Friday, August 27, 1920. a. ————— ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES. When the scoffers scoff, and the mockers mock, And the knockers stand at the side and knock, Just roll up your sleeves and buckle in, And stick to your task, and you're bound to win. ; If the thing's worth while you are sure to hear The doubters doubt and the jeerers jeer; For never a victor has arisen yet But somewhere the jibes of the wise has met. ‘ So, deaf to the scoffers, just work along, And stick to your dream till you know it’s wrong, And toss them a -smile when you hear folks mock; It’s a healthy sign when the knockers knock. —Detroit Free Press. ON PROLONGING HUMAN LIFE. Is old age a disease? No, it is not a disease, but it is disease. Neither old age, middle age nor youth are functions of time. They are physic- al states, the mere expressions of definite incident, forces with which time has no more to do as a factor in causation than a tape measure with the height of a man. This is elementary, obvious and incontroverti- ble, and the only excuse for stating it as a principle is the fact that it is so generally ignored, not only in popular thought and language, but in philosophic and scientific discussion of the problems relating to human ex- istence. In casting time as an entity out of physics, Einstein has done no more than earlier thinkers have done for philosophy, yet so powerful is the in- fluence of mere terminology and of allegorical conceptions of natural pro- cess that even the pathologist dealing with visible evidences of infection and poison in the tissues of the elderly talks about “conditions normal to the time of life.” The assertion that ar- terial hardening and other tissue changes, commonly although not al- ways found in later life, are normal to that age period, is tantamount to asserting that they are due to time, a postulate that cannot really be pre- sented in thought since time is a mathematical abstraction, has only a relative existence and cannot exert a physical influence over anything. It may seem that I am merely harp- ing on an academic string, but this is no academic question. It involves the demolition of a fallacious principle that has for ages held back the hum- an race from enjoying the full fruits of human intelligence and attaining freedom from the thralldom of a myth- ological conception of the life cycle of man. Once clear the mind of this para- doxical notion of the causation of old age and we strike at the roots of hum- an misery, of human futility and fail- ure. Today we stand humiliated be- fore the brute creation. What can we, as thinking organisms, report to the jungle as to our custody of hum- an bodies and human lives? True, we have done some commendable things. We have cut down the death rate, both in war and peace, from cer- tain diseases, while at the same time increasing the efficiency of our en- gines of destruction. We have cut down the death rate in places form- erly pestilential, such as Panama and Havana, but the fact that we talk so much about these things is a pitiful commentary on the ages of ignorance and neglect through which we have passed, while deceiving ourselves with the mechanical trappings of civiliza- tion. . In spite of science, culture and the intellect of man, the “genus homo” is carrying at present a greater bur- den of disease, misery and starvation than any other animal organism. The life cycle of man is not only limited but filled with a mass of pathology, physical and mental, that is due to definite physical causes and prevent- able by definite physical means. In considering problems relating to the quality of human life and the lines of its possible future develop- ment, we can make little progress unless we work and think in the spir- it of Huxley who said “Sit down be- fore fact as a little child, be prepared to give up any preconceived notion, follow humbly wherein and to what- ever abyss nature leads or you will learn nothing.” Current notions with regard to the duration of human life are based largely upon superficial observation and tradition. True, we are faced by the undeniable fact that one-half of the people die before sixty years of age. A lifetime of seventy years is considered as representing the human life cycle and is supposed to be fixed by biological, if not by a divine, law. In a sense this is true. That is, the human organism has evolved through many phases to a type that resists the unfavorable factors in en- vironment and faults in its own struc- ture for that period. The attacks of streptococci, the insidious effect of poisons formed in the body, as well as those admitted to the body, may be re- garded as governed by natural law but it is quite obvious that with larg- er knowledge of the operation of such laws, man’s intelligence can set in motion influences also in accord with patural laws that can profoundly modify the life of man or of other organism. In earlier times such at- tempts were more along supernatural than natural lines. Some mysterious and marvelous elipir or charm was sought that would enable mankind to withstand the so-called ravages of time, which we now know were most- ly the ravages of micro-organisms. As science gained more light and di- vested itself of the superstitions and crudities of the alchemist and the medicine man, there was in fact very difinite progress made in improving the death rate at certain age periods, chiefly under forty, when communi- cable and epidemic disease carries off its largest toll. This left untouched, however, the final old age; and even those conditions frankly recognized as disease, such as arterial and kid- ney changes which claim in this coun- | This, of course, is a mere presenta- try about 130,000 people yearly be- tween the ages of thirty and sixty, have been wholly neglected as to their prevention. These casualties are accepted more or less philosophic- ally as “acts of God,” and no definite attempt to reduce the mortality from such causes has been made, as in the case of epidemic and communicable diseases. In fact, the death rate from those chronic maladies has in- creased in this country during the past thirty years and there has been no favorable influence on the mortali- ty in the later ages of life, although in England and Wales and in the Scandinavian countries, and even in Prussia, the census returns indicate an improvement in the death rate at each age period. Various explana- tions have been offered for this ap- parently unfavorable trend, from ab- solute denial of the accuracy of the records by the opti- mist who would accept them un- hesitatingly if they were pleasant and who does unhesitatingly if they were figures regarding the drop in the death rate from tuberculosis and ty- phoid, to the theory that it is due to the admixture of foreign stocks with a high mortality from such causes. There is good evidence that a sub- stantial part of the increase in mor- tality from these organic diseases is, in fact, due to this cause, but there is no evidence that native stocks are showing any gain in vitality at the advanced ages. Hence, while the general death rate has been marked- ly reduced (from 19.6 to 14.2 in the registration area since 1890), there is no indication that the life span has been lengthened. The benefits of scientific progress have been confer- red chiefly upon the young, but with- out apparently assuring them any more favorable condition in later life than has been enjoyed by their an- cestors. Evidently there is work to do along this line and these are the problems that interest most deeply those who joined in founding the Life Extension Institute. These men had no illusions as to the value of mere life exten- sion. The sheltering and pampering and protecting of a defective organ- ism in order to drag out a few more years of a more or less miserable existence would not be a fundamental service to humanity, although the duty of medical science is always to conserve life without regard to the burden that it places on society. The real meaing of life extension work lies in its ideal of living on higher planes of existence, in attaining a broader physical and psychic life, in developing the latent resources of mankind and in training man to make the most of his endowments and of his environment. This, it would seem, must inevitably lead to longer life and life so lengthened, would im- prove social conditions generally and insure an elderly life and old age free from many wretched handicaps. What warrant have we for assum- ing that such things are possible? Does the failure thus far materially to increase the life span, in spite of scientific progress, prove that we are engaged in a Sisyphean task and working against nature or some ir- revocable higher law? To me the testimony from the field of biology where profound changes have been effected in the life cycles of other organisms, offers a conclusive answer. The human organisms cannot be separate from the rest of living organisms. If it can be shown that life cycles are not pre- ordained or immutably fixed, we may face the problem of extending the human life cycle, of expanding the power of the human organism exact- ly as we would face such problems in the laboratory when dealing with the fruit fly or the sea urchin or the star fish or the tadpole. There are living organisms such as the redwood tree, that have a life cycle apparent- ly limited only by the geologic age in which they live. There are oth- ers that live but a day because of obviously faulty structure. Working with the fruit fly, Loeb and others have prolonged the life cycle of this organism 900 per cent merely by keeping it at a lowered temperature and protecting it from adverse exter- nal factors, such as infection and poi- son. There are numerous similar experi- ments on record where the so-called influence of time has been defied and a definite prolongation of the life span attained. Loeb has emphasized the significance of the result attained with the fruit fly as evidencing the attainment of natural death, that is, death occurring notwithstanding the protection of the organism from all forms of external injury or infection. It was assumed that death finally oc- curred either from loss of peculiar substances formed by the organs of the creature and necessary to main- tain the mechanism of its existence, or the accumulation of poisons which were never thoroughly eliminated from its body, owing to some faults in structure. It is probable that here we have an expression of a funda- mental law of life. Barring acci- dent or injury, all organisms die through fault in their structure or their adaptation; because they are poisoned, infected or deprived of es- sential factors that maintain life. These definite causes of disease, old age and death can actually be group- ed under definite categories that will include all possible factors yet to be discovered that could influence the life cycle of man. These categories are as follows: Heredity, Infection, Pois- on, Food deficiency, Food excess, Hor- mone deficiency (Hormones are sub- stances essential to maintaining the equilibrium of health and the efficient functioning of organs. They are known to be formed in a number of glands and organs, such as the thy- roid, adrenals, pituitary, sexual glands, the pancreas and possibly scme others), Hormone excess (ac- tually poison), Physical injury or strain, Psychic injury or strain, Physi- cal apathy, Psychic apathy. Clifford once said that from a cubic inch of air omniscient science could reconstruct the whole plan of the uni- verse, and it may. be said with equal truth that science fully informed as’ to the means of protection against the adverse factors named or yet to be named under these categories, could indefinitely prolong human life—and more—indefinitely expand its power. tion of a principle and not a predic- tion. No one with even a smattering of scientific knowledge ‘can doubt that | the best of us are merely nibbling | at life. Evolution has after many years brought us to a point where we ! look back with contempt upon the Pithecanthropus Erectus and the Neanderthal man, but it is doubtful whether we are much in advance of the Cro-magnon man whose superior intelligence did not save him from ex- tinction. Despite our civilization which we are wont complacently to speak of as complex, although it is really superficial, there ' is no evi- dence that moderns excel in brain power or in intellectual stature the wise men of old. We have more in- formation, we have discovered more about the mechanism of the universe. but the quality of the human organ- ism shows very little evidence of im- provement, notwithstanding the cur- rent belief in “upward” evolution. Professor Edward Grant Conklin, in a recent Princeton lecture, has dis- sented from this view of further up- ward evolution as applied to man. He sees little probability of a superman appearing and points to evidence of actual physical deteriorations in the modern human type as compared to earlier types. These relate, it is true, to comparatively minor matters such as skeletal changes, decrease in the acuteness of special senses and the like, but there is lacking in the bio- logic record any evidence of upward development during. the historical period. On this subject I have no dogmatic opinion and would not ven- ture to assert that modern man is distinctly inferior physically to an- cient man, but I have a very positive opinion as to the present physical condition of man and that is, that he is far below a reasonable standard of animal excellence. =~ Where among wild animals can you find so many individuals with septic teeth, faulty vision, septic tonsils, inefficient bow- els, physical asymmetries, flat foot, defective and infected nasal cavities. defective hearing, unhealthy skin, im- paired organs and tissues? When man first moved into this pathologic- al field I cannot say. It is claimed that the Ancient Egyptians had their tooth troubles. It may be that Professor Conklin is right and that natural evolution has reached a biological impasse in man, but on this subject we are entitled to hear from the clinician, the physiolog- ist and hygienist, as well as the biolo- gist. Admitted that without help, ev- olution can do no more, we are at liberty to speculate on the power of intellect to control nature. Huxley postulated a reverse of natural selec- tion through man’s interference in preserving the unfit; the contrary hy- pothesis is tenable that man can take up the work where nature laid down and by directing natural forces, delib- erately mould a higher type of or- ganism. This would seem to be the real hope of the future. That immense opportunities confront human intelligence, cannot be doubted. That a transformation of the human type is possible with a vast access of power and vision and capacity for bending to its will the resources of nature, is the underlying thesis of this article. Possibly man is but another trial in the “great plan.” No less than 10,000,000 spe- cies have existed on earth, many of them for vast stretches of time, only to pass out. It may be that another and another biological cycle will be necessary before the real man comes, nevertheless we find ourselves with a_definite hold on facts that were de- nied to previous civilizations so far as we can learn. We can see definite means of working forward toa prac- tical solution of mysteries that our forefathers placed in the sphere of the supernatural. From these ambitious reaches of thought, let us come down to earth and ask what really does this all mean to the man on the street? Have we any message for him? Surely there is a direct and practical mes- sage. From the sublime to the ridic- ulous is but a step, but we can re- verse the formula and say that from the ridiculous to the sublime is often but a step. Little Tommy Grace with a pain in his face is not sublime, but the change that can be wrought in a human being by the remval of a root abscess often approaches the sublime and may appear almost as miraculous as the healing of the sick by the laying on of hands. This does not apply to all root abscesses, but to some, and 62 per cent of people whose teeth we have X-rayed showed root abscesses. I do not mean to convey the impression that all our ills are due to our teeth, but make the point that something at least is known re- garding definite menacing factors grouped under the categories I have mentioned as influencing the life cycle and that something is also known re- garding definite means of protection. With reasonable cooperation from the individual and from organized society, I have but little doubt but that the span of human life could easily be extended well beyond one hundred years and, what is more to the point, misery and the humiliating limita- tions squeezed out of it. Too much must not be expected in a decade or in a century, and yet the Egyptians under the third and fourth dynasties emerged from comparative barbarism and in less than a century developed a culture and an engineering and architectural skill that produced the pyramids. Without making predic- tions or fixing time limits, we can tell our story and do our work, and to use the old phraseology, let “time” do the rest. First, eugenics is a science to reck- on with. If man’s intelligence can- not in the course of time reduce the stream of gross deficiency by some means of controlling breeding, then will the real man have to come into his own and that job must be left to some higher race of organisms yet to appear. Dodging the platitudinous brick-bats that this assertion invites, let us consider the infant who is here. Prenatal care offers definite promise of better equipment for the infant. Infant and child hygiene are even now doing much. Nutritional prob- lems are bing solved. Physical train- ing problems are with us. Mental training is baffling the wisest minds and there regularly appear in our SRS a from educators and philosophers de- ! ploring our deficiency in this regard. | But what of the young adult cast | upon the great ocean of life to strike out for some unknown shore? Our | draft examinations told us something about the male and would have told a similar story about the “deadlier of the species” had she been called. In spite of much care in earlier years, this young male in the flush of youth showed deficiencies. He needed just the kind of physical overhauling that he received, only a more thorough one. Shortly before the war, General Leonard Wood asked me to estimate the probable rejection rate if a draft should be necessary. I answered “50 per cent if we take ages 18 to 45.” He replied, “That is conservative, judging from my own observation of recruits examined.” You see, Gener- as Wood was not an optimist, but just a military and medical scientist, viewing the matter cold-bloodedly, “sitting down before fact as a child.” Probably more crimes or at least mistakes have been committed in the name of optimism than in the name of liberty, and we may charge to opti- mistic amblyopia at least one-fourth of the present world misery, not to speak of the war casualties. The draft actually revealed about one-third of those examined between the ages 21 and 31 disqualified for active service. The rejection rate rises rapidly with age and at least a 50 per cent rate would have been reached as a total if ages to 45 had been included. There was an excess of 30 per cent in the rate for the en- tire age group, as against age 21 in our draft and in Great Britain the re- jection rates, according to Major Comrie, were: age 18--23 per cent, age 23—A48 per cent, age 41—69 per cent. We see this, parallel in the death rate in the population. At age 40 the death rate is about three times what it is at 20. My own predictions were based not only upon many years of observation of life insurance risks, but upon recent evidence derived from the examinations by the Life Exten- sion Institute of many thousands of industrial employees active in their work and others in all walks of life. More than half of these people, form ing a cross section of the population down “to and including the average active worker in industry but not in- cluding the sick and dependent and unemployed, were found in need of some form of medical, dental or sur- gical treatment, and practically all had at least some slight defect, the correction of which. would improve their life prospect if not their im- mediate condition. In addition to physical defects, faults in living ob- viously impairing their lives, were found in more than 80 per cent. Er- rors in diet, exercise and personal (Continued on page 7, Col. 1.) HOOD’S SARSAPARILLA. At This Season Loss of Appetite Is very common. In many cases it is due to impure blood, which cannot give the digestive organs the stimu- lus necessary for the proper perform- ance of their functions. Thousands know by experience that Hood’s Sarsaparilla restores ap- petite and would advise you to give it a trial this season. It originated in the successful prescription of a famous physician. Get it today. Take Hoods Pills if you happen to need a laxative—they don’t grip. 64-34. Wee J Come in and fiy this fascinafin experimen Mx Edison’s Realism Test It shows you what to ex- pect ofa New Edison in our home—whether it E-CREATES music with such perfect realism that you feel the presence of the living artist. Gheen’s Music Store, ® Brockerhoff House Block, BELLEFONTE, PA. baek without question ‘ HAUNTS Salve fails. in the treatment of I ECZEMA, RINGWORM, TETTER or other itching skin diseases. Try a 75 cent box at our risk, 65-26 C. M. PARRISH, Druggist, Bellefonte nan Prone AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION SUBMITTED TO THE CITIZENS OF THE COM- MONWEALTH FOR THEIR APPROVAL OR REJECTION, AT THE ELECTION TO BE HELD ON TUESDAY, NOVEM- BER 2, 1920, BY THE GENERAL AS- SEMBLY OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, AND PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH, IN PUR- SUANCE OF ARTICLE XVIII OF THE CONSTITUTION. Number One. A JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to section eleven of article sixteen of the Constitution of Pennsylvania. leading magazines wails of agony Be it resolved by the Senate and House i of Representatives of the Commonwealth ! of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, That the following amendment to the Constitution of the . Commonwealth of Pennsylvania be, and the same is hereby, proposed, in accordance with the eigh- teenth article thereof :— Amendssection eleven, article sixteen of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which reads as follows: “No corporate body to possess banking and discounting privileges shall be created or organized in pursuance of any law without three months’ previous public notice, at the place of the intended loca- tion, of the intention to apply for such privileges, in such manner as shall be pre- scribed by law, nor shall a charter for such privilege be granted for a longer period than twenty years,”