The Alaska citizen. (Fairbanks, Alaska) 1910-1917, 1913-01-27

But If France alone can produce
over a hundred and fifty living evi-
dences each year OF persons who
have passed the century mark OF
Years. there is every reason To sup
nose that the average man can al
ain an equivalent number OF years.
People don't live to be a hundred
ny mere accident. there is a reason
Tor everything if it can be discover.
ed In Greece. a very small country.
over fifteen hundred people are r..
ported TO reach annually the age OF
hundred years OF more while the
number of centenarians in Bulgaria
and Roumania is almost as great rs
the number of men in Massachusetts
and Illinois who feel they have
done WELL to have reached the age
OF seventy,
There are conspicuous instances OF
individuals who have lived far be
+ yond the century mark. Take the
case OF one Drakenberg a Norwe
gian sailor. who followed the seas
for ninety-one years, and then, be-
coming tired of scattering lite
retired TO a fishing village. where
he stubbornly held on 10 life until
he Vas hundred and forty-six. In
Hungary. farmer named Pierre
Zornay superintendent his crops unit
he died at the age of one hundred
and eighty.five Thomas Parr. a.
English peasant. worked hard until
he was a hundred and thirty and
then continued to live until h,
reached a hundred and tifty-two.
his instnce was vouched for b.
DR. Harvey. the eminent discoverer
of the circulation of the blood He
death. and could find no traces OF
any organic disease. Just there lies
an important point. Scientific hopes
are based on the fact that II We caa
escape the accidental diseases OF lite.
such as pneumonia and tuberculosis
and that by following a special
sole purpose OF arriving at a vigor-
Gus old age. there will be no reason
10 doubt that the AVERAGE person
will live 10 be hundred. al the
very least.
Neither wonderfully tniowet
constitution nor heredity explains
Parr. though he left a son who at
aimed the ripe age of one hundred
and twenty-seven. retaining all his
mental faculties to the end. But envi.
ronment and the same habits and
mode OF living would seem to count
or more than ANYTHING else Al
through Europe. and particularly If
eastern Europe. old couples are mum
erous and the fact that two very
old people attain old age together
aven when their parents died young
+ eliminates the heredity factor. and
points very strongly TO habit and
dietary influence And why not. In
the plant world the sturdiest OF seeds
Will not thrive so we'll as weaker
ones which have the advantage of
being sown on well-fertiiZed ground;
the food We eat is nothing more than
of minute cells of which our bod
les are composed.
IT, Judging by these instances. life
can be prolonged, how long should
a man live? The answer comes
from our friends, the brutes. Among
the lower animals the natural length
! Of life bears certain fixed relation
to the number of years required to
reach maturity. In most instances.
animals live to be five times that
maturing period. In man, maturity
is reached at twenty-this is based
on bone development-an as there
is no valid reason for excluding man
from the working of general bio
logical rule. man should live to an
age just five times his period of
development. which, multiplying
twenty by five. is exactly one hun
dred years. Whoever started the
theory that mans allotted years are
three score and ten. it will be seen
has for ages been robbing human
life of thirty good desirable years
1t takes sixty years to learn how to
live.
Granting then that man is right in
his instructive desire to reach
healthy and useful old age: admit
ting also that ii is serious eco
nomic problem, and likely to be-
come more and more acute in the
oncoming industrial decades in its
relationship to such artificial de-
vices as old age pensions-wise
though they may be at the present
time-how is man to set about
to prolong his years of efficiency?
OF recipes, unpublished for the
most part, there is no end. Every
man past seventy cherishes at least
one. based on his own personal and
therefore narrow and limited ex-
perience. Unfortunately any two of
these are seldom alike. and more of
ten than not absolutely contradict
each other. Especially is this true