The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1902-12-03

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yond question that as rule human
beings eat far more than is necessary
for their existence. The London
Lancet has given particular attention
to this subject, and cities tho case of
q native Of Bogota who lived 70 the
age Of 180 years. He habitually par
took Of but one meal day, but that
was Of the strongest food obtainable,
and he tasted twice every week, on
which days he drank water in large
quantities. Another case resembling
this is that of q Venetian named
Louis Cornaro, who prolonged his life
~ ITO by abstemious living. 1t is,
however, just here that self-indulgent
humanity rebels. Though men seldom
oandidly say: "Let US eat, drink and
be merry, for tomorrow we de-" yet
they act on that principle, and assert
that life would not be worth living
could they not enjoy what pleasures it
has to offer them
Supposing that what these medical
authorities say be true with regard to
simple living being the readiest way
to secure longevity, do we not find in
this fact some explanation of the ex-
tremely long lives Of the pstriarchs as
recorded in the Bible? A Russian
physician has recently published
q book on this subject in which
he says: "There were giants in those
days, just az the animals Of the period
were colossal in their proportions. II
the men were giants, their organisms
were naturally stronger and their
health better. 1t could not we'll be
otherwise. The climate Of Mesopota-
m;a is, even now, mild, warm, benef-
cent and favorable to longevity. Then
it was much more 80. And men led
different lives; they lived under the
smiling sky; needed no buildings to
shelter them and undermine their
vitality: their food was abundant on
every hand, practically without exer.
tion. The trees were laden with
fruit, tho rivers teemed with ash, the
meet OF one animal suficed for weeks,
and the Use OF fermented liquors was
totally unknown; the grape not even
being among the fruits eaten by early
mankind. Nosh was the first to teach
men the use Of wine.''
There is no good reason to suppose
that If it were possible for men to re-
vert to such primitive mode Of life
it would not greatly leugthen their
years. But it is simply impossible
for them to do so in this age Of the
world. Naturally such result could
not be achieved in one generation,
and if one set Of men were willing to
make all the sacrifices necessary to
return to the patriarchal manner of
living, it is almost certain that their
children or grandchildren would rebel
against their customs and cause the
experiment to be failure for lack of
perseverance in it. Now and again we
hear of q man who attempts to revert
to o simple mode of life with the pur-
pose of proving its efficacy in length
ening his existence; but everything
is against him, and, worst Of all, he
soon comes to be regarded by his ao-
quaintanoes as monomaniao.
But even were men to succeed in
adding many years to ths three score
and ten o. four score allowed them
here, of what use would it bf Very,
very few are Of such Importance or
benefit to the world that the world
would be better Of their reaching Eve
score years. Still smaller is the num-
Der of those whc are making such
good use of their lives, either for
Others or for their own purposes, or
are 80 exceptionally happy, that they
would desire to prolcng then indefi-
nitely. Four eminen me- shose por-
traits are given in tho ne~speper arti-
Gle above referred to, as examples of
those who by abstemious living had
attained unusual age, Tolstoi, Niche
let, Emile Littre and Herbert Spencer,
could probably have accomplished all
they did in fewer years than were
granted them. And great number
Of those persons who have done the
most for humanity have done their
work in very short time, and would
have done nothing more of Importance
ha2 they doubled the term Of existence.
This shows conolusively that what
mankind really needs is, not 80 much
added years, but the desire and capa-
bility of making the most Of those
now allotted them, be they few or
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