1948-05-01 — Page 7

DAB and FLOUNDER

by Walter

HOW TO LIVE TO BE 100

LD age is rarely fatal, for

few live to die of it. In 16,000 autopsies a Berlin sur- gcon found only one case of death from old age. A Michi- gan pathologist, after 38 years of practice, had encountered no

nore than 25 Instances.

Working during 20 years for the old people of Basle, a city where intelligent and humane provision is made for the aged, Dr A. L. Vischer has acquired a deep insight into their problems. It is not necessary to be a con- tenarian to find hin book, Old Age (Allen and Unwin, 128, Gd.), of absorbing interest.

Dr. Vischer thinks that 100 years is, roughly, the extreme apan of human life. It is one which an Increasing proportion of mankind may hope to reach. Indeed, Irving Fisher, the Yale econo mist, thinks that by hygiene,

nnd decisive

now

a. in

prophylactics, "tha

mit is a bugbear which can be, and one day will be, thrust aside." He puts the possible limit of human life at 150 or even 200 years..

BOOKS by George Malcolm Thomson

ten-

Some people are tenarians; more people are liars, The frequency of centenarians is in inverno ratio to the eill- clency of the local system of birth registration.

In Scotland, out of 301 claimants, only 155 were found genuino

18 men

and 137 women. in Bulgaria, famed for yoghurt and old

So far, although the average duration of life is considerably longer than it was a' century ago, the Im- provement has occurred. al most entirely in the years of childhood, In 1840 2

a man of 50 could to live another 20- expect years; in 1920 he could поре for 21. All

the wonders of science have added only that one to the mature suggests that, if medical research were di- reated towards the problem of the ngeing human organism, remarkable results might be achieved. Exporl- ments by the Frenchman, Carrel, demonstrating that

iving

Ussue be kept alive indefinitely, have given n deeper knowledge of what the process of ageing really is: no accumulation of polsons in the bodily fulda.

MUM

age, 1766 VERYBODY hopes to live long,

claimed centuries in 1926, Only 61 survived Investigation - 13 men and 38 women.

18

If old age is your aim, it obviously important to be born a woman.

You should also choose your ancestors, with care, for longevity is inherited.

You should be thin and spar- ing in diet. Goldoni said that Cornaro, who died at 99 had lived all his life as an invalid in order to die in good health! Obesity coupled with heavy drinking is the best way to avoid old age.

-

but nobody looks forward to Dr. Vischer thinks that it old age. has many advantages. For example, mental power, although slower, is surer.

On the other hand, there seems to be no certainty that old

age will be treated with respect. The Romans threw men of 60 into, the Tiber. Indians of the Gran Chaco respectfully put them to denth, But the Spartans and the Venetians made old men their rulers and the. Church of Rome has followed their example,

Experience teaches that politics Is the supreme profession for age. In our own time' we have had rea- son to believe that, in this respect experience teaches wisely.

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1948.

THE SUPER-MICROSCOPE GOES

EIFCEROY GUM

ON VIEW

·JET BOOSTER

MIGHETK LINS ČENIKES TOT.

#SFFCIMER:

=FOCUSING LENS

SPECIMEN

MARNIFILO FELADE TAMUS:

VIEWER SLES. SPECIMEN MITYTHO

UP TO 100,000 &

It gets

nearer to answering that old riddle: What is life?'

"BY INVITATION ONLY" scores of Britain's boffins from lite ones to the very top bofins streamed into South Kensington recently. They went to see what other research men had been up to-as shown at die Physical Society's exhibition at the Imperial College of Science, Top crowd-getter was a microscope capable of magnifying objects up to 100,000 times. Today non-boffins can learn about the exhibit they were not invited to see.

by CHAPMAN PIRCHER

PICTURE ABOVET A, British development of a German idea, 11 is called an electron microscope because, instead of glass lenses and light, it uses magnets and electric particles, Under the strongest ordinary microscope a human hair looks like a hawser, but magnified 100,000 times it would be thicker than the biggest cake The diagrams show the comparison.

The principle: A fet of electrie particles-electrons is fired at the specimen to be magnified. Some get through it. some do not. Those which do form a "negativo." which is then entarred 200 times by a magnolia focusing lens. Another Jean takes a small part of this negative" and magniñes it again. On the viewing screen, the operator sees what looks like a television picture of the specimen enormously enlarged.

AMIRUSES MAGNIFIED -30,000, NIMES

DOCTORS ARE already using the device to study viruses-tha previously invisible Organisms causing infantile paralysis, smallpox. and possibly some forms of cancer. They hope to and weak spots in the viruses structura БО that Reapons against them can be developed. There an even more exciting possiblity, Viruses betty Bome- times as living organisms some times na inert chemicals. By studying the change over scientists may be able to discover what the life force really 18

NEWS SHORTS: CIGAR IN THE SNOWS

seo in this

Ottawa-An autographed portrait that of Winston Churchill is to hang in rnil.

was hindering the country's Dr. L. H. Wharton, will be attending the officers' mess of the Canadian discussed the delays in the provision conference that leprosy can be em- transport. The conference this conference. I will tell the Joint Forces Aretic Cold Weather of electric power in country centres dicated from the Caribbean within Testing Station at Fort Churchill, and deficient railway services, and five years. Experts In Hudson Bay. Fort Churchill is passed resolutions urging improve local research a new hope for the named after Baron

Churchill of ment. Councillor Mrs. Weeks is n Aymouth, who later became the grandmother.

world's 5,000,000 patients. Officials Duke of Marlborough. He was a forebear of Winston Churchill.

say that the British Gulana lepre sarium leads the world in research. ANYONE'S NIGHTMARE Darwin, South Africa,A six-foot crocodile, which was captured by a fisherman at Fanny

motor truck in Darwi Blid off a

TALKING TO HIMSELF· New York-Law and Radiorder -Constables are going to mumble into the metal badges of authority on their breasts. Under the badge street and will be the microphone of a midget caused A wild scatter among

Walkie-talkie radio for reporting pedestrians in the main

crime shopping

or receiving an order to halt centro as it crawled along the foot one. path. The Asherman, aided by an- other expert, quickly recaptured It.

MINERESSES

"LISTENING IN"

Sydney-Blind and deaf Helen Keller visited the aborigine reserve at Laperouse near Sydney

and listened" to a native gum-leaf band playing hymns. Miss Keller heard the music by placing her fingers on the gum-leaf used by aborigine George Longbottom, who claims

descont frum Burrugah Illawarra, tho tribal king. Miss Keller also listened in to aborigine girls' choir singing hymns by placing her fingers on the wood-

RESEARCH * Georgetown-World-wide interest is centred on the successful research Mrs. (Councillor) work at British Gulana's lepros- Dora Weeks, State President of the arium. Detalls of experiments with Women's Section of the Victoria sulphone drugs, promin and linsone Country Party, at the annual con-

and sulphatone, will be disclosed at ference made the suggestion that the Fifth International Leprosy work of the organ and at the same women should open their own coal Conference in Havana. The lepro- time conducted the choir with her mine to overcome the coal shortage sarium's

medical superintendent, left hand.

VIGNETTES OF LIFE

BILGES COUCH CURE..ACTS

STEP

ΟΝ

IT?

NOW!

NINE WAY

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH YOU SPENT AT THE CLUB LAST --MONTH... DO.. YOU REALIZE HOW MUCH.

on

Che SNAPSHOT GUILD

Here's a ploture to be treasured by any family-an informal, natural snapshot of ons girl's proudest moment. A DAY TO REMEMBER

CCORDING to Webster the words "graduation" and "commencement" mean

the sume at least as they apply to education and receiving a degree. Despite Webster, how. ever, most speakers prefer the Jatter term. They prefer to look

degrees as one which marka a on the ceremony of awarding

beginning and not an end.

But although there may be room for dispute about the proper word to describe such ceremonies, no one disputes the fact that graduations, or com- mencements, call for snapshots. It's an unusual family album that. doesn't contain a shot of Ann, dressed for her high school graduation, or Bill in his mortar board and gown ready to receive his diploma.

On occasions such as this most of us want something more than R formal portrait. In later years Bill

may not admit that he really look. ed like that but he'll get a kick from a snapshot that shows his best friend and himself on the steps of the school, Joyfully reading their diplomas. And a candid shot of Ann, dressed in her new formal for the Senior Ball, can be zome- thing she'll treasure.

Several years ago, I happened to see a movie made at commencement exercises at П small town high school. It was a documentary film and caught the feeling of the occa- olon. A number of the scenes it depicted might well be caught in a. series of still pictures which would cover almost every aspect of a high school graduation..

There were shots of the graduates, dressing at home, shots of them falling in line for the procession into the school's auditorium, shots of the faces of parents as they watched the ceremonies.

proudly

Shots such as these, Informal and natural, help fell the story

of graduation—or, if you will, com- mencement. In either case they help tell it well.

"More Economy Notes'

BU KEMP STARRETT

"DOG NOTHING!

I GOT THE

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO,

POISON OUR

"PUP 2

THIS IS FOR US!

-John van Guilder

RECIPE -ON-THE-

RADIO!

WE VICH THE RADIO ANNOUNCERS WOULD ECONOMIZE ON THE SCREAMING-MEEMIES ADS........ AND NOSE EAR- TEARING THEME SONGS HOT AS QUIET AS A CATER- PILLAR, Y'UNDERSTAND...BUT QUIET.

IF FUEL GETS TOO

EXPENSIVE YOU CAN

GET TO BED EARLY... WITH THE PROPER

EQUIPMENT.

GEORGE

WHEN THE ECONOMY BUG BITES WATCH OUT... MRS.WIFE WILL FOLLOW YOU AROUND LIKE A BUSTED GARTER POINTING OUT-WHERE YOU CAN SAVE: THE CLUB, FRINSTANCE, AND CIGAÉS, AND...ON, YOU FILL OUT THE LIST...YOU'LL KNOW

•US? WE'VE BEEN

THRIFTY SO LONG. THAT WE HAVE TO UCL FORCE TO

CHEN & BAND

ONCE ITS CLOSED DOLLAR."

CUT YOUR OWN ∙HAIR. YOU'LL GET SOME STANTLING

NEW IDEAS

FOR

MAR-

DOS..

AND SAVE

ON

TIPS:

THOSE MONEY-SAVING, FOOD-SAVING RECIPES THEY BROADCAST THESE DAYS ALSO SAVE THE APPETITE FOR FUTURE UCE.

THE FELLER WITH THE BUT ON APARTHEN HAI NO WORRIES ABOUT REIT RISES, COSTS OF INTERIOR DECORATIONS, OR COAL BILLS.

THE LAD WIO SAVES ON THE BREAFAST..A FIST ORANGE JUICE, AND COFFEE ON THE RIN AND TIEN NEEDS A NO-DOLLAR LUNCH TO SURVIVE.

Ledyer Syndicate

THE LAB WHO ECOÑOA- MIZED TOO HICH, IN MAKING OUT HIS INCOME - TAX RETRU...EVERY HAND FELLS LIKE THE LAV,