ATTAINING THE CENTURY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9034, 21 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

ATTAINING THE CENTURY.

Passing in review an article on longevity, in the new number of the Nineteenth Century, the Standard points out Dr. Burney Yeo maintains the thesis that centenarianism is by no means uncommon enough to warrant us in regarding it as a mere lusus naturae. The opinion, we know, has been stoutly maintained in all ages by some people, and so stoutly denied by others, who contend that 99 cases out of 100 of alleged longevity are based on conscious or unconscious fraud, confusion, or imposture. The difficulty has always been to check the dates. When a man has passed the nineties, some little forgetfulness in reckoning up his birthdays is natural, and it is not often easy to correct him by the testimony of contemporaries. The accurate registration of births and deaths is a comparatively modern invention, and for most of the early cases recorded we have nothing better to go upon that vague hearsay, based very largely on the senile garrulity of the elderly person himself. Thus, it is impossible to place much value upon many of the historic instances referred to by Dr. Yeo. But, after all, there is nothing very improbable in the suggestion that now and again a person may live to the age of a hundred and more. Octogenarians are common enough, and most of us could mention a good many names of persons we have known or heard of who have passed into the nineties. If we are spare in body and sound in lungs and chest; if we are blessed with perfect digestion, and never know the meaning of gout, rheumatism, or neuralgia; if we eat and drink with care and moderation ; if we regularly spend eight hours out of the twenty-four in bed, and are " such as sleep o' nights ;" if we rise early and get plenty of exercise ; if we marry happily, do not lose our tempers, and are never troubled about money matters, there is undoubtedly some probability that we shall live to a green old age, always supposing that scarlet fever, or London sewage, or a railway accident does not render our precautions nugatory. That is about the sum and substance of the philosophy of the matter, and probably it is unconsciously appreciated by most of us. In exceptional cases there seems no reason why all these good gifts and good qualities should not enable their possessor to reach the figures recorded by Professor Humphry, and get some way on the road towards his third jubilee. Whether that is a consummation which a reasonable man should desire is a different question, which has been answered already by Swift and Lord Tennyson.