CHAPTER III 

 THE VALUE OF ABSTEMIOUSNESS 



PROFESSOR C. M. CHILD has recently brought out a remarkable 

 volume entitled Senescence and Rejuvenescence, which, 

 according to Nature, provides " strong biological argument 

 for asceticism." 



For fifteen years Professor Child has been making researches 

 upon the age changes of lower animals. His results go to show 

 that fasting and periodic starvation are fairly generally con- 

 ducive to rejuvenescence. With abundant food, so he tells us, 

 some species may pass through their whole life history in three 

 or four weeks, but when growth is prevented through loss of 

 food, they may continue active and young for at least three 

 years. 



Partial starvation inhibits senescence. The starveling is brought back 

 from an advanced age to the beginning of post-embryonic life ; it is almost 

 re -born. 



It must at once be said that with the higher forms of animals 

 the possibilities of rejuvenescence are more narrowly limited 

 than with the lower forms, amongst which it is quite a feature. 

 Nevertheless, according to Professor Child, it can be stated that 

 in the organic world generally rejuvenescence is just as funda- 

 mental and important a process as senescence. In the Planarian 

 .worms which formed the chief subjects of Professor Child's 

 experiments, it was found that the animals reduced in size by 

 starvation resembled the young animals. It is as though these 

 organisms were able to make use of their surplus material by 

 turning it into a new source of energy, thus regaining j^outh. 



Most readers will be familiar with the phenomena of seedless 

 propagation, which method is involved in Professor Child's 

 experiments. It is a form of propagation very common amongst 

 plants, as when we propagate them by " cuttings," or " buds/* 

 or " runners," for instance. There is nothing new in the fact 

 that parts of a plant or of a primitive animal are able to recon- 

 stitute the whole organism. The novel point is that such 

 " reconstituted " organisms are, according to Professor Child's 



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