THE PROBLEM 23 



investigation of the frequency of occurrence of centen- 

 arians which has ever been made is that of T. E. Young. 

 Because of the considerable intrinsic interest of the 

 matter, and the popular misconceptions which generally 

 prevail about it, it will be worth while to take a little 

 time to examine Young's methods and results. He points 

 out in the beginning that the evidence of great age which 

 is usually accepted by census officials, by registrars of 

 death, by newspaper reporters, and by the general public, 

 is, generally speaking, of no validity or trustworthiness 

 whatever. Statements of the person concerned, or of that 

 person's relatives or friends, as to extreme longevity, 

 can almost invariably be shown by even a little investiga- 

 tion to be extremely unreliable. To be acceptable as 

 scientific evidence any statement of great age must be 

 supported by unimpeachable documentary proof of at 

 least the following points: 



a. The date of birth, or of baptism. 



b. The date of death. 



c. The identity of the person dying at a supposed very advanced age 



with the person for whom the birth or baptismal record, upon 

 which the claim of great age is based, was made out. 



d. In the case particularly of married women the date of marriage, 



the person to whom married, and any other data which will 

 help to establish proof of identity. 



In presumptive cases of great longevity, which on 

 other grounds are worthy of serious consideration, it is 

 usually in respect of item c the proof of identity that 

 the evidence is weakest. Every student of genealogical 

 data knows how easy it is for the following sort of thing 

 to happen. John Smith was born in the latter half of 

 the eighteenth century. His baptism was duly and pro- 

 perly registered. He unfortunately died at the age of 



