a hundred years. But fishes in general are notori- 

 ously long-lived. Particularly is this true of those 

 kinds which do not travel in schools. It would seem 

 that the more solitary are their habits, the greater 

 is the age to which they attain. Thus the length of 

 life of the salmon, a school fish which dies at an 

 early maturity, contrasts notably with that of the 

 carp, a creature well-known for its independent 

 life and its longevity. Judging from these facts, 

 then, I arrive at the conclusion that the minimum 

 number of years which marks the hippocampid 's 

 normal span of life must be at least equal to the 

 maximum to which humans attain. 



That the sea-horse, therefore, lives to be at least 

 a hundred years, can, from the foregoing analogy, 

 be reckoned as quite probable. And that it prob- 

 ably lives to an age in excess of this period, is indi- 

 cated in another way. In the latter part of the 

 eighteenth century, Buffon, an eminent, though 

 not always exact, naturalist, undertook a study of 

 the life cycles of various animals as compared with 

 their growth periods with a view of obtaining in- 

 formation which might give more enlightenment 

 on the natural term of life in man. He concluded 

 that the majority of mammals live six or seven 



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