Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-10-21
! THEY LIVED LONG,
-, THE pATRIARcHs At
RE'o .,cu LENGTH OF YEARS.

,' pay. The Present Rapid WAIST" ,as
''' - poctor's specul"tion' on the
p' f.. r Dr' Boy
..,,pers contained an account OF
neT'p 'is man, forty years old, who
Z; ' l57 90 he An example OF slow intel
tlsred - ampnt This person, Rus
as.'' Of Clarksburg, has been re-
B'Fnes, infancy as an imbecile, but
r. i'om ,ent has gone on slowly, and
d'''lOPpHIbit the aptitude of school,
BE- t Ehn and betrays the love OF
Of l ans'ssor Morris, who is much in
b. fIo.I ease. saws that Barnes in
81 ID ,.-es a fine mind, and if he
b Pn,prb for it to reach its full de-
Dus wi viii be capable of great things.
7H'r' ..,narkcd Il physician to the re-
ha'' directly in line with a theory
'L ,aro long held, and by means Of
! H' .scoprile the longevity of the
vino existed before the flood
| 49," l.rrrh Of years Of those who rush
II
,+ life IN these days.
BIBLICAL EXAMPLES.
d, tbe Biblical record of the first
"oh . ." rare of which we have any
,l,s NJ all Adam lived to be $50
"a "a sstb gl2: Enos, 905; Cainan. 90;
Ell So; Jared, 962, Enoch, the
s az, man of that epoch, only remained
18th S65 years. He was sixty-f1ve
m when Methuselah, who was prob
| ~. first born. saw the light. He mar
| I,rnc for that time, as, by observing
!.,,i in the first chapter of Genesis,
Ill see that most OF the patriarchs did
~,.-r until they were in the nineties.
"a, he Inferred. not from the infor-
~ ,iveu AS to the wedding, but from
'.5rouicle Of the birth Of the first son.
,sp the world was young, and outside
't.,nties Of nature the mind had noih-
nt feed upon. Pastoral people are slow,
,s,,e. the first of pastOrals, were with
,Igb; the slowest. 1t is the cultivated
hat sees the beautiful in nature.
|T.i mean to say is, the reason these
,,rhs achieved such great length of
s, because it was necessary for their
.b7ment. At twenty years old they
no better intellectually than babies
ms. at forty they were like this West
mia wonder, ike schoolboys of four
Years old. Rather less mature, ! i'm
| more like kindergarten boys of
or five. Methuselah, who lived to
Ee of 969 years, was probably the
i Of these old fellows"
,ur theory is somewhat fanciful,"
sted the reporter.
It At all, not at ALL" said the doctor
Is. THE human machine only wears
/, is used. it took MethCselah, W no
0ubtless possessed of even a better
tuition than the other patriarchs who
before the food, a little longer to
yGt than the others. Brains never
anybody out in those days. There
10 sleepless nights leading along the
~ to nervous exhaustion or lunacy,
are many nowadays who wear out
iiy and physically at forty. That
appear very rapid waste of life to
w going patriarchs.
yould not be much more rapid, com
rely, than the whimsical idea of
nd rapid existence conveyed in the
Derals, a sketch in a spectacular
.alblted here few years ago, where
vas born, passed through the stages
q, manhood and old age, and died
hin twenty-four hours. Existence
comprised in mere length of years,
experiences. In an Arabian tale a
lmerses his head in n tub of water.
der water but moment, less than
lie, yet IN that time his mind travels
ar country, where he lives seven
r married, raises family and ac-
a forJune--a longer life, so far as
nee Is concerned, than that of Me
Il, Of whom the record is that all
: OF Aethuselah were nine hundred
whine years; and he died.
WHEN TIE CHANGE CAME.
n the race began to think" re-
the doctor, their years began to
Abraham died at the early age
ntred, tnreescore and fifteen years.
lie must have been greatly short
that epoch, for the comment is
nat Abraham gave up the ghost
1 IN good old age, an old man and
Years, and he was ltfle more than
as old as Methuselah. When the
race was at the height of its intel
y solomon gives the space Of hu-
a threescore and ten, and that is
Is today. Life insurance tables
ure' showing that the expectancy
Is continually growing greater.
ly hs so, but such statistics cannot
'H,riy relied upon. The hurrying
$ OF the present day, which I'M
Z! Val be multiplied in the years
a future now near at hand-will
shorten life. The throbbing brain
sing heart will be melted to such
as to wear out the machine Of
ley are part, and when it is worn
{ t, Is no way Of repairing it,"
Inls forty-year-old boy up in West
" began the reporter.
mind develops with no more ra-
'he Years to come than it has in
'oF.y he will achieve a length Of
i, VIII be almost up to the ante
standard. Divide his life into
VI stages. Not into seven ages as
care has done, but into five. At
Us ne has reached the close of the
. OF his existence, that Of the boy
Ien OF fourteen, just ready to STEP
uorls into trousers. 1t has taken
AIS 10 develop into this, three times
y Is ordinarily required to make
The next stage, the age
.y-eiSht, would, logically, require
les forty years, that is 40 years;
period, to have the experience Of
u iorty-two years, would require
~ years; then each Of the two
Ious should be given 12O years to
~ up to an equivalent In existence
~ tHree score and ten. / make out
NE expectancy is $40 years. This
u hpDFO Z lOata act{n1oto - 1.,o