Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-03-07
CENTURY OF life
Doctor Stephen Smith Says II is
Coming.
APPBECIABLE PROGRESS IS NOTED

u
ereasins-Not SO Much Typhoid a
/ There Was.
Meet DR.. Stephen Smith Of New
, York, who in 1922, Is celebrating hi
hundredth year of residence on thl!
, earth. He is not the "old DR.. Smith o.
, greatly advertised memory. AS mat
ter of fact, he resents the adjective
"old." DR.. Smith is a real doctor o.
medicine. He has always been inter
ested in movements to promote health
full living, and pioneer in public
health.
Fifty years ago when the American
Public Health association was born, DR.
Smith officiated at the ceremony. He
was its first president. Last Novem-
ber, the association, now grown to be d
mighty power in the land, held its
semi-centennial in New York City, and
made it an occasion to honor its first
president, striking medal which bears
the imprint Of his features.
DR.. Smith, vigorous and energetic
appeared at the meeting and declared
that he had a tremendous announce
ment which he would make at the BAN
uuet given in his honor. When the
time came, he calmly preached to the
hundreds of visiting physicians, ana
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.
I'VE have too long been content with
the Mosaic dictum which places mans
life at three score and ten," said he.
1--WE now live under very different con-
ditions. 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 century,
A common belief exists that our an
cestors lived much longer lives than
we Of this generation. Accounts OF
very aged persons spring from the rec
ords of olden days in great profusion.
England's Westminster Abbey has n
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 "he lived to the
amazing age of 169."
Many Live to Be 100 and Over.
It was claimed for n Hungarian Of
the name Of Pierre Zortay that he lived
to be 1870. Norway had claimant for
honors in the person Of Drakenburg,
| who admitted himself to be lag when
he died.
Every country worthy Of considera-
tion entered at least one candidate In
the old age tournament, the apex OF
their claims belong in inverse ratio with
the reliability of their registration rec
ords. Some Of the claims modestly
submitted by natives Of tropical coun-
tries might we'll make certain Methu-
selah tremble for his record.
or course, one Is constantly reading
newspaper items and patent medicine
advertisements that speak lightly or
ages that exceed the century by many
years. They are records Of tradition
rather than fact, however, most OF them
having reference to illiterate persons
| who find counting by multiples Of 10 to
be the easiest way.
But the fact remains that persons do
live to be 100 years old and over, ana
evidently many more accomplish II
than a British authority would credit.
The British, however, made his inves-
tigation into the lives lived more than
century ago, when the expectation or
life was much lower than 1t is at the
present day. BY expectation of life
Is meant the duration of the average OF
human lives from birth to death. 1t Is
| impossible to say what this may have
been in the days Of Moses, but glance
back over known facts for the last
three centuries is instructive.
Records kept in Geneva, Switzerland,
show that seventeenth century lives
averaged little more than 25 years;
eighteenth century brought the average
up to 80 years and nineteenth century
from 1901 TO 1883, gave a record OF
nearly 40 years. In our own country
the record was a little higher, and by
the close Of the nineteenth century we
had reached rs years. We have march
ed on at still better rate since then,
for the expectation of life in the Unit
ed States in 1910 was 81 1-2 years and
although absolute figures are not avail
able, it has undoubtedly increased in
the last decade.
Let us see why we live longer. 1t Is
only a step back to 1878, when great
endemic brought 125,0OO cases of yell
low fever to the Mississippi valley and
caused 10000 deaths. A century before
in 1898, the disease had invaded Phila-
delphia and caused the death of one
tenth of the city's population in six
and one-half weeks. But in 1900 the
discovery was made that yellow fever
could not spread unless carried by tn,
Stegomyia mosquito and thus the dis
ease became a terror of the past.
Few persons realize how nearly ty-