WHERE PEOPLE LIVE LONC.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 228, 29 March 1909, Page 4

WHERE PEOPLE LIVE LONC.

! ■'"''' T^V'--^'-".^ In Norfolk 'there are' 'in ! ' every 1 vil-^*' lago individuals of more 1 tnaiiS^ years of age, and not infrequently ione- or. .• twoovgr 90, and those of. 70 and upwards are regarded as not. even old,. » Many farm laborers of. 7Q lire "quite hale and hearty, working fjoni early ' morning up to 5 and 6 o'clock in the, evening, and spme are so vigorous as to earn full man's wages, ;...Aisd the women in -the country are! /nore t'ona- " 7 cious of life, perhaps, than are the" : ' men. > '\ ; ;.";.. '" _ ' ';- \ In one village, containing about threft hundred peojjjfc, Jtiihin. the..past " six months, have ffi^^th'^e wpnlen of more 1 - thati ''9&£yefH&j©mge£ oldest t>f beings nguJess, than. 96. In aiiother IS<>rfolk vmage, with inhabitants to fhe; jrfumber -of' 400* -*• there lives a man of "95^ a,;. w«mah' of : 90, a woman-of 89, a womaii of 87, and several of both sexes of over ,80. In yet another village there is a ' blacksmith aged 96, and the widow' 1 of a country medical practitioner, whose years mount up : to 92. This longevity of the Norfolk peasant ' (comments the Lancet) has' a very interesting pathological side to it. ' The chief enemy of tlie farm labourer of the Eastern Counties from the standpoint of health is Rheumatism. Not many reach even n^iddle age without having been the victims .of rheumatism and a large number are crippled in their old age by this disease. Bxit in spite of this the \average of longevity seems to be very high, althougii as well as rheumatism 'he has to contend with the lack <ff adequate housing accommodats(BP%h\vl. want of proper sanitary arrangemontW That to eat sparingly of plain wholWomo food,to be much, in the open «>ir, and to work sxifficiently to occupy \ the mind and to exercise the body, wiill onable a man to defy more or less^tho evils of environment would seem to be . shown by the toiighiiess of thfe Norfolk laborer. • \ ,"->■ -