Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1901-03-07
THE LENGTH OF LIFE
IT MAY BE DETERMINED BY
THE x-RAY.
German Sayant Claims That an En-
animation OF the Principal Organs
VIII Show tho Number of Years That
Amy Person VIII Live. q

Is it possible to tell the duration Of
mans life? In spite of certain pre-
posterous claims put forward from
time TO time by clairvoyants and other
so-called seers. scientists have always
maintained that this question can only
be answered in the negative and that
we can hardly expect to obtain more
light on the subject than is furnished
by Flourens, the statistician, who, af-
ter years of labor, discovered that the
average duration of life in Europe is
from sc to 10 years, and that the or
binary duration is Gj years, and that
the abnormal duration is 125 years.
Now, however. a German savant in
sists that barring accidents, the exact
duration of any persons life can be
determined by means Of the X-rays.
This savant is Herr Richter, who is 50
well known by his experiments with
these rays, and by his works on radiog-
raphy, and his novel method of deter
mining the duration Of life is fully ex-
planned in a paper by him. which was
read the other day at the Imperial col
lege Of Berlin. Herr Richter simply
claims that an examination of the prin-
cipal organs of the body will show the
number of years that any person will
live. 1t has long been admitted as one
of the first and indispensable conditions
of longevity that such organs as the
heart, the lungs, the brain and the di-
gestive apparatus must be sound and
vigorous. but Herr Richter goes further
than this; he insists that there is a
close connection, which practically
never varies, between the duration Of
life and the size strength and sound
ness of these organs, and it Is on this
connection that his theory is entirely
based. As a proof of the truth of his
statements he brings forward numerous
examples of organs which he has eX-
amined. as well as an array OF statis-
tics. which are entirely in his favor.
At the same time he admits th't there
are some persons the duration of whose
life cannot be determined by the size
and vigor of their organs, but he main
tains that these are only exceptional
cases, and do not really invalidate the
truth of his theory Perhaps the most
extraordinary case of this kind was
that of an Englishman who was born
in 1883, and who was so puny at birth
that the doctors unanimously decided
that he could not live. His chest, says
an old ChroniCler, was so narrow that
he was scarcely able to breathe; he was
as thin as o skeleton, and very often
his heart ceased to beat. Yet this ex-
traordlnary individual lived to be l6S
years old. his death occurring in 1861.
He actually saw ten kings reign, and
so keen was his enjoyment OF life that
in his one hundredth year he made vio-
lent love to an estimable young woman,
and vas subsequently severely pun
ished because he did not marry her A
more grave objection to Herr Richter's
theory, according to German scientists
is that, however true it may BE- in
itself it is apt to prove misleading, for
the reason that it Is of no avail in
the case of persons who meet death
through accidents, and, as statistics
show, large percentage of human be-
ings come to their end each year in
this way. 1t is a well-known fact, too,
that many persons who are killed ac-
cidentally have always enjoyed vigor-
Gus health and seemed destined to live
to a good old age. Yet X-rays, If used
in such cases, would certainly not
have told the truth. Herr Richter in
tends to make many further expert
ments in this direction, full account
OF which will in due time he published.
New York Herald.