American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-07-03
The Preservation of Life i'm the Aged.

The London Lancet announces that Sir
G. Duncan Glib will shortly present be-
fore one of the English learned societies
proofs of the reality of the longevity
which has been attributed to Mrs. Eliza
beth Leatherland, but which was denied
by Sir E. G. Lewis. Sir Duncan finds
her age to be Ill years, and in a post
mortem examination he found her tissues
in condition which, according to our con-
temporary, 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 win
ter than of summer complaints. TIE case
of a gentleman eighty-three years old is
cited, who, three years before his death,
passed safely through Z" a most severe at
tack of summer cholera, with acute vom-
iting and purging;' and yet he sue
cumbed to a winter lesion, dying of slow,
softcning changes in one lung and of bron-
chitis. In Mrs. Netherlands case also
there was a history of ''cold''i and slight
congestion of the posteriOr part of the
lung. "1'he important moral,'' says the
Lancet, attaching TO this fact' (of the
general inability to withstand the effects
of winter " is to.protect the old from the
Influences OF winter, and when even slight
colds arise to treat them with care
and seriousness that would be altogether
disproportionate in the case of younger
people. Such attention will be often re-
warded by marvellous recoveries, despite
indications of failure at points of the sys-
TEN that would lead unhopeful people to
give up care" In a6 dition TO this, our
medical contemporary has some remarks
upon the enjoyment of life by persons who
have undergone severe suf1erings, which
are worth quoting:
" One of the things that strikes us much
in the study of old lives is the recupera-
ton that has been manifested in many of
them after LESSONS and illness, in times
gone by, that would, TO too nice meas
urcr of vitality, have appeared destruc-
tive of any chance of longevity. par
alysis thirty years since, To our knowledge,
does not Impair the pleasures of over
ninety Jaundicc and the loss OF over
eighty four pounds of weight at seventy,
after Il life of good living, have, within
orr experience been followed by twenty
wears of plain living and good health. A
copious vcsical or prostate hcmorrhage
at seventy eight would seem an unpleas-
ant symptom; but its unpieasantness is
qualified by the enjoyment of all meals,
and still more by the fact that the first
occurred six years since; that
in the intervals health is good and life
pleasant, though tried with MUCH domes-
tic trouble, and that the patient has re-
covered the power of working. An inter
pulse may De neld 10 snow some
failure of chardial tone; but it does not
show that the heart il represents will not
be beating years hence Very urgent
hernia, requiring operation
after eighty three years of nothing but
trouble accompanied, indeed, by peace
would seem an awkward threat to life.
But within our recent knowledge this
plight has been survived, leaving life calm
and even cheerful.
1--WE might multiply cases proving that
there is in elderly life tendency to go on
even in spite of drawbacks and weak
points. What we urge is, that by beliey-
ing in this tendency to go on, and minis
tering to it by various lenient arts, we may
extend many pleasant and kindly NE,
and that we shall by the same arts eAteno
most lives. "-GdtdIy.