66 • MAN THE ANIMAL 



drinks in the meantime, or whether he bundles up well when 

 he goes out in the cold. Best of all he would like to be supplied 

 with some of the authentic juice that flows from the Fountain 

 of Perpetual Youth. 



Since mankind started making literary records of his thoughts 

 and aspirations the search for that elusive Spring has been 

 earnestly prosecuted. Many people have figured out just what 

 it would look like when it was found. One of the most charming 

 and delightful of its many portrayals serves as the frontispiece 

 of a rather rare book that is one of the gems of an extensive 

 collection of tracts and treatises dealing with longevity down 

 through the ages. The title page of this book and the frontis- 

 piece depicting the Fountain of Perpetual Youth are shown 

 in facsimile in Figs. 9 and 10. 



One notes the triumphant and smug satisfaction with which 

 his conductor is telling the weary and sceptical old physician 

 in the lower left foreground, who may be Aesculapius himself: 

 "There, you doubting old fuddy-duddy, I said it was here, and 

 here it is! See for yourself! " In the right foreground is evident 

 the almost obscene eagerness of the old boys just arrived to 

 guzzle the precious fluid gushing from the Fountain, while the 

 bloated saurian leers up at them and gets his share. In the distant 

 background we get a glimpse of the Garden in which so much 

 of humanity as was there remained perpetually youthful, until 

 the lady unfortunately committed a technical error. The fauna 

 of the environs of the Fountain is characteristically reptilian. It 

 will also be noted that an elephant is emerging from the trees in 

 the background. This is to round out the lesson of the picture as 

 a whole j because, of all mammals except man, the elephant is 

 the longest lived. The Reptilia of course have always been noted 

 for longevity. The banner borne by the two Rocs at the top of the 

 picture is an anchronism, plainly put in as a sop to conservative 

 respectability. For if we really had access to the Fountain of 

 Perpetual Youth who would worry about health? 



Unfortunately it has proved impossible to get a supply of 

 water from the Fountain of Youth to distribute on this occasion. 



