Old age deferred : the prevention of the disabilities and diseases of old age / by Bernard Hollander, M. D.

  • Hollander, Bernard, 1864-1934.
Date:
[1933]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Old age deferred : the prevention of the disabilities and diseases of old age / by Bernard Hollander, M. D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be progressive weakness, terminating eventu¬ ally in exhaustion and death. In youth, restoration or new growth takes place rapidly; in old age, the ever-changing cells of the body renew themselves but slowly. There is less resistance, quicker exhaustion, and weaker repair. The clearing out of waste products is retarded, the machine is getting more or less clogged, and will not run smoothly any more. Indeed, Metchnikoff, the celebrated Professor of the Pasteur Institute, believed that old age comes from slow self-poisoning—auto-intoxication—from the body's absorption of impurities, accumu¬ lated chiefly in the intestinal canal. As a matter of fact, senescence (the state of growing old) is a progressive diminution in the vital activity of all the elements of which the body is composed, causing changes in their functions. Having described what takes place when we are growing old, the next question to answer is, why do some men grow old sooner than others, from no fault of their own ? On investigation we shall find that one of the preliminary conditions for a healthy old age, and consequent longevity, is a sound con¬ stitution, derived from healthy ancestors.