LONGEVITY.

Scope of the Present Article.--The limits of space in this work render

impossible a scientific discussion upon the most interesting subject of

longevity, and the reader is referred to some of the modern works

devoted exclusively to this subject. In reviewing the examples of

extreme age found in the human race it will be our object to lay before

the reader the most remarkable instances of longevity that have been

authentically recorded, to cite the source of the information, when

possible to give explanatory details, and to report any relative points

of value and interest. Throughout the article occasional facts will be

given to show in what degree character, habit, and temperament

influence longevity, and in what state of mind and body and under what

circumstances man has obtained the highest age.

General Opinions.--There have been many learned authorities who

invariably discredit all accounts of extraordinary age, and contend

that there has never been an instance of a man living beyond the

century mark whose age has been substantiated by satisfactory proof.

Such extremists as Sir G. Cornewall Lewis and Thoms contend that since

the Christian era no person of royal or noble line mentioned in history

whose birth was authentically recorded at its occurrence has reached

one hundred years. They have taken the worst station in life in which

to find longevity as their field of observation. Longevity is always

most common in the middle and lower classes, in which we cannot expect

to find the records preserved with historical correctness.

The Testimony of Statistics.--Walford in his wonderful "Encyclopedia of

Insurance" says that in England the "Royal Exchange" for a period of

one hundred and thirty-five years had insured no life which survived

ninety-six. The "London Assurance" for the same period had no clients

who lived over ninety, and the "Equitable" had only one at ninety-six.

In an English Tontine there was in 1693 a person who died at one

hundred; and in Perth there lived a nominee at one hundred and

twenty-two and another at one hundred and seven. On the other hand, a

writer in the Strand Magazine points out that an insurance investigator

some years ago gathered a list of 225 centenarians of almost every

social rank and many nationalities, but the majority of them Britons or

Russians.

In reviewing Walford's statistics we must remember that it has only

been in recent years that the middle and lower classes of people have

taken insurance on their lives. Formerly only the wealthy and those

exposed to early demise were in the habit of insuring.

Dr. Ogle of the English Registrar-General's Department gives tables of

expectancy that show that 82 males and 225 females out of 1,000,000 are

alive at one hundred years. The figures are based on the death-rates of

the years 1871-80.

The researches of Hardy in the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and

sixteenth centuries are said to indicate that three-score-and-ten was

considered old age; yet many old tombstones and monuments contain

inscriptions recording age far beyond this, and even the pages of

ordinary biographies disprove the alleged results of Hardy's research.

In all statistical work of an individual type the histories of the

lower classes are almost excluded; in the olden times only the lives

and movements of the most prominent are thought worthy of record. The

reliable parish register is too often monopolized by the gentry,

inferior births not being thought worth recording.

Many eminent scientists say that the natural term of the life of an

animal is five times the period needed for its development. Taking

twenty-one as the time of maturity in man, the natural term of human

life would be one hundred and five. Sir Richard Owen fixes it at one

hundred and three and a few months.

Censuses of Centenarians.--Dr. Farr, the celebrated English

Registrar-General, is credited with saying that out of every 1,000,000

people in England only 223 live to be one hundred years old, making an

average of one to 4484. French says that during a period of ten years,

from 1881 to 1890, in Massachusetts, there were 203 deaths of persons

past the age of one hundred, making an average, with a population of

394,484, of one in 1928. Of French's centenarians 165 were between one

hundred and one hundred and five; 35 were between one hundred and five

and one hundred and ten; five were between one hundred and ten and one

hundred and fifteen; and one was one hundred and eighteen. Of the 203,

153 were females and 50 males. There are 508 people in Iowa who are

more than ninety years of age. There are 21 who are more than one

hundred years old. One person is one hundred and fifteen years old, two

are one hundred and fourteen, and the remaining 18 are from one hundred

to one hundred and seven.

In the British Medical Journal for 1886 there is an account of a report

of centenarians. Fifty-two cases were analyzed. One who doubts the

possibility of a man reaching one hundred would find this report of

interest.

The Paris correspondent to the London Telegraph is accredited with the

following:--

"A census of centenarians has been taken in France, and the results,

which have been published, show that there are now alive in this

country 213 persons who are over one hundred years old. Of these 147

are women, the alleged stronger sex being thus only able to show 66

specimens who are managing to still "husband out life's taper" after

the lapse of a century. The preponderance of centenarians of the

supposed weaker sex has led to the revival of some amusing theories

tending to explain this phenomenon. One cause of the longevity of women

is stated to be, for instance, their propensity to talk much and to

gossip, perpetual prattle being highly conducive, it is said, to the

active circulation of the blood, while the body remains unfatigued and

undamaged. More serious theorists or statisticians, while commenting on

the subject of the relative longevity of the sexes, attribute the

supremacy of woman in the matter to the well-known cause, namely, that

in general she leads a more calm and unimpassioned existence than a

man, whose life is so often one of toil, trouble, and excitement.

Setting aside these theories, however, the census of French

centenarians is not devoid of interest in some of its details. At

Rocroi an old soldier who fought under the First Napoleon in Russia

passed the century limit last year. A wearer of the St. Helena medal--a

distinction awarded to survivors of the Napoleonic campaigns, and who

lives at Grand Fayt, also in the Nord--is one hundred and three years

old, and has been for the last sixty-eight years a sort of rural

policeman in his native commune. It is a rather remarkable fact in

connection with the examples of longevity cited that in almost every

instance the centenarian is a person in the humblest rank of life.

According to the compilers of these records, France can claim the honor

of having possessed the oldest woman of modern times. This venerable

dame, having attained one hundred and fifty years, died peacefully in a

hamlet in the Haute Garonne, where she had spent her prolonged

existence, subsisting during the closing decade of her life on goat's

milk and cheese. The woman preserved all her mental faculties to the

last, but her body became attenuated to an extraordinary degree, and

her skin was like parchment."

In the last ten years the St. James' Gazette has kept track of 378

centenarians, of whom 143 were men and 235 were women. A writer to the

Strand Magazine tells of 14 centenarians living in Great Britain within

the last half-dozen years.

It may be interesting to review the statistics of Haller, who has

collected the greatest number of instances of extreme longevity. He

found:--

1000 persons who lived from 100 to 110

15 persons who lived from 130 to 140

60 " " " " 110 to 120

6 " " " " 140 to 150

29 " " " " 120 to 130

1 person " " " to 169

Effect of Class-Influences, Occupation, etc.--Unfortunately for the

sake of authenticity, all the instances of extreme age in this country

have been from persons in the lower walks of life or from obscure parts

of the country, where little else than hearsay could be procured to

verify them. It must also be said that it is only among people of this

class that we can expect to find parallels of the instances of extreme

longevity of former times. The inhabitants of the higher stations of

life, the population of thickly settled communities, are living in an

age and under conditions almost incompatible with longevity. In fact,

the strain of nervous energy made necessary by the changed conditions

of business and mode of living really predisposes to premature decay.

Those who object to the reliability of reports of postcentenarianism

seem to lose sight of these facts, and because absolute proof and

parallel cannot be obtained they deny the possibility without giving

the subject full thought and reason. As tending to substantiate the

multitude of instances are the opinions of such authorities as

Hufeland, Buffon, Haller, and Flourens. Walter Savage Landor on being

told that a man in Russia was living at one hundred and thirty-two

replied that he was possibly older, as people when they get on in years

are prone to remain silent as to the number of their years--a statement

that can hardly be denied. One of the strongest disbelievers in extreme

age almost disproved in his own life the statement that there were no

centenarians.

It is commonly believed that in the earliest periods of the world's

history the lives of the inhabitants were more youthful and perfect;

that these primitive men had gigantic size, incredible strength, and

most astonishing duration of life. It is to this tendency that we are

indebted for the origin of many romantic tales. Some have not hesitated

to ascribe to our forefather Adam the height of 900 yards and the age

of almost a thousand years; but according to Hufeland acute theologians

have shown that the chronology of the early ages was not the same as

that used in the present day. According to this same authority Hensler

has proved that the year at the time of Abraham consisted of but three

months, that it was afterward extended to eight, and finally in the

time of Joseph to twelve. Certain Eastern nations, it is said, still

reckon but three months to the year; this substantiates the opinion of

Hensler, and, as Hufeland says, it would be inexplicable why the life

of man should be shortened nearly one-half immediately after the flood.

Accepting these conclusions as correct, the highest recorded age, that

of Methuselah, nine hundred years, will be reduced to about two

hundred, an age that can hardly be called impossible in the face of

such an abundance of reports, to which some men of comparatively modern

times have approached, and which such substantial authorities as

Buffon, Hufeland, and Flourens believed possible.

Alchemy and the "Elixir of Life."--The desire for long life and the

acquisition of wealth have indirectly been the stimulus to medical and

physical investigation, eventually evolving science as we have it now.

The fundamental principles of nearly every branch of modern science

were the gradual metamorphoses of the investigations of the old

searchers after the "philosopher's stone" and "elixir of life." The

long hours of study and experiment in the chase for this

will-o'-the-wisp were of vast benefit to the coming generations; and to

these deluded philosophers of the Middle Ages, and even of ancient

times, we are doubtless indebted for much in this age of advancement.

With a credulous people to work upon, many of the claimants of the

discovery of the coveted secret of eternal life must be held as rank

impostors claiming ridiculous ages for themselves. In the twelfth

century Artephius claimed that by the means of his discovery he had

attained one thousand and twenty-five years. Shortly after him came

Alan de Lisle of Flanders with a reputed fabulous age. In 1244 Albertus

Magnus announced himself as the discoverer. In 1655 the celebrated

Doctor Dee appeared on the scene and had victims by the score. Then

came the Rosicrucians. Count Saint-Germain claimed the secret of the

"philosopher's stone" and declared to the Court of Louis XV that he was

two thousand years old, and a precursor of the mythical "Wandering

Jew," who has been immortalized in prose and rhyme and in whose

existence a great mass of the people recently believed. The last of the

charlatans who claimed possession of the secret of perpetual life was

Joseph Balsamo, who called himself "Count of Cagliostro." He was born

in Italy in 1743 and acquired a world-wide reputation for his alleged

occult powers and acquisition of the "philosopher's stone." He died in

1795, and since then no one has generally inspired the superstitious

with credence in this well-worn myth. The ill-fated Ponce de Leon when

he discovered Florida, in spite of his superior education, announced

his firm belief in the land of the "Fountain of Perpetual Youth," in

the pursuit of which he had risked his fortune and life.

We wish to emphasize that we by no means assume the responsibility of

the authenticity of the cases to be quoted, but expressing belief in

their possibility, we shall mention some of the extraordinary instances

of longevity derived from an exhaustive research of the literature of

all times. This venerable gallery of Nestors will include those of all

periods and nations, but as the modern references are more available

greater attention will be given to them.

Turning first to the history of the earlier nations, we deduce from

Jewish history that Abraham lived to one hundred and seventy-five;

Isaac, likewise a tranquil, peaceful man, to one hundred and eighty;

Jacob, who was crafty and cunning, to one hundred and forty-seven;

Ishmael, a warrior, to one hundred and thirty-seven; and Joseph, to one

hundred and ten. Moses, a man of extraordinary vigor, which, however,

he exposed to great cares and fatigues, attained the advanced age of

one hundred and twenty; and the warlike and ever-active Joshua lived to

one hundred and ten. Lejoucourt gives the following striking parallels:

John Glower lived to one hundred and seventy-two, and Abraham to one

hundred and seventy-five; Susan, the wife of Gower, lived to one

hundred and sixty-four, and Sarah, the wife of Abraham, to one hundred

and twenty-seven. The eldest son of the Gower couple was one hundred

and fifteen when last seen, and Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah,

lived to one hundred and eighty.

However replete with fables may be the history of the Kings of Egypt,

none attained a remarkable age, and the record of the common people is

incomplete or unavailable.

If we judge from the accounts of Lucian we must form a high idea of the

great age of the Seres, or ancient Chinese. Lucian ascribes this

longevity to their habit of drinking excessive quantities of water.

Among the Greeks we find several instances of great age in men of

prominence. Hippocrates divided life into seven periods, living himself

beyond the century mark. Aristotle made three divisions,--the growing

period, the stationary period, and the period of decline. Solon made

ten divisions of life, and Varro made five. Ovid ingeniously compares

life to the four seasons. Epimenides of Crete is said to have lived

one hundred and fifty-seven years, the last fifty-seven of which he

slept in a cavern at night. Gorgias, a teacher, lived to one hundred

and eight; Democritus, a naturalist, attained one hundred and nine;

Zeno, the founder of the Stoics, lived to one hundred; and Diogenes,

the frugal and slovenly, reached ninety years. Despite his life of

exposure, Hippocrates lived to one hundred and nine; and Galen, the

prince of physicians after him, who was naturally of a feeble

constitution, lived past eighty, and few of the followers of his system

of medicine, which stood for thirteen centuries, surpassed him in point

of age.

Among the Romans, Orbilis, Corvinus, Fabius, and Cato, the enemy of the

physicians, approximated the century mark.

A valuable collection relative to the duration of life in the time of

the Emperor Vespasian has been preserved for us by Pliny from the

records of a census, a perfectly reliable and creditable source. In 76

A. D. there were living in that part of Italy which lies between the

Apennines and the Po 124 persons who had attained the age of one

hundred and upward. There were 54 of one hundred; 57 of one hundred and

ten; 2 of one hundred and twenty-five; 4 of one hundred and thirty; 4

of from one hundred and thirty-five to one hundred and thirty-seven,

and 3 of one hundred and forty. In Placentia there was a man of one

hundred and thirty and at Faventia a woman of one hundred and

thirty-two. According to Hufeland, the bills of mortality of Ulpian

agree in the most striking manner with those of our great modern cities.

Among hermits and ecclesiastics, as would be the natural inference from

their regular lives, many instances of longevity are recorded. John was

supposed to be ninety-three; Paul the hermit was one hundred and

thirteen; Saint Anthony lived to one hundred and five; James the hermit

to one hundred and four; Saint Epithanius lived to one hundred and

fifteen; Simeon Stylites to one hundred and twelve; Saint Mungo was

accredited with one hundred and eighty-five years (Spottiswood), and

Saint David attained one hundred and forty-six. Saint Polycarpe

suffered martyrdom at over one hundred, and Simon Cleophas was Bishop

of Jerusalem at one hundred and twenty.

Brahmin priests of India are known to attain incredible age, and one of

the secrets of the adepts of the Buddhist faith is doubtless the

knowledge of the best means of attaining very old age. Unless cut off

by violence or accident the priests invariably become venerable

patriarchs.

Influence of Mental Culture.--Men of thought have at all times been

distinguished for their age. Among the venerable sages are Appolonius

of Tyana, a follower of Pythagoras, who lived to over one hundred;

Xenophilus, also a Pythagorean, was one hundred and six; Demonax, a

Stoic, lived past one hundred; Isocrates was ninety-eight, and Solon,

Sophocles, Pindar, Anacreon, and Xenophon were octogenarians.

In more modern times we find men of science and literature who have

attained advanced age. Kant, Buffon, Goethe, Fontenelle, and Newton

were all over eighty. Michael Angelo and Titian lived to eighty-nine

and ninety-nine respectively. Harvey, the discoverer of the

circulation; Hans Sloane, the celebrated president of the Royal Society

in London; Plater, the Swiss physician; Duverney, the anatomist, as

well as his confrere, Tenon, lived to be octogenarians. Many men have

displayed activity when past four score. Brougham at eighty-two and

Lyndhurst at eighty-eight could pour forth words of eloquence and

sagacity for hours at a time. Landor wrote his "Imaginary

Conversations" when eighty-five, and Somerville his "Molecular Science"

at eighty-eight; Isaac Walton was active with his pen at ninety;

Hahnemann married at eighty and was working at ninety-one.

J. B. Bailey has published a biography of "Modern Methusalehs," which

includes histories of the lives of Cornaro, Titian, Pletho, Herschell,

Montefiore, Routh, and others. Chevreul, the centenarian chemist, has

only lately died. Gladstone, Bismarck, and von Moltke exemplify vigor

in age In the Senate of the United States, Senators Edmunds, Sherman,

Hoar, Morrill, and other elderly statesmen display as much vigor as

their youthful colleagues. Instances of vigor in age could be cited in

every profession and these few examples are only mentioned as typical.

At a recent meeting of the Society of English Naturalists, Lord Kelvin

announced that during the last year 26 members had died at an average

age of seventy-six and a half years; one reached the age of ninety-nine

years, another ninety-seven, a third ninety-five, etc.

In commenting on the perfect compatibility of activity with longevity,

the National Popular Review says:--

"Great men usually carry their full mental vigor and activity into old

age. M. Chevreul, M. De Lesseps, Gladstone, and Bismarck are evidences

of this anthropologic fact. Pius IX, although living in tempestuous

times, reached a great age in full possession of all his faculties, and

the dramatist Crebillon composed his last dramatic piece at

ninety-four, while Michael Angelo was still painting his great canvases

at ninety-eight, and Titian at ninety still worked with all the vigor

of his earlier years. The Austrian General Melas was still in the

saddle and active at eighty-nine, and would have probably won Marengo

but for the inopportune arrival of Desaix. The Venetian Doge Henry

Dandolo, born at the beginning of the eleventh century, who lost his

eyesight when a young man, was nevertheless subsequently raised to the

highest office in the republic, managed successfully to conduct various

wars, and at the advanced age of eighty-three, in alliance with the

French, besieged and captured Constantinople. Fontenelle was as

gay-spirited at ninety-eight as in his fortieth year, and the

philosopher Newton worked away at his tasks at the age of eighty-three

with the same ardor that animated his middle age. Cornaro was as happy

at ninety as at fifty, and in far better health at the age of

ninety-five than he had enjoyed at thirty.

"These cases all tend to show the value and benefits to be derived from

an actively cultivated brain in making a long life one of comfort and

of usefulness to its owner. The brain and spirits need never grow old,

even if our bodies will insist on getting rickety and in falling by the

wayside. But an abstemious life will drag even the old body along to

centenarian limits in a tolerable state of preservation and usefulness.

The foregoing list can be lengthened out with an indefinite number of

names, but it is sufficiently long to show what good spirits and an

active brain will do to lighten up the weight of old age. When we

contemplate the Doge Dandolo at eighty-three animating his troops from

the deck of his galley, and the brave old blind King of Bohemia falling

in the thickest of the fray at Crecy, it would seem as it there was no

excuse for either physical, mental, or moral decrepitude short of the

age of four score and ten."

Emperors and Kings, in short, the great ones of the earth, pay the

penalty of their power by associate worriment and care. In ancient

history we can only find a few rulers who attained four score, and this

is equally the case in modern times. In the whole catalogue of the

Roman and German Emperors, reckoning from Augustus to William I, only

six have attained eighty years. Gordian, Valerian, Anastasius, and

Justinian were octogenarians, Tiberius was eighty-eight at his death,

and Augustus Caesar was eighty-six. Frederick the Great, in spite of

his turbulent life, attained a rare age for a king, seventy-six.

William I seems to be the only other exception.

Of 300 Popes who may be counted, no more than five attained the age of

eighty. Their mode of life, though conducive to longevity in the minor

offices of the Church, seems to be overbalanced by the cares of the

Pontificate.

Personal Habits.--According to Hufeland and other authorities on

longevity, sobriety, regular habits, labor in the open air, exercise

short of fatigue, calmness of mind, moderate intellectual power, and a

family life are among the chief aids to longevity. For this reason we

find the extraordinary instances of longevity among those people who

amidst bodily labor and in the open air lead a simple life, agreeable

to nature. Such are farmers, gardeners, hunters, soldiers, and sailors.

In these situations man may still maintain the age of one hundred and

fifty or even one hundred and sixty.

Possibly the most celebrated case of longevity on record is that of

Henry Jenkins. This remarkable old man was born in Yorkshire in 1501

and died in 1670, aged one hundred and sixty-nine. He remembered the

battle of Flodden Field in 1513, at which time he was twelve years old.

It was proved from the registers of the Chancery and other courts that

he had appeared in evidence one hundred and forty years before his

death and had had an oath administered to him. In the office of the

King's Remembrancer is a record of a deposition in which he appears as

a witness at one hundred and fifty-seven. When above one hundred he was

able to swim a rapid stream.

Thomas Parr (or Parre), among Englishmen known as "old Parr," was a

poor farmer's servant, born in 1483. He remained single until eighty.

His first wife lived thirty-two years, and eight years after her death,

at the age of one hundred and twenty, he married again. Until his one

hundred and thirtieth year he performed his ordinary duties, and at

this age was even accustomed to thresh. He was visited by Thomas, Earl

of Arundel and Surrey, and was persuaded to visit the King in London.

His intelligence and venerable demeanor impressed every one, and crowds

thronged to see him and pay him homage. The journey to London, together

with the excitement and change of mode of living, undoubtedly hastened

his death, which occurred in less than a year. He was one hundred and

fifty-two years and nine months old, and had lived under nine Kings of

England. Harvey examined his body and at the necropsy his internal

organs were found in a most perfect state. His cartilages were not even

ossified, as is the case generally with the very aged. The slightest

cause of death could not be discovered, and the general impression was

that he died from being over-fed and too-well treated in London. His

great-grandson was said to have died in this century in Cork at the age

of one hundred and three. Parr is celebrated by a monument reared to

his memory in Westminster Abbey.

The author of the Dutch dictionary entitled "Het algemen historish

Vanderbok" says that there was a peasant in Hungary named Jean Korin

who was one hundred and seventy-two and his wife was one hundred and

sixty-four; they had lived together one hundred and forty-eight years,

and had a son at the time of their death who was one hundred and

sixteen.

Setrasch Czarten, or, as he is called by Baily, Petratsh Zartan, was

also born in Hungary at a village four miles from Teneswaer in 1537. He

lived for one hundred and eighty years in one village and died at the

age of one hundred and eighty-seven, or, as another authority has it,

one hundred and eighty-five. A few days before his death he had walked

a mile to wait at the post-office for the arrival of travelers and to

ask for succor, which, on account of his remarkable age, was rarely

refused him. He had lost nearly all his teeth and his beard and hair

were white. He was accustomed to eat a little cake the Hungarians call

kalatschen, with which he drank milk. After each repast he took a glass

of eau-de-vie. His son was living at ninety-seven and his descendants

to the fifth generation embellished his old age. Shortly before his

death Count Wallis had his portrait painted. Comparing his age with

that of others, we find that he was five years older than the Patriarch

Isaac, ten more than Abraham, thirty-seven more than Nahor, sixteen

more than Henry Jenkins, and thirty-three more than "old Parr."

Sundry Instances of Great Age.--In a churchyard near Cardiff,

Glamorganshire, is the following inscription: "Here lieth the body of

William Edwards, of Cacreg, who departed this life 24th February, Anno

Domini 1668, anno aetatis suae one hundred and sixty-eight."

Jonas Warren of Balydole died in 1787 aged one hundred and sixty-seven.

He was called the "father of the fishermen" in his vicinity, as he had

followed the trade for ninety-five years.

The Journal de Madrid, 1775, contains the account of a South American

negress living in Spanish possessions who was one hundred and

seventy-four years of age. The description is written by a witness, who

declares that she told of events which confirmed her age. This is

possibly the oft-quoted case that was described in the London

Chronicle, October 5, 1780, Louisa Truxo, who died in South America at

the age of one hundred and seventy-five.

Huteland speaks of Joseph Surrington, who died near Bergen, Norway, at

the age of one hundred and sixty. Marvelous to relate, he had one

living son of one hundred and three and another of nine. There has been

recently reported from Vera Cruz, Mexico, in the town of Teluca, where

the registers are carefully and efficiently kept, the death of a man

one hundred and ninety-two years old--almost a modern version of

Methuselah. Buffon describes a man who lived to be one hundred and

sixty-five. Martin mentions a man of one hundred and eighty. There was

a Polish peasant who reached one hundred and fifty-seven and had

constantly labored up to his one hundred and forty-fifth year, always

clad lightly, even in cold weather. Voigt admits the extreme age of one

hundred and sixty.

There was a woman living in Moscow in 1848 who was said to be one

hundred and sixty-eight; she had been married five times and was one

hundred and twenty-one at her last wedding. D'Azara records the age of

one hundred and eighty, and Roequefort speaks of two cases at one

hundred and fifty.

There are stories of an Englishman who lived in the sixteenth century

to be two hundred and seven, and there is a parallel case cited.

Van Owen tabulates 331 cases of deaths between 110 and 120, 91 between

120 and 130, 37 between 130 and 140, 11 at 150, and 17 beyond this age.

While not vouching for the authenticity in each case, he has always

given the sources of information.

Quite celebrated in English history by Raleigh and Bacon was the

venerable Countess Desmond, who appeared at Court in 1614, being one

hundred and forty years old and in full possession of all her powers,

mental and physical. There are several portraits of her at this

advanced age still to be seen. Lord Bacon also mentions a man named

Marcus Appenius, living in Rimini, who was registered by a Vespasian

tax-collector as being one hundred and fifty.

There are records of Russians who have lived to one hundred and

twenty-five, one hundred and thirty, one hundred and thirty-five, one

hundred and forty-five, and one hundred and fifty. Nemnich speaks of

Thomas Newman living in Bridlington at one hundred and fifty-three

years. Nemnich is confirmed in his account of Thomas Newman by his

tombstone in Yorkshire, dated 1542.

In the chancel of the Honington Church, Wiltshire, is a black marble

monument to the memory of G. Stanley, gent., who died in 1719, aged one

hundred and fifty-one.

There was a Dane named Draakenburg, born in 1623, who until his

ninety-first year served as a seaman in the royal navy, and had spent

fifteen years of his life in Turkey as a slave in the greatest misery.

He was married at one hundred and ten to a woman of sixty, but outlived

her a long time, in his one hundred and thirtieth year he again fell in

love with a young country girl, who, as may well be supposed, rejected

him. He died in 1772 in his one hundred and forty-sixth year. Jean

Effingham died in Cornwall in 1757 in his one hundred and forty-fourth

year. He was born in the reign of James I and was a soldier at the

battle of Hochstadt; he never drank strong liquors and rarely ate meat;

eight days before his death he walked three miles.

Bridget Devine, the well-known inhabitant of Olean Street, Manchester

died at the age of one hundred and forty-seven in 1845. On the register

of the Cheshire Parish is a record of the death of Thomas Hough of

Frodsam in 1591 at the age of one hundred and forty-one.

Peter Garden of Auchterless died in 1775 at the age of one hundred and

thirty-one. He had seen and talked with Henry Jenkins about the battle

of Flodden Field, at which the latter was present when a boy of twelve.

It seems almost incredible that a man could say that he had heard the

story of an event which had happened two hundred and sixty-three years

before related by the lips of an eye-witness to that event;

nevertheless, in this case it was true. A remarkable instance of

longevity in one family has recently been published in the St. Thomas's

Hospital Gazette. Mrs. B., born in 1630 (five years after the

accession of Charles I), died March 13, 1732. She was tended in her

last illness by her great-granddaughter, Miss Jane C., born 1718, died

1807, and Miss Sarah C., born 1725, died 1811. A great-niece of one of

these two ladies, Mrs. W., who remembers one of them, was born in 1803,

and is at the present time alive and well. It will be seen from the

above facts that there are three lives only to bridge over the long

period between 1630 and 1896, and that there is at present living a

lady who personally knew Miss C., who had nursed a relative born in

1630. The last lady of this remarkable trio is hale and hearty, and has

just successfully undergone an operation for cataract. Similar to the

case of the centenarian who had seen Henry Jenkins was that of James

Horrocks, who was born in 1744 and died in 1844. His father was born in

1657, one year before the death of the Protector, and had issue in

early life. He married again at eighty-four to a woman of twenty-six,

of which marriage James was the offspring in 1744. In 1844 this man

could with verity say that he had a brother born during the reign of

Charles II, and that his father was a citizen of the Commonwealth.

Among the Mission Indians of Southern California there are reported

instances of longevity ranging from one hundred and twenty to one

hundred and forty. Lieutenant Gibbons found in a village in Peru one

hundred inhabitants who were past the century mark, and another

credible explorer in the same territory records a case of longevity of

one hundred and forty. This man was very temperate and always ate his

food cold, partaking of meat only in the middle of the day. In the year

of 1840 in the town of Banos, Ecuador, died "Old Morales," a carpenter,

vigorous to his last days. He was an elderly man and steward of the

Jesuits when they were expelled from their property near this location

in 1767. In the year 1838 there was a witness in a judicial trial in

South America who was born on the night of the great earthquake which

destroyed the town of Ambato in 1698. How much longer this man who was

cradled by an earthquake lived is not as yet reported. In the State of

Vera Cruz, Mexico, as late as 1893 a man died at the age of one hundred

and thirty-seven. The census of 1864 for the town of Pilaguin, Ecuador,

lying 11,000 feet above the level of the sea and consisting of about

2000 inhabitants, gives 100 above seventy, 30 above ninety, five above

one hundred, and one at one hundred and fifteen years.

Francis Auge died in Maryland in 1767 at the age of one hundred and

thirty-four. He remembered the execution of Charles I and had a son

born to him after he was one hundred.

There are several other instances in which men have displayed

generative ability in old age. John Gilley, who died in Augusta, Maine,

in 1813, was born in Ireland in 1690. He came to this country at the

age of sixty, and continued in single blessedness until seventy-five,

when he married a girl of eighteen, by whom he had eight children. His

wife survived him and stated that he was virile until his one hundred

and twentieth year. Baron Baravicino de Capelis died at Meran in 1770

at the age of one hundred and four, being the oldest man in Tyrol. His

usual food was eggs, and he rarely tasted meat. He habitually drank tea

and a well-sweetened cordial of his own recipe. He was married four

times during his life, taking his fourth wife when he was eighty-four.

By her he had seven children and at his death she was pregnant with the

eighth child.

Pliny mentions cases of men begetting sons when past the age of eighty

and Plot speaks of John Best of the parish of Horton, who when one

hundred and four married a woman of fifty-six and begat a son. There

are also records of a man in Stockholm of one hundred who had several

children by a wife of thirty.

On August 7, 1776, Mary, the wife of Joseph Yates, at Lizard Common not

far from London, was buried at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven.

She had walked to London in 1666, and was hearty and strong at one

hundred and twenty, and had married a third husband at ninety-two.

A case without parallel, of long survival of a deaf mute, is found in

Mrs. Gray of Northfleet, Kent, who died in 1770, one hundred and

twenty-one years old. She was noted for her cheerful disposition, and

apparently enjoyed life in spite of her infirmity, which lasted one

hundred and twenty-one years.

Macklin the actor was born in 1697 and died in 1797. Several years

before his death he played "Shylock," displaying great vigor in the

first act, but in the second his memory failed him, and with much grace

and solemnity he advanced to the foot-lights and apologized for his

inability to continue. It is worthy of remark that several instances of

longevity in Roman actresses have been recorded. One Luceja, who came

on the stage very young, performed a whole century, and even made her

public appearance in her one hundred and twelfth year. Copiola was said

to have danced before Augustus when past ninety.

Influence of Stimulants, etc.--There have been men who have attributed

their long lives to their excesses in stimulants. Thomas Wishart of

Annandale, Dumfries, died in 1760 at one hundred and twenty-four. He

had chewed tobacco one hundred and seventeen years, contracting the

habit when a child; his father gave it to him to allay hunger while

shepherding in the mountains. John de la Somet of Virginia died in 1766

aged one hundred and thirty. He was a great smoker, and according to

Eaton the habit agreed with his constitution, and was not improbably

the cause of his long health and longevity. William Riddell, who died

at one hundred and sixteen carefully avoided water all his life and had

a love for brandy.

Possession of Faculties.--Eglebert Hoff was a lad driving a team in

Norway when the news was brought that Charles I was beheaded. He died

in Fishkill, N.Y., in 1764 at the age of one hundred and twenty-eight.

He never used spectacles, read fluently, and his memory and senses were

retained until his death, which was due to an accident. Nicolas

Petours, curate of the parish of Baleene and afterward canon of the

Cathedral of Constance, died at the age of one hundred and

thirty-seven; he was always a healthy, vigorous man, and celebrated

mass five days before his death. Mr. Evans of Spital Street,

Spitalfields, London, died in 1780 aged one hundred and thirty-nine,

having full possession of his mental faculties. Of interest to

Americans is the case of David Kinnison, who, when one hundred and

eleven, related to Lossing the historian the tale of the Boston Tea

Party, of which he had been a member. He died in good mental condition

at the age of one hundred and fifteen. Anthony Senish, a farmer of the

village of Limoges, died in 1770 in his one hundred and eleventh year.

He labored until two weeks before his death, had still his hair, and

his sight had not failed him. His usual food was chestnuts and Turkish

corn; he had never been bled or used any medicine. Not very long ago

there was alive in Tacony, near Philadelphia, a shoemaker named R. Glen

in his one hundred and fourteenth year. He had seen King William III,

and all his faculties were perfectly retained; he enjoyed good health,

walking weekly to Philadelphia to church. His third wife was but thirty

years old.

Longevity in Ireland.--Lord Bacon said that at one time there was not a

village in all Ireland in which there was not a man living upward of

eighty. In Dunsford, a small village, there were living at one time 80

persons above the age of four score. Colonel Thomas Winslow was

supposed to have died in Ireland on August 26, 1766, aged one hundred

and forty-six. There was a man by the name of Butler who died at

Kilkenny in 1769 aged one hundred and thirty-three. He rode after the

hounds while yet a centenarian. Mrs. Eckelston, a widow in

Phillipstown, Kings County, Ireland, died in 1690 at one hundred and

forty-three.

There are a number of instances in which there is extraordinary

renovation of the senses or even of the body in old age,--a new period

of life, as it were, is begun. A remarkable instance is an old

magistrate known to Hufeland, who lived at Rechingen and who died in

1791 aged one hundred and twenty. In 1787, long after he had lost all

his teeth, eight new ones appeared, and at the end of six months they

again dropped out, but their place was supplied by other new ones, and

Nature, unwearied, continued this process until his death. All these

teeth he had acquired and lost without pain, the whole number amounting

to 150. Alice, a slave born in Philadelphia, and living in 1802 at the

age of one hundred and sixteen, remembered William Penn and Thomas

Story. Her faculties were well preserved, but she partially lost her

eyesight at ninety-six, which, strange to say, returned in part at one

hundred and two. There was a woman by the name of Helen Gray who died

in her one hundred and fifth year, and who but a few years before her

death had acquired a new set of teeth.

In Wilson's "Healthy Skin" are mentioned several instances of very old

persons in whom the natural color of the hair returned after they had

been gray for years. One of them was John Weeks, whose hair became

brown again at one hundred and fourteen. Sir John Sinclair a mentions a

similar case in a Scotchman who lived to one hundred and ten. Susan

Edmonds when in her ninety-fifth year recovered her black hair, but

previously to her death at one hundred and five again became gray.

There was a Dr. Slave who at the age of eighty had a renewal of rich

brown hair, which he maintained until his death at one hundred. There

was a man in Vienna, aged one hundred and five, who had black hair long

after his hair had first become white This man is mentioned as a

parallel to Dr. Slave. Similar examples are mentioned in Chapter VI.

It is a remarkable fact that many persons who have reached an old age

have lived on the smallest diet and the most frugal fare. Many of the

instances of longevity were in people of Scotch origin who subsisted

all their lives on porridges. Saint Anthony is said to have maintained

life to one hundred and five on twelve ounces of bread daily. In 1792

in the Duchy of Holstein there was an industrious laborer named Stender

who died at one hundred and three, his food for the most part of his

life having been oatmeal and buttermilk. Throughout his life he had

been particularly free from thirst, drinking little water and no

spirits.

Heredity.--There are some very interesting instances of successive

longevity. Lister speaks of a son and a father, from a village called

Dent, who were witnesses before a jury at York in 1664. The son was

above one hundred and the father above one hundred and forty. John

Moore died in 1805 aged one hundred and seven. His father died at one

hundred and five and his grandfather at one hundred and fifteen, making

a total of three hundred and twenty-seven years for the three

generations. Recently, Wynter mentions four sisters,--of one hundred,

one hundred and three, one hundred and five, and one hundred and seven

years respectively. On the register of Bremhill 1696, is the following

remarkable entry: "Buried, September 29th, Edith Goldie, Grace Young,

and Elizabeth Wiltshire, their united ages making three hundred." As

late as 1886 in the district of Campinos there was a strong active man

named Joseph Joachim de Prado, of good family, who was one hundred and

seven years old. His mother died by accident at one hundred and

twelve, and his maternal grandmother died at one hundred and twenty-two.

Longevity in Active Military Service.--One of the most remarkable

proofs that under fickle fortune, constant danger, and the most

destructive influences the life of man may be long preserved is

exemplified in the case of an old soldier named Mittelstedt, who died

in Prussia in 1792, aged one hundred and twelve. He was born at Fissalm

in June, 1681. He entered the army, served under three Kings, Frederick

I, Frederick William I, and Frederick II, and did active service in the

Seven Years' War, in which his horse was shot under him and he was

taken prisoner by the Russians. In his sixty-eight years of army

service he participated in 17 general engagements, braved numerous

dangers, and was wounded many times. After his turbulent life he

married, and at last in 1790, in his one hundred and tenth year, he

took a third wife. Until shortly before his death he walked every

month to the pension office, a distance of two miles from his house.

Longevity in Physicians.--It may be of interest to the members of our

profession to learn of some instances of longevity among confreres. Dr.

R. Baynes of Rockland, Maine, has been mentioned in the list of "grand

old men" in medicine; following in the footsteps of Hippocrates and

Galen, he was practicing at ninety-nine. He lives on Graham's diet,

which is a form of vegetarianism; he does not eat potatoes, but does

eat fruit. His drink is almost entirely water, milk, and chocolate, and

he condemns the use of tea, coffee, liquors, and tobacco. He has almost

a perfect set of natural teeth and his sight is excellent. Like most

men who live to a great age, Dr. Baynes has a "fad," to which he

attributes a chief part in prolonging his life. This is the avoidance

of beds, and except when away from home he has not slept on a bed or

even on a mattress for over fifty years. He has an iron reclining

chair, over which he spreads a few blankets and rugs.

The British Medical Journal speaks of Dr. Boisy of Havre, who is one

hundred and three. It is said he goes his rounds every day, his

practice being chiefly among the poor. At one time he practiced in

India. He has taken alcoholic beverages and smoked tobacco since his

youth, although in moderation. His father, it is added, died at the age

of one hundred and eight. Mr. William R. Salmon, living near Cowbridge,

Glamorganshire, recently celebrated his one hundred and sixth birthday.

Mr. Salmon was born at Wickham Market in 1790, and became a member of

the Royal College of Surgeons in 1809, the year in which Gladstone was

born. He died April 11, 1896. In reference to this wonderful old

physician the Journal of the American Medical Association, 1896, page

995, says--

"William Reynold Salmon, M.R.C.S., of Penllyn Court, Cowbridge,

Glamorganshire, South Wales, completed his one hundred and sixth year

on March 16th, and died on the 11th of the present month--at the time

of his death the oldest known individual of indisputably authenticated

age, the oldest physician, the oldest member of the Royal College of

Surgeons, England, and the oldest Freemason in the world. His age does

not rest upon tradition or repute. He was the son of a successful and

esteemed practicing physician of Market Wickham, Suffolk, England, and

there is in the possession of his two surviving relatives, who cared

for his household for many years, his mother's diary, in which is

inscribed in the handwriting of a lady of the eighteenth century, under

the date, Tuesday, March 16, 1790, a prayer of thankfulness to God that

she had passed her 'tryall,' and that a son was born, who she hoped

'would prosper, be a support to his parents, and make virtue his chief

pursuit.' The Royal College of Surgeons verified this record many years

ago, and it was subsequently again authenticated by the authorities of

the Freemasons, who thereupon enshrined his portrait in their gallery

as the oldest living Freemason. The Salmon family moved to Cowbridge in

1796, so that the doctor had lived exactly a century in the lovely and

poetic Vale of Glamorgan, in the very heart of which Penllyn Court is

situated. Here on his one hundred and sixth birthday--a man of over

middle height, with still long, flowing hair, Druidical beard and

mustache, and bushy eyebrows--Dr. Salmon was visited by one who

writes:--

"'Seen a few days ago, the Patriarch of Penllyn Court was hale and

hearty. He eats well and sleeps well and was feeling better than he had

felt for the last five years. On that day he rose at noon, dined at

six, and retired at nine. Drank two glasses of port with his dinner,

but did not smoke. He abandoned his favorite weed at the age of ninety,

and had to discontinue his drives over his beautiful estate in his one

hundredth year. One day is much the same as another, for he gives his

two relatives little trouble in attending upon his wants. Dr. Salmon

has not discovered the elixir of life, for the shadows of life's

evening are stealing slowly over him. He cannot move about, his hearing

is dulled, and the light is almost shut out from the "windows of his

soul." Let us think of this remarkable man waiting for death

uncomplainingly in his old-fashioned mansion, surrounded by the

beautiful foliage and the broad expanse of green fields that he loved

so much to roam when a younger man, in that sylvan Sleepy Hollow in the

Vale of Glamorgan.'

"Eight weeks later he, who in youth had been 'the youngest surgeon in

the army, died, the oldest physician in the world."

Dr. William Hotchkiss, said to have reached the age of one hundred and

forty years, died in St. Louis April 1, 1895. He went to St. Louis

forty years ago, and has always been known as the "color doctor." In

his peculiar practice of medicine he termed his patients members of his

"circles," and claimed to treat them by a magnetic process. Dr. A. J.

Buck says that his Masonic record has been traced back one hundred

years, showing conclusively that he was one hundred and twenty-one

years old. A letter received from his old home in Virginia, over a year

ago, says that he was born there in 1755.

It is comforting to the members of our profession, in which the average

of life is usually so low, to be able to point out exceptions. It has

been aptly said of physicians in general: "Aliis inserviendo

consumuntur; aliis medendo moriuntur," or "In serving others they are

consumed; in healing others they are destroyed."

Recent Instances of Longevity.--There was a man who died in Spain at

the advanced age of one hundred and fifty-one, which is the most

extraordinary instance from that country. It is reported that quite

recently a Chinese centenarian passed the examination for the highest

place in the Academy of Mandarins. Chevreul, born in 1786, at Angers,

has only recently died after an active life in chemical investigation.

Sir Moses Montefiore is a recent example of an active centenarian.

In the New York Herald of April 21, 1895, is a description and a

portrait of Noah Raby of the Piscataway Poor Farm of New Jersey, to

whom was ascribed one hundred and twenty-three years. He was discharged

from active duty on the "Brandywine," U.S.N., eighty-three years ago.

He relates having heard George Washington speak at Washington and at

Portsmouth while his ship was in those places. The same journal also

says that at Wichita, Kansas, there appeared at a municipal election an

old negress named Mrs. Harriet McMurray, who gave her age as one

hundred and fifteen. She had been a slave, and asserted that once on a

visit to Alexandria with her master she had seen General Washington.

From the Indian Medical Record we learn that Lieutenant Nicholas Lavin

of the Grand Armee died several years ago at the age of one hundred and

twenty-five, leaving a daughter of seventy-eight. He was born in Paris

in 1768, served as a hussar in several campaigns, and was taken a

prisoner during the retreat from Moscow. After his liberation he

married and made his residence in Saratoff.

CHAPTER IX.

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