Chapter II: Preface

In offering this book to you, reader, I feel that I must justify its publication. I admit freely that more could be said for a finished study in which hypotheses were replaced by exact fact. But to get together assured results in a field so little explored is a great task, calling for time and much labour.

I remembered the adage, “_Ars longa, vita brevis_,” and I decided to publish what is really a programme of work to be carried out as fully as circumstances may permit. At all events, I hope that such a programme may have its value for younger investigators, who wish a point of orientation for their labours.

My book is addressed to disciplined minds, and in especial to biologists. As I wrote it, I had not the general public in my mind, and so I did not hesitate to devote nearly the whole of a chapter to “disharmonies in the apparatus of reproduction.” I see in that apparatus the clearest proof of the essential disharmony in the organisation of man.

I have to thank those friends who were familiar with my views and whose advice and assistance have helped me to develop them.

In particular, I desire to thank my friends Dr. E. Roux, who was at the pains to make my French more French; and Dr. J. Goldschmidt and Dr. Mesnil, who have read and revised the proof-sheets.

ÉLIE METCHNIKOFF.

PARIS, _February 8, 1903_.

CONTENTS

_Page_
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION iii

AUTHOR’S PREFACE ix

PART I

DISHARMONIES IN THE NATURE OF MAN

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION—SUMMARY OF OPINIONS ON THE NATURE OF MAN 3

Importance of the study of the nature of man—The nature of man
as the foundation of morality—Greek worship of human
nature—Matriopathy of ancient philosophers—Rationalism of
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—Degradation of human
nature by religious doctrines—Influence of these conceptions
on actual life and on art—Reaction of the Reformation
against the degradation of human nature—Mutilation of the
human body by primitive races

CHAPTER II

HARMONIES AND DISHARMONIES AMONGST BEINGS INFERIOR TO MAN 17

The organised world before the appearance of man on the
earth—Absence of a law of universal progress—Fertilisation
of vanilla—The part played by insects in the fertilisation
of orchids—Mechanism by which insects carry the pollen of
orchids—Habits of fossorial wasps—Harmonies in
nature—Useless organs—Rudiments of the pollinia of
orchids—Disharmonies in nature—Unadapted insects—Aberration
of instincts—Perversion of sexual instinct—Attraction of
insects by light—Luminous insects—Law of natural
selection—Happiness and unhappiness in the organised world

CHAPTER III

SIMIAN ORIGIN OF MAN 40

Relationship of the human species with anthropoid
apes—Analogies in the dentition, in the organisation of the
limbs and of the brain—Resemblance of the vermiform
appendage of man and anthropoids—Analogy between the
placenta and fœtus of man and anthropoid apes—Blood
relationship of man and monkeys shown by serums and
precipitates—Transmutation of species—Sudden transition from
monkey to man—J. Inaudi, the calculator, as an example of
the sudden appearance of characters in the human
species—Rudimentary organs in man—Proportion of progressive
and retrogressive organs in the organisation of man

CHAPTER IV

DISHARMONIES IN THE ORGANISATION OF THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM OF MAN 61

Perfection of the human form—The covering of hair—The
dentition in general, and the wisdom teeth—The vermiform
appendage—Appendicitis and its gravity—Uselessness of the
cæcum and of the large intestine—Instance of a woman without
a large intestine—Ancestral history of this portion of the
digestive tract—Injurious effect of the microbes of the
large intestine—Frequency of cancer of the large intestine
and of the stomach—Limited usefulness of the stomach—The
instinct of choice of food—Futility of this instinct in man

CHAPTER V

DISHARMONIES IN THE ORGANISATION AND ACTIVITIES OF THE
REPRODUCTIVE APPARATUS—DISHARMONIES IN THE FAMILY AND SOCIAL
INSTINCTS 78

I

Remarks on the disharmonies in the human organs of sense and
perception—Rudimentary parts of the reproductive
apparatus—Origin and function of the hymen

II

Evolution and significance of the menstrual flow in
women—Precocious marriage amongst primitive and uncivilised
races—Disharmony between age of puberty and age of
nubility—Age of marriage—Examples of disharmony in the
development of the reproductive function

III

Disharmonies in the family instincts—Artificial
abortion—Desertion and infanticide—Disharmonies in the
social instincts

CHAPTER VI

DISHARMONIES IN THE INSTINCT OF SELF-PRESERVATION 113

The instinct of self-preservation in animals—Man’s instinctive
love of life—Indifference to life during childhood—Buddhist
legend on instinctive self-preservation and the fear of
death—Fear of death treated in literature—Confessions of
Tolstoi regarding the fear of death—Other opinions on the
subject—The fear of death an instinctive
phenomenon—Development in man of a love of life—Treatment of
the aged—Murder of old people—Suicide of old men—Absence of
harmony between the love of life and the conditions of human
existence—The part played by the fear of death in religions
and systems of philosophy

PART II

ATTEMPTS TO DIMINISH THE ILLS ARISING FROM THE DISHARMONIES OF THE
HUMAN CONSTITUTION (RELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS)

CHAPTER VII

RELIGIOUS ATTEMPTS TO COMBAT THE ILLS ARISING FROM THE
DISHARMONIES OF THE HUMAN CONSTITUTION 137

Animism as the foundation of primitive religions—The Jewish
religion in relation to the doctrine of immortality of the
soul—The religions of China—Ancestor-worship in
Confucianism—The conception of immortality in Taoism—The
persistence of the soul in the Buddhist religion—The
paradise of the Chinese Buddhists—Ancestors worshipped as
gods—Influence of religious faith on the fear of
death—Pessimism of the doctrine of Buddha—The meaning of
Nirvâna—Resignation as preached by Buddha—Objections to
immortality of the soul—Irritability of the tissues and
cells of the body—Religious hygiene—Religious means of
controlling the reproductive functions and of preventing
diseases—Failure of religions in their attempts to combat
the ills arising from the disharmonies of the human
constitution

CHAPTER VIII

ATTEMPTS IN SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY TO REMEDY THE ILLS ARISING
FROM THE DISHARMONIES OF THE HUMAN CONSTITUTION 166

Some philosophical systems are in intimate union with
religions—Ideas of ancient philosophers on the immortality
of the soul—The teaching of Plato—The scepticism of
Aristotle—The Stoics—Cicero, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius—Modern
philosophical systems—Pessimism and its origin—Lord
Byron—Theories of Schopenhauer and Hartmann—Mailaender’s
philosophy of deliverance—Criticisms of pessimism—Max
Nordau—Ideas of modern thinkers on death

PART III

WHAT SCIENCE IS ABLE TO DO TO ALLEVIATE THE DISHARMONIES OF THE HUMAN
CONSTITUTION

CHAPTER IX

WHAT SCIENCE CAN DO AGAINST DISEASE 203

Formation of the experimental method—The intervention of
religion in disease—Disease as a basis of pessimistic
systems of philosophy—Advance of medical science in the war
against disease—The revolution in medicine and surgery due
to the discoveries of Pasteur—The beneficial results of
Serum Therapy in the war against infectious diseases—Failure
of science to cure tuberculosis and malignant
tumours—Protests against the advance of science—Opposition
of Rousseau, Tolstoi and Brunetière—Proclamation of the
fallibility of science—Return to religion and mysticism

CHAPTER X

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF OLD AGE 228

General account of old age—Theory of senile degeneration
amongst unicellular organisms—Conjugation amongst
infusoria—Old age in birds and in anthropoid apes—General
characters of senile degeneration—Sclerosis of the
organs—Phagocyte theory of senile degeneration—Destruction
of higher elements by macrophags—Mechanism of whitening of
the hair—Serums acting on cells (cytotoxins)—Sclerosis of
the arteries and its causation—Harm done by the microbes of
the alimentary canal—Intestinal putrefaction and the modes
of preventing it—Attempts to prolong human life—Longevity in
biblical times

CHAPTER XI