The Columbus journal., 1886-04-28
LONGEVITY.
Conditions Favorable to tho Enj0yms0t -
along and Healthy Life.


Conditions Favorable to the EpJoymsot -
along and Healthy Life.
Statistics arc strange things; We can
not very we'll refuse to believe them, but
certainly ones reason hesitates some.
times to accept the facts and figures they
present For instance, when we read
ancient history, Or eve modern history
up to three hundred years ago. We are
not quite prepared to believe the statis-
tician to be correct when he says that
tho average of human life is greater now
than it ever was It would seem to US
that civilization with its consequent lux
ury and Incidence. its improved-in
ability to acquire facilities for pleasure,
and its encrvating effects. would rather
shorten than prolong life, but figures,
which they say ''never lie," tell us diff
ferently. The ~ancients certainly knew
little of physic, and 90 far as can be
learned. diseases were by no e SO
numerous among them rs among US.
It may be that their physicians were
more skillful. It is told of Esculapius,
that he was so successful in healing
the sick that Pluto complained to
Jupiter that because of it his kingdom.
hades, was not SO populous as. it should
be, and Jupiter made Esculapius sign q
contract to play into Pluto's hand. The
contract was perpetual and binding on
all physicians thereafter. Physic was
unknown in Rome for six hundred
years. 1t was then tested as to its vir-
tues. II wa condemned and banished
from the city at the suggestion of Cato,
the censor, who declared that he had
lived eighty-five years without it. and
had never had it in his family; therefore
it wa not wise nor necessary for people
to take medicine. nor to have medical
attendance. And as his motion was
carried. it looks as though he voiced the
sentiments of the majority.
Accepting the statistician's figures,
let us see what effect civilization has had
in prOlOnging life. Tho average of
human life ten years ago was 80 years.
In ancient Rome, from two hundred to
five hundred years before tho birth of
Christ, the average duration among tho
wealthy classes was 80 years. In this
century the average of the same class of
people Is so years. In the sixteenth
century it was, I think, about 21.2l
years. Between 1914 and 1883 it was
40. 6S. and rs many people now live to
20 years old. rs lived to be 4S years of
age three hundred years ago.
In 1858 the British government Dor
rowed money by selling annuities on
lives from infancy upward. on the basis
of the average longevity. Tho treasury
received the price, and paid tho annu-
tiles as long as the person lived. and the
contract was satisfactory to all con-
cerned. and also profitable. In 1890
Mr.. Pitt used another scale of annuities.
on the expectation of life asthe previous
century, but it proved at that time to be
a costly loan for the government, for the
annuitants lived longer than their prede-
cessors had lived It was then investi-
gated and ascertalned that while TO-
600 of each sex in the first tontine Q693)
died under the age of %, only 5,772
males and 6.416 females died at that age
when the second tontine. or scale Of an
nuities. was made. The average length
of life among the annuitants of 1893
WAS 25.5 years, and those of 1870 almost
81 years. That is. In each case,
the party lived to be over 80 years
of age. Now, rs said above, tho aver
age is 50 years. One-fOurth of the pop
u1ation die. at or before the average of
7 years. Among 10000 persons 1 lives
to be 100. 20 live to be 80 and l in 100
lives to be 60.
OF course professions exercise a great
influence ON longevity. and the rich
live longer than the poor. The births
exceed the deaths by about sixteen or
seventeen per minute. The number of fe-
male births is four per cent greater than
the male births. and at the age of twen-
ty there are more females than males.
al al t tSo ss;h nn "f tie n.. re WSiie at seven
y the number is supposed to be about
even. but between seventy and one hum
dred tho excess of women over men is
fully five per cent, which shows that
after forty the probabilities of longevity
are greater for womcn than for men.
We read of cases of longevity, and
neither disprove nor prove them,
since, until 1888, no registers were kept
wherein such things were recorded. In
1912 the Countess of Desmond lived to
be one hundred and forty-ive. In 1885
Thomas Parr lived to be one hundred
and fiftv-two. and in 1913 Thomas
Damme died at ono hundred and fifty
four. In 1870 Henry Jenkins lived to
n hundred and sixty-nine, while Peter
Norton died in 174l at the ripe age of
one hundred and eighty-fivc years. Tho
list of authenticated cases of longevity
shows plainly that something in the
habits of the people of Ireland and En-
gland. together. with the climate, induce
to long life.
There is no doubt but life in many
forms and manifestations, n ek6ps. as il.
is claimed by some, in y car be cx1
banded in .yigor. intensity Id ddtation
but only-i1Ehder fav4ral2f conS itiOu
and influences. To bfAGLP the ell
stanceA+ and conditions amid which any
life or form of life is placed. into har-
mony with the law appointed for its be-
is still left for scientists and work
ers in the cause to do. l have no doubt
but for every i'll there is a remedy, for
every disease a cure. 1t may not be for
the nineteenth century to discover
The remedy and cure, O yet for the
twentieth. and in the meantime new !!
or diseases unknown to med |
zeal science at least, are presenting
for the torment and ami
hilation of mankind. but somewhere the
remain to be discovered and
used. Science will vet teach us the
favorable conditions" whereby life may
be pleasantly prolonged.-Norrcich Gu
zeHe.
CONCERNING SPELLS.
How They Arc Related to tho Magic Of
Western Europe.