344 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Old age has been tritely described as a purely relative term; senil- 

 ity is to be recognized in many persons young in years and is often 

 absent in those of late middle, or even of advanced age. There is no 

 time in the life of a human being when this can be said definitely to 

 begin. It is possible that if the undivided attention and energy of 

 able thinkers were directed toward the means of combating these 

 changes great gains could be made. Indeed notable progress has al- 

 ready been initiated and is being demonstrated with increasing rapidity 

 in prolonging the age of the race through the one avenue of research 

 which is really a development of the last decade. In laying the founda- 

 tions of constitutional vigor by giving the chief attention to the dis- 

 orders of children, their proper feeding and hygiene during the first 

 few months of life, the foundation of longevity is capable of being 

 firmly laid. Already there are abundant statistics to prove that the 

 possibilities of retaining vigor to late age in civilized countries is being 

 hopefully revolutionized. Too great praise can not be given to the 

 researches of those men who, with insistent and prophetic voice, have 

 demanded that the infant life shall have better opportunity afforded 

 for prolongation by the regulation of diet and hygiene. If the founda- 

 tions be well laid the problem of the superstructure can be made a 

 matter of exact procedures. Not only are we of the medical pro- 

 fession becoming keenly alive to this great truth, but the gospel has 

 filtered down and is being rapidly accepted by the great mass of think- 

 ers. It matters little what is done, or what opportunities for growth 

 and development are offered for the nation, if the infant child is 

 neglected, even relatively, in the first three to six months of its life. 

 No skill consistent with modern medicine is able to repah", except in 

 the smallest degree, the irretrievable damage upon that human consti- 

 tution which has not acquired a fair start in life. Two items of 

 knowledge have been added to the subject of child growth by the clear 

 teachings of such men as Jacobi and Eotch in insisting upon thorough 

 attention to the details of food and nursery life during the period 

 of babyhood. It is possible to find among the histories of those who 

 have attained great age and retained their vigor beyond the ordinary 

 span of life few instances of bottle-fed babies. In the future this 

 will not be so, although at no time can we assume that the same 

 degree of physical integrity can be acquired by artificial feeding as 

 could have been by the natural methods of infant nourishment. An- 

 other fact comes up in the histories of very old people that they nearly 

 all spent the earlier months and years of their lives outside of large 

 centers of population. 



It is a fact abundantly well known, and yet not of popular knowl- 

 edge, that constitutional vigor is practically impossible except in the 

 first generation in those who live in large centers without change. 

 Statistics go to show, for London at least, that the fourth generation 



