Men of all times have attempted all manner of devices to bring about an increase of years, although they have not considered the problem in its general bearing.
In Biblical times it was believed that contact with young girls would rejuvenate and prolong the life of feeble old men. In the first Book of Kings it is related as follows:—
“Now King David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he gat no heat.
“Wherefore his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my Lord the king a young virgin; let her stand before the king and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get heat” (Kings I., chap. i.).
This device, afterwards called gerokomy, was employed by the Greeks and Romans, and has had followers in modern times. Boerhave, the famous Dutch physician (1668-1738), “recommended an old burgomaster of Amsterdam to lie between two young girls, assuring him that he would thus recover strength and spirits.” After quoting this, Hufeland, the well-known author of “Macrobiotique” in the eighteenth century, made the following reflection:—“If it be remembered how the exhalations from newly opened animals stimulate paralysed limbs, and how the application of living animals soothes a violent pain, we cannot refuse our approval to the method.”[107]
Cohausen, a doctor of the eighteenth century, published a treatise on a Roman, Hermippus, who had died aged a hundred and fifteen years. He had been a master in a school for young girls, and his life, passed in their midst, was greatly prolonged. “Accordingly,” commented Hufeland (p. 6), “he gives the excellent advice to breathe the air of young girls night and morning, and gives his assurance that by so doing the vital forces will be strengthened and preserved, as adepts know well that the breath of young girls contains the vital principle in all its purity.”
In the Eastern half of the world equal ingenuity was exercised in the attempt to rejuvenate the body and renew the forces of man. The successors of Lao-Tsé searched for a beverage that would confer immortality and have recounted extraordinary matters concerning it.
The Emperor of China, Chi-Hoang-Ti (221-209 B.C.), displayed extreme friendliness to the Taoists, believing that these had the secret of long life and immortality. In his reign, Su-Chi, a Taoist magician, persuaded him that eastwards of China there lay fortunate islands inhabited by genii whose pleasure it was to give their guests to drink of a beverage conferring immortality. Chi-Hoang-Ti was so delighted with the news that he equipped an expedition to discover the islands.[108]
Later on, in the dynasty of the Tchengs (618-907), when Taoism had again become a religion in favour at court, efforts were made to obtain imperial patronage for the draught of immortality, and magicians were in high favour. The Taoist writers called this drink Tan or Kin-Tan, the “golden elixir.” According to Mayers, the chief ingredients of this marvellous compound were “cinnabar, the red sulphate of mercury, and a red salt of arsenic, potassium and mother-of-pearl. The preparation of it required nine months, and it passed through nine changes. One who had drunk of it was changed to a crane, and in this form could ascend to the dwellings of the genii, there to abide with them.”[109]