The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-10-13
Length of Human Life,

An article in the last number of
Blackwood's Magazine, on the above
subject, holds out the idea that the age
of man should be one hundred years,
instead of three score and ten. The au-
thor says:
1--WE do not simply die /: we usually
kill ourselves. Our habits, our passions,
our anxieties of body and mind these
shorten our lives, and prevent US from
reaching the natural limit of human ex-
istence." Gluttony, he asserts, des-
troys more lives than intemperate drink
ing, and yet it is the fashion to restrict
the term sobriety to the moderate use of
liquors" A sober life no doubt i'm
plies moderation in all things-in eating
drinking, and the enjoyment of all the
pleasures of life. But although We have
read and heard much of moderation in
eating and in drinking, the difficulty
has always arisen in our minds respect
ing the true standard of moderation.-
What is it? Who viii define it The
standard suitable for one is net for anoth-
er. No-temperance in all things
But no man can or should set up his
own standard for his neighbor. And
yet 1t may truly be said, that general
rules for temperance may be set down,
which, if followed, would be of immense
benefit such as not to eat SO much as
will unfit the mind for its usual exer-
tions; or so much as viii make the BODY
heavy and torpid. Not to pass hastily
from one extreme of living to another,
but to change slowly and cautiously, to
eat plain and wholesome food, and to
proportion its quantity to the tempera-
ment, the age, and the strength of the
eater. Not to allow the appetite to reg
ulate the quantity to be taken, but ex-
perience, void OF sensual desire. These
rules, if followed, will tend to promote
health, and thus lead to greater length
of days and years in mans existence
still there is natural period for man
to exist, and neither food, drink nor So
briefly can place him beyond that. We
tiud that each species of animal has its
boundary of lie, and so has man. He
has his infancy, youth, middle age, old
aye, and then comes the winding sheet
and the narrow house.
But how long does his existence last ?
How many years encircle his natural life?
These are important questions. We
lind that thirty years is considered to be
a generation that is, the whole world
is repeopled every thirty years with
new race, and like number departs
from it in that period. But no person
considers thirty years as the natural term
of mans life-seventy years being gen.
orally set down as that limit. A book,
however, recently published in Paris,
by III. Flourens, which has created no
small sensation i'll that city, places old
age at eighty-five years, and the COM
pIete natural life of man about CEN
tury. Button, the naturalist, entertained
sucn an opinion. The rule of life laid
down by him is, that animals live from
six to seven times the number of years
required TO complete their growth, such
as the horse, which completes its growth,
at tour years, lives from twenty to twenty
four years, and man who takes eighteen
years 70 reach his full growth may live
more than hundred years. There are
but few men who live to a hundred
years, and just as few horses that live to
twenty-four, but that affords no reason
why many men, and almost all mon of
a sound constitution, may not live for
century. rhe table of n. Flourens re-
latiny TO life is as follows:
Man grows for 90 years and lives 90
or 100; the camel grows years and
lives ~; the horse grows 5 years, and
lives 25 the OK grows years and lives
10 or 90 the dog grows years and
lives 10 or I2.
This issomewhat different from Button,
but he sets it down as fixed rule that
all the large animals live about fiye times
longer thaa the time required for their
full growth. This question is one OF
deep importance to the whole human
family. 1t is one to which the inge-
nious FreEchman has brought a great
amount of knowledge III investigation.
and he holds up science, as presenting
to all men life of sobricty, very ex-
tended fund of existence. SeiientiEic
american. :.