The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-01-22
When Is A Man Old

When may we be said to have made
or to be making "old bones?" On
this point DIR. Gardner Is a most exhil,
arating informant. He allows, indeed,
that the period cannot "be strictly de.
fined by years." Some human beings,
like some race horses which are "run
off their legs" at two years of age, are
too early exposed to the effects of wear
and tear, and necessarily, instead of
being strengthened by what might 9TH
erwise have been severe, perhaps, but
an invigorating and a hardening disci-
pine, break down and fall into prema.
ture decay. Then the phrase " fast
living" is full of meaning. 1t implies
crowding OF pleasures or sufferings
into a shorter compass than natural !;
and, if we burn q candle at both ends,
we cannot take the time in which it is
consumed as far criterion of the last
ing powers of candles in general, rea-
sonably treated. Let us, however, put
our human candle in a proper candle
stick, and burn it moderately and snuff
it and trim it carefully, and it will last
so long that, as DR.. Gardner says,
observation has convinced me that 60
is an age at which the majority of per-
sons may be termed old; and, as rule,
we may adopt it as the epoch of the
commencing decline of life." This is
calculated to cheer the spirits of those
who have been told that "man is old
at As" but it will, on the other hand.
prove "damper to those who shave
considered 70 the normal standard. "
I o. not fhn 1attar hnwauar l.a IN I,,lx,
discouraged, for the Doctor, adopting,
with certain notifications. the views
of nj. Flourens, would bring the natural
life of a man to be from 80 to 105
years. and would, therefore, draw the
satisfactory, or, from another point of
view, unsatisfactory, inference, that
all persons who die under 80 years of
age, many who die under 80, come who
die under 100, or even 105, die prema-
turely." And that more persons live
to the age of 100 than were dreamed of
in the philosophy of the late Sir George
Cornwall Lewis is conclusively proved,
contrary, one would say, to the very
candid authors own bias and expecta-
tons in that most laborious, sagacious,
instructive and entertaining work called
Human Longevity, its Facts and its
Fictions," by w. J. Thomas, the
learned and honored late editor of
Notes and QNeraes. 1t may be advis-
able to remark in passing for the bene.
fit of those who are not familiar with
the views alluded to above of M. Flour
ems, that he, "taking his observations
from the group Mammalia, of the class
Vertebrate, as having the closest resem-
blance to man, found that
their natural life extends exactly to five
times the period of their growth; and,
applying the rule thus obtained to
human life, and taking the age when
the body is fully matured to be 20
years, he concludes the natural dura-
ton of the life of man to be 100 years. "
1t does not appear, unfortunately, that
M. Flourens made an allowance for the
fuss, worry, nagging and aggravation
from which all mammals except man
appear to be tolerably exempt, which
every human being has to endure more
or less, and which is as fatal to sensi-
tive natures as disease or privation
tend to materially shorten existence
Chambers Journal.