The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1875-06-09
The Preservation OF Life im the
Aged.

The Lancet announces that Sir c.
Duncan Gibbs will shortly present before
one Of the English learned societies
proofs of the reality of the longevity
which has been attributed to Mrs. Eliza
beth Leatherlund, but which was denied
by Sir q. {. Lewis. Sir Duncan finds
her age to be one hundred and eleven
years, and III a post-mortem examination
he found her tissues in condition which.
according to our contemporary, would do
credit to people thirty years younger.
In this connection the Lancet remarks
that the death Of aged persons is much
oftener the result Of winter than of sum
mer complaints The case Of "A gentle
man eighty-three years old is cited, who
three years before his death passed safe
ly through "a most severe attack of sum
mer cholera, with acute vomiting and
purging;" and yet he succumbed TO IA
winter lesion, dying Of slow softening
changes i'll one lung, and of bronchitis
In Mrs. Leatherlund's case also, there
was history Of "cold" and slight CON
gestion Of the posterior part of the lung
''The important moral" says the Ian
Get, attaching to the fact (of the
general inability to withstand the effects
of winter els to protect the old from the
influences of winter, and when even
slight colds arise, to treat them with
care and a seriousness that would be al
together dispropOrtionate in the case of
younger people. Such attention will be
despite ' indiGdafldaGs OF Tailhre at p0iaToi
the system that would lead unhopeful
people to give up care" In addition to
this our medical contemporary has some
remarks upon the enjoyment Of life by
persons who have undergone severe suf-
ferings, which are worth mentioning:
Zone of the things that strike us
much in the study of old lives is the re-
cuperation that has been manifested in
many of them after LESSONS and illness,
in times gone by, that would, to too nice
a measurer of vitality, have appeared de
structive of any chance of longevity. A
paralysis thirty years since, to our knowl-
edge, does not impair the pleasures of Il
life now over ninety. Jaundice and the
loss of eighty-four pounds in weight, at
seventy, after life Of good living, have
within our experience been followed by
twenty years of plain living and good
health. A cOpious vescal or prostate
hemorrhage, at seventy-eight, would
seem an unpleasant symptom; but its I'M
pleasantness is qualified by the enjoyment
of all meals, and still more by the fact
that the first hemorrhage occurred six
years since thatin the intervals health is
good and life pleasant, though tried with
much domestic trouble, and that patient
has recovered the power Of working An
intermitting pulse may be held to show
some failure of cardiac tone; but it does
not show that the heart it represents will
not be beating twenty years hence.
Very urgent strangulated hernia, acquir-
ing operation, after eighty-three years
Of nothing but trouble, accompanied
indeed by peace, would seem an awk-
ward threat to life. But within our re-
cent knowledge this plight has been sur
vived, leaving life calm and even cheer
full"
eve might multiply cases proving
that there is in elderly life tendency
to 90 on even in spite Of drawbacks and
weak points. What we urge is, that by
believing in this tendency to 90 on, and
ministering to it by various lenient arts
we may extend many pleasant and kind
| ly life, and that we shall by the same
arts extend most lives. Scientific Mis-
cellany, in the Galaxy for June.