The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-10-28
THE SECRET OF LONG LIFE.

1hOu54L IL 4Eo NAl5 U ut bA4elI H bAAC years of man be extended to fourscore they become towards the end a burden and wearisome, there was a notable ex- ception in the long life of the late Pope. His serene and lucid enjoyment of exis- tence was as remarkable as his heroic resistance to death. Plain living and high thinking achieved yet another triumph in his ninety-four years. His simple life and unclouded mind have been too recently set forth to need ex- position. A shilling day covered the cost of his food, which consisted of milk
 and eggs. with an occasional chicken, a few vegetables and a little wine. Every morning he rose at six, and it was mid night or later before he retired to rest. His intervening hours were filled with the duties of his high office and liter ary composition. If there be any high way to long life and a happy one, it lies in some such simplicity. So Corn arc, the Venetian nobleman, who lived to 1O3, discovered. At forty-five he found life burden, and medicine fail- ing to ease his ills, he drew a strict dietary. Twelve ounces of solid food per diem, with three-quarters of a. pint of new light wine, was henceforth his only food. Upon this he recovered vigorous health and enjoyed his life for half a century after his physician had pronounced him moribund. Sir Isaac Holden, who died a few years ago at the age of ninety-one, was man at similar theory and action as Leo XIII. His first rule was never to spend less than two hours in the open air. When he entered his first situation he asked his employer for an hours absence every afternoon, agreeing to renounce all holidays in return for this privilege. Thus every day Sir Isaac had his walk. In the matter of food, he believed in fruit, and eschewed fariaceous fare He was not vegetarian, but, on the con. trary, abstained from bread. His bill of breakfast, baked apple, an orange, twenty grapes, and biscuit made from bananas. The midday meal consisted l of three ounces of beef or mutton, oc- casionally a little soup or fish. Supper was practically repetition of break fast. Wine he never took, but he smoked two or three cigars a day to his great comfort and benefit, and return 1 ing from the house of commons at night he had tumbler of whiskey and hot water before going to bed. To most people this diet would be an excuse for starvation, but on it Sir Isaac reached the age of ninety-one, active and vigor- ous to the last. | NyI, NJ, hygienic theory, similar abstemiousness marked his diet. He disliked fine cookery and chose the simpler fare, to each mouthful of which he gave thirty two bites, thus ensuring thorough mas tication and relieving the digestion of l blood. A daily walk in all weathers he regarded as also conducive to the green ness of his old age. Moreover, though attendance at the House of Commons prevented anything like early retire. i ment, yet Mir. Gladstone made early rising feature of his routine. M. l Chevreull, the great French chemist, sustained the close of his nearly hun
 dred years on frugal diet. Two eggs l and some chicken formed his breakfast, and for dinner he had tapioca soup, a outlet, bunch of grapes, cheese and three glasses of water Fish and wine
 he never touched. In so far as in-
 stances of longevity have common 1 feature, it is this principle of modera-
 ton in eating. The Chinese proverb
 that most men dig their graves with their teeth is a rule especially applica ble to this generation, which esteems ] quantity rather than quality and for l gets that it is the food assimilated and not the food eaten that produces
 vitality. Nearly all people over forty eat Ear too much. and, moreover, eat the wrong food; Tn the dietaries of l l1ong-lived men outlined above the small
 quantity of meat and the prominence of
 fruit are notable. They were not vege- tarians; but simply most moderate in the use of flesh, which admirable in ]youth, is unsuitable for the aged. All l foods rich In earth salts and starchy
 matter are to be avoided as ossifying and clogging the tissues. But the pre- eminent virtue is moderation. No special dietary can be commended as 8 lspecific for nonagenarianism. Some
 centenarians give the credit of their
 long lives to abstinence from meat, al-
 cohol, tobacco, and what not As many point to their indulgence in the very I same things. Bacon commended "a
 suffumigation of tobacco, ling, aloes,
 dried leaves of rosemary, and a little
 nyrrh'' every morning; and the famous
 old Parr who married his second wife
 at the age of 120, could thresh corn ten iyears latter, and died at 150, ascribed great virtues to butter and garlic.
 Equally curious is the declaration of a
 latter-day American professor that
 human life would average four or five
 times it's present length if people would
 eat their food raw. Animals and fowls
 live much longer than man in proportion to the period of full development, and
 this, he argues, is due to mans con-
 sumption of dead cells Cooked cells) to
 replace the dead cells of the exhausted
 body. Apart from all, individual Iidosyncrasies spare eating can be dis
 cerned as the golden rule of longevity.
 'Each what you like, and what you
 have been accustomed to" says a noted
 physician; "but do so sparingly Fad
 dism, is bad. Regularity is sound
 principle; but it should be reguarity
 from year to year and not merely from
 day to day."-London Standard.
 II
 THE OT;D pr NTSA TToN