The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-13
WAS HE 40 YEARS oLDt
The Great Age of "A Man who c. aimed
to Have the Secret of Longevity.
F'rom the Sd. Louis Republic.

From the St. Louis Republic.
Back of the death of Dr. William Hotch-
kiss, which occurred early last Wednes-
day morning, is story as strange as it
is unusual. 1t deals with an existence
prolonged beyond the century mark by
the vital energy of a man whose whole
life was given over to the search for
universal panaeea. lie was a man of
many striking peculiarities, one of which
was his steadfast refusal to talk about
himself. All that is positively known of
him is that he came to st. Louis forty
years ago, and at once began the prac-
tice of medicine after his own original
ideas. His patients, or, as he termed them
the members" of his circle" were I'M
able to learn anything OF his past life,
further than that he was born in the lat
ter half OF the last century in Dinwiddie,
Va, and that ere he began the study OF
materia medica, he had practiced law
and taught school.
One of the circle" prompted By curl
osity as TO the doctors age, wrote to the
Virginia village asking some information
about the strange man and received an
answer that was startling 1t was to the
effect that DR.. William Hotchkiss was
remembered there by many of the Oldest
inhabitants as an uncommoniy queer in
vidual; that he was born in 1855, had Joined
the Masonic order in the beginning of
this century, being then an old man, and
ndtl liAldlly uIlleu away from the Village
and gone west When the patient ques-
toned the mysterious physician, he smiled
Significantly and did not deny that he was
the one to whom the letter referred. The
claim that he was a nineteenth century
rival of "Old Parr' Is borne out in his
remarkable memory of events that hap
pened many, many years ago, and by the
fact that SO long as he has lived in this
city no additional sign of age set itself
as a seal upon his face or body. According
to Mr.. Hoffman, who was one of his first
nafianfE the dead nhWGiffan
looked even younger a week before his
demise than he did fifteen years before the
civil war.
The complete story of DR.. Hotchkiss'
life, Of his researches into the realms Of
alchemy thaumaturgy, and other occult
sciences, and of his power over his dis
ciples would be remindful of the outland-
ish stories of the philosophers OF the mid
die ages Yet, while his quest for the
elixir vitae IS strongly suggestive Of Bep-
20 Balsamo, Paracelsus and St GEORGE
the Formosan, it is certain that his idios-
yncrasies were not assumed for mercan-
airy motives; and that he did possess some
strange control over the forces of nature
is proved by the fact that when his end
found him he was many decades beyond
the three-score and ten years allotted as
the period OF mans life.
Among those not impressed with his
theories he was best known as "the dirty
doctor" an unpleasant sobriQuet that
arose from the repungance to good clothes
and the fact that he eschewed water for
the purpose of cleansing his body. Like
st. Anthony or Padua, who dwelt thirty
years in the Lybian Desert without ever
undergoing an abiution. DR.. Hotch hkfss
held the use of water in adherence. ana
it is said, went for over a score Of years
without permitting the fluid to touch his
body. In addition to this he held that the
vital principle could be best obtained
from the smoke Of certain chemicals
and several times a week he treated him
self by standing over burning brazier
which emitted a dense cloud OF smol >
and allowing the sooty flakes to settle
upon his body. Notwithstanding this he
is said TO have kept himself clean by some
mysterious process. which may have heen
the scrubbing OF his body with sand a
method OF cleansing much In vogue among
him TO purchase "A new SUIT Of clothes
! he Immediately tore Il into strips. So
remain unhindered. The hutterlng pieces
were tied with gayly col0red ribbons.
which also figured IN his cure, and his