The Prolongation of Life: Optimistic Studies (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Prolongation of Life: Optimistic Studies<br><br>In this new volume The Prolongation of Life the main thesis is carried further and a number of criti cisms and objections are met. The latter so far as they relate to technical details I need say nothing of here as Metchnikoff and his staff at the Pasteur Institute are the most skilled existing technical experts on these matters but I canhot refrain from a word of comment on the bril liant treatment of the objection to the suggested ameliora tion of human life that it considered only the individual ind neglected the just subordination of the individual to society. In the sixth Part of this volume Metchnikoff dis cusses the relation of the individual to the species society or colony from the general point of view of comparative biology and shows that as organisation progresses the integrity of the individual becomes increasingly important. Were orthobiosis the normal cycle of life attained by human beings there still would be room for specialisation of individuals and for differentiation of the functions of individuals in society but instead of the specialisation and differentiation making individuals incomplete throughout their whole lives they would be distributed over the different periods of the life of each individual.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases an imperfection in the original such as a blemish or missing page may be replicated in our edition. We do however repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.