The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-12-22
Family Resemblance and Longevity.


A French writer nas said that if one
would know his probable term of life,
visit to the graves of his fathers would
enlighten him; aud later observers in
biology trace, with much accuracy, the
points of similarity between parents
aud children which affect the general
constitution, physically and mentally,
of the latter. Some interesting illustra-
tiOns of family likeness were published
recently in AU the Year Round, and as
many of the persons named are histOri-
cally familiar to Americans, we give
them here.
In spite of certain alterations, the
typical features peculiar to the houses
of Guise and Lorraine were transmitted
to all their descendants through long
series of generations. The Bourbon
countenance, the COudes' aquilIue nose,
the thick aud prOtruding lower lip be-
queathed to the house of Austria by
Polish princess, are well known in
stances. We have only to look at a
coin of our George III. to be reminded
Of our present royal family. During
AddisOn's short ministry, Mrs. Clarke,
who solicited his favor, had been re-
quested to bring with her the papers
proving that she was Milton's daughter.
But as soon as she entered his cabinet,
| Addison said, MADAM, | REQUIRE no
further evidence. Your resemblance to
| your illustrious father is the best of ALL"
| The Comte de Pont, who died in 1867,
at nearly hundred, told DR.. Frossac
that during the Restoration he often
met in the saloons of NJ. Desmousseaux
Ie Givre, prefect of Arras, a man at
whose approach he shuddered as he
would at the sight of an apparition, so
wonderfully was he like RObespierre.
! NJ. de POnt cOnfded his impression to
the project, who told him, smiling at
his prejudice, that the person in ques-
ton passed for RObespierre's natural
son; that, in fact, it was matter of no.
| LOriety. Next to family likenesses, vi
Lality or the duration of life is the most
important character transmitted by in-
| neritance. The two daughters of Vic
tor Amadeus H., the Duchess of Bur-
! 5undy and her sister Marie Louise, mar
| red to Philip ", both remarkable for
their beauty, died at twenLy-six. In
the TurgOt family fifty years was the
usual limit of life. The great minister
on the approach of that term, although
III good health, remarked to his friends
that 1t was time to put his affairs in Or
Ter; and he died, in fact, at fifty-three.
In the house of ROmanOtt the duration
If life is short, independent of the fact
that several of its members met with
violent deaths. Tne head of this illus
Crious race, Michael Federovitch, died
at fOrty-niue; Peter the Great was
scarcely tifCy-three. The Empress Anne
lied at fOrty-seveu; the teuder-hearted
Elizabeth at tifty-One. OF PauPs four
sons, Alexander died at fOrty-eigut,
Constantine at forty-twO, Nicholas at
tffty-nine, and the Grand Duke Michael
at tifty-One. In the houses of SaxOny
and Prussia, on the contrary, examples
If longevity are tar from rare. Freder-
lck the Great, in spite of his continual
wars aud his frequent eXcesses AT table,
was seveutyfOur; Frederick William
Ill. was seventy; the Emperor Will
liam, in his seveuty-ninth year, is still
male and hearty. In all the countries
Of Europe, families of OctOgenariaus,
uOuOgeuarIans, aud centenaTIans may
Oe cited. Ga the lst of April, I7l6,
there died in Paris saddler of DOule-
want, in Champagne, more than u hun
lred years old. 70 inspire Louis XIV.
with the tattering hope of living as
long, he was made, two years previous
", TO present that monarch with bO-
Iuet on ST. Louis day. His father had
hved one hundred and thirteen years,
mis- grandfather one hundred and twelve
Jean Surrlugton, farmer in the envi-
rous of Berghem, lived TO be one hun
ired and sixty. The day before his
Ieath, in complete possession of his
mental faculties, he divided his property
among his children; the eldest was one
hundred aud three, and what is still
more extraordinary, the youngest was
only nine. Jean Golembiewski the
oldest man in the French army, if still
alive, who accompanied King Stanis-
as Leczinski into France, belonged to
family of centenariams. His father
lived to be one hundred and twenty-Oue
aud his grandmother one hundred and
thirty.