The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1922-03-02
LONGEVITY PEAK
NOT ATTAINED
Man May Live 900 Years. Says New
York Scientist


The leader iu American life today
lives twenty years longer than did the /
leaders IF ancient Greece and Rome
eavs Or 4 J. Barker Savage. superln- Z
teudeur ar the Broad Street Hospital /
New YORK Modern man does not at |
tain the peak of his activity until an
oge when the leader Of old was already
in his grave The interval Of his most
successful EFFORT Is longer than was the
case with men who fOurished in the
years before ana just after the coming
of Christ says Chester +. Tucker in the
Boston Transcript.
DR. Savage. in study On longevity
which he has just completed. compares
the present ages OF such men as VIII
lliam l.. Douglas. John Hays Hammond
and William \. Castor with the ages at
death of Archinedes. DemOsthenes and
Pompey He finds that the average
age at death Of the ancients was 5jI
wears. while the moderns, all Of whom
are living al the present time. already
IaVerage G3.S years, and, according to
life insurance statistics, may reason
ably expect 100 years more Of life. In
other words. Or Savage figures that
the moderns viii die at an average age
of 74.3.
| The doctor has taken forty-one
Greeks and Romans, most of them Sc
llccted by PlUtarch as the leaders of the
Iancient world and forty-one Americans,
selected hy r. G. Forbes as the leaders
i'm the business and finance of this
country today and compared their life
spans. He has reached the opinion
that the struggle for supremacy in this
country today is not killing off the
Headers in our national life. He has
come TO the belief that DR. Woods Hut
ichinson came to about year ago-that
the pace that kills is the crawl-that
the faster You live the slower you die.
Here is what Or. Savage has to say
labout it:
The intensive concentration of
american life has not brought about
learly deaths of those who had to strug-
Gle for success. The average length of
human life Is now probably about 30
Years. In the sixteenth century the
lbest estimate that is to he had Of ii
lplaces il at 10 years at the close of the
eighteenth century il was little more
THAN 80 years. and now II has so in
creased that we shall have to readjust
iOur definition of the length of genera
ton.
But we have rot yet reached the
maximum I'm longevity. The prediction
of living to be 1000 years old may he
THAT OF a visionary, but it is certain
that on top Of our present span of life
lfifteen more years might easily be adj
ded by proper attention to health and
the signs of Illness.
Attention to health. assisted by
medical and surgical advice. has al
ready brought about a lowering of the
death rate in the past and the increas-
ing of the span of life. Pronounced de-
clines in the death rate in recent
months are 20 be found for influenza.
pneumonia. tuberculosis. organic heart
disease. cerebral hemOrrhage. Brights
disease and especially for deaths from
conditions incidental To childbirth
. THE result is that not only is death
= coming later. but the period of most
q successful activity is coming later in
dtlife and il longer. once 40 or - years
. was the age at which man was con
sidered 10 be at the height of his car
Ger. Sir William Osler was reported
o Ito have said that il would not make
, lmuch difference To the progress of the
: world if men were chlor0fOrned when
+, lthey attained the age Of 60. In the
!, group of fOrty-One Americans selected
flor their success in business by Il. c.
Forbes only two are less than 30, and of
a the others none wOnld have appeared
/, on such list when they were only 30"