Die Kunst, das menschliche Leben zu verlängern (first edition)

period treatise · 1797

type:period treatise

year:1797

citation:Hufeland, Christoph Wilhelm. Die Kunst, das menschliche Leben zu verlängern. 2 vols. Jena: Akademische Buchhandlung, 1797. From the third edition (Berlin, 1805) the work was retitled Makrobiotik oder die Kunst das menschliche Leben zu verlängern.

LINK

https://archive.org/details/b28762812

SUMMARY

Hufeland's own statement of the macrobiotic programme and the primary source for this case. The first edition appeared in Jena in 1797 under the title Die Kunst, das menschliche Leben zu verlängern; from the third edition (Berlin, 1805) it carried the title Makrobiotik oder die Kunst das menschliche Leben zu verlängern by which it is generally known. The work sets out the doctrine that the duration of life is governed by an innate vital power (Lebenskraft) and the rate at which vital operation consumes it, and that a regimen of moderation, regular sleep, pure air, exercise, and tranquillity retards that consumption and so prolongs life. The cited identifier and imprint (Jena, Akademische Buchhandlung, 1797) are copied from the Wellcome Library scan catalogued on the Internet Archive (item b28762812); the two-volume 1797 first edition is also held in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek MDZ digitization (items 11268909bsb and 11268910bsb). Some references, including the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Neue Deutsche Biographie, give the first-edition year as 1796 or '1796/97'; the catalogued imprint of the surviving first edition reads 1797.

NOTES

Die Kunst, das menschliche Leben zu verlängern is the founding text of longevity medicine as a self-conscious medical project and the primary citation for Hufeland’s life-extension doctrine as he stated it. The first edition was published in Jena in 1797 by the Akademische Buchhandlung in two volumes; the title Makrobiotik (from Greek roots for “long life”) was added from the third edition (Berlin, 1805) and became the title by which the work is now generally cited. The book argues that life is the operation of a vital power (Lebenskraft), that this power is consumed by vital activity, and that the length of life is set by the quantity of the power and the rate of its consumption. The practical conclusion is a regimen intended to retard that consumption. The work contains no controlled outcome data; the case for the regimen rests on the posited vital force, on physiological analogy, and on longevity anecdotes (the spare diet of the Venetian Luigi Cornaro and reports of long-lived populations). The first-edition imprint and identifier in this archive are taken from the Wellcome Library public-domain scan on the Internet Archive (b28762812). The English-language text used for verbatim chapter headings in this case is the 1867 Erasmus Wilson edition (separate source entry).