The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-03-16
DIR. STEPHEN SMITH
CENTURY LIFE
IT'S MAINLY A NATTER OF PRE-
VENTION RATHER THAN CURE.
Appreciable Progress.
Yellow Fever Wiped Out and Tuber.
culosis Decreasing-Not so Much
Typhoid as There Was.

Meet DR.. Stephen Smith of New
York, who, in 1922, is celebrating his
hundreth year Of residence on this
earth. He is not the "old DR.. Smith
OF greatly advertised memory. As a
matter Of fact, he resents the adjec-
tive "old." Dr.. Smith is a real doctor
of medicine. He has always been in
terested in movements to promote
healthful living, and a pioneer in
public health.
Fifty years ago when the American
Public Health association was born,
DR.. Smith oficiated at the ceremony.
He was it's first president. Last No
vember, the association, now grown
to be a mighty power in the land.
held its semi-centennial in New York
City, and made it an occasion to hon
or it's first president, striking med
al which bears the imprint Of his fea-
lures.
DR.. Smith, vigorous and energetic,
appeared at the meeting and declared
that he had tremendous announce
ment which he would make at the
banquet given in his honor. When
the time came, he calmly broached
to the hundreds of visiting physici-
ans, and other men of science, the
audacious statement that instead, of
his age being exceptional it should
be the rule, that all men should live
to- be one hundred.
1--WE have too long been content
with the Mosaic dictum which places
mans life at three score and ten"
said he. eve now live under very
different conditions. Science holds
sway. Mans physical construction
is adapted to service of 100 years.
Let us push our standard forward
80 years and count mans normal life
a century
A common belief exists that our
ancestors lived much longer lives
than we of this generation. Accounts
of very aged persons spring from the
records of olden days in great profus-
ion.
England's Westminster Abbey has
a monument to Thomas Parr, an
*:old, old, very old man who lived in
the reigns of ten kings" and died
at the age of 152. .
In Yorkshire, England, there is a
monument to one Henry Jenkins, an
English laborer, setting forth the inter-
esting testimonial that che lived to
the amazing age of 169."
Many Live to Be 100 and Over.
It was claimed for a Hungarian of
the name of Pierre Zortay that he
lived to be 100. Norway had claim
ant for honors in the person Of Drak-
enburg, who admitted himself to be
146 when he died.
Every country worthy Of consider
alton entered at least one candidate
in the old age tournament, the apex
of their claims belong in inverse ra-
ito with the reliability of their regis
tration records. Some Of the claims
<modestly submitted by natives of
tropical countries might well make
certain Meth-selah tremble for his
record.
Of course, one is constantly read
ing newspaper items and patent med
icine advertisements that speak light
1y of ages that exceed the century by
many years. They are records of
tradition rather than fact, however,
most Of them having reference to il
1iterate persons who find COUNT 6
by multiples of 10 to be the easiest
way.
But the fact remains that persons
i. de live to be 100 years old anu over
and evidently many more accomplish
it than British authority would Gre
dit. The British, however, made
his investigation into the lives lived
more than a century ago, when the
expectation of life was much lower
than it is at the present day. BY
expectation Of life is meant the dura-
alton of the average of human lives
from birth to death. 1t is impossi-
Bile to say what this may have been
in the days Of Moses, but a glance
back over known facts for the last
three centuries is instructive.
Records kept in Geneva, Switzer-
land, show that seventeenth century
lives averaged little more than 25
years; eighteenth century brought
the average up to 33 years and nine