Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 20.djvu/110

100 livres of revenue in return for an outlay of three hundred livres. The Marchioness of Balestrin died at a hundred years, famous for her wit and her satirical verses. Françoise Pinel, a pauper, died at the Charité in Lyons, at a hundred and four, in January, 1754; and Marie Nauserine, another pauper, at the Hospital of Dinan, at a hundred and five, in March, 1756. The Baron de Lavaur died in 1764, at a hundred and five. Madame Marie Jahan, widow of M. de Villeneuve, lieutenant-general, died at a hundred and eight. Madame Lullin, having reached a hundred years, received a bouquet with a complimentary verse from Voltaire. The most advanced age seems to have been attained by a patriarch of the Jura, named Jacob, who was presented to the National Assembly on the 28th of October, 1789, at the age, as attested by his baptismal record, of one hundred and twenty years. Two invalids, one a hundred and six, the other a hundred and seven years old, dined with the First Consul on the tenth anniversary of the capture of the Bastile, July 14, 1799. Facts concerning centenarianism are still more abundant in the nineteenth century, for more attention has been paid to collecting and publishing them, especially since the athenticity of such cases has been disputed. Dr. François de Beaupin, who died at Chateaubriand in 1805, a hundred and seventeen years old, was married a second time at eighty, and had sixteen children by each marriage. Dr. Dufournet, who died at Paris in 1810, aged a hundred and ten, married a girl of twenty-six at eighty, by whom he had two children. On the occasion of the inauguration of the equestrian statue of Louis XIV in 1822, Pierre Huet, who was called dean of the French army, and was a hundred and seventeen years old, was placed in a chair in front of the statue, and was decorated in the name of the King by the Prefect of the Seine. M. d'Ornois, of the Academy of Rouen, died at St. George's in 1834, at a hundred and five. Alexandre Mongeot, formerly Professor of Mathematics in the Polytechnic School, died at Passy in 1807, at a hundred and five, with all his faculties sound. Madame Foulon, sister of the unfortunate manufacturer of that name who was murdered by the populace in 1789, died in Paris at a hundred and four. A robust old man, M. Desquersonniéres, formerly commissary of the armies, was still living in Paris in 1842 at the authenticated age of a hundred and fourteen years; we do not know the date of his death. We were personally acquainted with M. Verron, who died in 1860 at the well-authenticated age of a hundred years. He had administered the commune of Montmartre for more than fifty years, and was still its mayor at the time of his death. Baron de Posant, former prefect, died in Paris in 1872, at a hundred and two; the Count Jean Frédéric de Waldeck on the 29th of November, 1875, at a hundred years and some months. The latter was in his youth a military and diplomatic figure of considerable importance; he published a book of travels in North and South America in 1838, and was a painter of considerable distinction. M. Duroy, a retired officer,