The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-02
FEAR OF DEATH,
To BE Afraid of Death Itself Only
ShOrtens Life
From dc Chicago Tribune

From the Chicago Tribune.
Men should be afraid of the fear of
death-not of death itself If men
follow this rule, there is no reason
why they should not all become CEN
tenarians-so it is asserted in the
''Revue d'Economie Politique," by NJ.
Jean Finot.
This author begins an article on the
limitations of life by mentioning some
traditional long lives. Among these
cases are those of a resident of Goa,
who is said to have reached his four
hundredth year in the enjoyment of all
his intellectual faculties, a Scotchman
who lived to be over 200 years old,
and various monks of Mont Athos who
have reached $50 years. He asserts
that Servian statistics for 1897 show
three persons between 1876 and 140
years old, eighteen from 100 to 1885, 123
from lis to 125 and 290 from 105 to u.s.
In 1890 there We're he says in the
United States 1881 persons over 100
years old and twenty-one in London
NJ. Finot cites a mathematical formu-
la, which he credits to DR.. Richard
son, by which any one may get an
idea of his probable length of life 1t
is only necessary to add the ages of
ones father and mother to those of
ones two grandfathers and two grand
mothers, and the total divided by six
indicates the exact number of years
one should live.
NJ. Finot does not believe the aver
age length of human life has been re-
duced. On the contrary, he believes it
is constantly increasing, owing to the
progress of hygiene. Why do we grow
old at all? The writer answers:
For three reasons: want of physical
exercise in the open air; poisoning by
microbes which the phagocytes have
not succeeded in destroying; fear of
death. 1t is hard to imagine the i'm
portance of this last element. If
man fears death, it will carry him
away. And yet it is quite pleasant to
die; no sensation could be compared to
it"
To prove this assertion NJ. Finot
quotes Helm. who related the sensa-
lions he experienced while falling with
his companions from the summit of
one of the Alps to a death which he
miraculously escaped:
AT first a sense of beatitude then
complete insensibility to touch and
pain finally an extreme rapidity of
thought and of Imagination, which in a
few seconds enabled him to recollect
the events of his whole life Therefore
II is not death we should fear, but the
fear it inspires in us. We are wrong
says Socrates, to fear death, as il is
our greatest possession on earth, and
Seneca adds that il is the best of the
inventions of life, while Montescuieu
concludes that we should shed tears for
men when Jhey are born and not when
they die"
NJ. Henry de Varigny examines the
question Of longevity in "LInustra-
ton" from another point OF view He
asks: Has the man of to-day a chance
10 live longer than the man OF . 900
years age He bases his conclusions
upon charts and statistics published by
Prof. Karl Pearson in "Biometrika"
and upon. the researches made by w.
spegelhcrg Of Strasburg. on the age
OF Egyptian mummies. These con-
illusions are that an Egyptian who
1000 years ago lived 20 be sixty-eight
years old was likely 10 live longer than
q modern Englishman OF the same age.
y. DE- Narigny gives the following eK-
phantom
Evidently there was among the
Egyptians "a natural selection. resulting
from enFironment. that does not take
place to-day. ~ least 30 The same doe
gree. among civilized people The
Egyptians who reached the aRe ~ al
9tars haa robust constitutions ana
therefore their fhanNea ~ loaaeslty
Neff exceptional"