Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-06-08
CENTENARIANS.
How Many People Live One Hundred
Years.


1t will be remembered that Sir George
Cornewall Lewis undertook to prove that
nobody had ever lived to be hundred
years old. He contended that the reputed
centenarians were persons whose history
was obscure and whose births could not be
verified. No one, he maintained, who had
lived before the public was included in
the number. Now, on the other hand, an
English physician, DR.. George NJ. Hum
phrey, brings forward the results of an ex-
tensive and rigorous investigation, which
has shown that the attainment of centen-
arianism is by no means impracticable, not
less than seventy-four persons being emu
merated who have unquestionably reached
| or exceeded the age of a hundred years.
Nothing, for instance, could be better au-
thenticated than the longevity of the
famous French savant, Chevreul, who was
more than hundred and two years old
when he died last year.
In 1879 Sir Duncan Glib recorded the
case of great-aunt of Mr. Williams, who
had sat at the head of her own table for
100 Christmas days, having been married
at the age of Is. We observe that DR..
Humphrey puts faith in the extraordinary
age ascribed to Thomas Parr G52 years.
on the ground that William Harvey, who
performed the post-mortem examination,
would have taken pains to ascertain the
truth had he had cause to susrect that an
imposition had been practiced. In the
case, too, of John Bayles. said to have
been 40 years old when he died, in 1905.
there is extant medical description with
details that satisfied the observers of the
correctness of the reputed age
Outside of England there have been
trustworthy examples of centenarianism
not mentioned by DIR. Humphrey. When
we bear in mind the fact that the Bishops
of the Greek Church are even more care
full of registered births than are the Eng
fish parochial clergy, we must accept, as
deserving of credence, the statement made
to Sir Henry Halford, by Baron Brunow.
the Russian ambassador to the Court of
st. James, that there is, on the borders of
Siberia, district where a year seldom
passes in the course of which some one
does not die at the age of 100. Then.
again, from official accounts of deaths in
the Russian Empire in 1882 it appears
that there were sos persons whose ages
ranged from 100 to los; $50 ranging from
lbs to 10; and three from $50 to 1856 At
Dantzic, one was said to have lived to 1874.
and in the next year, 1910, another died in
Wallachia at the last mentioned age.
In ancient times, also, there are official
records of centenarianism. whose accuracy
it is not easy to impeach. Thus, when YES
paslan made his census In A. ID. "A, there
were found to be, in the Roman Empire.
tfty-nine persons who were Just century
old; ia who were from 100 to ITO wears of
age; two from ITO to 125; four from 125 to
40. Among the distinguished persons
whose age there would be abundant means
OF verifying, may be mentioned Fabius
Maximus who died centenarian; Teren-
tia, the wife of Cicero, who, according to
some, lived to be 103, according to others
1l2; Claudia, the wife of the Senator
Aurelius, who died at lis. 1t is also to be
noted that on the tenth anniversary of the
taking of the Bastile, Bonaparte, then First
Consul, received two invalid soldiers. one
of LOG, the other of 107 years; and that in
1922 Pietro Huel, who was then III years
old, and the only Frenchman living who
had seen Louis XIV, assisted at the inau-
guration of the statue of the Grand
Monarch.
1t is interesting to learn that of forty
six centenarians with regard to whom DR.,
Humphrey procured detailed information,
fifteen took no alcoholic beverages while
only one is described as taking great deal
of beer. Out of forty-Gve only twelve
smoked tobacco, and but three took snuff.
Only three out of forty-one were yegeta-
rians. Less than one il FIVE was fat, and
none was tall. Out of forty-fve, only
seven were bed-ridden, and only one is de-
picted as absolutely childish. The men,
DRY often failed, but on the whole the
powers of reasoning and observation re-
manned unimpaired. From the post-mor-
tenn examinations of Thomas Parr and
John Bayles, the inference seems justified
that an extraordinary vigor of certain
vital organs rather than any special regi-
men is the condition of extreme longevity.