Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-10-31
LONGEVITY OF MAN.
THE LIFE TERM OF THE RACE
SHOULD AVERAGE 90 YEARS.
The Genealogy Of the Patriarchs-Mon-
strous Hygien.c Superstitions of the
Middle Ages-Keeping Disease at Bay
A Hint to Brain Workers.

strous hysienic Supefstltlons OF the
Middle Ages-Keeping Disease at Bay.
A Hint to Brain Workers.
The biologist Bichat, whose institutions so
anticipated the conclusions of
later science, held that the normal longevity
of our race should be an average of ninety
six years, basing his inference on the fact
that the life term OF all known mammals
exceeds at least six times the period of their
growth. A dog, growing for three years,
may live to eighteen or twenty. A horse,
growing for four or five, attains and often
exceeds, an age of thirty years. A camel,
growing twice as slowly, may live to forty
years and upward. An elephant, even in
captivity, does not attain its full growth be
fore its fifteenth year, and In India often
outlives two masters. Some of the larger
quadrumana, likewise, grow very slowly;
several varieties of balloons, for instance, do
not acquire the characteristics of maturity
before the beginning of their teens; and the
naturalist Brehm mentions a male cacma
who, after becoming the patriarch of his
tribe, raided the durra fields of the Zulu vii
lages for nearly thirty years before he met
his Waterloo in a fight with the outraged
natives
The males of our own species grow for at
lest sixteen years, but less than one-third
reach even the threefold multiple of that age,
and hardly one in 800 the normal skiold
Attention has also to be called to the circum-
stance that, whether the years of Genesis
may have been solar years, moons or sea-
sons, the genealogy of the patriarchs records
a steady decrease Of longevity, since the
author of that record can hardly be supposed
to have used, within the same chapter, two
or three different units of computation.
Besides, there is an a priori probability
that the average duration of our life term
must have been shortened by those three
billion tons of virulent stimulants, which,
according to Dr. Schrodt's estimate have
convulsed the viscera Of mankind since the
invention of alcoholic beverages, not to
mention narcotic drinks, tobacco, made
Dishes premature marriages, indoor life,
sedentary occupations, high pressure schools,
sleepless nights, and all the fracas, fret and
factory smoke of modern city life. There is
no doubt that the average of longevity has
slightly increased since science has begun to
dispel the monstrous hygienic superstitions
of the middle ages, but it is equally certain
| that those superstitions enoT Tnously decreased
the average life term of earlier generations
| CONDUCIVE TO LONGEVITY.
| Mental activity, under the stimulus of 8
| fierce competition, is not specially conducive
to length of life, yet surprising number ot
Grecian statesmen, poets and philosopher:
were octogenarians. The sun of the soutt
did not prevent the passionate, though die
| tatic "a 81 pae-jad pf
Cordova from reaching an age which theil
Trinitarian contemporaries often ascribed u
the Vaccinations of witchcraft. Yet etneithe
the Greeks nor the Moriscoes were distin
guished for the practice of the ascetic vir
tues. They loved life for It's own sake, ant
saw nothing meritorious in gratuitous sci
denials
Physical exercise, out door sports, absenc
from toxic stimulants and premature inc0n
tinence, frugality in the original sense tina
implied prediction for mainly vegetabl
=. diet, and the love of mirth and harmles
recreations, generally suffice to keep diseas
at bay, though there is also deep signit
cance in Goethe's remark, that perfect healt
of mind and body depends upon the regular
though not necessarily exclusive, pursuit c
, some practical occupation. Brain worker.
t he thought, should follow some mechanics
. by-trade, and counteract the one sided ter
denotes of their study by mechanical labor
say, in an amateur carpenter shop, or pr
vste smithy, a la f. J. Burritt; or, bette
yet, on a little farm, with bit Of live stoc
and thriving orchard.
Disappointment, oft repeated. undermine
health as effectually as protracted physici
pain, and for the worry of the vexatioI
incident to the complex and precarious pu
suits of modern civilization there is, il
deed, no better specific than the peace
a rustic garden home Xenophon's hun
, ing lodge, Felix Sylla's cabbage garde
Erasmus green house, the patriarch
Fernev's home made Eden, with
pear tree nurseries and refugee settlement
and even the woodlands and wood piles
Hawarden, may have enabled their propri
tors to outlive the rancor of their enemie
3 and in all secular pursuits the art of surviv
is chief secret of SUCCESSFULLY L. Oswa
| in The Forum.