Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1860-07-11
HOW LONG CAN WE LIyEe

ifTOu NAsOhuOul
The astute old gentleman who. when carry.
ing bundle of sticks, found his burden too
heavy, and called upon Death to helm him
when he found his call answered, totally oh.
iected to the asst sistance prOffered and wished
TO carry the bundle little longer The fable
as related by Ksop, and after him by NM
Phoedrus and PilPay, and the learned DIR.
CroxaU, is not without its moral The latter
has, indeed, placed his in a conspicuous Iigbt
at the very end of the fable. 1t is this:
The bundle OF sticks, Life; TIE assistance
preferred, sessation OF being. 1t is refused
Ergo, the old man wishes to live as long as he
can, and 20 We do all of us. QED.
Accepting this not only as a truth, but as a
truism, how gladly will all our readers fnd
that, presuming they carry about them no NOR
tai disease, they can live Just as long as thew
like The duration of life, in fact, depends
very much on man himself We have no me-
cessity of dying early. Be wise, be prudent,
and you will be juyenescent at 40, and lapse
into eternity at the green old age of l5O So
cry the Freneh sayans Let US see how they
can prove their facts. Let us fzrpripHs as
sure eur readers that in writing about life we
are not going to do any thing especially wicked
We acknowledge, as fully as Mr. Spurgeon
himself, that our days are in the hands of a
Being Omniscient and all-wise; but we must be
all aware that that Being acts upon humanity
by human causes. He who adds ANYTHING to
guently cursed. The introducers of yaccina-
tion have been mathematical, and those who
first proposed to alleviate human suffering by
chloroform were thought gailty of presuming
TO meddle with the DEGREES of Providence
Against this kind of ostracism we appeal Sol
omOn has indeed declared that the years of
mans life are threescOre and ten; but we NAV
remember that the duration Of life was not al
ways so curtailed, and we may reasonably sup
pose that 1t will not, or rather need not al
ways be so.
DR. Corsival, of Paris has introduced pspstn,
an artificial gastric juice, which seems likely
to supercede any necessity for new teeth, by
giving to the stomach of an old man or woman
the vigorous digestion Of youth. This juice is
equally powerful as the natural product. 1t
will deeompOse carbonate Of soda and attack
iron filings. Everything, indeed, seems to aid
Us in our attempts toward attaining a decent
longevity. Our sight, if it fails can be
strengthened and improved; our digestion can
be renovated; a new inside, the great desider-
atum of the invalid, is not out of his reach:
his hair-Vide the northumberland never
fall of nor become gray" his shape, if
we believe the tailor, may still retain its
beauty and manly form; and should he attend
10 the paternal and maternal advice of the
vendors of KalydOr and other cosmetics, his
cheeks at 80 will glow with the bloom and
color Of 16. There Is, therefore, only one aues-
ton to be answered-How long can we live!
To ascertain this, NJ. Button, Cuyier Flou-
rens, and those ssyans who have turned their
attention to work out the problem. proceed by
analogy. The duration of life with the horse
and with other animals Of the higher species
is proportionate to the time expended in their
growth. ''Man, who takes fourteen years to
grow" says Button, ''may live six or seven
times as long" This idea appears to be cor
rect, but the method in which Button eluci-
dates it is not 50. Man grows for more than
Ia wears If he lived seven times as long the
ordinary life would be SO, which, with per-
fectly healthy individuals, is not now, in the
present sophisticated state of society, extraor-
dinary.
NJ Flourens has, it appears to US, improved
On the working out of Bufon's idea. All the
larger animals, he observes, live five times as
long as the time expended by them in reach
Thus.