nautil-us | In April 1901, after crossing an unusually calm English Channel,
Metchnikoff for the first time exposed his newly formulated theory of
aging to the public in the notoriously rainy Manchester. He traveled
there to receive the Wilde Medal of the Manchester Literary and
Philosophical Society, the first foreigner to achieve this honor. In the
society’s compact lecture hall, he delivered an hour‐long lecture in
French, “The Flora of the Human Body,” in which he outlined his
brand‐new explanation of why we age and die too soon.
The culprit, he announced, was the body’s flora—microscopic organisms
inhabiting our internal organs, primarily the large intestine, or
colon, the body’s largest microbe container. The idea that waste
products in the intestines poison the human body went back at least to
ancient Egyptians. In the late 19th century, with the establishment of
the link between germs and disease, this belief had gained new validity,
turning into a short‐lived obsession among physicians. The contents of
the gut were thought to putrefy and release toxins through the action of
bacteria. Physicians were attributing anything from headaches and
fatigue to heart disease and epilepsy to these toxins, having their
patients swallow disinfecting mixtures containing charcoal, iodine,
mercury, or naphthalene to “sterilize” the intestines.
Metchnikoff conceded that intestinal flora could be beneficial too,
but most of these microbes, he argued, exert a harmful effect on the
body, “and this leads to premature aging of our tissues and organs.”
Lashing out with a bitter invective against the colon, Metchnikoff,
as a zoologist and a Darwinist, pointed to the animal origins of human
beings. In our evolutionary past, the colon had helped mammals to
survive. It contained not only microbes that facilitated the digestion
of plant food but also remnants of digested food, enabling the animals
to chase prey and escape predators without stopping to empty their
bowels. Humans, on the other hand, he said, “derive no benefit from this
organ,” particularly since they cook their food, making it easier to
absorb. Though the colon was already known to play a role in the
absorption of water and minerals, Metchnikoff believed it was less
essential in this respect than the stomach or the small intestine. He
was certain the colon should have long been eliminated by natural
selection, if only the latter were more effective.
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