OLD AGE AS A LAW OF NATURE.

Evening Post, Volume XLVII, Issue 147, 23 June 1894, Page 1 (Supplement)

OLD AGE AS A LAW OF NATURE.

In orderly coincidence with the dose of the last year's existence, a statistical report of existing centenarians who have lived in or died with it has been published iv the pages of a contemporary. It includes altogether 33 persons, the eldest, a woman, being nge<l Ufl What is unusual, tho number of males is in excess of that of females. Unfortunately, the report affords us no information as to the habits or other characteristics of these old people. It is true that we are not without information, and that of a scientific and accurate kind, derived from other sources, and this is of considerable interest. In a study of the life-history of the aged, nothing strikes one more forcibly than the fact that life, in its latest period, presents itself very much as a state in which vital functions — enfeebled, indeed, though not always greatly so. or in an irksome degree — continue in active exercise under normal conditions. It is, in fact, the close and crown of a state of existence conducted throughout in regularity and moderation. Appetite, as a rule, has been good, and has been indulged within reasonable limits. There seems to be little to choose between temperance and total abstinence in the matter of alcohol, though excess but rarely wins the reward of longevity. If in any direction it is allowable for competitors in the race of life to dispense with self-control, it would appear that they may to a great extent use this liberty with respect to physical and mental exertion. Nature has made large allowance for the inevitable necessity of labour, and has even practically in some cases sanctioned an overstrain of energy, provided that due care be taken to conserve the vital powers by temperance in other things. The life thus orderly lived usually ends as orderly, comfort and even enjoyment continuing till, as if grown weary, it accepts a timely and final repose in the sleep of ages. — Lancet.