The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-06-12
Does anybody Live Hundred Years :

From the New York Ledger.
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 certenarians 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. Humphrey,
brings forward the results of an extern
sive and rigorous investigation, which
has shown the attainment of centen-
arianism is by no means inpracticable,
not less than seventy-four persons be-
ing enumerated who have unquestion-
ably reached or exceeded the age of a
hundred years. Nothing, for instance,
could he better authenticated than
The longevity of the famous French
savant, Chevreul, who was more than
hundred and two years old when he
died last year
In 1875, Sir Duncan Gihb recorded
the case Of great aunt ola Mr.. VIII
liams, who had sat at the head Of her
own table for a hundred Christmas
days, having been married at the age
of fifteen.
We observe that DR.. Humphrey
puts faith in the extraordinary age as
cribed to Thomas Parr Zone hundred
and fifty-two 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 suspect that an
imposition had been practiced.
In the case, too, of John Bayles, said
to have been one hundred and thirty
years old when he died in 1706, there
is extant a medical description, with
details, that satifed the observers of
the correctness Of the reputed age.
Outside of England there have been
trustwothy examples of centenarian-
ism not mentioned by DR.. Humphrey.
When we bear in mind the fact that
the bishops of the Greek Church are
even more careful to register births
than are the English parochial clergy,
we must accept, as deserving Of Gre
dence, the statement made to Sir Hen
ry Halford, by Baron Brunow, the
Russian ambassador to the court of st.
James, that there is, on the borders of
Siberia, a district where year seldom
passes in the course of which some
person does not die at the age of one
hundred and thirty. Then, again, from
official accounts of deaths in the Rus
sian empire in 1899, it appears that
there were S5S persons whose ages
ranged from 100 to lO5; 13O ranging
from ll5 to 10; and three from $50 to
l56. At Dantzic, one was said to have
lived to one hundred and eighty-four,
and, in the next year, 1910, another
died in Walachia at the last mentioned
age.
In the ancient times, also, there ale
official records of centenarianism,
whose accuracy it is not easy to inn
peach. Thus, when Nespasian made
his census in A. ID. II, there were
found to be, in the Roman empire, fifty
nine persons who were just century
old ia who were from l0o to 1ln years
ofage; tw) from III 125; our from 125
to l30 three from l33 to 40.
Among the distinguished persons
whose age there would be abundant
means of verifying, may he mentioned
Fabius MaNimus, who died a centen-
arian; Terentia, the wife of Cicero,
who, according to some, lived to be
one hundred and three, according to
Others on" hundred and twelve Clau-
dia, the wife Of Senator Aurelius, who
died at one hundred and fifteen
1t is, also, to be noted that on the
tenth anniversary of the taking Of the
Bastile, Eonalarte, then first consul,
received two invalid soldiers, one Of
one hundred and six, the other of one
hundred and seven years and that, in
1872, Pittro Hucl, who was then one
hun lred and seventeen years old, and
the only Frenchuan living who had
seen Louis NV, assisted at the inaug-
urution Of the statue OF the Grand
Monarch.