Kansas City daily journal., 1896-07-13
LONGEVITY or ANNALS.


An article IN the journal d'Hyriene
Paris, translated for the Literary Digest,
SAYS
"Mau lives 10 all ages hut In the animal
knrl1n, ON the contrary, the duration of
Ii" is Jlm"st exactly equal for all lndi-
yiiuIls of the same species But we can
know with cNactncSs the real duration of
l.fo only for animals in sorvtu1e: We do
savage state. Rabbits ana guinea pigs live
scsan years; squirrels and hares, eight;
foxes fourteen TO siNtecni cattle. fifteen to
eighteen; bears and wolves. twenty: the
rhuoccros. twcniy-iive the ass and horse,
tw.nty-tivo to thirty: the lion. thirty TO
forty ga lion Ia the London zooogical gar
I"ns reached II" age OF 20 years.; the
camel, forty. The length OF life of the ell
Blifon and Cuvier. 1t lives two centuries;
some authors say even four ana five. After
his victory over Porus, Alexander conse.
Grated 90 the sun an elephant that had
fought Tor the Indian monarch. aud gave
II he maine Of Ajax; then having attached
an inscription TO 1t. he set It at liberty;
the animal Was found $50 years later. The
auclonts attributed to the stag a fabulous
length OF lifr but Aristotle observes that
foundation. Button says that the stag
takes Nv" or six years to attain fun
growth and should live seven times this
period, that It, thirty-iivc or forty years.
ing We know that fishes, especially the
large species, live very long time. Ac-
corning 10 lAiNnll, 'fiS l'AtN SlNlN years
Carp have been known to live at least l5O
years and then they seemed 10 Button as
lively ana agile as ordinary carp. DOlphins,
surgeons and sharks live more than IA CEN
tury and attain a huge size. Pike have
been seen weighing 1000 pounds, which In
dichtes Il very long existence. PIKE
caught at Kalsers- Lantern In 1891 was nine
teen feet long and weighed 800 pounds; 1t
bore in its gills copper ring, with an in
seription stating that It had been put in
the pond Of Lautern by order Of Emperor
Frederick H.; that It, 2Gl years before.
whale fishers have eNtcrminated me
were formerly met with We're of prodiglous
dimensions. 1t is supposed, with some
probability, that they live several cen
of 1000 years. The longevity of the FISH Is
attributed TO the long duration of the de-
vclopment, to their low temperature and TO
their feeble vitality.
ION the other hand, we meet another
class of animals whose passions are lively;
whose vitality is very active, ana who still
live a long time-we mean birds. But II Is
not known with any degree Of precision
how long, these liye. except that their
lows returning to their accustomed nests
for a considerable number OF years. An
eagle died ut Vienna Ot tn" age OF lVd
years. According 10 Bufron, the life Of the
crow is los years. and no observation nu-
thorizes us to attribute TO ii, with liesiod.
.Opp years \ paropuct brought to Flor
rnce in 1859 by the Princess Provoro dur-
hin. when she went there TO espousc, the
Grand Duke Ferdinand, was then AT least
- years old, and lived nearly 100 more. y
naturalist whose testimony cannot be
doubted, Willoughhy. had certain proof
that u goose lived century; and Button
did not hesitate to conclude that the swans
life is more yet; some authors give II two
nud even three centuries. MalIerton pos
scsscd the skeleton of y swan that hnd lived
gO7 years, This Is quite enough to prove
that among the larger animals, and nlso
especially among birds, the duration of life
relatively TO their bulk and height Is very
long. it is on the contrary. very short with
insects. many OF these live less than a
] rarely fp while the life Oi
tho cphcmcrids Is hut seven to twelve
! hours, and in this brief space they accom-
I pllsh the principal functions that nature
| requires of organized bodies; they are born
/ reproduce and die"