The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-02-07
TOLD BY K RAYS.
A German Scientist Says That the
Duration of Life May Be
EOretOId.

Is it possible to foretell the duration
of mans life?
In spite of certain preposterous
claims put forward from time to time
by clairvoyants and other so-called
seers, scientists have always maintained
that this question can only be an
swered in the negative and that we
can hardly expect to obtain more light
on the subject than is furnished by
Flourens, the statistician, who after
years of labor discovered that the av
erage duration of life in Europe is from
Sc to 40 years, that the ordinary dura-
ton is 65 years and that the abnormal
duration is 125 years, says the New York
Herald.
Now, however, a German savant in
sists that, barring accidents, the eX-
act duration of any persons life can
be determined by the Y rays. This sa-
want is Herr Richter, who is well known
by his experiments with these rays,
and by his works on photography, and
his novel method of determining the
duration of life is fully explained in
paper by him. which was read the
other day at the Imperial College of
Berlin.
Herr Richter simply claims that an
examination of the principal organs
of the body by means of the X rays
will show the number of years that
any person will live. 1t has long been
admitted, as one of the first and indis-
pensable conditions of longevity that
such organs as the heart, the lungs.
the brain and the digestive 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 soundness of these or
gans, and it is on this connection that
his theory is entirely based.
As proof of the truth of his state
ments 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 that 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 extra ordinary case
of this kind was that of an Englishman,
who was born in 1883, and who was so
puny at birth that the doctors unani-
mously decided 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 a skeleton,
and very often his heart ceased to beat.
Yet this extraordinary individual lived
to be 16S years old. his death occurring
in 1851. He actually saw ten kings
reign, and so keen was his enjoyment
of life that in his one hundredth year
he made violent love to an estimab bile
young woman, and was subsequently
severely punished because he did not
marry her.
A more grave objection to Herr Rich
| ter's theory, according to German
scientists, is that, however true it may
be in itself, it is apt to prove mislead-
ing, 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
accidentally have always enjoyed Wig
orous health and seemed destined to
live to a good old age. Yet Y rays, if
used in such cases, would certainly not
have told the truth