OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 417 



of Arimdel's family in London, he probably would have lived 

 many years longer. Our other countryman Jenkins, who lived 

 a hundred and sixty-nine years, is perhaps the greatest authentic 

 instance of longevity since primitive times. 



Longevity frequently runs in families, and is much disposed 

 to by early rising and matrimony.* 



Life is often protracted very long after the teeth have fallen 

 out and the hair has turned gray. 



Dr. Rush gives a striking illustration of the weakness of im- 

 pressions made in advanced life, while those of earlier date are 

 well remembered, in the instance of a German woman who had 

 learned the 'language of the Americans when forty years old, and, 

 though still living in America, had forgotten every word of it at 

 eighty, but talked German as fluently as ever. Bishop Wat- 

 son's father married and had a family very late, and when 

 extremely aged would twenty times a day ask the name of the 

 lad at college, though he would " repeat, without a blunder, 

 hundreds of lines, out of classic authors." f 



It is a most remarkable circumstance that the system frequently 

 makes an effort at renovation in extreme old age. I myself have 

 known several old persons cut new teeth, and the Philosophical 

 Transactions and other works record many similar facts, even that 

 of a complete third set. Dr. Rush mentions an old man in Pennsyl- 

 vania who at sixty-eight lost his sight and remained perfectly 

 blind for years, though otherwise in complete health : at eighty 

 he regained his sight spontaneously without any visible change 

 in the eyes, and could see as well as ever in his life at eighty- 

 four, when the account was written. 



I need scarcely observe that the height and the age of men 

 at present are the same as they have always been. It is a 

 common custom to magnify the past. Homer, who nourished 



* See an original and beautiful Account of the State of the Body and Mind in 

 old Age, in the Med. Inquiries and Observations (vol. ij.) of that most interest- 

 ing writer Dr. Rush. 



f Anecdotes of the Life arid Writings of Bishop Watson, t(c. 



K 



