The World's Greatest Books - Volume 15 Part 21

The historical diversity of opinion regarding human nature is what has led me to the attempt to give an exposition of human nature in its strength and in its weakness. But, before dealing with the man himself, we must survey the lower forms of life.

The facts of the organised world, before the appearnace of man, teach us that though we find change and development, development does not always take a progressive march. We are bound to believe, for instance, that the latest products of evolution are not human beings, but certain parasites which live only upon, or in, the human body. The law in nature is not of constant progress, but of constant tendency towards adaptation. Exquisite adaptations, or harmonies, in nature are constantly met with in the world of living beings. But, on the other hand, any close investigation of organisation and life reveals that beside many most perfect harmonies, there are facts which prove the existence of incomplete harmony, or even absolute disharmony.

Rudimentary and useless organs are widely distributed. Many insects are exquisitely adapted for sucking the nectar of flowers; many others would wish to do the same, but their want of adaptation baffles them.

It is plain that an instinct, or any other form of disharmony, leading to destruction, cannot increase or even endure very long. The perversion of the maternal instinct, tending to abandonment of the young, is destructive to the stock. In consequence, individuals affected by it do not have the opportunity of transmitting the perversion. If all rabbits, or a majority of them, left their young to die through neglect, it is evident that the species would soon die out. On the contrary, mothers guided by their instinct to nourish and foster their offspring will produce a vigorous generation capable of transmitting the healthy maternal instinct so essential for the preservation of the species. For such a reason harmonious characters are more abundant in nature than injurious peculiarities. The latter, because they are injurious to the individual and to the species, cannot perpetuate themselves indefinitely.

In this way there comes about a constant selection of characters. The useful qualities are handed down and preserved, while noxious characters perish and so disappear. Although disharmonies tend to the destruction of a species, they may themselves disappear without having destroyed the race in which they occur.

This continuous process of natural selection, which offers so good an explanation of the trans.m.u.tation and origin of species by means of preservation of useful and destruction of harmful characters, was discovered by Darwin and Wallace, and was established by the splendid researches of the former of these.

Long before the appearance of man on the face of the earth, there were some happy beings well adapted to their environment, and some unhappy creatures that followed disharmonious instincts so as to imperil or to destroy their lives. Were such creatures capable of reflection and communication, plainly the fortunate among them, such as orchids and certain wasps, would be on the side of the optimists; they would declare this the best of all possible worlds, and insist that to secure happiness it is necessary only to follow natural instincts. On the other hand, the disharmonious creatures, those ill adapted to the conditions of life, would be pessimistic philosophers. Consider the case of the ladybird, driven by hunger and with a preference for honey, which searches for it on flowers and meets only with failure, or of insects driven by their instincts into the flames, only to lose their wings and their lives; such creatures, plainly, would express as their idea of the world that it was fashioned abominably, and that existence was a mistake.

_II.--Disharmonies in Man_

As for man, the creature most interesting to us, in what category does he fall? Is he a being whose nature is in harmony with the conditions in which he has to live, or is he out of harmony with his environment? A critical examination is needed to answer these questions, and to such an examination the pages to follow are devoted.

Science has proved that man is closely akin to the higher monkeys or anthropoid apes--a fact which we must reckon with if we are to understand human nature. The details of anatomy which show the kinship between man and the apes are numerous and astonishing. All the facts brought to light during the last forty years have supported this truth, and no single fact has been brought against it. Quite lately it has been shown that there are remarkable characters in the blood, such that, though by certain tests the fluid part of human blood can be readily distinguished from that of any other creature, the anthropoid apes, and they alone, furnish an exception to this rule. There is thus verily a close blood-relationship between the human species and the anthropoid apes.

But how man arose we do not know. It is probable that he owes his origin to a mutation--a sudden change comparable with that which De Vries observed in the case of the evening primrose. The new creature possessed a brain of abnormal size placed in a s.p.a.cious cranium which allowed a rapid development of intellectual faculties. This peculiarity would be transmitted to the descendants, and as it was a very considerable advantage in the struggle for existence, the new race would hold its own, propagate, and prevail.

Although he is a recent arrival on the earth, man has already made great progress, as compared with his ancestors the anthropoid apes, and we learn the same if we compare the higher and lower races of mankind. Yet there remain many disharmonies in the organisation of man, as, for instance, in his digestive system. A simple instance of this kind is furnished by the wisdom teeth. The complete absence of all four wisdom teeth has no influence on mastication, and their presence is very frequently the source of illness and danger. In man they are indeed rudimentary organs, providing another proof of our simian origin. The vermiform appendix, so frequently the cause of illness and death, is another rudimentary organ in the human body, together with the part of the digestive ca.n.a.l to which it is attached. The organ is a very old part of the const.i.tution of mammals, and it is because it has been preserved long after its function has disappeared that we find it occurring in the body of man.

I believe that not only the appendix, but a very large part of the alimentary ca.n.a.l is superfluous, and worse than superfluous. It is, of course, of great importance to the horse, the rabbit, and some other mammals that live exclusively on grain and herbage. The latter part of the alimentary ca.n.a.l, however, must be regarded as one of the organs possessed by man and yet harmful to his health and life. It is the cause of a series of misfortunes. The human stomach also is of little value, and can easily be dispensed with, as surgery has proved. It is because we inherit our alimentary ca.n.a.l from creatures of different dietetic habits that it is impossible for us to take our nutriment in the most perfect form. If we were only to eat substances that could be almost completely absorbed, serious complications would be produced. A satisfactory system of diet has to make allowance for this, and in consequence of the structure of the alimentary ca.n.a.l has to include in the food bulky and indigestible materials, such as vegetables. Lastly, it may be noted that the instinct of appet.i.te in man is largely aberrant. The widespread results of alcoholism show plainly the prevalent existence in man of a want of harmony between the instinct for choosing food and the instinct of preservation.

Far stronger than the social instinct, and far older, is the love of life and the instinct of self-preservation. Devices for the protection of life were developed long before the evolution of mankind, and it is quite certain that animals, even those highest in the scale of life, are unconscious of the inevitability of death and the ultimate fate of all living things. This knowledge is a human acquisition. It has long been recognised that the old attach a higher value to life than do the young.

The instinctive love of life and fear of death are of importance in the study of human nature, impossible to over-estimate.

The instinctive love of life is preserved in the aged in its strongest form. I have carefully studied the aged to make certain on this point.

It is a terrible disharmony that the instinctive love of life should manifest itself so strongly when death is felt to be so near at hand.

Hence the religions of all times have been concerned with the problem of death.

_III.--Science the Only Remedy for Human Disharmonies_

In religion and in philosophy throughout their whole history we find attempts to combat the ills arising from the disharmonies of the human const.i.tution.

Ancient and modern philosophies, like ancient and modern religions, have concerned themselves with the attempt to remedy the ills of human existence, and instinctive fear of death has always ensured that great attention has been paid to the doctrine of immortality.

Science, the youngest daughter of knowledge, has begun to investigate the great problems affecting humanity. Her first steps, taken along the lines first clearly laid down by Bacon, were slow and halting. But medical science has lately made great progress, and has gone very far to control disease, especially in consequence of the work of Pasteur. It is said that science has failed because, for instance, tuberculosis persists, but tuberculosis is propagated not because of the failure of science, but because of the ignorance and stupidity of the population.

To diminish the spread of tuberculosis, of typhoid fever, of dysentery, and of many other diseases, it is necessary only to follow the rules of scientific hygiene without waiting for specific remedies.

Science offers us much hope also when it is directed to the study of old age and the phenomena which lead to death.

Man, who is the descendant of some anthropoid ape, has inherited a const.i.tution adapted to an environment very different from that which now surrounds him. He 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.

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. 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.

Man, because of the fundamental disharmonies in his const.i.tution, does not develop normally. The earlier phases of his development are pa.s.sed 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? But before attaining the normal end, coming after the appearance of the instinct of death, a normal life must be lived; a life filled all through with the feeling that comes from the accomplishment of function. 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 const.i.tution 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 condition, but on ideal human nature, as it may be in the future. Before all things, it is necessary to try to amend the evolution of human life, that is to say, to transform its disharmonies into harmonies. This task can be undertaken only by science, and to science the opportunity of accomplishing it must be given. Before it is possible to reach the goal mankind must be persuaded that science is all-powerful and that the deeply-rooted existing superst.i.tions are pernicious. It will be necessary to reform many customs and many inst.i.tutions 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. But the conviction that science alone is able to redress the disharmonies of the human const.i.tution will lead directly to the improvement of education and to the solidarity of mankind.

The Prolongation of Life

Professor Metchnikoff's volume, on "The Prolongation of Life: Studies in Optimistic Philosophy," was published in 1907, and is in some respects the most original of his works. In it he carries much further the arguments and the studies to which he made brief allusion in "The Nature of Man," and he lays down certain principles for the prolongation of life which have been put into practice by a large number of people during the last two or three years, and are steadily gaining more attention. Sour milk as an article of diet appears to have a peculiar value in arresting the supposed senile changes which are largely due to auto-intoxication or self-poisoning.

_I.--Senile Debility_

When we study old age in man and the lower animals, we observe certain features common to both. But often among vertebrates there are found animals whose bodies withstand the ravages of time much better than that of man. I think it a fair inference that senility, that precocious senescence which is one of the greatest sorrows of humanity, is not so profoundly seated in the const.i.tution of the higher animals as has generally been supposed. The first facts which we must accept are that human beings who reach extreme old age may preserve their mental qualities, notwithstanding serious physical decay, and that certain of the higher animals can resist the influence of time much longer than is the case with man under present conditions.

Many theories have been advanced regarding the cause of senility. It is certain that many parts of the body continue to thrive and grow even in old age, as, for instance, the nails and hair. But I believe that I have proved that in many parts of the body, especially the higher elements, such as nervous and muscular cells, there is a destruction due to the activity of the white cells of the blood. I have shown also that the blanching of the hair in old age is due to the activity of these white cells, which destroy the hair pigment. Progressive muscular debility is an accompaniment of old age; physical work is seldom given to men over sixty years of age, as it is notorious that they are less capable of it.

Their muscular movements are feebler, and soon bring on fatigue; their actions are slow and painful. Even old men whose mental vigour is unimpaired admit their muscular weakness. The physical correlate of this condition is an actual atrophy of the muscles, and has for long been known to observers. I have found that the cause of this atrophy is the consumption of the muscle fibres by what I call phagocytes, or eating cells, a certain kind of white blood cells.

In the case of certain diseases we find symptoms, which look like precocious senility, due to the poison of the disease. It is no mere a.n.a.logy to suppose that human senescence is the result of a slow but chronic poisoning of the organism. Such poisons, if not completely destroyed or got rid of, weaken the tissues, the functions of which become altered or enfeebled in which the latter have the advantage. But we must make further studies before we can answer the question whether our senescence can be ameliorated.

The duration of the life of animals varies within very wide limits. As a general rule, small animals do not live so long as large ones, but there is no absolute relation between size and longevity, since parrots, ravens, and geese live much longer than many mammals, and than some much larger birds. Buffon long ago argued that the total duration of life bore some definite relation to the length of the period of growth, but further inquiry shows that such a relation cannot be established.

Nevertheless, there is something intrinsic in each kind of animal which sets a definite limit to the length of years it can attain. The purely physiological conditions which determine this limit leave room for a considerable amount of variation in longevity. Duration of life, therefore, is a character which can be influenced by the environment.

The duration of life in mammals is relatively shorter than in birds, and in the so-called cold-blooded vertebrates. No indication as to the cause of this difference can be found elsewhere than in the organs of digestion. Mammals are the only group of vertebrate animals in which the large intestine is much developed. This part of the alimentary ca.n.a.l is not important, for it fulfils no notable digestive function. On the other hand, it accommodates among the intestinal flora many microbes which damage health by poisoning the body with their products. Among the intestinal flora there are many microbes which are inoffensive, but others are known to have pernicious properties, and auto-intoxication, or self-poisoning, is the cause of the ill-health which may be traced to their activity. It is indubitable that the intestinal microbes or their poisons may reach the system generally, and bring harm to it. I infer from the facts that the more the digestive tract is charged with microbes, the more it is a source of harm capable of shortening life. As the large intestine not only is that part of the digestive tube most richly charged with microbes, but is relatively more capacious in mammals than in any other vertebrates, it is a just inference that the duration of life of mammals has been notably shortened as the result of chronic poisoning from an abundant intestinal flora.

When we come to study the duration of human life, it is impossible to accept the view that the high mortality between the ages of seventy and seventy-five indicates a natural limit to human life. The fact that many men from seventy to seventy-five years old are well preserved, both physically and intellectually, makes it impossible to regard that age as the natural limit of human life. Philosophers such as Plato, poets such as Goethe and Victor Hugo, artists such as Michael Angelo, t.i.tian, and Franz Hals, produced some of their most important works when they had pa.s.sed what some regard as the limit of life. Moreover, deaths of people at that age are rarely due to senile debility. Centenarians are really not rare. In France, for instance, nearly 150 centenarians die every year, and extreme longevity is not limited to the white races. Women more frequently become centenarians than men--a fact which supports the general proposition that male mortality is always greater than that of the other s.e.x.

It has been noticed that most centenarians have been people who were poor or in humble circ.u.mstances, and whose life has been extremely simple. It may well be said that great riches do not bring a very long life. Poverty generally brings with it sobriety, especially in old age, and sobriety is certainly favourable to long life.

_II.--The Study of Natural Death_

It is surprising to find how little science really knows about death. By natural death I mean to denote death due to the nature of the organism, and not to disease. We may ask whether natural death really occurs, since death so frequently comes by accident or by disease; and certainly the longevity of many plants is amazing. Such ages as three, four, and five thousand years are attributed to the baobab at Cape Verd, certain cypresses, and the sequoias of California. It is plain that among the lower and higher plants there are cases where natural death does not exist; and, further, so far as I can ascertain, it looks as if poisons produced by their own bodies were the cause of natural death among the higher plants where it does occur.

In the human race cases of what may be called natural death are extremely rare; the death of old people is usually due to infectious disease, particularly pneumonia, or to apoplexy. The close a.n.a.logy between natural death and sleep supports my view that it is due to an auto-intoxication of the organism, since it is very probable that sleep is due to "poisoning" by the products of organic activity.

Although the duration of the life of man is one of the longest amongst mammals, men find it too short. Ought we to listen to the cry of humanity that life is too short, and that it will be well to prolong it?

If the question were merely one of prolonging the life of old people, without modifying old age itself, the answer would be doubtful. It must be understood, however, that the prolongation of life will be a.s.sociated with the preservation of intelligence and of the power to work. When we have reduced or abolished such causes of precocious senility as intemperance and disease, it will no longer be necessary to give pensions at the age of sixty or seventy years. The cost of supporting the old, instead of increasing, will diminish progressively. We must use all our endeavors to allow men to complete their normal course of life, and to make it possible for old men to play their parts as advisers and judges, endowed with their long experience of life.

From time immemorial suggestions have been made for the prolongation of life. Many elixirs have been sought and supposed to have been found, but general hygienic measures have been the most successful in prolonging life and in lessening the ills of old age. That is the teaching of Sir Herman Weber, himself of very great age, who advises general hygienic principles, and especially moderation in all respects. He advises us to avoid alcohol and other stimulants, as well as narcotics and soothing drugs. Certainly the prolongation of life which has come to pa.s.s in recent centuries must be attributed to the advance of hygiene; and if hygiene was able to prolong life when little developed, as was the case until recently, we may well believe that with our greater knowledge a much better result will be obtained.

_III.--The Use of Lactic Acid_

The general measures of hygiene directed against infectious diseases play a part in prolonging the lives of old people; but, in addition to the microbes which invade the body from outside, there is a rich source of harm in microbes which inhabit the body. The most important of these belong to the intestinal flora which is abundant and varied. Now the attempt to destroy the intestinal microbes by the use of chemical agents has little chance of success, and the intestine itself may be harmed more than the microbes. If, however, we observe the new-born child we find that, when suckled by its mother, its intestinal microbes are very different and much fewer than if it be fed with cows' milk. I am strongly convinced that it is advantageous to protect ourselves by cooking all kinds of food which, like cows' milk, are exposed to the air. It is well-known that other means--as, for instance, the use of lactic acid--will prevent food outside the body from going bad. Now as lactic fermentation serves so well to arrest putrefaction in general, why should it not be used for the same purpose within the digestive tube? It has been clearly proved that the microbes which produce lactic acid can, and do, control the growth of other microbes within the body, and that the lactic microbe is so much at home in the human body that it is to be found there several weeks after it has been swallowed.

From time immemorial human beings have absorbed quant.i.ties of lactic microbes by consuming in the uncooked condition substances such as soured milk, kephir, sauerkraut, or salted cuc.u.mbers, which have undergone lactic fermentation. By these means they have unknowingly lessened the evil consequences of intestinal putrefaction. The fact that so many races make soured milk and use it copiously is an excellent testimony to its usefulness, and critical inquiry shows that longevity, with few traces of senility, is conspicuous amongst peoples who use sour milk extensively.

A reader who has little knowledge of such matters may be surprised by my recommendation to absorb large quant.i.ties of microbes, as the general belief is that microbes are all harmful. This belief, however, is erroneous. There are many useful microbes, amongst which the lactic bacilli have an honourable place. If it be true that our precocious and unhappy old age is due to poisoning of the tissues, the greater part of the poison coming from the large intestine, inhabited by numberless microbes, it is clear that agents which arrest intestinal putrefaction must at the same time postpone and ameliorate old age. This theoretical view is confirmed by the collection of facts regarding races which live chiefly on soured milk, and amongst which great ages are common.