348 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ber of intelligent, indeed most wise and capable Hindoos, had acquired 

 great length of days without impairment to their best powers. 



All such matters must be discussed with due deliberation and full 

 knowledge of all attainable facts. The topic at the time interested me 

 exceedingly, and in the course of a research which I made upon the 

 causation of mental impairment, imbecility and idiocy, I became con- 

 vinced that the use of opium by the individual was of relatively little 

 harm in some exceptional instances. It certainly does not seem to be 

 as hurtful as the habitual use of alcohol. So far as the effect of these 

 poisons, for poisons they are, upon the second generation, it was shown 

 that alcohol produced infinitely worse results upon the second and 

 third generation of those that used it than followed the use of opium. 



Close to the realm of deliberate thought and rational conclusions 

 comes the debatable ground of varying opinion. The study of the life 

 history of aged people would furnish much of value if it could be under- 

 taken judiciously and thoroughly studied. The opinion of these or 

 those old persons as to what article of diet, the use or omission of which 

 aided them to acquire their age, comes close up to the realm of conjec- 

 ture. As an instance of my study may be cited that of a certain lady, 

 famous in my city for wit and wisdom, and who attained a ripe old 

 age with apparently no diminution of her powers. She was on one 

 occasion presiding in a distant city over a meeting of Colonial Dames, 

 and was regarded as almost a prophetess by many, both friends and 

 strangers. She told me that a certain lady approached her with much 

 deference one morning and asked with bated breath if she would be so 

 good as to tell her to what she attributed her great age and elasticity of 

 mind and body. In the way of a joke she told her that it had always 

 been her custom to eat great quantities of salt; and in relating the 

 story to me, this lady said that she had no doubt that by this time that 

 stranger was thoroughly well pickled in endeavoring to follow her lead. 



It must always be borne in mind that old age is an inexact term. 

 During the middle ages, statistics would seem to show that the recog- 

 nized span of life was much shorter than it is now. As an instance of 

 this. Old John of Gaunt, who was a byword, throughout many trouble- 

 some years, of age and wisdom, yet died before he was sixty. Warwick, 

 the King Maker, whose history lapsed over that of many sovereigns, 

 is said to have died at the age of fifty-four. In our own time great 

 improvements have been wrought, more particularly within the last 

 quarter of a century, in the matter of increasing the tenure of life, 

 and the average of age has been brought up in a most satisfactory 

 fashion to that which we could not have expected, although optimists 

 have hoped for. 



Again, mere existence beyond the ordinary bounds set by nature is 

 of little value unless accompanied by many characteristics and quali- 

 ties which make life worth living. It certainly should not be a desirable 



