The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-04-26

A certain famous actress has re- gently been engaged in explaining to the public-for a consideration-the methods by which she hopes to live to be a hundred. Doubtless her recipe for longevity is excellent, but it re- mains to be proven. In the mean time, the best method for attaining Q ripe old age is probably that outlined by Luigi Cornaro, Venetian, who died, aged 103. at Padua 347 years ago to-day. April 26, 1566. The lapse of centuries has not dimmed his fame, and he remains the greatest of centenarians. There have been thousands of others who have since attained the century mark, but they have usually been fortunate indiv1d- uals endowed with strong constitu- tions and with a tremendous will 70 HVe.' Cornaro, on the other hand, was born with a poor constitution, and at forty was a physical wreck. Then he set about, deliberately and with in tent, the task of living to a hundred
 Born to wealth, Cornaro in his youth indulged his appetites to the fullest extent. When he began his reformation, with one foot in the grave, and prematurely old at forty, his first step was to confine his diet to only such simple foods inva- lid might readily digest At the end of a year he was cured of most of his ailments. With returning health, he increased his menu, but confined it to only such foods as agreed with him. This necessitated the elimination of pork, pastries, cold wines and other items of which he was very fond, but which upset his digestive processes. He also made it a point to eat always little less than his appetite craved. and to leave the table with his fSe- mands for food and drink not quite satisfied.
 Moderation in everything" sums up the Cornaro recipe for long life. as set forth in his many pamphlets, which are still classics of their kind. He exercised regularly, but avoided excessive fatigue. He refused to re- main in a room that was poorly ven tilated. but always guarded against extremes of cold and heat. He kept regular hours for eating and sleeping and never permitted anything to in terfere with them. He cautioned against the indulgence of such emo tions as anger and hatred, and culti- Vated a calm and philosophic attitude toward life. In his last treatise, writ ten when he was nearing the century mark he had set for himself, he wrote: The world was never as beautiful to me as now"
 At seventy the Venetian sage seem ed doomed to disappointment in his great ambition, for he suffered an ac- cident that physicians declared would certainly prove fatal. Cornaro re- fused the bleeding and purging treat ment urged by the doctors as offering him hiS only chance of life, and, to the amazement of the medical men. speedily recovered from his injuries.
 Although he has been dead nearly three and a half centuries, Cornaro continues to exercise a profound inf1u- ence His works were studied by the ancestors of Edison, with the result that several of the progenitors of the electrical wizard lived to be centenar- ians.
 After all. the rules of Cornaro may be reduced to the phrase, common sense," which, as has often been re- marked, is about the uncommonest thing in this world of folly.
 No man is stronger than his storn-