Like King David’s servants, these doctors believed that close contact with young women would facilitate a transfer of warmth and youth to rejuvenate the old men-though the consequences to the young women were not considered. Doctors continued to recommend this practice-called shunamitism after Abishag’s village-to old men well into the 19th century.
In one biblical story about King David, the king’s servants brought a young Shunamite virgin named Abishag to transfer heat to him and revitalize him in his old age. Historically, people believed those lost “young things” were body heat and moisture. If aging is depletion, then the solution to aging may be replenishment.
“Many people believe that, with age, we run out of ‘young things,’” explains Irina Conboy, professor of bioengineering at UC Berkeley. Determining which possibility is behind the aging process is a critical step to ultimately treat aging. Is age a growing burden that gets heavier and heavier until it bends our backs, and we need a cane just to keep ourselves upright? Or is it the gradual loss of youthful robustness that leaves our bones frail and muscles atrophied? Gaining age and losing youth are two sides of the same coin. The quest for the stone ultimately failed, both for alchemists and in Harry Potter, but the desire for an elixir of life remains to this day.Īs modern scientists continue to search for remedies for aging, it has become increasingly important to understand the nature of the process itself. But perhaps more important to most, the philosopher’s stone contained the elixir of life, a potion which would grant the drinker youth and immortality. According to legend, it could turn ordinary metals into gold. For centuries, European alchemists sought the philosopher’s stone, a mythical substance mentioned in the Harry Potter series.
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