Wichita eagle., 1888-10-30
LONGEVITY OF MAN.
FHE LIFE TERM OF THE RACE
SHOULD AVERAGE e6 YEARS.

The Genealogy OF the Patrisrchs-Mon-
strcus Hysienic Superstitions of the
Middle Ages-Keeping Disease at Bay.
A Hint to Brain Workers.
The biologist Bichat, whose institutions so
marvelously anticipated the conclusions of q
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 al known mammals
exceeds at least six times the period of their
growth. A dog, growing for three years,
may live TO eighteen or twenty. horse,
growing for four or five, a:tains, and often
exceeds, an age OF thirty years. A camel,
growing twice as slowly, may live 70 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 u male cacrna
who, after becoming the patriarch of his
tribe, raided the durra fields Of tho Zulu viii
y
his Waterloo in fight with the outraged
natives.
The males Of our own species grow for at
least sixteen years, but less than oue-third
reach even the threefold multiple of that age,
and hardly one in 500 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
q 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 priori probability
that the average duration of our life term
must have been shortened by those three
billion tons of virulent stinulants, which,
according to DR.. Schrodts estimate have
e~nyulsed 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 10
dispel the monstrOus hygienic superstitions
of the middle ages, bat it is equally certain
that those supersfitions enormously decreased
the average life term Of earlier generations.
CONDUCIVE TO LONGEVITY.
Mental activity under the stimulus of q
fierce competition, is not specially conducive
to length of life, yet surprising number Of
Grecian statesmen, poets and philosophers
were octogensrians. The sun of the south
did not prevent the passionate, though die
tetically temperate Saracens OF Bagdad and
Cordova from reaching an age which their
Trinitarian contemporaries often ascribed TO
the Vaccinations of vitchcraft. Yet neither
the Greeks nor the Moriscoes were distin-
guishet for the practice Of the ascetic vir-
tues They loved life for IT'S own SAKE and
saw nothing msritorious In gratuitous self
denials
Physical exercise, out door sports, absencs
from toxic stimulants and premature iuoon-
thence, frugaitty in the original sense that
implied o prediction for mainly vegetable
diet. and the loee OF ntrth and harmless
recreatiore, generally suffice 20 keep disease
at bay, though there " also deep siSnif
canoe in Goethe's remark, that perfect health
Of mind and BODY depends upon the regular,
though not necessarily exclusive. pursuit Of
some practical occupation Brain workers,
he thought, should follow some mechanical
by-trade, and counternct the one sidcd ted
denotes ofsheir study by mechanical iabos-
say, in ao amateur carpenter shop, or a pr1-
vste srnIthy, Ia E. j. Burrftt; or, better
yet, On a little farm, with bat OF 1--we stock
and thriving orchard
Disappointment, oft repeated. underTnines
health as efectually as pro@ractsd physical
md for b. fbs<. Ee.fE
incident to the complex and Usecaysoux pur
suits Of modern civilizstion there L. in
deed, no bettsr specific than the pesce 81
. rustic garden bone Xenopbon's hunt
ing lodge, Peiix 8yiia's cabbage garden. |
Erssmus green housa, tbs patriarch Il |
Ferney's home made Eden. With tts |
pear tres nurseries and refugee settlement,
and even the woodlands snd wood pfass oS |
Hswsrden, may have enabled their propris- /
tors 10 outiive toe rancoT Of Their enemies, /
and IN AL secular pursuits t1e art II survival 4
|, o chief score. Of s0ccesL-Vckx L Osws6 4
Ia Tho Forum.