Longevity

“ Theories of Longevity.—Ray Lankester has pointed out that several meanings are attached to the word longevity. It may be used of an individual, and in this sense has little importance, partly because of the inevitable variability of the individual, and partly because there may be individuals that are abnormal in duration of life, just as there are abnormalities in weight or height. ”

“ We certainly have not yet heard the last word from zoölogy which, while stressing the hereditary factors, for example, and individual longevity, must admit that old age in general is a more or less acquired character. ”

“ But that which interested me most in reckoning up their divisions of time was the ascertainment of the average duration of life amongst them. I found on minute inquiry that this very considerably exceeded the term allotted to us on the upper earth. What seventy years are to us, one hundred years are to them. Nor is this the only advantage they have over us in longevity, for as few among us attain to the age of seventy, so, on the contrary, few among them die before the age of one hundred; and they enjoy a general degree of health and vigour which makes life itself a blessing even to the last. ”

“ Every age has produced a few long-lived men, and here and there a centenarian."
"The question of importance is not whether this age is yielding more centenarians than former ages, but whether, on the average, the age of man is longer than it was, and if so, how much longer? The grounds for an increased longevity—better doctors and more of them, better drainage, more wholesome food, wiser habits, and better facilities for [Pg 73] securing change of air—justify the belief that life is lengthening, to what degree it is hard to say. ”

“ Asked to give the causes of her longevity, the aged woman smiled and said that she hated to admit she was getting old. 'Clean, honest living, plenty of work, plenty of good food, and a desire to help others when sick or in trouble, I think gave me my long lease of life. ”

“ Some years ago I became interested in cases of extreme longevity, particularly of centenarianism, and for some months every conversation seemed to lead to this topic, and every magazine and newspaper offered some new item about old people. ”

“ It will be easily seen, by these figures, how a quiet or tranquil life affects longevity. The phlegmatic man will live longer, all other things being equal, than the sanguine, nervous individual. Marriage is favorable to longevity, and it has also been ascertained that women live longer than men. ”

“ Is not longevity in some sense a measure of true civilization or improvement of the race? It is certainly an evidence of conformity to the Divine laws of life and health, which reward right action with happiness, health, and long life. ”

“ Nothing is clearer than that a habitual activity of brain,—and especially of the intellectual organs of it,—is a leading condition of the most substantial kind of health. All the evidence in connection with longevity, gathered from every class, confirms this. As a rule (which will have fewer exceptions as time passes on) , other circumstances being anything approaching to equal, the ablest men in any intellectual career will live the longest. Habitual, strenuous, equable exercise of the faculties requisite for the work is the primary condition of a working longevity. ”

“ Notwithstanding there appears in the human body a certain capacity of long life, which seems to dispose it to preserve its existence in every situation; yet this capacity does not always protect it from premature destruction; for among the old people whom I examined, I scarcely met with one who had not lost brothers or sisters, in early and middle life, and who were born under circumstances equally favourable to longevity with themselves. ”

“ The real question, then, is, How does the longevity of this select class of thirty-seven-year-old men compare with that of more ordinary individuals? The answer is given by the expectation of life at thirty-seven years, which is twenty-nine years, making the average age at death sixty-six years. And this is precisely the age at death of these sixty great men; showing that, as a class (for these sixty may be considered a fair sample) great men are not distinguished by longevity from other men. ”

“ Examples of rare longevity are carefully treasured up and even placed on record. As whenever a human being is carried away, [Pg 294] causes from which we are supposed to be free, or against which we take precautions, are complacently sought for, so instances of longevity are studied to discover what habits and manners, what system of diet, or conduct, and which environing circumstances, have most tended to ensure such a result. ”

“ Throughout the article occasional facts will be given to show in what degree character, habit, and temperament influence longevity, and in what state of mind and body and under what circumstances man has obtained the highest age.
General Opinions.—There have been many learned authorities who invariably discredit all accounts of extraordinary age, and contend that there has never been an instance of a man living beyond the century mark whose age has been substantiated by satisfactory proof. ”

“ Careful investigation has thrown doubt almost amounting to disproof on the much-quoted cases of great longevity, such as that of Thomas Parr, the Shropshire peasant, who was supposed to have reached his hundred and fifty-third year, and, although the existence of centenarians is thoroughly established, any ages exceeding a hundred by more than two or three years are, at the most, dubious. ”

“ Our streets, buildings, machines, farms, mines, goods, produce, means of transportation—all these are, in a sense, the bequest of vanished and retiring to future generations, and even whatever stamina their children have is more or less due to their virtue, while their very longevity is perhaps the best of all they have transmitted to their offspring for, as A. G. Bell has shown, fecundity and long life go together. ”

“ History is often written by men who are separated from the times they chronicle and the best way to bridge the gulf is to keep in touch as long as possible with the generation that was making history.
But the endeavor to retain the aged is not merely an effort to preserve the lives of the old but part of the problem of avoiding premature death for everyone. Thus since man came there seems to be a sudden loss of longevity if we measure it solely in terms of the period of growth. ”

“ We are told by good authority that a study of the human body, its structure, and the length of time it takes it to come to maturity, in comparison with the time it takes the bodies of various animals and their corresponding longevity, reveals the fact that its natural age should be nearer a hundred and twenty years than what we commonly find it today. But think of the multitudes all about us whose bodies are aging, weakening, breaking, so that they have to abandon them long before they reach what ought to be a long period of strong, vigorous middle life. ”

“ He has suggested further that if the normal specific longevity were attained by human beings, old and not degenerate individuals would lose the instinct for life and acquire an instinct for death, and that as they had fulfilled the normal cycle of life, they would accept death with the same relieved acquiescence that they now accept sleep. ”

“ But for real characteristic longevity, we must visit the mountain fastnesses of Thibet, in Asia, where live a number of specimens of the human family that have a recorded history back to the latter part of the 16th century. ”

“ Some of the most extreme instances, at all events, nay, the most typical instances, of longevity with perfect physical health that I have met with, have been in those who are tinctured practically with the passion under consideration. It is true some have not been happy, and none eminently useful ”

“ 'T is very certain the desire of life Prolongs it: this is obvious to physicians, When patients, neither plagued with friends nor wife, Survive through very desperate conditions, Because they still can hope, nor shines the knife Nor shears of Atropos before their visions: Despair of all recovery spoils longevity, And makes men miseries miseries of alarming brevity. ”

“ Any one who far exceeded the ordinary term, beyond which “our strength is but labour and sorrow,” was supposed by our philosopher, to have contracted an obstinate habit of longevity in some previous stage of existence. ”

“ Further, in a natural structure are longevity and a sound constitution coincident, or is shortness of life independent of unhealthiness? Perhaps in the case of certain maladies a diseased state of the body and shortness of life are interchangeable, while in the case of others ill-health is perfectly compatible with long life. ”

“ Add these considerations, and its value as a guide becomes immediately apparent; a new light is poured upon a hundred problems of the greatest delicacy and difficulty. Not the least interesting of these is the gradual extension of human longevity—an extension, however, which cannot be effected till many [Pg 382] many generations as yet unborn have come and gone. ”

“ III. I shall enumerate its peculiar diseases, and the remedies which are most proper to remove, or moderate them.
I. The circumstances which favour longevity, are,
1. Descent from long-lived ancestors. I have not found a single instance of a person, who has lived to be 80 years old, in whom this was not the case. In some instances I found the descent was only from one, but, in general, it was from both parents. The knowledge of this fact may serve, not only to assist in calculating what are called the chances of lives, but it may be made useful to a physician. ”

“ But if a long life be dependent on a good state of the ductless 60glands and if the qualities of these are inherited—which cannot be doubted after the foregoing observations on heredity,—it must necessarily follow that longevity is inherited too, and this is a fact which can be proved by a large number of observations. ”

“ It becomes evident, then, that as we ascend in the scale of Life we rise also in the scale of longevity. The lowest organisms are, as a rule, shortlived, and the rate of mortality diminishes more or less regularly as we ascend in the animal scale. ”

“ A recent and most interesting example of transmitted longevity is that of the veteran guardian of the public health, Sir Edwin Chadwick, who was entertained at a public dinner a few weeks ago on the occasion of his reaching his ninetieth year. ”

“ Having thus endeavored to show the extent to which human life may be prolonged, and having examined some of the causes or antecedents of longevity, the last subject for inquiry is the means by which it may be attained. ”

“ In reviewing the examples of extreme age found in the human race it will be our object to lay before the reader the most remarkable instances of longevity that have been authentically recorded, to cite the source of the information, when possible to give explanatory details, and to report any relative points of value and interest. ”

“ For these older Americans, however, the blessing of longevity also brings with it an increased likelihood of disability and chronic disease, reduced physical and mental agility, and higher risk of injury or illness-all of which create a greater need for care. ”

“ We wish to emphasize that we by no means assume the responsibility of the authenticity of the cases to be quoted, but expressing belief in their possibility, we shall mention some of the extraordinary instances of longevity derived from an exhaustive research of the literature of all times. ”

“ The paths of glory lead but to the grave. We are not, therefore, surprised at the implicit belief in such records in times gone by, when no populous village in England was without a man or woman of fourscore years old. It has, however, become of late a matter of some moment to inquire into the authority on which statements of extreme old age have usually rested; and the result has been to shake the testimony of many recorded cases of great longevity. ”

“ The physical necessity of mental activity in every practical sense confers upon the mind the power of determining the actual strength of longevity. So, prepare yourselves, gentlemen, for one of the most startling revelations yet to come. We are living in times when people know what goods are. ”

“ The average specific longevity, on the other hand, depends on a multitude of extrinsic conditions operating on the intrinsic constitution; these extrinsic conditions are given by the environment of the species as it affects the young and the adults, enemies, diseases, abundance of food, climatic conditions and so forth. ”

“ The well-known pride of longevity and the tendency to exaggerate and deal with the marvelous, throw some suspicion over all records of this kind, and indeed had well-nigh caused a revulsion to misbelief in the capacity of the human body to retain vitality for so long a period as a hundred years. ”

“ The scale on which his studies proceeded was so large as to require longevity, and we were the less prepared for his sudden disappearance. The country knows not yet, or in the least part, how great a son it has lost. ”

“ Among biological qualities I have made observations on longevity; among persons of 70 and 80 whom I have examined there is a large proportion of parents who themselves enjoyed remarkably long lives, which proves the transmissibility from father to son of powers of resistance against the stresses of life. ”