Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-10-18
TO LIVE A HUNDRED YEARS,
Scientists Declare Life Should Not Be
 Less Than a Century

Again we have the word of
 scientist for it that man should liv hundred years, and that so far a he falls short of the century mari
 he has been cut off before his time
 This statement, so often made b,
 scientific men, is repeated by Si1
 James Chrichton-Browne, wei
 known London physician and an off
 clal of the Royal institution.
 Tn my opinion" says Sir James
 every man is entitled to his century
 and every woman to a century and g
 little more, for women live longer
 than men. Every child should be
 brought up impressed with the obli-
 gation of living to a hundred, and
 should be taught how to avoid the
 irregularities that tend to fustrate
 that laudable ambition"
 While hygienists agree that the
 average duration of human life is un-
 necessarily short, there is the great est diversity of opinion among them
 concerning the best methods of pro-
 longing life. The late Dr Edward
 Hooker Dewey, for instance, of Mead Vile, Penn, attained a following on
 both sides of the Atlantic by advo- eating the fasting cure for disease, and the no-breakfast plan for main- talning health. Dr Dewey contended that in case of sickness the digestive organs are in no condition to perform their natural functions; that the in troduction of food into the stomach IT. Sl1rh a tiDln n1nralu i,, creation of pOiSOns, which retard the work of nature; and that feeding the sick to keep up their strength" is, therefore, not only delusion, but all most a crime.
 But no one who has ever conscious ly gone about it to solve the problem of how to live long has ever met with l the success that came to Luigi | Cornaro, a Venetian of the fifteenth | century, who was a physical wreck at 1 40, yet lived to 103. Cornaro's story. | of course, has been told and retold with more or less accuracy for more than 300 years, but it never becomes old. because in so many respects it is still abreast, or indeed ahead, of the best hygienic thought of the day.
 Cornaro was wealthy, and until he was 40 lived the life of the rich Ital- ans of his period. He ate two much, frank too much, and slept too little. with the result that in his prime he was suffering intensely from various and seemed about to die. At this point his physicians told him hat his only chance lay in the adop- ion of the temperate and orderlyl fife" use his own words. CornarO adopted the suggestion, and at the lge of S3 wrote a pamphlet telling1 bout it. At SC he wrote another: at II another, and still another at 95.
 Nothing more vital exists in all the history of hygenic effort than this 'ear-to-year narrative of an intelli- -ent veteran, noting down the means " which he had built up his body nd kept it alive. His first step was . 0 cOnfine himself to such foods as nvalids might eat. and to take these nly in small quantities. Incredible ( S the fact may seem. he says that at he end of year he found himself ( ured. Then he began to experiment ( 0 find out what kind of food agreed 'ith him. as he wished to enlarge his I jet On testing the proverb that I whatever tastes good will nourish f nd strengthen" he quickly discov- e red that the palate is poor guide. T old wine, cold melons. pastries. , Ork, and many other things tasted OOd to him. but distressed his ' .Omach. Gradually he eliminated 'om his fare everything that dis s greed with him. and he always made |
 a point to leave the table with his a ppetite both for food and drink not g lite satisfied Scrap Book