The Dickinson press., 1889-01-05
LONGEVITY OF MAN,
THE LIFE TERM OF THE RACE
SHOULD AVERAGE Sc YEARS.
The Genealogy of tho Patriarchs-sIon-
strous Hygienic Supcrstitions of tho
Middle Ages-Keeping Disease ut Bay.
A Hint to Brain Workers.


Middle Ages-Keeping Disease ut Bay.
Hint to Brain Workers.
The biologist Bichat, whose institutions so
marvelously anticipated the conclusions of a
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. \ 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-
lore lts hfteenth year, and i'll India often
outllTes two masters Some of the larger
quaarumana, likewise, grow very slowly;
several varieties of baboons for instance, do
NOT acquire the characteristics of maturity
before the beginning of their teens; and the
naturalist Brehm mentions a male cacna
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 fight with the outraged
natives.
Tho males of our own species grow for at
least sixteen years. but less than one-third
reach even the threefod 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 seq
sons, the genealogy of the patriarchs records
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 u priori proba bility
that the average duration of our life term
must have been shortened by those three
billion tons of virulcnt 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 tue middle ages, but it is equally certain
that those superstitions enormously decreased
the average life term of earlier generations.
CONDUCIVE TO LONGEVITY.
Mental activity, under the stimulus of a
eo'nlet!soii, ,.s, IS no1 sPecislly cono''ciNe
G,an;s " gu VI ine, se' surprising huilper Oh
Greclan statesmen, poets and philosophers
I:s, enhi iais' INC sun oi ehe sou.h
~ ny p!e,etie ene p'lsslona'e thongh ole,
s1lcaily tenpera'e' oaracens OF bhgaad ana
Toauosa T''l:. from reaching al age "hici, tneir
urlhl.ariah contemporaries often ascribed to
t .,ie 'ilach,llttlons OF ",,chcratt' Yet neither
.n9 ieeAs e nor the -horiscoeS were alstlh-
suisneu u, ,or tue Practlce OF the ascctlc Nir-
suss ny ioNeu me ior us own SAKE ana
"a" iioeniis nieritoriouS Ill gratuitous sell
oer,ais: m'
nssical EXERCISE out ooof sports' absence
I'm .oAic stliiiulahts ana premature neon
:ihence' ifusality IN tne original sense that
'i'.'i'ea piedl!ectlon ior a manly vegetable