The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-06-19
To Live a Hundred Years.

It is said that the famous Hundred
Ycsr Ciub,' which was organized
some time ago, was formed by body
Of intelligent men Ehn were anxicns
to discover whether it were not possi-
bic to prolong human life few de.
cades beyond the period that has
commonly been allotted 20 it. In Or
der to make this discovery it would be
necessary that the utmost attention
should be paid to diet and to man
mode Of life; and these scientists did
not purpose to carry on the expert
ments themselves, but upon such sub
jects as it would be possible for them
to obtain. Thus at the very outset q
great difficulty presented itself; that
vi persuadiug any considerable num-
Der of parents to relinquish their
children in carly infancy to the COM
plete management Of the Committee
Of Longevity appointed by the Club
&c carry Oh the experiments. 1t would
evidently not do to select subjects
from that class Of waits and stray who
are left to municipal charity by worth
less parents, since in too many cases
such children, coming Of degenerate
stock, are already doomed to early
death through hereditary influences.
On the other hand, it is rare thing
m End xuortb,, MAN ooI xgop,op M
matter how poor they may be, or how
large their family, who are willing to
give even one of their little ones to be
the subject of any experiment, not
even though it might promise to pro-
long it's life to a hundred years. It
would be necessary, too, to start upon
such, series Of tests with consider
able number Of children, since tho
chances and accidents of life are SO
great that quite a number Of "sub-
jects' might die just in the most
interesting stages of the experiments,
thus rendering useless all that had
gone before. Then, again, the selec
tion Of the rommittee itself offers Sc
rious obstacles. It would, of course,
be necessary. that it should be COM
posed of intelligent men of some ego
and experience, who would go about
their work in scientific and practical
manner; but the probabilities are that
long before the subjects had reached
years Of maturity-muoh less advanc-
ed life-most Of the committee would
themselves have paid the debt of na-
ture, and their places would have to
be filled by other and younger men.
Now we all know how difficult it is to
find any two men of an age who hold
the same theories on the subject Of
health, diet, etc., and the difficulty
increases tremendously when it be-
comes necessary to find a young man
who agrees with en- old one on these
points. From these facts it is seen
that the young committee, disapprov-
ing Of the sysesn thes lad been pur-
/ suea s,E sSas elder men, might intro
duce changes that would completely
nullify all that had been done up to
the point when it took charge, so that
the experiments woult prove entirely
useless. They might, for example,
| give that class of subjects that had
been brought up on meat diet nothing
but vegetables, or vice versa, or they
might fancy that judiciously mixed
diet was the proper thing; or that men
should live exclusively on nuts and
fruit in conformity with the habits Of
their remote ancestors, the monkeys.
In short, there is no saying what
theory young and progressive com
mittee might adopt and feel themselves
conscientiously bound to carry out, no
matter what havoc it might make of
the experiments that had been con-
Quoted up to that period.
But suppose, for the sake of argu-
ment, that all these difficulties could
be overcome, and that a certain mum
Der of the subjects selected in infancy
for the test had managed to survive
the experiments and had reached the
century mark, would the committee
have conferred benefit upon them OF
the reverseY AS we understand it,
they would have done them most
serious injury. Think Of all the very
aged men and women you happen te
know, and the chances are that not
one Of the number is so in love with
life as to desire to prolong it indefi
nitely. They have .outlived the
friends of their youth, and. in some
instances, the greater part Of the mex,
generation. The business occupations
and interests Of their manhood nc
longer exist, or have changed SO as te