THE PROLONGATION OF HUMAN LIFE. 99 



The fact that the majority of the men are bony and muscular, 

 and the women plump, is easily explained, I think, by the occu- 

 pations. In the work of the men their muscles have been brought 

 into play so much, and have used such a large proportion of the 

 nourishment taken into the system, that fat could not accumulate. 

 With the women the reverse has been true, especially after they 

 reached the age of fifty, when grown-up daughters took the hard- 

 est of the work from their mothers' shoulders. 



In regard to food, the evidence is so uniformly one way that 

 those who advise a simple diet, and those who cry out against 

 meat, must either hold their theories to be above facts or give 

 them up. There is certainly nothing " simple " about the diet of 

 a New England farmer. It consists of salt and fresh pork and 

 beef and all sorts of common fish and vegetables, almost always 

 poorly cooked, and pies and cakes of the most indigestible sorts. 

 The food is " plain," truly, and gives the digestive organs an 

 abundance of work to do, but it is not such food as a theorist 

 would recommend to one who desired to live near up to the cen- 

 tury-mark. Tea and coffee have certainly proved that they do 

 not tend to shorten life, even if they do not prove that they help 

 to prolong it. The generally accepted theory in relation to stimu- 

 lants, that in excess they are not life-sustaining, receives strong 

 support. Tobacco appears to prove itself harmless, at least on the 

 temperament of these people. Whether it be a help to live long 

 requires other evidence. 



While the farmers of New England and their wives are a 

 cleanly people, they are not much given to bathing. This neglect 

 may not have prolonged their existence or made them more 

 healthy, but it is to be presumed that it has not cut off many 

 years or caused much disease. Neither are the members of these 

 households well informed in relation to sanitary matters. They 

 know little of the unseen dampness to which the human system 

 is so constantly exposed, and, knowing little, care little. May not 

 this be an influence in favor of a prolonged existence, paradoxical 

 as the supposition may seem ? In Hingham, Mass., with only four 

 thousand inhabitants, there are eighty people over eighty years of 

 age, and out of these seventy-five are of light complexion. In no 

 other town in New England, so far as could be learned, is there 

 such a proportion of old people. This town is on the sea-coast, 

 lies very low, is without sewers, and has only recently put in a 

 system of water -works. From a sanitary point of view the con- 

 ditions here are about as unfavorable to long life as could be con- 

 ceived outside the crowded portions of the large cities. And in 

 Boston, where the sanitary conditions appear to be the worst — in 

 the North End and South Boston districts — the greatest number 

 of very old people are found. 



