In the early years when men still ate lizard's tongue and mandrake root as cures, only the strong-the young-were equipped to survive the myriad dangers and diseases rampant upon the earth. (Indeed, in many cases only the young were sufficiently well equipped to survive the cure I) The aged were too slow to flee from fire or flood. They could not slay a wild boar, nor even outlive a witch's curse. They were the easiest of prey in a world in which even the fit could
not survive all the machinations of plague and famine. The human race was young. But already the old were outdated.
As time went by, the struggle for mere survival was easier. Man had learned to couple his energy with the resources about him. Now he had other tools with which to fight. He could live out his natural life, and dared even to dream of extending his life span.
(It is interesting to note that almost all the tales which mirror man's dream to live out his natural life with vigor and independence are permeated with an aura of the supernatural or anatural. Did not Faust have to sell his soul to the Devil? What of Daniel Webster's classic debate with Scratch? And the narcissistic Dorian Gray?)
Despite the connotation of evil surrounding such a course, man rejected the image of an unproductive future. Ponce de Leon searched for the Fountain of Youth in an era in which man still chased myth. (Interestingly enough, some three hundred years later the land on which he sought eternal youth has become a "paradise" for the aged.) The Bible relates King David's request for young girls to be placed in bed
with him in order to effect the monarch's rejuvenation.
While the scriptures do not elaborate upon the dynamics of such a "cure," centuries later man still believed in the rejuvenating power of inhaling the breath of the young: the famous Dutch physician Hermann Boerhaave recommended such a therapy as late as the 18th century. However, rejuvenistic literature was in its heyday during the middle ages, when superstition was riding high and magicians, alchemists and charlatans had the field to themselves.
Roger Bacon disclaimed any belief in magic. However, his writings indicate that as far as the possibilities for rejuvenation were concerned, he was by no means more enlightened than were his colleagues of the 13th century. Paracelsus was the most famous physician during the 15th century, and while lately some of his ideas have been resurrected, his arcanum for immortality has long been forgotten (perhaps because he died at the age of only 48).
Nothing approaching a scientific attempt at rejuvenation took place until the end of the 19th century. At about the same time that Pasteur experimented with anthrax and William Morton introduced ether anesthesia, a French scientist, Charles Edouard BrownSequard, astonished his associates at the Societe de Biologie by appearing before them, after several months of seclusion, looking at least twenty years younger than when last they had seen him. BrownSequard was a man of 72 who haad lost his zest for life-only the scientist in him could not be subdued. He proudly explained to his audience that through the injection of animal testes he had "rejuvenated" himself: his irritability and impotence were gone, his gastrointestinal and urinary problems had diminished. At the same time, his muscular power had increased, which he demonstrated with the aid of an ergograph (a mechanism designed to show graphically the work and fatigue of muscles).
Brown-Sequard, until then a highly respected scientist, soon found himself condemned by many of his peers. The results of his self-experiment were ascribed to his "senile-erotic imagination." Nevertheless, although he had by no means "rejuvenated" himself, he had demonstrated the importance of internal secretions to the vigor and strength of the human body. Unfortunately, his method did not combat old age, but succeeded merely in activating the organism.
Only 17 years after Brown-Sequard's death at the age of 77, and in the shadow of Ehrlich's discovery of Salvarsan, the Viennese physician Eugen Steinach advanced another theory: he advocated tying off the spermatic cords, thus preventing the production of wasted sperm, and increasing the internal secretion which is passed into the bloodstream. He thought aging to be connected with the involution of the interstitial cells of Leydig, cells in the testes which to this day have not been isolated and whose function has never completely been explained. Steinach named the interstitial cells "puberty glands," and proceeded to effect a "surgical reactivation" of the male by so-called vasoligation. The operation, performed under local anesthesia, was a difficult one which provided only temporary benefits. Today, Steinach's operational technique is used only occasionally, in cases of urinary complications.
While the Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming was growing mold cultures in a search that culminated in penicillin, Dr. Serge Voronoff, soon after World War I, stirred up a great deal of curiosity by grafting monkey sex glands on humans. Again, the effects were not lasting. V oronoff himself claimed only that he could prolong the vigor and joy of life for five to six years by this method, after which one more grafting
operation (not entirely without danger) was feasible. However, should the individual survive twelve years, he was doomed to hopeless senescence, which perhaps made things worse than they were before.
Voronoff was, in turn, followed by the Russian physician and biochemist Alek.sandr A. Bogomolets, who developed ACS (antireticular cytotoxic serum), based on his premise that stimulation of the physiological system of the connective tissue was of great importance in preventing morbid aging. His serum was supposed to retard the gradual exhaustion of the body, thereby delaying the onset of senility.
This theory enjoyed a brief vogue, but when Bogomolets died (at the age of only 65), most of the ardent supporters of his theory turned their attention to the newly discovered sulfa drugs.
Was it a quest for personal immortality that stimulated Brown-Sequard or Steinach? Voronoff or Bogomolets? Who can tell? We do know that the time was ripe for the discovery they were seeking. Medical science had already made great advances. Men over forty were no longer considered old, and those over sixty no longer so rare as to be venerated for their age alone. Painful, helpless old age was soon to become a major medical and social problem, but these first scientific attempts to preserve true life in the aged unfortunately held the attention only of sensationalists and fanatics. The attention of medical scientists was still directed to the most pressing medical problem-the control of infectious diseases. The goal of less. disease had to be reached before the problem of healthy longevity could command widespread research attention. Furthermore, the substrate of biological knowledge essential for true progress in this field was not available at that time.
Unsophisticated as were these pioneer attempts by scientists to preserve vigor throughout old age, they nevertheless presaged one of the most ironic dilemmas of modern times. We have learned how to keep ourselves alive to a ripe old age, but we have not learned how to make this old age worth the living.
Now that the scourges of bubonic plague, smallpox, malaria, typhoid, yellow fever, and polio have been checked, and we have learned to use vitamins and
antibiotics, blood banks, and new surgical techniques, we are confronted with the success of our toil. The numher of people over 65 doubled in the United States between 1900 and 1950, and since then has continued to increase.
Today, more than 23 million people, or a little over 10 per cent (compared with only 4.1 per cent at the turn of the century) are over 65. Within the next fIfty years their number in a fairly stable population will have increased to 45 million. This means that in the year 2030 the number of women over 65 will equal the
number of girls under 15. To put it in another way, the median age of Americans will climb from 28.9 at
present to 37.3 fifty years hence (at the beginning of the nineteenth century the median age was barely 16).
Thus achieving longer life for so many, we cannot afford to stand idly by while they (and eventually ourselves) become prey to the multitudinous complications of old age.
The "graying of America" adds to our responsibility to provide for retired people in such a way that the "golden age" does not become a hollow phrase. A few years ago, Lincoln Day of the United Nations statistical office reported to the Commission on Population Growth and the American Future: "To worry about the supposed behavioral consequences of an aging, or more aged, population, is to divert attention from the
real issue: how to incorporate a higher proportion of old people into society in a socially and emotionally meaningful way."
Once the aged were victims of man's weakness and ignorance. Today they are the victims of his
knowledge. They are alive-but they cannot flee from their loss of independence, they cannot fight the diseases
that plague them, they cannot outlive the curse of senility. The old do not die as easily today; they linger, they whimper. The strong must still carry the weak-and fewer must carry them for a longer time.
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H3 Book Index:: Chapters 1-29
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