History of Life-Extensionism Ilia Stambler, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Definitions 1 Ancient Sources 1 Medical Alchemy and Iatrochemistry 2 Early Physiology 3 Gerocomia and the Hygienists 3 Late Nineteenth—Early 20th Century. The Emergence of Gerontology and Geriatrics 4 Endocrine Rejuvenation 5 The Aftermath of WWII. From Organotherapy to Replacement Medicine. From Physiology to Molecular Biology and Cybernetics 6 The Present Time: Expansion and Public Involvement 8 Acknowledgment 9 References 9 Further Reading 10 Definitions Life-extensionism can be defined by a belief in the possibility and desirability of a significant prolongation of healthy human life, chiefly aspiring to the extension of life and health through amelioration of degenerative aging processes, but also by other means. Proponents of life-extensionism have commonly built on contemporary scientific and technological achievements to project and facilitate further improvements and increases of life span, life expectancy and health in old age. Furthermore, the desire to prolong healthy human life has often constituted a strong motivation for biomedical research and discovery. Thus, the pursuit of healthy life extension (or life-extensionism) has constituted an inseparable and crucial element in the history of biomedicine (Stambler, 2014). The precise definition of “life-extensionism” is difficult. The term “life-extensionism” is relatively recent, and its precise origins are uncertain, most likely emerging in the 1920s (Campbell, 1929). But, of course, the terms “life extension” (or “prolongation of life” in earlier texts) or “rejuvenation” that may hopefully lead to prolongation of healthy life, are very old. The prolongation of life and rejuvenation were pursued by alchemy (Gruman, 1966) and gerocomia (Galen, 1725) in the Middle Ages, and by experimental gerontology (Metchnikoff, 1961), geriatric therapy (Nascher, 1914), geroscience (Sierra and Kohanski, 2017) and antiaging medicine (Gardner, 1948) in our time. Obviously, they are not the same. In the second half of the 20th century, the advocates of healthy life extension were alternatively called prolongevitists (a term apparently coined in the 1960s (Gruman, 1966)), life- extensionists, immortalists (Harrington, 1969) or transhumanists (Huxley, 1957)—depending on the context and levels of expectations—and did not seem to have an agreed title before that. In view of the great terminological diversity and uncertainty, the term “life-extensionist” can be operationally defined to designate “proponents of healthy life extension” who seek various and often conflicting ways in which this common and definitive aspiration may be achieved. Though the term “life-extensionism” literally implies just the desire for the extension of life, the integral concomitant aspiration has always been the extension of health in old age, and thus these aspirations are historically inseparable. Even though a formal definition is difficult, it may be helpful to describe the history of the pursuit of longer and healthier life (or “life-extensionism”) using the above terms, as they relate to particular historical periods and particular regional and national contexts. Ancient Sources One of the earliest representations of rejuvenation and life extension, as well as one of the earliest known works of literature, is the Sumero-Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, a story about the hero’s struggle with death (the most complete version has been dated from c. 1300 BC to 650 BC, but the story possibly originated as early as about 3000 BC). The Epic of Gilgamesh provides one of the most ancient descriptions of the search for life and health-prolonging (immortalizing) medicinal remedies (Thompson, 1928). There are striking parallels between the description of the immortalizing plant and the story of the extremely long-lived Utnapishtim in the epic of Gilgamesh and the biblical stories (with the composition sometimes dated from c. 1300 BC to 450 BC) about the “tree of life” and about the extreme longevity of antediluvian patriarchs (Genesis 2:9, 3:22–24, 5:1–32). These biblical stories too can be seen as representative of the ancient yearning for extended healthy longevity (Stambler, 2017). In Ancient Egypt too, the pursuit of longevity (even immortality) was a defining cultural and ideological feature. In one of the earliest known Egyptian medical papyruses, The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus (commonly dated to the period of the New Kingdom of Egypt, c. 1500 BC), there is a “Recipe for Transforming an Old Man into a Youth” using bruised and dried hemayet-fruit (with recent identifications varying from fenugreek to almond) (Breasted, 1930). In yet another ancient Egyptian medical papyrus, The Encyclopedia of Biomedical Gerontology https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-801238-3.11331-5 1