Norwich bulletin., 1919-08-12


 and to the later expectations that devils. bad fairies and evil spirits lurked among them The Alps. for ex- ample, were believed to be the dwell ing. places of dragons which. If dis turbed, would swoop down to wreak vengeance upon the peoples below.
 "Perhaps for the same reason. mountains were not considered beau tiful until recent times. Even in the time of Sir Walter Scott mountains were regarded as sore spots to mar the eye filling sweep of the plains. Writ CTS of the Psalms with sensitive ap- preciation of natural beauty. refer to places.
 There were sporadic attempts at mountain climbing through the cen turies before the epochal ascent of mountain climber of profanc history ascended Etna to see the sun rise. but he was lone pioneer.
 For the most part the medieval att titude toward mountain passage seem ed to be summed up by a Canterbury monk who prayed in the twelfth cen tury, after traversing the Brenner Pass, Lord restore me to my brethren that I may tell them that they come not into this place of torment He prayed thus. he said. because the marble pavement of the stony ground IS ice alone. and you cannot set your foot safely. I put my hand in my scrip that I might scratch out a sy1- liable or two to your sincerity: To. I found my ink bottle filled with dry mass of ice; my fingers. too. refused to write, my beard was stiff with frost, and my breath congealed into a long icicle.'
 Not until 1857 was the English AL pine Club formed and the scores of similar organizations have all been founded since that date: Within the past half century the sport has flour ished. the Alps have become thorough ly known. and mountains of other con- tinents, including America. have been explored. Hand in hand with the sheer sport of climbing has gone the adven- ture of scientific study. and the 'se- crets of the hills which the ancients feared, have given to moderns a mar vellous insight into glaciers. meteor ology, and hitherto unknown plant and animal life of the peaks of snow and ice.
 How the worlds history would ,ients conquered attitudes as bfaveiy | as they did the seas, a fascinating | subject for speculation. But noun -ains have played a momentous part | Moses came down from Sinai with the | en Commandments to the presenN | lay when the sacred ~~AAatains of | shantung- figured large in peace con- erence consideration of Japans claims to part of that peninsula"
 How Long Will You Live?
 Most people die before reaching i middle life, and compatively few live o be old.
 ,ou know and you will find that very ew of them had parents who died be- ore seventy, while a considerable proportion had parents who lived to 'e eighty or even much older.
 Dr. Alexander Graham Bell pro ,ounds these questions, and answers hem, in a communication to the Ma ional Geogra phic Magazine in which e sets forth this theory:
 '''The. weak and delicate are not cap ble of bearing large families It is he strong and vigorous who live to old age and leave descend nts behind them.
 re. on the average, stronger, more , rigorous, and longer-lived than the hildren of others: and there are lany more of them per family.
 Here, then, we have evidence of the xistence of a natural process at work mong beings tending to improve the igor and vitality of succeeding gen. 
 Dr. Bell quotes genealogy records to how that "a very large proportion. of ach generation has sprung from a cry small proportion of the preced 1g generation namely, from the people 'ho lived to be old"
 Another inference" he continues, Is that the long-liyed people left lore descendants behind them inpro ortion to their numbers than the thers and therefore, on the averaged ad larger families.
 ave married again when they were ell advanced in years and have had tmilies by each marriage, but this zplanation does not apply to women. aeV | lat mothers who died at fifty would ave any more children had they liv l to be sixty, or eighty or hun red; and yet investigation shows eme old age actually had. on the verage, larger families than those ho died early in life. .'The few who live to extreme old ye are people who have proved emselves to be immune, or at least sistant, to the diseases that, have tried off the vast ma jority of their lows. They have been exposed to the diseases and accidents of life i'd have not succombed. They had
 a single disease alone, but to all seases; and the fact that they ansnit to their offspring a tendancy
 live long shows that the disease sistant quality is handed down to cir descendants.
 "Of course, longevity itself is not ing that is capable of direct inner nee; but the fact that longevity ems to run in families shows that idancy to long life can be inherited | What is really inherited is probab-
 a tough, wiry constitution which ables the fortunate possessor to -vive the multitudinous ills that sh is heir to and live on to the ex- me limit of human life. From this mt of view, the attainment of old . 3 is extremely significant f The people who live to be old rep ent the disease-resistant strain of