The Prolongation of Life: Optimistic Studies

by Elie Metchnikoff

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Westergaard, Mortalitaet u. Morbilitaet, 2nd. Edit., 1901, pp. 653-655.

[2] The volume of the urine excreted in 24 hours (in January 1905) was 500 c.c., with a density of 1019. There was no albumen or sugar. The quantity, per litre, of urea was 11·50 gr., of chlorides 9 gr., of phosphates 1·15 gr. The sediment contained crystals of uric acid, some pavement epithelium cells, a very few cells from the tubules, some hyaline platelets and isolated white corpuscles.

[3] Extinct Animals, London, 1905, pp. 28, 29.

[4] Rendiconti d. Accad. d. Lincei, 1906, vol. xiv. pp. 351, 390.

[5] Ueb. d. physiologische Degeneration bei Actinosphærium eichhornii. Jena, 1904.

[6] “Senescence and Rejuvenation,” Journal of Physiology, 1891, t. xii.

[7] Biologisches Centralblatt, 1904, pp. 65, 81, 113.

[8] Comptes rendus de l’Académie des sciences, 23 April, 1900.

[9] Revue générale des sciences, 30 Dec., 1904, p. 1116.

[10] Le Bulletin médical, 1906, p. 721; Le Cerveau sénile, Lille, 1906, pp. 64-69.

[11] Mémoires couronnés publiés par l’Académie royale de Belgique, Bruxelles, 1906.

[12] Revue de Médecine, Nov., 1906, p. 870.

[13] Annales de l’Institut Pasteur, Oct. 1906, p. 859.

[14] Annales de l’Institut Pasteur, 1900, vol. xiv. p. 113.

[15] Eléments d’histologie humaine, French translation, 1856, p. 222.

[16] Leçons sur la physiologie du système nerveux, 1866.

[17] De la dégenérescence graisseuse des muscles chez des vieillards. Paris, 1867.

[18] Demange, Étude sur la vieillesse, 1886, p. 118.

[19] C. R. de la Société de Biologie, 14 November, 1903.

[20] Clinica medica, 1905, n. 6.

[21] Bulletins de la Société royale des sciences-medicales de Bruxelles, 1905, n. 4, p. 105.

[22] Sarbach, Mittheilungen a. d. Grenzgeb. d. Med. u. Chir., vol. xv. 1906.

[23] Verhandlungen d. Kongr. f. innere Medicin. Wiesbaden, 1906, pp. 59, 98.

[24] Archives de Neurologie, 1886.

[25] Die Function d. Schilddrüse, Virchow’s Festschrift, vol. i. 1891, p. 369.

[26] Fuss, Der Greisenbogen, in Virchow’s Archiv, 1905, vol. clxxxii. p. 407; S. Toufesco, Sur le cristallin, Paris, 1906.

[27] Edmond Fournier, Stigmates dystrophiques de l’hérédosyphilis, Paris, 1898, p. 4.

[28] Histoire naturelle générale et particulière, vol. ii. Paris, 1749.

[29] De la longévité humaine et de la quantité de vie sur le globe, Paris, 1855.

[30] Ueber die Dauer des Lebens, Jena, 1882, p. 4.

[31] Brehm, La vie des animaux, Mammifères, vol. ii. p. 623.

[32] Leçons sur la physiologie et l’anatomie comparée, vol. ix. 1870, p. 446.

[33] Archiv f. die gesammte Physiologie, Bonn, 1903, vol. xcv. p. 606.

[34] La Nature, May 12, 1900, p. 378.

[35] Ashworth and Annandale, Proceedings of the R. Society of Edinburgh, vol. xxv. part iv. 1904.

[36] Bronn’s Klassen u. Ordnungen des Thierreichs, vol. iii. p. 466.

[37] Weismann, The Duration of Life, in “Essays on Heredity” (English translation), Oxford, 1889.

[38] Oustalet, “La Longévité chez les Animaux vertébrés,” La Nature, May 12, 1900, p. 378.

[39] “On the Comparative Ages to which Birds live,” The Ibis, Jan., 1899, vol. v. p. 19.

[40] J. Maumus, “Les cæcums des oiseaux,” Annales des sciences naturelles, 902. See also P. Chalmers Mitchell, “On the Intestinal Tract of Birds,” Trans. Linnæan Soc. of London, vol. viii. part 7, 1901.

[41] Weidersheim, Elements of the Comparative Anatomy of Vertebrates, translated by W. Newton Parker, p. 236, 1886.

[42] Elements of Comparative Anatomy, English translation by F. Jeffrey Bell, B.A., London, 1878, p. 562.

[43] Virchow’s Archiv, 1869, vol. xlviii. p. 151.

[44] P. Chalmers Mitchell, “On the Intestinal Tract of Mammals,” Trans. Zool. Soc. of London, vol. xvii. part 5, 1905.

[45] Travaux de la Société des médecins russes à Saint-Pétersbourg. September-October, 1905, p. 18 (in Russian).

[46] Virchow’s Archiv, 1874, vol. lix, p. 161.

[47] Zeitschrift f. klinische. Medicin, 1887, vol. xii.

[48] Mittheilungen a. d. Grenzgebieten d. Medicin u. Chirurgie, 1905, vol. xiv.

[49] Aldor, Centralblatt f. innere Medicin, 1898, p. 161.

[50] L’année biologique, 7th year, 1902. Paris, 1903, p. 590.

[51] Gazette des Hôpitaux, 1904, p. 715.

[52] Accidents dus à la Constipation pendant la Grossesse, l’Accouchement et les Suites des Couches. Thèse, Paris, 1902, p. 32.

[53] Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, Paris, 1905, 10 July, p. 136.

[54] Archiv. f. klinische Chirurgie, 1901, vol. lxiii, p. 773.

[55] Kolle u. Wassermann, Handb. d. pathogenen Mikro-organismen, vol. ii, 1903, p. 678.

[56] Ficker, in the Archiv. für Hygiene, vol. lii, p. 179, has recently published the results of an investigation into this.

[57] Quoted by Frédericq et Nuel, Eléments de physiologie humaine, 4th edition, 1899, p. 256.

[58] Quoted by Frédericq et Nuel, op. cit.

[59] L’aviculture (a fortnightly Russian journal), Oct. 1st, 1904, No. 19, p. 3.

[60] Country Life, 1905.

[61] Quoted by Ebstein, Die Kunst d. mensch. Leben zu verlängern, 1891.

[62] Op. cit., p. 12.

[63] Annuaire statistique de la ville de Paris, 23rd year, 1904, p. 164-171.

[64] Ornstein, Virchow’s Archiv., 1891, vol. cxxv, p. 408.

[65] Ebstein, op. cit., p. 70.

[66] Lejoncourt, Galerie des centenaires, Paris, 1842, p. 96-98.

[67] Lejoncourt, op. cit., p. 101.

[68] Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, 1836, vol. i, p. 1157.

[69] I owe to the kindness of M. Chemin a memoir in which he has brought together the ancient and new records on the centenarians of all countries up to the end of the nineteenth century. M. Chemin was unable to find a publisher, but has given me his manuscript, extending to 182 pages.

[70] Ueber die Kunst d. Verlängerung d. mensch. Lebens, Bonn, 1890, p. 23.

[71] Physiologie générale, 1900, p. 381.

[72] Tableaux de la nature (French translation), 1808, vol. ii, p. 109.

[73] Webb and Berthelot, Histoire naturelle des îles Canaries, 1839, vol. i, part 2, pp. 97-98.

[74] Bibliothèque universelle de Genève, 1839, vol. xlvi, p. 387.

[75] Ibid., p. 392.

[76] Bibliothèque universelle de Genève, vol. xlvii, p. 49.

[77] Entstehung u. Begriff d. naturhistorischen Art, 2nd edit., Munich, 1865, p. 37.

[78] Griesebach, Die Vegetation der Erde.

[79] Batalin, Acta Horti Petropolitani, vol. xi, no. 6, 1890, p. 289.

[80] I am indebted to Prof. Hugo de Vries for this and other instances of the prolongation of life in plants.

[81] Engler’s Botanische Jahrbücher, Leipzig, 1882, vol. ii, p. 51.

[82] Organographie der Pflanzen, Iéna, 1898-1901.

[83] Bulletin du jardin botanique de Bruxelles, vol. i, no. 6, 1905.

[84] Hugo de Vries, Jahrbücher für wissensch. Botanik, 1890, vol. xxii, p. 52.

[85] Annales de l’Institut Pasteur, 1902, p. 71.

[86] Duclaux, Microbiologie, vol. iii, 1900, p. 460.

[87] Archiv. für Anatomie und Physiologie, 1864.

[88] Archives de Zoologie expérimentale, 1901, vol. ix, p. 81.

[89] Observations of Dr. Speyer, quoted by Weismann.

[90] See The Nature of Man.

[91] Étude clinique sur la vieillesse, Paris, 1886, p. 145.

[92] Revue scientifique, 1877, p. 1173.

[93] Revue scientifique, 1887, 2nd part, p. 105.

[94] Gabriel Bertrand, Annales de l’Institut Pasteur, 1904, p. 672.

[95] Therapeutische Monatshefte, 1904, p. 193.

[96] Münchener medicinische Wochenschrift, 1904, No. 1; Verhandlungen der physiologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin, Dec. 5th, 1904.

[97] Archives des sciences physiques et naturelles, Geneva, March, 1905, vol. xvii; Archives de physiologie, vol. iv, p. 245.

[98] Laveran and Mesnil, Trypanosomes et Trypanosomiases, Paris, 1904, p. 328.

[99] Paris, 1834, 4th edition, vol. ii, p. 118.

[100] Revue de métaphysique et de morale, March, 1904.

[101] Année biologique, vol. vii, p. 595.

[102] Revue occidentale, July 1st, 1904, vol. xxx, p. 87.

[103] Egger, “Le moi des mourants,” Revue philosophique, 1896, i, p. 27.

[104] Ibid., pp. 303-307; v. also Bulletin de l’Institut général phycholog., 1903, p. 29.

[105] Cicero, Tusculanes, chap, xxviii.

[106] Rapport de M. Bienvenu-Martin à la Chambre des députés, Paris, 1903.

[107] L’Art de prolonger la vie humaine (French translation), Lausanne, 1809, p. 5.

[108] A. Réville, Histoire des religions, vol. iii, Paris, 1889, p. 428.

[109] A. Réville, loc. cit., p. 455.

[110] Comptes rendus de la Societé de Biologie, 1899, p. 415.

[111] Deutsche medicin. Wochenschrift, 1891, p. 1027.

[112] Die physiologisch-chemisch. Grundlagen d. Spermintheorie, Berlin, 1898.

[113] British Medical Journal, 1904; Deutsche Mediz. Wochenschr., 1904, Nos. 18-21.

[114] Die Lehre von d. Mortalitaet u. Morbilitaet, 2nd edition, Jena, 1901.

[115] Medizinische Klinik, 1905, No. 22.

[116] Die experimentelle Syphilisforschung, Berlin, 1906, p. 82.

[117] Annales de l’Institut Pasteur, 1900, pp. 369-413.

[118] Les sérums hemolytiques, Lyon, 1903.

[119] According to a recent publication of M. Ellenberger (Archiv. f. Anatomie u. Physiologie, Physiologische Abtheilung, 1906, p. 139), the cæca of the horse, pig and rabbit, play an active part in the digestion of vegetable matter, which is rich in cellulose. At the end of his treatise, Ellenberger insists that the vermiform appendix of the cæcum is not a rudimentary organ. The reason why the appendix can be removed in the case of man without disturbance to the functions of the body, is that this work can be performed by the Peyer’s patches of the intestine. The existence of the appendix is not necessary to the normal processes of the body, and is a real danger to health and sometimes to life. Comparative study of the cæca in birds shows that these organs are in process of degeneration.

[120] Archiv. für experimentelle Pathologie, vol. xxviii, p. 311.

[121] Sixième Congrès de Chirurgie, Paris, 1903, p. 86.

[122] Leçons sur les auto-intoxications, Paris, 1886.

[123] Zeitschrift für Hygiene, 1892, vol. xii, p. 88.

[124] Zeitschrift für klinische Medicin, 1903, vol. xlviii, p. 491.

[125] There is a summary of this question in Gerhardt’s work on intestinal putrefaction, in Ergebnisse der Physiologie, 3rd year, section 1, Wiesbaden, 1904, pp. 107-154.

[126] The A B C of our Nutrition, New York, 1903; Dr. Regnault, Nov. 1, “L’art de manger,” La Revue, 1906, p. 92.

[127] Zeitschr. f. diatetische u. physikal. Therapie, t. viii, 1904, 1905.

[128] Du Cap au lac Nyassa, Paris, 1897, pp. 291-294.

[129] Gaffky and Paak, in Arbeiten d. k. Gesundheitsamtes, vol. vi, 1890.

[130] Annales de l’Institut Pasteur, 1903.

[131] Cormouls-Houlès, Vingt-sept années d’agriculture pratique, Paris, 1899, pp. 57-58.

[132] British Medical Journal, 1897, Dec. 25th, p. 1898.

[133] Comptes rendus de la Soc. de Biologie, 1906, March 17th.

[134] Dr. Combe, L’auto intoxication intestinale, Paris, 1906. This valuable work contains much useful information on the subject.

[135] Grundzach, Zeitschrift für klinische Medezin, 1893, p. 70; Schmitz, Zeitschrift für physiologische Chemie, 1894, vol. xix, p. 401; Singer, Therapeutische Monatshefte, 1901, p. 441.

[136] Journal für praktische Chemie, 1882, vol. xxvi, p. 43.

[137] Archiv. für experimentelle Pathologie, 1883, vol. xvii, p. 442.

[138] In the English authorised version as in the translation of Osterwald the word “butter” is used in place of “soured milk.” Professor Metchnikoff follows the translation given by Ebstein in his work on the Medicine of the Old Testament.

[139] Presse médicale, 1904, p. 619.

[140] “An authentic narrative of the loss of the American brig Commerce wrecked on the western coast of Africa in the month of August, 1815, with an account of the sufferings of the surviving officers and crew, who were enslaved by the wandering Arabs on the African desert or Zaharah; and observations historical, geographical, etc.” by James Riley. Hartford, S. Andrus and Son, 1854.

[141] Arbeiten a. d. k. Gesundheitsamte, 1889, vol. v, pp. 297-304.

[142] See Grasberger and Schattenfroh, Archiv. für Hygiene, 1902, vol. xlii, p. 246.

[143] Annales de l’Institut Pasteur, 1902, p. 65.

[144] Revue médicale de la Suisse romande, 1905, p. 716.

[145] Comptes rendus de la Soc. Biologique, March 17th, 1906.

[146] Annales de l’Institut Pasteur, 1906, p. 977.

[147] Soured milk can be taken at any time of the day, with or in between meals.

[148] Jahrbuch für Kinderheilkunde, N. F. 12 Ergænsungsheft, 1900.

[149] Annales de l’Institut Pasteur, 1905, p. 295; Tribune médicale, Feb. 24th, 1906.

[150] La nature humaine et la philosophie optimiste, Paris, 1904.

[151] Archiv. f. Anat. u. Physiol., Anatom. Abtheil, 1903, p. 205.

[152] L’univers et la vie, p. 592.

[153] Huxley, Man’s Place in Nature. Collected Essays, vol. vii, p. 54.

[154] Ibid., p. 60.

[155] Ibid., p. 62.

[156] Ibid., p. 67.

[157] Ménégaux, Les Mammifères, p. 24.

[158] Darwin, Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, 1873, p. 67.

[159] Biologisches Centralblatt, 1904, p. 475.

[160] J. de Fontenelle, Nouveau manuel complet des nageurs, Paris, 1837, p. 2.

[161] La natation et les bains, Paris, 1887.

[162] Quoted by M. Pitres in Leçons cliniques sur l’hystérie, 1891, vol. i.

[163] Bourneville et Regnard, Iconographie photographique de la Salpétrière, 1879-1880, vol. iii, p. 50.

[164] Stéphanie Feinkind, Du somnambulisme dit naturel, Paris, 1893, p. 55.

[165] Dictionnaire des sciences médicales, 1821, vol. lii, p. 119.

[166] Du Sommeil non naturel, Paris, 1886.

[167] Conférence faite à la Société de l’Internat, June 28th, 1906.

[168] The Crowd: a Study of the Popular Mind. English translation, London, 1896.

[169] Souvenirs d’enfance de S. Kowalevsky, 1895, pp. 301-311.

[170] W. Herzberg, Sozialdemokratie und Anarchismus, 1906, p. 17.

[171] Le problème agraire, 1905, p. 147.

[172] “The Coming Slavery” in Man versus the State, 1888, p. 18.

[173] Human, too Human. French translation, 1899, pp. 405-407. A German critic has reproached me for my ignorance of Nietzsche’s works. I have read several of them, but the mixture of genius and madness in them makes them difficult to use. In this connection Moebius’ volume, Ueber das Pathologische bei Nietzsche (Wiesbaden, 1902), is of interest.

[174] Quoted by Oldenberg, Le Bouddha, French translation, Paris, 1894, p. 214.

[175] P. Régnaud, “Le pessimisme brahmanique,” in Annales du Musée Guimet, 1880, vol. i, pp. 110-111.

[176] Guyau, La Morale d’Epicure, 4th edition, 1904, p. 116.

[177] Ad Marciam, chap. x.

[178] Poésies et œuvres morales, by Leopardi. Translated into French 1880, p. 49.

[179] These facts are taken from Westergaard, 2nd edit., 1901, p. 649.

[180] Dieudonné, Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, 1903, vol. i, p. 357.

[181] Kowalevsky, Studien zur Psychologie des Pessimismus, Wiesbaden, 1904.

[182] Medicinische Klinik, 1906, n. 25 and 26.

[183] Der Werth des Lebens.

[184] Ueber Schopenhauer, Leipzig, 1899.

[185] Moebius, Goethe, vol. i, Leipzig, 1903.

[186] V. Kunz, “Zur Blindenphysiologie,” Wiener medicin. Wochenschrift, 1902, No. 21.

[187] Physiologie de la Lecture et de l’Écriture, Paris, 1905.

[188] Entre aveugles, Paris, 1903.

[189] Der Blindenfreund, Feb. 15th, 1906.

[190] Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, vol. i, pp. 164-5, in the Essay on Goethe.

[191] Briefwechsel zwischen Goethe und Zelter. Letter of Dec. 3, 1812.

[192] Quoted in Moebius’ Goethe, vol. ii, p. 80.

[193] The Fifth Roman Elegy, Blaze’s French translation, 1873 p. 186. Some of Goethe’s biographers, and amongst them G. H. Lewes, maintain that these lines relate to Christine, Goethe’s wife. This is erroneous; they refer to Faustine (see Bielschowsky, i, p. 517).

[194] Moebius’ Goethe, vol. ii, pp. 84-87.

[195] Moebius’ Goethe, vol. ii, pp. 84-87.

[196] Quoted by Bode in Goethe’s Lebenskunst, Berlin, 1905, p. 59.

[197] Ueber die Wirkungen d. Castration, Halle, 1903, p. 82.

[198] Comptes rendus de la Société de Biologie, 1889, p. 420.

[199] The word Samen of the original is the expression of the alchemists for the “principle of life.”

[200] Erich Schmidt, Goethe’s Faust in ursprünglicher Gestalt, 6th edit., Weimar, 1905, p. 1.

[201] Faust, Bayard Taylor’s translation. London: Warne & Co., pp. 20-21.

[202] Op. cit., p. 32.

[203] Op. cit., pp. 33, 34.

[204] Details of this will be found in Kuno Fischer’s Goethe’s Faust, pp. 328-330.

[205] Op. cit., pg. 36.

[206] Op. cit., pg. 45.

[207] Op. cit., p. 46.

[208] Op. cit., p. 46.

[209] Op. cit., p. 71.

[210] Op. cit., p. 51.

[211] Op. cit., p. 151.

[212] Op. cit., p. 203.

[213] Op. cit., p. 205.

[214] Op. cit., p. 230.

[215] Op. cit., p. 231.

[216] Op. cit., p. 284.

[217] Op. cit., p. 287.

[218] Op. cit., p 298.

[219] Op. cit., p. 305.

[220] Op. cit., p. 309.

[221] Op. cit., p. 313.

[222] Op. cit., p. 351.

[223] Op. cit., pp. 354-355.

[224] Op. cit., p. 365.

[225] Op. cit., p. 370.

[226] V. Tribune médicale, 1906, p. 449.

[227] La Revue, Nov. 15th and Dec. 1st.

[228] Essais de Philosophie critique, Paris, 1864.

[229] System der Ethik, 7th and 8th editions, vol. i, p. 199. Berlin 1906.

[230] De Vries, in Biologisches Centralblatt, 1906, Sept. 1st, p. 609.

[231] Dr. Grasset, “La fin de la vie” in the Revue de philosophie, Aug. 1st, 1903.

[232] “Morale et biologie,” Revue philosophique, 1904, vol. lviii, p. 125.

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