Some Aspects of Ageing in Africans 105 



might sound a rather categorical statement, but one which I 

 think is nevertheless near the truth — namely that the entire 

 biology of backward peoples in Africa, the Middle and Far 

 East, and elsewhere in this world, differs profoundly from that 

 of Western civilized people, not primarily because of genetic 

 differences (which cannot easily be assessed), but rather by 

 virtue of a host of environmental factors. 



It became clear, some years ago, to my brother and me that 

 many of the diseases in Africans, and the different disease 

 incidence in these people compared with that in South African 

 Europeans, could better be understood if the reactions 

 encountered are viewed as deviations in the "life track", or 

 better, "life pattern" of the African, resulting from chronic 

 malnutrition originating in infancy if not at the time of con- 

 ception. The concept of acute nutritional deficiencies as the 

 cause of many human diseases, including pellagra, could not 

 adequately explain either the acute nutritional failures them- 

 selves or many of the other lesions which we see. In particular, 

 the concept of acute nutritional deficiency does not provide a 

 basis for explaining what we have previously described as 

 "premature ageing", so common among the Africans. 



At that time, I was working with my brother, Prof. Joseph 

 Gillman, in Johannesburg. Since then I have moved down to 

 Durban. In view of the fact that the population of Johannes- 

 burg, particularly the African population, is rather varied — 

 being a highly industrialized city with a big influx of migrant 

 labour (largely for work in the mines) — it became of interest to 

 study also the situation in Durban, Natal, in which the 

 population is somewhat more uniform in composition, and 

 somewhat more stable. What I have to say now is confined 

 entirely to the African negro. 



The estimated life expectancy of the African (there are no 

 vital statistics available in our country for Africans) is 

 extremely low — somewhere between 40 and 45 years. Associ- 

 ated with this low life expectancy we have found many 

 indications of premature ageing and a whole series of reactions 

 which differ from those usually seen among Europeans in 



