 105

Ants, sexual disharmonies in, 34

Apes, compared with man, 42, 43

Appendage, vermiform, of man and apes, 44

Appendicitis, 66, 67

curable by modern science, 211

frequency of, 68

Apoplexy, phagocytes in, 239

Aristotle, on future life, 169

on pleasure, 6

Art, as affected by Christianity, 13

of the Greeks, 5

Arterial sclerosis, 247

Arteries, in old age, 237

Asceticism, 11

Atrophy, in old age, 238

Aurelius, Marcus, on death, 172,174, 262

on immortality, 172

Renan on, 174

Bacon, on failure of philosophy, 203

on lengthening life, 257

Bacteria of the intestines, 248, 249

Baobab-tree, age of, 266

Baudelaire, on death, 288

Baumann, on microbes in intestines, 251

Beetles, as food of wasp larvæ, 28, 29

Behring, von, on diphtheria, 211

Benares, Buddha’s sermon at, 154

Bert, Paul, on treatment of the aged, 130

Bible, old age in, 280

Bienstock, on harmful microbes, 256

on intestinal putrefaction, 255

Birds, absence of large intestine in, 252

age of, 232

Bischoff, on reproductive organs of apes, 81

Blindness, of infants, how prevented, 211

Blood, experiments on serum of, 52, 53

Blood corpuscles, specific sensibility of, 160

Boas, on cancer, 215

Bones, in old age, 237, 243

Bordet, on cytotoxic serums, 245

Botulism (“sausage-disease”), microbe of, 257

Brain, invasion of macrophags (figure), 241

Brunetière, on failure of science, 218

Buddha, contempt of women, 9

death of, 158

on disease, 154

on fear of death, 153

on immortality, 147

Buddha, on Nirvâna, 158

on old age, 154

on renunciation, 154

sermon at Benares, 154

on sorrows of existence, 205

Buddhism, and celibacy, 163

and fear of death, 119

and future life, 144

and immortality, 147, 148

and pessimism, 176, 177

Büchner, on Buddhism, 144

on morality, 107

on science, 219

Burial, of the old, alive, 152

Bütschli, on immortality of protozoa, 264

Byron, on fear of death, 177

on instinctive nature of fear of death, 128

on pessimism, 177

Cæcum, absence of, in birds, 253

of chimpanzee (figure), 45

and disease, 69

of man (figure), 44

of man and apes, compared, 44

of monkeys, 67

Çakya-Mouni, discovers death and disease, 119, 120

Calkins, on degeneration of infusoria, 232

Cancer, in alimentary canal, 73, 74

modern science and, 213, 214

Casimir, sacrifices at burial of, 141

Castration, Hartmann on, 183

_Catasetum_, disharmony in, 30

_Catasetum saccatum_ (figure), 24

Caterpillars and cocoons, 33

Celibacy, 12, 13, 163

Cellulose, digestion of, 252

Centenarians, Lankester on, 259

Lejoncourt on, 280

_Cerceris_, figure of, 28

_Chætogaster_, vegetative reproduction of (figure), 265

Chemotaxis, of sexual cells, 268

Childbirth, ages of women at, 93

pains of, 92

Chinese, ancestor-worship among, 144

belief in immortality, 145

Buddhists, views on future life, 149

laws against, 109

Christianity, and asceticism, 11

and continence, 163

influence of, on art, 13

and human nature, 7, 10

Chromophags, in blanching of hairs, 243

Cicero, on death, 169, 263

on future life, 169

Civilisation, and progress, 292

Cocoons, formation of, 33

Confucius, on ancestor-worship, 145, 146

Conjugation, and immortality, 264

Connective tissue, in old age, 236, 238

Consciousness, relation of to bodily functions, 160

Credé, on prevention of infantile blindness, 210

Cruger, on bees and orchids, 23

Cuisine, modern, evils of, 292

Cytotoxic serums, 245

Dahlmann, on meaning of Nirvâna, 156

Darwin, on fertilisation of orchids, 21, 22

on luminous insects, 37

on natural morality, 8

on origin of man, 40

Davids, Rhys, on meaning of Nirvâna, 156, 157

Death, Aurelius on, 262

Baudelaire on, 288

Cicero on, 169, 263

Guyau on, 195

Hartmann on, 184

Mailaender on, 188, 189, 190

Nordau on, 193

Plato on, 166, 167

Renan on, 195

Rückert on, 195

Schiller on, 195

Schopenhauer on, 179, 180, 181, 288

Seneca on, 171

Socrates on, 166, 167

Tokarsky on, 125

Tolstoi on, 122, 123, 299

Weismann on, 266

Zola on, 226

Philosophers on, 133

as annihilation, 162

compared with anæsthetics, 159

fear of, 115, 116, 153

feigning of, 114

in ephemerids, 275

instinct of, 281, 298

of Jewish patriarchs, 280, 281

natural, 266, 272, 277, 278, 279, 280, 299

in old age, 267

scientific study of, 262

Degeneration, senile, in infusoria, 231

in insects, 232

in vertebrates, 232

De Goncourt, quotations from, 121, 225

Deniker, a fœtus of man and ape, 47

Descartes, on lengthening life, 257

Desire of life, not to be ignored, 228

De Vries, on new species, 57

Diet, as regulated by religious, 162

Digestive system of man, 60

Disease, religious measures against, 164

Dogs, old age in, 233

D’Holbach, on natural morality, 7

Dragon-tree, of Oratava, 265

Dubois, on _Pithecanthropus_, 50

Du Bois Reymond, on agnosticism, 221

Dufour, on wasps, 27

Duhring, a blind optimist, 117

Duncan, Matthews, on childbirth, 94

Duration of life, 277, 278

Ebstein, on prolonging life, 258, 260

Ecclesiastes, on life, 293

Edgren, on arterial sclerosis, 247

Elixirs of life, 257

Emasculation, by Skoptsy, 9

Ephemerids (figures), 271, 273

absence of instinct of preservation in, 275

larvæ (figure), 272

sexual instincts of, 36

swarming of, 271

Epicureans, _summum bonum_ of, 6

Ewald, on microbes in intestines, 251, 252

Eye, of man, imperfections of, 78

Fabre, on caterpillars, 33

on fossorial wasps, 27, 28, 34

Faith, modern return to, 222

Tolstoi’s return to, 224

Zola’s attraction to, 225

Family instincts, 108

love, 295

Fauvel, on natural death, 280

Fear, of death, Rousseau on, 118

Tokarsky on, 125

Tolstoi on, 122, 123

in the aged, 118, 131

in Buddhism, 119

by a Christian minister, 124

by French writers, 121, 122, 132

instinctive nature of, 127, 128, 153

occasional absence of, 152

Feet, of man and apes, 43

Fichte, on future life, 176

Finot, on continuity of life, 197

on fear of death, 122, 126, 197

Flies, cause of death of, 274

Flora of the intestines, 248, 249, 251

Flourens, on limits of life, 277

Fœtus of gibbon, figure of, 46

of man, figure of, 47

Food, of ancestral man, 74

instinct of choice of, 75, 76

Fossorial wasps, 27, 34

Future life, Cicero on, 169

Fichte on, 176

Kant on, 176

Plato on, 168

belief in, 141, 149, 151, 159

opposed by reason, 161, 165

_see_ Immortality

General paralysis, symptoms of, 111

Gerontology, science of old age, 297

Glow-worms, 37

Goal of human life, 300, 301

Gods, of the Greeks, 4

of the Orientals, 4

Goncourt, E. de, quotations on fear of death, 121, 132

Gorillas, old age in, 233

Greek art, 5

philosophy, 5

Gruenbaum, on injection of serums, 54

Guinea-pigs, reared without microbes, 249

Guyau, on death, 195, 196;

on love, 196

on religion and death, 133

on failure of science, 222

on resignation, 199

Haeckel, on the “cellular soul,” 269

on future life, 221

on morality, 107

Hair, blanching of, 242 (figure), 243

and disease, 63

of embryo, 63

Hammerling, on optimism, 191, 192

“_Hamlet_,” quotation from, 227

Hands, of man and apes, 43

Happiness, Hartmann on, 186

Mailaender on, 189

Meyer-Benfey on, 198

meaning of, 111

Hartmann, on death, 184

on immortality, 184

pessimism of, 183

on progress, 185

as a youthful pessimist, 117

Hassenstein, on childbirths in the young, 283

Heape, on menstruation, 88

Hegel, death from cholera, 120

Heim, on feelings at death, 126

Hell of Chinese Buddhists, 149

Helmholz, on the eye, 78

Henseler, on ages of patriarchs, 259

Hermaphroditism, 79, 80

_Herminium monorchis_, figure of, 26

Huber, on ants, 34

Hufeland, on prolonging life, 258

Humanity, vagueness of conception, 296

Humboldt, on natural morality, 8

Hunt, on burial of the aged living, 152

Hutcheson, on naturalism, 7

Huxley, on origin of man, 41

Hymen, disharmonies of, 85

distinctive of human race, 81, 82

primitive function of, 85, 86

ritual destruction of, 83, 84

Illusion, Hartmann on, 183

Mailaender on, 188

Immortality, Aristotle on, 169

Buddha on, 147

Hartmann on, 184

Meyer-Benfey on, 198

Plato on, 168

Schopenhauer on, 179, 180, 181

Seneca on, 170

Spinoza on, 175

amongst animals, 270

of “cellular soul,” 269

of protozoa, 264

of reproductive cells, 267

Inaudi, the calculator, 58

Infanticide, 103, 104

Infusoria, conjugation of, 231

immortality of, 263, 264

reproduction of, 230

senile degeneration of, 231

Insects, compared with vertebrates, 276

fertilisation of plants by, 21

senile degeneration of, 231

Instinct of death, 281, 282, 283, 298

of family, 108

of life, 129

sexual, 283

of society, 109

Intestines, bacterial flora of, 248, 249

large, degeneration of, 70

large, diseases of, 73, 74

large, excision of, 70

large, function of, 70, 71, 72

Jewish belief in future life, 142

Justice, in relation to humanity, 112

Kant, on future life, 176

Kephir, use of, 255

Khémâ, legend on immortality, 147

Kidney ducts, 80

Koch, on microbe of tuberculosis, 212

Lactic acid, arrests putrefaction, 255

Lady-birds and nectar, 32

Language, as a social band, 297

Lankester, Ray, on centenarians, 259

Lanugo, of human embryo, 62

Larvæ, of ephemerids, 276

Lecky, on natural morality, 8

Lejoncourt, on centenarians, 280

Leucocytes and phagocytes, 240

Liberty, future limitation of, 301

Life, duration of, in Biblical times, 259, 260

modes of lengthening, 257, 258

Light, attractive to insects, 35

Linnæus, on origin of man, 41

Lister, and antisepsis, 209

_Listera ovata_, figure of, 32

Loeb, on natural death, 266

Longet, on old age, 234

Longevity, in birds, 232

and large intestine, 252

in Old Testament, 259, 260

Love, Guyau on, 196

spreading of, 295

Lubbock, on ancestor-worship, 150

an optimist, 117

Luminous insects, 37

Luther, Martin, on supernatural origin of disease, 164

Luxury, evils of, 293, 294, 301

Macrophags, definition of, 240

functions of, 240

in senile decay, 241

Maeterlinck, on pessimism, 191

Mailaender, on pessimism, 187, 188

Malignant tumours, science and, 214

Mammary glands, rudimentary, 298

Man, destiny of, 286

disharmonies, and harmonies in, 285

origin of, 40, 286

peculiar characters of, 59

rudimentary organs of, 59, 60

Marinesco, on function of phagocytes, 241

Marriage, age at first, 97

Christian views on, 163

early, in primitive races, 86, 90

Martelly, on intestinal putrefaction, 255

Materialism, Büchner on, 220

Haeckel on, 220

Matriopathy, 6

May-flies and light, 35

Medicine, advance of, 210

Memory, late development of, 78

Ménière, on bees and orchids, 21

Menstruation, in monkeys, 88, 89

origin and significance, 87, 88

origin of, 89

regarded as impure, 92

Merkel, on tissue-changes in old age, 238

Metamorphoses, of ephemerides, 272

Metchnikoff, on blanching of hair, 242

on senile atrophy, 238

Metchnikoff, Madame, on tadpoles

reared without microbes, 249

Meyer-Benfey, on happiness, 198

on immortality, 198

Microbes, absence of, in ephemerids, 274

harmful, 256

of the intestines, 248

producing poisons in intestines, 251

Microphags, definition of, 240

functions of, 240

Milk, fermented or soured, beneficent action of, 255

human, 282

secretion of, by males, 298

Monkeys, and choice of food, 75

Morality, based on human nature, 9

true foundation of, 289

Mosaic regulations on diet, 162, 163

Moths and light, 35

Müller, Johannes, on the eye, 78

Hermann, on lady-birds, 32

Max, on meaning of Nirvâna, 155, 158

Mutilations of the body, 9, 15

Naegeli, on natural death, 265

Natural death, 302

cases of, 278, 279, 280

in ephemerids, 27

Nature, Marcus Aurelius on life according to, 173

and morality, early opinions on, 3

Negroes and whites, 109

Nicene Creed, compared with ancestor-worship, 151

Nirvâna, Aurelius and, 175

Hartmann on, 186

Schopenhauer on, 182

meaning of, 155, 156, 157

Nordau, on old age, 234

on optimism, 192;

on pain, 193

Nuttall and Thierfelder, on germ-free guinea-pigs, 249

Obstetrics, in ancient times, 300

Old age, Longet on, 234

Nordau on, 234

amelioration of, 254

in birds and mammals, 232, 233

characters of, 229, 230, 278, 294

morbidity of, 244

scientific study of, 228

serums in, 245, 246

Onanism, 35, 95, 96, 99

Optimism, Hammerling on, 191, 192

Nordau on, 192

Optimists generally old men, 117

Origin of man, due to sudden appearance of new characters, 57, 59

Ourangs, old age in, 233

Orchids, and fertilisation, 19, 20

Orthobiosis, the taste of science, 289

Ostwald, on love of humanity, 296

Ova, immortality of, 267

Pain, Nordau on, 193

_Palingenia_, swarming of, 272

Pantheism, of German poets, 195

Paradise, according to the Talmud, 143

of Chinese Buddhists, 149

_Paramecium_, conjugation of (figure), 231

division of (figure), 230

Parasites, late evolution of, 18

Parovaria, 80

Parrots, paucity of bacterial flora in, 253

Pasteur, as founder of modern scientific medicine, 209

Pasénadi, legend on immortality, 147

Pathology, of old age, 278

Patriotism, 295

_Pelopæus_, figure of, 34

Penis, os, in man and apes, 81

Personality, consciousness of, 160

Pessimism, Byron on, 177

Hartmann on, 183

Maeterlinck on, 191

Mailaender on, 187

Schopenhauer on, 177, 178, 179

and Buddhism, 176, 177

and disease, 206

and disharmony, 38

origin of, 176

value of, 194

and youth, 117

Pettenkofer, suicide of, 131

Pfeffer, on chemotaxis in cryptogams, 269

Pflüger, on prolonging life, 258

Pfungst, on meaning of Nirvâna, 156