410 



ANNUAL REGISTE R, 1794. 



that he never had puked in his life. — 

 This circumstance is the more re- 

 markable, as he passed several years 

 at sea when a young man.* These 

 facts may serve to extend our ideas 

 of the importance of a healthful 

 state of the stomach in the animal 

 economy, and thereby to add to 

 our knowledge in the progress of 

 diseases, and in the chances of hu- 

 man life. 



8. I have not found the loss of 

 teeth to affect the duration of hu- 

 man life, so much as might be ex- 

 pected. Edward Drinker, who 

 lived to be one hundred and three 

 years old, lost his teeth thirty years 

 before he died, from drawing the 

 hot smoke of tobacco into his mouth 

 through a short pipe. 



Dr. Sayre, of New Jersey, to 

 whom I am indebted for several 

 very valuable histories of old per- 

 •oiis, mentions one man aged 81, 

 whose teeth began to decay at 16, 

 and another of 90, who lost his 

 teeth thirty years before he saw 

 him. The gums, by becoming hard, 

 perform in part the office of teeth. 

 But may not the gastric juice of the 

 stomach, like the tears and urine, 



become acrid by age, and thereby 

 supply, by a more dissolving povrer, 

 the defect of mastication from the 

 loss of teeth ? Analogies might easi- 

 ly be adduced from several opera- 

 tion of nature that go forward in 

 the animal economy, which render 

 this supposition highly probable. 



9. I have not observed baldness, 

 or grey hairs, occurring in early or 

 middle lif?, to prevent old age. 



In one of the histories, furnished 

 me by Dr. .Sayre, I find an account 

 of a man of 80, whose hair began 

 to assume a silver colour when he 

 was only eleven years of age. 



I sliall conclude this head by the 

 following remark. 



Notwithstanding, there appears 

 in the human body a certain capa- 

 city of long life, which seems to 

 dispose it to preserve its existence in 

 every situation ; yet this capacity 

 does not always protect it from pre- 

 mature destruction ; fur among the 

 old people whom I examined, I 

 scarcely met with one who had not 

 lost brotliers or sisters in early and 

 middle life, and who were born 

 under circumstances equally favour- 

 able to longevity with themselves. 



* The venerable old man, whose history first supge-Jted thij remark, was born in 

 New York in the year Kisi. His grandfather lived to be 101, but was unable to walk 

 for thirty years before hi; died, from an excesiivc quantity of fat. His mother died 

 at 91. His constant drink was water, beer, and cyder. He had a fixed dislike to 

 spirits of all kinds. His appetite was good, and he ate plentifully during the last 

 years of his life. He fceldom drank any thing between his meals. He was intoxi- 

 cated but twice in his life, and that was when a boy, and at sea, wlierc he remem-~ 

 hers perfectly to have celebrated, by a feu df-joif, the birih-day of Queen Annt, 

 He was formerly afflicted with the head-ach and giddiness, but never had a fever, 

 TKcept from thesmall-po.x, in the course of his lite. His pulse was slow but regular. 

 He had been twice married. By his first wife he had eigh.t, and by h s .second seven- 

 teen children. One of them lived to eighiy-ihree years of age. He was about five 

 feet nine inches in height, of a slender make, »nd ciirried an erect head to the last 

 ■vtar of his liff . 



POETRY" 



