The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-07-16
Heredity in Human Longevity.

In the Sanitarian for July there is an
article on "Biometry," IN which the ef
feet of heredity in the matter of human
longevity is thus touched upon:
at is found from observation that
where there has been long and vigorous
ancestral stock upon one side, with per-
haps short life engrafted from the other.
such person will arrive at a period of
partial decline, with i'll health, and sub
seqnently recover, living on and beyond
this detection, being sustained by the
vitalizing secretory Influences of the
longerlived ancestor. A moments re-
fiection will call to mind many such in
stances, as when persons have remarked
that at a certain period of their lives
they were suffering from some special
disorder, from which after period they
have seemingly entirely recovered and
enjoyed sound robust health.
That longevity is resultant of her
edity no one will dispute and that it does
not wholly depend upon race, climate,
mode of life, or special observance of
sanitary law, Is also a self-evident fact.
Those who have inherited it can, seem
ingly with impunity, almost defy all san
itary law, and yet continue TO live up
to and beyond the allotted limit of
three score years and ten,' while those
who have not inherited long life cannot
BY any system Of life, or observance Of
the laws of health or process of prolOng
atisn, protract their naturally short-liv-
ed inheritance. Of course we must ad
nit that abuse can and does shorten the
lives of the naturally long-lived, and
acnte disease or great injuries cut them
off suddenly; but the rule holds good
that the naturally long-lived inherit
ance affords that innate power Of resist
ance which, will carry them through dis
aster and disease that will certainly de-
stroy the naturally shortlived.
"The probably short lived may be
equally healthy and robust, and able to
do almost as much, while that life lasts,
as the longer lived, yet it seems to be
the fact and natures law, that the per-
iod ofexistence has had its limit beyond
which no process of prolonging can
avail to carry it beyond the allotted per-
| iod. The secerning elements of the vi
| tai organs have their limits, and hence
control the existence of the whole organ
| Il
every organ of the body; certain part:
cease to perform their functions, die out
and, so long as these are not vital, life
continues, although it may be in a re-
stricted sense-as, for instance, persons
become bald or partially so at certain
age; they say the same occurred in theil
ancestors at about the same age; Others
find their digestive powers failing, and
remark the same thing as having occur
red in their parents or grandparents
The secretory vitality of these parts i.
then seen to follow the law of heredity
"Without an inheritance of long-liveC
secretory powers it is in vain to expec
any great degree of longevity in tn,
descendants.
ain estimating the probability Of ;
lifetime it is entirely useless to depend
upon the general average of human life
This rule holds good only as respect
human life at large, and therefore W,
must look beyond life statistics to sun
up the problem. With the Duration o
individual life general average holds NJ
command. Ancestral longevity will no
obey the general average law, but defe
: death In many shapes, holding on tenac
iously@ntil the machine. actually from
rust and the interstitial deposits O
years among its most delicate parts
wears out"