Littell's Living Age/Volume 173/Issue 2237/De Senectute

- To most people there is something peculiarly fascinating in a description of the habits and constitution of persons who have lived to extreme old age; even if the reader is not possessed by a secret hope that he may rival them in vitality, his imagination is stimulated by the history of men and women who were born in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, living on to witness the achievements, to share the sorrows, and, in their own persons, to afford matter for the scientific speculations of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The series of fifty-two cases of reputed centenarians got together by the Collective Investigation Committee has been analyzed by Professor Humphry, of Cambridge, who is able to state positively that, in eleven cases, two males and nine females, the evidence left no doubt that these old people were really centenarians. In the large majority of the cases the evidence was not conclusive, but there can at least be no doubt that all had attained to a very great age. Swift, in his “Voyage to Laputa,” has given a description of extreme old age so appalling, and yet so nearly in accordance with every-day experience, that it is a pleasure to find Professor Humphry championing our common humanity, and describing centenarians who were cheerful, retained their faculties and their interest in relatives and old friends, and even showed a marked liking for making new acquaintances. The centenarian generally comes of a long-lived family, and is a person of active habits, both of body and mind, a good sleeper, endowed with a good appetite, and a tranquil, cheerful disposition. One centenarian collier had always drunk as much as he could, and expressed his intention of continuing this habit, but all the others were stated either to have been moderate or very moderate in the indulgence of this taste or to have been total abstainers. The majority also did not take tobacco in any form, but one chewed the drug, and seven, of whom four were women, smoked a great deal. Perhaps the most interesting fact which has come out of the analysis of these cases is that, though centenarians, as a rule, have not suffered much from illness during their long lives, yet a considerable number of instances were met with where even severe illnesses had been recovered from at an advanced age. Indeed, some of these old people seem to take a new lease of life, as the saying is, after passing fourscore years, and are not only able to resist fresh attacks of acute disease, but even apparently to throw off some of the effects of chronic maladies from which they had been previously suffering. It is interesting to note that women are in a decided majority in Professor Humphry’s list; after making every allowance for their comparative immunity from accident, exposure, and anxiety, and their greater temperance in eating and drinking, there still appears to be reason to believe that woman possesses a greater inherent vitality than man. In conclusion, we may be allowed to express the hope that Professor Humphry may live to swell the list and improve the male percentage.