The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-08-29
The Natural Limit Of Human Life.

What says Button? "The man whose
life is not cut short by accident or dis
ease, reaches everywhere the age of 80
or 100 years )" and he goes on to re-
mark, which is very important eff
we consider that the European, the
negro, the Chinese, the American, the
man highly civilized, the savage, the
rich, the poor, the inhabitants of the
city, and the dweller in the country, so
different one from another nevery other
respect, agree on this one point, and
have the same duration, the same inter-
val of time to run through 'twixt the
cradle and the grave that the differ
ence of race, of climate, of food, of
comforts, makes no difference in the
duration of life, it will at once
be seen that the duration of life depends
neither upon habits, nor customs, nor
the quality of food that nothing can
change the fixed laws which regulate the
number of our years."
The fixed law which Button recognized
was that in the animal economy, not in
man only, the duration of life is regu-
lated by the duration of growth.
Man, he says, "grows in height until
he is sixteen or eighteen, but his size is
not fully developed until he Is thirty.
Dogs attain their full length during
their first year, but it is only in the
second they reach their full bulk. Man,
which is fourteen years in growing, lives
six or seven times that period, that is to
say, till ninety or hundred while the
horse, of which the growth is completed
in four years, lives six or seven times
that period, that is to say, from twenty
five to thirty years.
Recognizing the general accuracy of
the principle laid down by Button, his
distinguished countryman, M. Flourens,
has sought to give greater precision to
the law by settling the important ques-
ton, what is the term or limit of growth.
The great physiological problem had
been solved by Buttons discovery that
the duration of life depended on the
duration of growth all that remained
was to ascertain of how many times the
duration of growth the duration of life
consisted. The one thing which had
escaped Buffon-namely, the one GER
tain sign of growth being completed
M. Flourens claims to have found in the
union of the bones with their epiphyses.
AS long as the bones are not united to
their epiphyses the animal continues to
grow; but as soon as such union takes
place the animal ceases to grow. This
union takes place in man at 20, in the
camel at 7, in the horse at 5, the OK at
4, the lion at 4, and the dog at 2; and
he then proceeds to show how nearly
accurate Button had been when when he
said that every animal lives nearly six
or seven times the period of its growth
the truth being that it lives about
five. Thus, man, being twenty years
growing, lives five times twenty-that
is, 100 years.
But L have yet one, and that still
higher authority to produce. Just as
these sheets are put into the hands OF
the printer, fortunately before they were
composed, there appeared in Fraser's
Magazine an article con Longevity"
from the pen of the most eminent phys
iologist of the present day, Prof. Owen.
From the essay L extract the following
passage:
1.-THE conclusion of Prof. Flourens,
that in the absence of all causes of dis
ease, and under all conditions favorable
to health and life, man might survive as
long after the provocative period-end-
ing, say at seventy in the male-as he
had lived to acquire maturity and COM
pletion of ossifcation-say thirty years
are not unphysiological. Only, under
the circumstances under which the bat
tie of life is fought, the possible term
of 100 years, inferred by Flourens as by
Button, is the rare exception. From,
Human Longevity" by William f..
Thomas.