TOBACCO AND LONGEVITY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10768, 14 May 1913, Page 4

TOBACCO AND LONGEVITY.

* Professor Pflugor, of tlie University of Bonn, asserts that the average length of human life is steadily hicreasing. He maintains that one-third of nil the deaths registered in Munich are due to heart disease, brought on by the immoderate* use of beer, and that tobacco also claims a large, percentage of the victims. Among forty centenarians vrho have come under his notice there was only one smoker, while nearly all confessed to a moderate use of alcohol. What Piofessor Pfluger mexst seriously warns people against"is the thought and fear of death. The mind must be occupied', he savs, in order to secure longevity. Hard-working men who retire rarefy' live much longer. The German census statistics show that in_ 1871 the centenarians numbered 147 men and 287 women, but in 1900 only 5 men and 30 women. The above Press report is of interest. As is well known, in Munich the consumption of beer per capita is greater than elsewhere in the world, and the percentage of heart disease is higher. Beer has n worse influence on the heart than either wine or whisky. Tobacco is bettor borne by adults and the aged than by youth. No person should be allowed to snroko before the age of twenty-one. "Wine has been said to 1m? the. milk of old age; it should not be- used until past tbo noon of lifo. That the German census shows a, reduction of old men since the war with Franco' is natural. The age of industrialism, of city life, of strain, of alcohol, with increase of tabevS dorsalis and general paresis is the present age of Germany as it is of the United States. Only the sedate and the temperate in all things can expect length of days.