618 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the training of girls to more healthful ways of living, both mental and 

 physical ; and the only thing to do for women of the wealthier classes 

 to lift them out of the ruts of idleness and destructive obedience to 

 fashion's vagaries is to educate them, and give them broader interests 

 and a mental grasp of the value of life because of its obligations to 

 other lives. 



Men and women must ever be one in every interest which affects 

 the public good. It is difficult to see how even individual welfare can 

 be made distinct. Women with low ideals, selfish, and untrained ; 

 women with feeble, undeveloped physiques, as well as women whose 

 high moral and intellectual worth is enhanced by bodily perfections, 

 all have an influence that puts its stamp upon the household of which 

 each forms a part. And to " train a girl for motherhood " can be done 

 in no better way than by building her from day to day upon the 

 noblest plan which the grand and growing facilities of our time have 

 made possible to us. 



THE HABITS AND FAMILY HISTORY OF 

 CENTENARIANS. 



By Professor HUMPHRY, F. E. S. 



THOUGH it must be granted even of the centenarian, as of all oth- 

 ers, that he soon " passeth away and is gone," yet happily we are 

 not obliged to admit that his "strength is but labor and sorrow." In 

 many instances, on the contrary, he has, if not a green, yet a mellow 

 and cheerful old age, one of happiness to himself and pleasure to 

 others, brightened by a vivid though calm interest in the present, and 

 unshadowed by apprehension of that which is to come. "Pay me a 

 visit when you next come to Leamington," were usually among the 

 words of adieu by Miss Hastings, at the age of one hundred and 

 three, to her friends ; " I shall like to see you, and hear how you are 

 going on." There is a great moral in this ; for while we are deni- 

 zens in this Mammon, we are bound to make to ourselves friends of 

 it, which is best done by a cheerful, happy use of it, and by enjoying 

 it and using well the powers and privileges it gives us ; and the 

 injunction is none the less imperative and valuable when the sojourn 

 in it has lasted for five score years and more. Moreover, in this, as 

 in so many other instances, the influences arc reciprocal ; for associ- 

 ated as cheerfulness and happiness are with good doing and kind 

 feeling, they are also much dependent upon the smooth working of 

 the several parts of a sound bodily machinery, to the heathfulncss 

 of which they in their turn not a little contribute. So long, in- 

 deed, as the body is enjoyable, and its functions go glibly and 

 smoothly on, the tenant is commonly desirous of continuing its 

 occupation. When it ceases to be so, when lassitude and weariness 



