WHEN IS A MAN OLD?

Northern Advocate, 9 January 1936, Page 10

WHEN IS A MAN OLD?

Dr Wynn Jones, addressing the British Association on the subject of Personality and Age, was not concerned, like Sophocles and Cicero, to sing the praises of old age. “Ex hypothesi,” for him, old age was the period of weakness and deterioration. His question was, when does it arrive? What powers belong to youth, middle age, and old age, and by what criterion shall we judge the stage at which a man passes from the one to the other? Commonsense (says the “London Spectator”) is generally ready with an answer, but even commonsense may be vitiated by prejudice on the one side, by panic on the other. Dr Wynn Jones descriminates between chronological and physiological age. Different persons age, both in their bodies and their minds, at very different rates; and the ageing of the spirit may not be at the same rate as the ageing of the body. The old proverb that a man is as old as he feels is a true one. The subjective onset of old age—that is, the age at which people begin to feel old—has been the subject of investigation, it appears, in Germany, from which it was concluded that the age at which people began to feel old was, on the average, 49 years, but the age varied very widely, from below 20 to over 80 years of age. There were tired old men in their teens. Estimating Age By Powers. But if you are estimating age by powers, you must say what powers. Dr Wynn Jones says that for activities which demand the maximum expenditure of energy per second, like sprinting, the optimum age is from 22 to. 24. A man is at his best for long-distance running at 25£, for lawn tennis at 281, for cricket at 30, and for goll at 35. In respect of eyesight he is already past his best before he has left his teens. It is reassuring to be told that intellectual ability, as when measured by memory and intelligence tests, deterioration due to age, as such is small. It does not occur unless a man gives up effort and interest. A man can go on learning new subjects and acquiring new mental powers with undiminished success up to 45 or more if he

does not restrain himself through pes« simism. The enemy of all the ages is habit divorced from interest and initiative. By Force Of Custom. Men grew old by force of custom! with the growth of their beards in Victorian England. Today, also, they may be old, too/ old, at 40. But if so it is for another reason. It is from laziness, lack of sympathy, and unwillingness to open their minds to new impressions. It is due to acquiescence in an obsolete technique, and neglect of modern opportunity. But on the average, in such a country as Britain men not merely live to a greater age ■ (as the statistics show), but they re- . main young longer; and that, no dGubt, j* not only by reason of fresh air, baths " and tolerable drainage, but because they are no longer (“pace” age 21) unreasonably expecting to be too old at 40. Dr Wynn’ Jones assures them that in taking such' a view they are physiologically and psychologically justified. There is no reason why the 40-year-olds should not profit by attendance at adult schools. “Nobody under 45 should restrain himself from trying to learn anything because of a belief that he is too old; to be able to learn it.” If lie cannot make the effort, that is because he is) abnormally aged. If he can and does,'he will renew his youth.