thanks (о it, the organism in its various parts reveals physical, pjiysical-chcmicai, 

 and chemical heterogeneity, and also, consequently, a capacity for work and 

 metabolism. It is entirely clear that prolonged preservation of these hetero- 

 geneities, essential for the realization of the vital process, requires a certain 

 spatial localization and fixation of the heterogeneous parts, or in other words, 

 morphological differentiation." 



Nagorniy assigned a major role in the functional and structural specializa- 

 tion of the protoplasm to the metaplasm. In the later stages of ontogenesis, the 

 activating role of the specialized formations and especially of the metaplasma is 

 reduced and then is eliminated entirely, and phenomena of degradation make 

 their appearance in the metaplasm. The tissues, overloaded by the metaplasm, 

 lose their activating role, weaken, and grow old. Especially pronounced in this 

 connection is their loss of their capacity for self-renewal. 



Further investigations by pupils of A. V'. Nagorniy showed (I. N. Bulankin, 

 1954; V. N. Nikitin, 1954) that differentiation leads to nucleoprotein depletion 

 of the protoplasm and subsequent qualitative degradation of these nucleopro- 

 teins. Specifically, this can be one of the decisive conditions of the age-asso- 

 ciated lowering of the synthesizing potentialities of the tissues. 



Thus, Nagorniy removed aging from among the basic properties of life, 

 from the contradictions inherent in the unity of life: "... because of causes 

 that are to be found in the very essence of life, individual evolution, beginning 

 with a marked predominance of the ascending processes, terminates with the 

 victory of the descending processes. The contradiction that is the cause of the 

 vital process is found, ultimately, to be also the cause of the negation of this life, 

 the cause of the limitation of individual existence" (1940). 



During the last y^ears of his scientific creativity, Nagorniy advanced the 

 concept of the nervous system as a factor that promotes longevity. He sug- 

 gested that "the functions of the human cortex under certain conditions may be 

 preserved without any appreciable weakening for an extremely long time, and 

 in any case longer than the fully eflftcient activity of the other systems of the 

 organism" (1954). He based this view on the remarkable statement by I. P. 

 Pavlov: 



"... Our nervous system is self-regulatory to the highest degree, and it is 

 itself capable of self-improvement. One of the most important and strongest 

 and most regular impressions that wc obtain from studying higher nervous 

 activity by our method is that of the extreme plasticity of this activity and of its 

 tremendous capabilities: nothing remains fixed, and everything can be achieved 

 or changed for the better, provided that suitable conditions exist."' 



Developing this idea and applying it to the conditions of ontogenesis, 

 Nagorniy writes as follows: 



"No other part of the organism possesses these properties, this capacity 

 for almost unlimited alteration. It may be said that all systems of the organism 

 have 'lagged behind' the cortex of the cerebral hemispheres in their plasticity, 

 and as a result of this it is completely conceivable that there are situations in 



« I. P. Pavlov: Poln. sobr. trudov. vol. Ill, 1st cd., 1949, p. 454. 



37 



