Houston Post-Dispatch (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 219, Ed. 1 Sunday, November 9, 1924 Page: 60 of 75
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Dr. Friti Haber
VOU may live to bo a thousand yean
old. You may live to cat wood and
Hk. it to lay nothing of corn huiki
dowers cotton plant atalki and rubber
plants.
The time may coma whan yon will
" able to carry a mtk't supply of
palatably concentrated food made out
of thesy products in your rest pockat
nd when the old phrase "woman's work
I never done" will be forgotten. Tor
wen in u probability kitchens will
oe ufflrnown in the average household
eW? ? ?Kale of tody-nd the
treat bulk of the world's "cooking" will
JmtetJ laboratories of the great cor- '
porationa engaged in making food out
TKrJU?thvtnOWote
The first of these predictions was made
siTnf tx Hbr of TS
ZTt toUow M tter of course
from hi. outline of what th. future iS.
We ZVl nlV of human
fe. Dr. HaW is director of th.lZ
2' Ph Ch m-
E-ctroXhemistry in Berlin. AUhourt
yarded by -oientiaf .. . man wll
fe pven to th. attainment pJ
Intellectual knowledge-wbat U Sow!
a pure scientist he ia knr J-
world over for hi.' p
king nitrogen out of air aTw.ti
Every reader of the newspaper kno
not have found explosive for more tt
year of war. Ordnance men r.rd
" the most remwkabl. militlryhW
tnent of all time. cWeT
But now Dr. Haber is concerned with
Prolonging lives. With th. dcS
actenstic of hi. .kill. h. awert-T
the cumulative knowledge obUlnrt b
hundred of research workers during the
last doten years now makes It possible
to say almost exactly how man's lif.
may be prolonged. According to this
authority it is all a matter of eniymea
It is the enzyme that must be thanked
If you are in good health. Everybody
has them. Until health begins to decline
with age th. body cells produce enzymes
dosen. of them each having a single
purpose in life. Then the supply of
enzyme begins to fall off and that is
when men and women grow old. Th.y
BeH less food because they cannot a
si late the amounts formerly demanded.
They loae weight for the same reaaoa.
Their muscles shrink and grow flabby
Science now is definitely aware of the
reason for all of this. As a matter of
fact its research workers have known
for some years why it is that men grow
old but they were not then prepared te
ssy that the process could be halted. All
reader are familiar with the colossal
work being dons by the Life Extension
Institute and with the phrase that hai
been sounded by a billion lips "Millions
now living will never die."
One incident of common knowledge
stands out as a beacon of hope to those
who want to live for a thousand years
in conjunction with Dr. Haber'. predl
tion. That is the statement that insulin
the widely heralded remedy tor diabetes
it an enzyme. Speaking according to the
dictionary an enxyme is a chemical com-
pound or organisation produced by living
cells which breaks up and changes the
chemical combinations of certain com-
pounds such ss foods. Pepsin a familiar
constituent of the digestive fluid in all
living animals is an enxyme. But not all
the enzymes are in the digestive tract
PVERYBODY knows that diabetes is
the medical name for sugar la the
blood sugar which has not been broken
up into simpler compounds because of a
shortage of on. certain enxyme. When
the supply of sugar becomes too plentiful
the kidneys become clogged with it and
fail to perform any of their functions
and that is called diabetes. Most readers
also will recall that a young Canadian
scientist found out why sugar was not
being properly absorbed in some human
systems when others were able to dis-
pose of large quantities 'of it without
difficulty. Sugar is necessary to all of
us in some form or other. It is al-
most another word for energy.
In the pancreatic gland this scientist
found tiny floating spots of a chemical
compound which had been named by an
earlier scientific generation "Island of
Leiderkrantz." The Canadian found
that when th.se were . lentiful the sugar
was put through the system simplified
and sent into the blood to make energy
without th. least disturbance. When
they were scanty or nonexistent dis-
What the Famous
"German Chemist
DR. FRITZ
Has to Say About the -4'
TOnc rTfcei FTe Will
v.
IVE
Wood
NCW VfWkT DC
OUCE W I
to wrrw W
LUNCH
The time may come
when yoq will be ble
to carry a week's sup-
ply of palatable con
centra ted food in
your vest pocket
bete developed. But he did not atop
there. After year of hard Uboratory
work he succeeded in isolating this active
agent of the pancreatic glands takn
from living animals and.th.n he suc-
ceeded in purifying it and in gettiu
astounLig results by Injecting it into
the blood of diabetic patients.
For a time medical science waa som
what discouraged in spite of these re-
sults became of the enormous difficulty
of gettingva plentiful supply of th'4
product which was named insulin. Thon
the Canadian discovered that in certn
fish the pancreatic gland is almost pure
insulin and now that problem is in t.
fair way of being solved.
According to Dr Haber all that needs
to be done to keep men alive almost in-
definitely ia to perform the same kind
of service with respect to all the ot'a.r
natural enzymes In the human body.
Science now knows or believes it knows
the name and functions of all the
enzymes. It knows where and how they
are produced.
BUT In the future science will improve
on the old method. It will .not be
necessary then to inject enzymes into the
blood. By that time Motorists and chem-
ists and physician working in co-operation
will have found out just -hat eh
menta must be in food products to pro-
duce the enzymes naturally through the
actions of living cells. That is why
if the- day comes when your seven hun-
dred and eighty-fifth birthday is beirnj
celebrated with a banquet of wood blocks
you will like it For you will not know
from the taste or the appearance that
you are eating wood. It will be in a
sort of pre-digested form highly pala-
table. And it Oil carry its own enzymes
the microscopic chemical combinations
that will break it up into simpler com-
binations once you have aken it into
your system.
Laymen who knew that the famoiw
Haber of Berlin had Urned hi. atten
tion to thi. problem ware somewhat dis
appointed when tbejr heard him ipetkju-1
cently at the centennial celebroUoiTof
the Franklin Institute. Hit address was
a trifle too technical for lay consump-
tion but it stirred scientific research
workers from all over the country to a
tremendous pitch of enthusiasm. For
J)r. Haber told them how to go about
accomplishing the prediction he had pre-
viously made in an interview that you
may live to be a timusand years old
to eat wood and corn husks
Dr. Haber described the progress of
chemical science toward this end. In
the laboratories of the world work has
M
J iU
JF1
HABER
and CorH Husks S
TJNRAVEL the mystery of the enzyme
says Dr. Haber and you' will 'have
discovered the secret of longevity. The
dictionaries define the enzyme as "an un-.
organized or chemical compound of
vegetable or animal origin that causes
chemical transformation as fermenta
tion." One of the enzymes ia zymase
which is secreted by the yeast plant; an-
other is ptyalin which is found in the
saliva and which converts starch into
sugar. The pepsin of the stomach and the
trypsin of the pancreas are other en
zymes. It is when our supply of en-
zymes drops off that we begin to get
old. How to interrupt death and pro-
long Jife through the upbuilding of
the enzymes in the human system is the
problem now engaging the attention of
the world's great biochemists. Upon the
solution rest possibilities that stagger
the imagination. Life may be extended
to undreamed limits.
been going forward unceasingly for
year toward the goal of producing
"synthetic foods." But the product
identified by that name are not the kind
of food that Dr. Haber now haa in mind
for the future. Synthetic foods were
lacking. They were like the natural prod-
ucts only in their main more or lesa
visible chemical structure. That was so
because the empirical method was then
the only one available. Science could
only crudely break down a given sub-
stance analyze it and then try to put
it together again.
ONE thing should be made clear at thla
point For thousanda of years men
have-arisen from time to time to predict
that the "secret of organic lif." had
been discovered. This always has been
taken to mean that man some day might
be able to create life. A half-doiea
Your seven hundred and eighty-fifth birthday may be celebrated with wood blocks and
you will like the menu in that new tomorrow when biologists and chemists have found out
just what elements must be hTfood products to produce eniymes naturally through the
action of living cells. For you will not know from the taste or appearance that you are
eating food. The food will be in pre-digested form and highly palatable
years ago Dr. Jacques Loeb told at the
Franklin Institute of how he had tuo-
ceeded in fertilising frog eggs by elec-
tricity. Latter another scientist before
the - American Philosophical Society in
Philadelphia told of a remarkable series
of experiments in what might be called
the "imitation of life." This scientist
knowing from study the constituents of
living cells put togetheivthelr chemical
elements and actually made them grow.
But he did not endow them with life
and in the opinion of Dr. Haber ho
never will be able to perform that all-
important function. What ho did do waa
to add immeasurably to the knowledge
of himself and other scientists at to the
processes of life. v '
And it is on just such experiments that
OatMTrtaktMtt hr
the amazing predlcthmi of
Dr. 'Haber are based. Be
is not guessing. Be and
hundreds of ether research
workers profligate of
their time and labor hate
found "out for thenwelyea
how nature operates. Now
Instead of the old arbi
trary mathematical' mix-
Ing of chemicals tney to-
tend to trace the whole
course of lif e and the
point where.lt begun to t
decline add to it by tome
means probably in food.
the things that it produce
for itself (n youth. In the
laboratories man must use
tremendous heat and
pressure thing that are
seemingly unnecessary to
th notato plant or the
apple tree which utilise
.nsymes.
"The next gmt etep in aeienee win
be the production of a method for the
use of ensymet that will make it possible
to continue the processes of life at Bow
manifest to the full only in youth and
thus to Interrupt the processes of death
--perhaps for a thousand years" said
Dr. Haber. "Men now in the prime of
life may live to see this.
"We must learn from nature. We are
now learning from nature. In the old
chemical we dealt with dead matter.
Chemical compounds and units were
named Wnd known that could be filtered
out or crystallised. That 1. not true of
some of the most extremely active ele-
ments or combination.. But we can find
them we can trace the cour.3 of their
operation in life.
"In all probability the first step in
this direction will be the discovery how
to make commsrical sugar from wood.
Part of that task I. accomplished. Only
after we mak. sugar from wood today
th.ro remains in it the chemical reagent
used for that purpose and the problem
Is no longer just how to make sugar
from wood but how to get the reagent
out of the sugar after we make it At
a matter of fact we can do even that
What we want it a commercial practl-
rtbie which meant a cheap method of
doing it
ALL wood it very much like starch
ft chemically. That Is It Is full of
starch and tugar which are very much
the same things in different chemleal
combinations. The starchee at it well
known make up the great share of man's
food supply. Chemists are now attacking
MWU Lalaar ODapaay
Chemisti art now attacking the problem of learning how to change wood
husks and other forage foods and mere "landscape scenery" into forms
f f ood 4hat human beings can digest. For wood is full of starch and
sugar and the starches maks tip the great share of man's food supply.
Think of the potential food supply contained in a lordly oak
problem of learning how to change
wood husk and forage crop and mera
'scenery In the wQd place into form
ef food that human' being can digest
Think of the potential .apply that might
be obtojned from the primeval jungle
of the torrid zone! Think of the reduc-
tion in coat if we can learn to eat things
that grow wild and abundantly!
Hm of tWi wm be very necessary
V M human jj prolonKed Every
added to th M of veraK0 man
mMQ a tremendou. increase in
ll41-ni.ti. jt wa succeed in enabling
men to live one thousand years soon
the earth will be filled np with people.
Already the statistician have figured
out when that will occur at the present
rate of increase with the present limited
period of life and existing birth rates.
Think how much fatter the world would
fill up if people stopped dying.
"Wo need oven apart from that
ource of food safe against the caprice
of the weather. Drovghta . untimely
epring frosts unfavorable weather a.
harvest time draw near all have it in
their power now to ruin the farmer and
to threaten mankind with famines. By
producing a method of preparing the
branches of treat a. well a. their fruits
man would be independent of the weather
in any one locality. Stores of food could
be gathered sufficient for years. If this
sounds impossible look to the accom-
plishment of the agricultural chemists.
Already ways have been found to in-
crease by chemical treatment the diges-
tibility and nutritiousness of certain
crop fed to animal.. That i. one sug-
gestion of the possibilities that lie ahead.
So alsu the development of bacterial cul-
ture to improve and .peed the growth
of certain plants particularly the le-
gumes it another."
THE enzyme with which- Prof. Haber
hope to enable man to live a thou-
sand years are now divided into many
groups and much it known of them.
Many of them are more or lest familiar
. to the public. One 1. tymasa which ia
secreted by th. yeast plant Another
it ptyalin which ia found in the saliva
which eonverta starch into sugar.
Pepsin is found in the stomach anU
that i. another. In the pancreas la
trypsin to dissolve proteids and break
tht-jjnto albumosts and peptones Pre-
liminary investigations have shown that
all of these may be purified when the
begin to lose their efficiency and made
to function properly in the human syt-
Lam.
tlf. Jm-m V. Lmu. .J t.
of such scientists are taken Into eon- .
slderatlon isreally a race against death
The problem is to keep alive until tcien-.
tista following in the footstepu of such
men a. Dr. Haber '.earn how to keep tj
men from dying of old age. And various
men just as noted in their fields
the famous German are working night-
and day on that problem and doing WT':
thing in their power to spread the knowk
edge of what they learn among all the
peoples of the earth.
. j v. jHfv nf
Boston was asked to appropriate 110000 ' 'v
for a laboratory to extend the Investiga- ' .
tions of Dr. W. T. Bovie Harvard prof es-
tor of biophysic. Dr. Bovie is one' Jv
of the world's. leading authorities on the -treatment
of disease by the rays of the '
sun. He ha. been operating under the "
direction of the Boston Conservation
Bureau and has been working in co-"
operation with Dr. Clarence C. Little
president of the University of Maine
and the General Electric Company. That ..
corporation has been one of the tnfofHu
active in many fields of research.-' It
waa indispensable in Dr. Bovie's work 'v.
for it was in the General Electric4'
laboratory that a new quarti glass was "V: ;
discovered. ' ' "
"The curative values of violet ray.' i
have been known for some time" says
Dr. Bovie "but the lenses formerly In -'
use stop the most effective rays. A
lamp has been developed and is in use
which enables the operator to concen-
trate these formerly lost rays on the
patient" V
ah tvEN more ambitious program-
"has been outlined by the director. "?r j
of the Milbank Memorial Fund of New 1 '
York. This institution has set out v
deliberately to add twenty years to the " '
life span of every man woman and " "
child in a highly congested section of
New York City.
The population of this area which it ' 4
on the East Side is about 200000. It v
includes persons livinir in all dearaaa af
tually all nationalities. All the condl-' Y
tions will be found there that could be
found in all the cities of the world. lh
an iniWAnMit it. ai kj nnn raw k - - kaa ...
et aside for life prolonging work in New
York. Th diractora will
twenty-five hospitals dispensaries and
public health institutions in the district '
anH nndrtiihfarflv Ka tn.thAt. nmJk will
...v-.iwi
be watched closely by physicians and'
nuklU tiataltn Vv...V..
r V . IVI .... VH.IWH WW Tj'"
world with j view to copying them. ' iAi;V-.'
Meantime the. men in the more remote '
fields of science will be doing things of
which the public will never hear. ColM$
loid chemistry for Instance is expected '11
in Mtntrihtita tramanrinnal In tha huaiJ ''H '
nesfe of teaching man how to liW .H
.h... t. . I. .k I AV.a. ;YT-4'
uiuui.hu wi. ui aa wiv ociviictj wiai
aeait witn duddics. nuns niamenta and ."
drops. Some yean ago an English U'
specialist in this field blew a toap bubble
as big as a man and kept it intact fee
weeks.
During that time it was luhiected to '
constant microscopic examining for study ' v
of its response to strains and tt
ehanges that took place in its constitute. '
molecules and larger chemical anH) k-v'
Manv at)iar raaaarcti nrnhlatna m km-4 '
being worked out that seem to be Just
as far away from the immediate nrok. '."
lem of how to supply man with a fresa''
stock of enzymes every time be needt
ill -a U- I...... .ti-.' VWji
acontribute toward the sum of knowledge
uue will ieaa mo war. acrorainv i uii'-r
III. -L.. I '
:
7 J :W
.(I WAV
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Bailey, George M. Houston Post-Dispatch (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 219, Ed. 1 Sunday, November 9, 1924, newspaper, November 9, 1924; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth607873/m1/60/: accessed June 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .