The morning news., 1899-04-27
CENTENARIANS.
One Person In Fifty Thousand May
Reach the Hundrcd-Year Mark
From the Spectator.

centenarian. Sir G. CornewaI Lewis 10
/ doubt was rash in assuming it to be I'M
possible, and Mr. Thorn, the librarian Of
the House of Lords, who after exhaustive
| investigation, pronounced such cases to
| be excessively rare, was probably the VIC
| tim of a preconceiVed idea; but even L. T..
| Young, the very newest authority, the Iate
| president of the Institute of Actuarles, 10
| evidently inclined to think that the nor
mai life of the healthiest and most endur-
| Ing persons is considerably less than
| century. The general conclusions of his
| very interesting and instructive, though
| rather overloaded book upon the subject 10
| that The instances of abnormal longevity,
| which, however, do occur, are, so to speak,
| sports of alteration The length of the
| potential life cannot IL is true. be proved,
| for there is no absolute reason either In
theory or science why life should ever end,
any more than there is why man should
| not be twelve feet high; but universal ex-
| perience, or, as 1t is sometimes called, tne
| rule of frequency" is sufficient evidence.
Human life, Mr. Young moreover thinks,
| ends even in aberrant cases very close 20
| the century. The longest life of which
| there is proof that would satisfy an In
| surance office does not exceed 106 years,
| The duration of patriarchal life asserted in
| Scripture, however the statement may be
| explained, cannot refer to individual life,
| and the cases so often quoted of jenkins,
! Parr, Cornaro and other remain without
| verbhcation They are sometimes frauds,
| soemtimes blunders and some times merely
| instances of ignorant credulity. The num-
ber even of centenarians is exceedingly
| few. The inquiries of the Institute Of
| Actuaries and the Faculty of Actuaries,
| together with those of the actuary of The
| national debt office, cover more than 10000
| lives, and among them only twenty-five in
! disputable cases of life protracted beyond
| the century can be discovered, of whom
four were males and eighteen females.
| These, it will be observed, were all picked
| lives, persons either accepted by the offices
! because they were likely to live, or persons
| with comparatively good means who mad
| unusual confidence in their own chances
| of survival, and, therefore, bought annu-
| tiles (Mr. Young, indeed makes the ex-
| ceedingly acute suggestion that people real
| ly know a good deal about their own con-
| stituuons and that. consequently, the self
| selection of annuitauts by themselves i'm
| pairs the accuracy of many calculations,)
| II follows that even among such persons
the chances of any one reaching a hun
| dred is only about one in fifty thousand
| while the assured especially among wom-
en-, have usually surmounted the great
| dangers of life, the chances of any one
| taken indiscrImnately from the population
Is almost indefinitely less
The custom of humanity. is, therefore,
| against any one who wishes to be a CEN
tenarian, while apparently his own action
| will help him very little, the conditions
OF longevity being in great measure invol-
untary Moderation in fiesh-eating, it is
true, and in the drinking of alcohol con-
| duces to heightened life, and so does a
placid temperament, which, however,
must not We suspect, be artificial, as per-
petual self-restraint exhausts vital en-
ergy; but the three main conditions we're
| settled before the aspirant was born He
should be of spare habit. which is consti-
tutional; he should be of medium hight
over which, as Scripture tells us, he has
no control; and he should be born In one
of those families the members of which
have a general habit of living to eighty
five or ninety. This Is much the most I'M
portant requisite of all and il is not quite
established that it Is not a universal one.
Whence the quality is derived is not yet
understood, but 1t is beyond question that
there exists in some families a quality as
separate as any race popularity which
enables a majority of Its members TO 20
on living beyond the average period They
are not physically stronger than other
people, and they have power of recover
| ing themselves completely after Illness
which other men do not possess, and they
consequently decay more slowly. 1t is
probable, though not certain, indeed, that
this PECULIARLY extends to whole races
| and that lhe greater average duration of
Western. as compared with Eastern, life
is derived from 1t. The Asiatc-that is
he who is never attacked by severe Illness
lives as long as the European, but If he
is attacked he has an inferior faculty of
recuperation. He does not recover so
compleiely, or he dies at once. 1t should
be added that for those wishing to be CEN
tenarians, 1t is convenient to be born a
woman. for the present popular notion,
which Mr.. Young shows to be compara-
I lively new, thai old women tend TO live
longer than old men, is absolutely true, so
true as to effect the tables of all ife in
surance societies.
More of them pass the Tooth year, and
they pass il by longer period of time,
though at last the oil burns out in the
lamp of both sexes. (This buriug out OF
the oil is, by the way, one of the best
arguments fc the usually illogical belief
of the materialists. 1t suggests that a
man may have at birth a certain guam
tity OF the essence called life, commonly
supposed TO be immaterial or spiritual,
: and that when this is used up, he ceases
as O living being TO exist.
VIII the total number of centenarians
. increase? The answer must certainly be
in the affirma tive, at least as regards the
comfortable classes. They tend, as every
There is considerable evidence that in the
= fourteenth. fifteenth and sixteenth CEN
3 turtles men of 70 were considered very
aged, and that a man Of eighty was a
rare phenomenon; and, of course the num-
r Der of the exceptionally Old increases with
the number OF the aged. There is no in
) crease, or an imperceptible one, in the de-
gree OF the exception, but there is in the
, number of exceptions fact observable
in another department of physics The
ancient world produced a few men as tall
as modern giants-the Emperor Maxlmin.
for example-but II seems certain that the
proportion of six-footers. and indeed, the
general bulk, has enormously increased
The Roman soldiers were small, 1.-the men.
and there does not exist in England a
! set of suits Of middle age armor which the
larger Guardsmen of our day could by
. any device or cxertion put on for battle
There will. therefore. if medical science
sanitation and the general habit OF obedi-
once to tho laws OF health continue 90 i'm