The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1875-02-04
When Is a Man Old?


or to be making " old bsnes?'' On this
point DR.. Gardner is a most exhilarat.
ing informant. He allows, indeed, that
the period cannot ''be strictly defined
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 otherwise
have been a severe, perhaps, but an IN
MIGRATING and hardening discipline,
break down and fall into premature
decay. Then the phrase fast living"
is full of meaning. It implies q crowd
ing of pleasures or sufferings into 8
/ shorter compass than natural and, if
we burn candle at both ends, We can
not take the time In which it is con-
sumed as fair criterion of the lasting
powers of candles in general, reason
| ably treated. Let us, however, put our
human candle in a proper cRndle-stick,
and burn it moderately and snuff it and
| trim it carefully, and it Will last so long
that, as DR.. Gardner says, "observa-
! ton has convinced me that GO is an age
at which the majority of persons may
be termed old and, as rule, we may
adopt it as the epoch of the commend
ing decline of life." This is calculated
| to cheer the spirits of those who have
been told that I" man is old ct 45 ;" but
| it will, on the other hand, prove a
" damper" to those who have consid.
cred 20 the normal standard" Let not
the latter, however, be unduly discour-
aged, for the doctor, adopting, with
| certain notifications, the views Of NJ.
! Flourens, would bring the natural life
| of man to be from 80 to 105 years, and
would, therefore, draw the satisfactory,
or, from another point of view, unsatis-
| factory inference, ''that all persons who
die under so years of age, many who
die under 80, some who die under 100,
or even los, die prematurely. 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 expectations in that most
labOrious, sagacious, instructive and en-
! pertaining work called fHuman Lon
| gevity, its Facts and its Fictions," by W.
J. Thomas, the learned and honored
late editor of Notes and Queries. 1t
may be advisable to remark in passing
! for the benefit of those who are not
familiar with the views alluded to above
of Mr.. Flourens, that he, taking his
| observations from the group mammalia,
| of the class Vertebrate, as having the
closest resemblancetclman found
that their natural life extends exactly to
five times the period of their growth; ami
"appiying 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."
It does not appear, unfortunately, that
NJ. 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.
Asiatic Snow Plains.