Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1889-09-12
MANS LENGTH OF DAYS.
People in Ancient and Modern Times
Who Have Lived Remarkably
Long Lives.
In These Times if Persons Are Careful
They Can Easily Live to Be
100.

lnucu ON lue udDlls OF lhe people. Inc
highest average of mortality or duration
OF existence Is obtained in those countries
where culture. wealth. commerce and civil
ization are most diffused. The smallest or
lowest average is where poverty, vice. and
ignorance reign.
The question of longevity presents the
greatest interest in relation to man,
although the conditions and results are
similar when applied to the animal and
vegetable kingdom. According to the
scriptures Enoch was 365 years old when
he died Methuseah lived to the grand
old age of 955 years, But the years as
then calculated may have been OF very
much less duration, or the longevity at
tributed to the patriarchs may have refer
ence to their respective families rather
than their individual age Be this as it
may, it is certain that after the deluge
man existence was gradually shortened
until the average came TO that now gener-
ally accepted as the limit-seventy years.
Shem was 600 years of age when he died.
Abraham lived, however. only to It's years.
Isaac attained the age Of $50. Jacob died
at l47 and Joseph at 10 All of these
latter ages, however, were reached thou
sands of years after. Thomas Pur an old
farm laborer IN England, died in 1885,
after living l52 years and 9 months He
married when he was 40 and lived with
his wife twelve years before she died He
worked daily up to his l30th year. and saw
nine kings on the English throne. When
he died it was found that all his organs
were in a healthy conditions that the ossi-
fication of the cartilages, usually found in
aged persons, was not apparent and that
death had resulted from plethora. 1t was
said that had Parr remained at his own FIRE
side instead Of going to London at the
Kings command he might have lived
many year more.
Mary Patten is said to have lived to the
age of 1877, the countess of Desmond to AS.
Thomas Damme, l54; John Rovin, l72, and
Peter Torton to the age OF lS5. All Of
these people, however. lived toan age when
there was no standard by which to com
pute events; when no chronological records
were kept and when it was the habit to
fix dates by comparing them in the mem
DRY with other things supposed 10 have
happened at the same time. Thus the
sources of falacy were many, although the
narrators believed their statement to be
true. The late George Cornwall Lewis
tried to prove that all of these narrators
like those mentioned in holy writ, We're
inaccurate, bat subsequent cases have
shown that many people have attained to
an age OF more than a century, In these
cases the age has been established by
written records and not by evidences Of
collateral kind nor on memory. Scarcely
a month passes now but that the death Of
one or more centenarians is reported, and
/ in nearly every case the fact that the de
ceased has lived to the age claimed is in
controyertible. Cases of longevity, it Is
believed will become more and more a1m-
mon now as a sufficient time from n L be-
ginning of registering births goes ON
I'm support Of this statement many facts
can be cited. The insurance companies
are gradually increasing the limit on life
tho people are coming TO appreciate that
the period of life depends largely upon ex-
ternal conditions and the mortality records
bear evidence of an average increase of
human life and corresponding increase
i'm the expectation of life. At one time
the expectation of life TO a man Of 20 was
given AS 81 wears. Now man of 80. Ii is
claimed. should live to the age of 63 at
least. Due attention TO the laws of nature
and the known requirements OF health
i'm states and cities has much to do with
the average increase of human life and in
no one way is ii better proven than in the
marked and undeniable reduction Of the
death rate In places where proper sanitary
precautions and measures are made a study
and perfected. Man is learning more and
more every day how to live. and although
the period of maturity or the time when
virility is attained can not be pushed for
ward perhaps the evening of life and
the period of decay can be heightened
materially There is no reason why "a man
of 40 or 50, IN the full enjoyment of his
| faCultie, and i'm general good health, should
not live to the age of 100 years just as web
ms to the three-Score-and-ten limit, so
4 long as the individual physiological con-
/ ditl0ns that determine longevity are OBJ
served With the rapid strides made in
science. the power of man TO apply this
/ increase knowledge 10 the problem of
/ life, the limit of human life must in
crease.
/ Though accused of being fast liyers. of
! burning life match at both ends, the rec
/ ords show Americans 10 be among the long
est-iivel people On the earth. and that the
average duration Of life to-day is consider
ably greater than il was Il century ago.
/ This is not to be wondered at, however. for
much of the work done In the olden time
/ by hand Is now performed by machinery,
with a. corresponding saving ut vitality,
strength. and life TO the worker The
problem of sanitation and prevention bds
/ I'm a great measure been solved. and the use
and abuse Of life commodities i, included
I I'm the curriculum of study i'm every school
/ throughout the land The greatest condi-
. tIou governing longevity III. heredity, is