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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
troubles, and by lack of sufficient oxygen in the blood. The word conflict is not used metaphorically in this case. It is a veritable battle that rages in the innermost recesses of our beings.”
Hardened arteries, abnormal liver, vitiated kidneys and a general atrophy and degeneration of the vital organs are some of the effects of a victory of the forces inimical to youth and health. Gradually the muscles shrink, making the skin loose and wrinkled; the memory and intellect are enfeebled, the back becomes bent and the senses are impaired. Extreme decay is characterised by the dissolution of some of the Time in the skeleton and by its transference to the blood vessels. In consequence of this the bones become lighter and brittle, the cartilages bony, and the intervertebrate discs impregnated with salts, producing the well-known senile malforination of the backbone.*
Such are the consequences of a victory of the enemies of health and youth on a living organism, and it is evident that the commencement of decay is accelerated or retarded in different individuals according to the degree of resistance which they are capable of offering to the forces inimical to the well-being of the body. Here also we are entitled to infer that the run down condition of the system, implied in the inability to resist the encroachment of the forces inimical to its own wellbeing, is produced by the lowness of its vitality.
Thus, the problem presented by disease and senile decay resolves itself into the simplo question : what
* See
The Prolongation of Life' by E. Metchnikoff, p. 30.
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