OLDEST MEN IN THE WORLD.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue XVIII, 31 October 1896, Page 578

OLDEST MEN IN THE WORLD.

The oldest man in the world has been discovered. He is Bruno Cotrim, a negro born in Africa, and now a resi dent of Rio Janeiro. The most careful investigation shows that this remarkable coloured man has lived to the age of 150, and promises to continue his remarkable exhibition of longevity for an indefinite period. The discovery of this long-lived individual was made by a German statistician, who has prosecuted his investigations with most interesting results. He finds that the closest rival to Cotrim is a retired Moscow cabman named Kustrim, who is in his 140th year. The statistician says the oldest woman in the world is 130 years of age, but probably out of natural courtesy to the sex he refrains from giving her name and address. In diving still further into the life and death statistics of the world, the investigator found it necessary to turn to the least civilized corners of the earth in order to get the longest livers. The German empire, with 55,000,000 population, has but 78 subjects who are more than 100 years old. France, with fewer than 40,000,000, has 213 persons who have passed their 100th birthday. England has 146, Ireland 578, Scotland 46, Denmark 2, Belgium 5, Sweden 10, and Norway, with 2,000,000 inhabitants, 23. Switzerland does not boast a single centenarian, but Spain, with about 18,000,000 population, has 410. The most amazing figures found by the German statistician came from that troublesome and turbulent region known as the Balkan Peninsula. Servia has 575 persons who are more than 100 years old. Roumania 1,084 an d Bulgaria 3,883. In other words, Bulgaria has a centenarian to every thousand inhabitants, and thus holds the international record for old inhabitants. In 1892 alone there died in Bulgaria 350 persons of more than 100.

In the Balkan Peninsula, moreover, a person is not regarded as being on the verge of the grave the moment he becomes a centenarian. For instance, in Servia there were in 1890 some 290 persons between 106 and 115 years, 123 between 115 and 125, and 18 between 125 and 135. Three were between 135 and 140.