Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1893-08-04
WHY THEY LIVED LONG.
TIE REASON The PArRIARcHs At
Tanned SUCH LENGTH or YEARS.

brains Never Wore Anybody Dat IL
Those Days''--Tise Present Rapid Waste
Of iIfs-A Doctors sp~euiarssns ON the
Case Of Forty-Year-Oid Boy.
The newspapers contained an account of
West Virginia man. forty years old. who
Il declared to he an example Of slow intel
lectnai Development This person, Rus
sell Barnes, 81 CIarksburg, has been re
garded from infancy a. an imbecfIe, bat
his development has gone on slowly, and
now be exhibits the aptitude OF school
boy Of fourteen and betrays the love Of
study Professor Morris, who is much Id.
terested in the case, says that Barnes In
reality possesses fine mind, and II be
lives long enough for it to reach ifs full de
yslopment. will be capable Of great things
That" remarked physician to the re
porter, is directly in line with q theory
| that have long keld. and by means Of
which ! reconcile the longevity OF the
patriarchs who existed before the dood
with the length OF years Of thoss who rush
through life in these days
BIBLICAL ExANPLEA
Look at the Biblical record Of the first
men Of the race Of which we have any
knowledge at all Adam lived to be $50
years old: Seth, 912 Enos, sos: Cainau, 90.
MahaIeel. 81: Jared. 90e Enoch, the
brightest man Of that epoch, only remained
on the earth as years. He was sixty-five
years old when Methuselah, who WIS prob
ably his first born, saw the light. He mar
ried young for that time. as, by observing
the record in the first chapter Of Genesis,
you will see that most Of the patriarchs did
NOS marry until they were in the nineties.
That can be inferred. not from the infpr
nation given as TO the wedding, but from
the chronicle Of the birth OF the first 500.
You see, the world was young, and outside
the beauties OF natare the mind had NOT q
ing to feed upon Pastoral people are slo1.
and these, the first of pastorals, were with
out doubt the slowest 1t is the cultivated
mind that sees the beautiful in nature.
What mean tn say IL. the reason these
patriarchs achieved such great length Of
years is because it was necessary for their
Development. At twenty years old they
were no better intellectually than babies
in arms; at forty they were like this West
Virginia wonder, like schoolboys OF four
teen years old. Rather less mature, i'm
agine, more like kindergarten boys Of
four or five Methuseiah, who lived 70
the age CT $50 years. was probably the
slowest of these old fellows"
your theory IS somewhat faneifuI.r
suggested the reporter.
Not at all, not at all" said the doctor
warmly The human machine only wears
out as it is used il took MethEselah, no
was doubtless possessed of even a better
constitution than the other patriarchs he
lived before the flood. little longer to
wear out than the others Brains never
<x-fzr f,<.Ir ! IT.
were no sleepless nights leading along the
highway to nervous exhaustion or lunacy
There are many nowadays who wear cut
mentally and physically at forty That
would appear very rapid waste of life to
the slow going pa.riarchs.
1T would not be much more rapid. com
paratively. than the whimsical idea of
brief and rapid existence conveyed in the
Ephemerals,' sketch in a spectacular
play exhibited here few years ago, where
boy was born, passed through the sta yes
OF youth, manhood and old age, and died
all within twenty-four hours Existence
IL not comprised in mere length of years,
but IN experiences. In an Arabian tale
man immerses his head in tub of water
IL Is under water but a moment, less than
minute, yet in that time his mind travels
to a far country, where he lives seven
years, Is married, raises family and ac-
quires a tortune-a longer life, SO far as
experience is concerned. than that of Ne
thuselah. of whom the record is that all
the days of Methuselah were nine hundred
and sixty nine years; and he died.
WHEN THE CHANGE CAME
When the race began to think" re
sumed the doctor, their years began to
shorten Abraham died at the early age
Of a hundred, thFeescore aud fifteen years
Human life must have been greatly short
ened BY that epoch, for the comment is
made that Abraham gave up the ghost
and died in good old age, n old man and
full Of years and he was little more than
one-ffsh as old as Methuselah- When the
Jewish race was at the height OF its intel
lectuality Solomon gives the space of hu
man life as threescore and ten, and that il
what it is today Life insurance tables
give figures showing that the expectancy
of years is continually growing greater
This may be so. but such statistics cannot
be absolutely relied upon. The hurrying
activities OF the present day, which I'm
doubtedIy will be multiplied in the years
to come-a future now near at hand-will
further shorten life. The throbbing brain
and pulsing heart will be melted to such
energy as to wear out the machine of
which they are part, and when 1t is worn
out there is no way of repairing it."
But this fcrry-year-old boy up in West
Virginia'" began the reporter.
III his mind develops with no more IA
pidity in the years to come than it has in
the past forty he will achieve length of
years that will be almost up to the ante
deluge standard Divide his life into
periods or stages. Not into seven ages as
Shakespeare has done, but into five AT
forty years he has reached the close of the
first stage of his existence, that of the boy
OF thirteen or fourteen, just ready to ster
out OF shorts Into trousers. Ii has taken
forty years to develop into this. three times
as long as is ordinarily required 70 make
this development The next stage, the age
Of twenty ght, would, logically, require
three times forty years, that is 10 years.
the next period, 20 have the experience of
the man of forty-two years, would require
another 10 years; then each of the two
next periods should be given l2o years TO
bring him up TO an equivalent in existence
with our three score and ten. | make out |
that his life expectancy is go years This |
Is only an approximate estimate, OF course |
1t might be that this expectancy would be |
exceeded by hundred years or so. 1t is q |
very interesting case. and | am sorry that |
cannot remain on earth few hundred |
years to take notes upon it Such sub |
ject will be of great interest to the readers |
of medical literature six or seven centuries |
hence "-Indizuapolis Journal