466 EUTHANASIA. 



what the animal machine has to do to keep itself alive and 

 going, the heart above all. Taking an average of different 

 ages, the human heart may be considered to beat one hun- 

 dred thousand times in the twenty-four hours. A human 

 adult may be considered to hold from fifty to sixty pounds 

 of blood ; and this has to be kept in continuous motion by 

 the pulsating heart to the very end of life. The mechanical 

 labour is enormous. "Were a mechanician to devise a ma- 

 chine of ordinary materials for overcoming the weight of 

 fifty or sixty pounds, as happens to the blood, repairs would 

 be incessant, the machine would soon wear out. 



I do not know how it happens that, when an illustration 

 of extreme old age is in question, we all recur to Master 

 Parr. He was an old man certainly, a vei^y old man; but 

 by no means the oldest of whom authentic records exist. Old 

 Jenkins beats him. Of Jenkins more anon. The very oldest 

 man I can find account of is Thomas Cam, who, according 

 to the parish-register of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, died 28th 

 January 1588, set. two hundred and seven. He was born 

 in the reign of Richard II. in 1381. He lived in the reigns 

 of ten sovereigns, viz. Richard II., Henries IV. V. and VL, 

 Richard III., Henries VII. and VIII., Edward VI., Mary, 

 and Elizabeth. 



Some years ago, when Parliament had closed and London 

 was deserted when the silly season, as newspaper -people 

 call it, had fairly set in the leading journal admitted to its 

 columns a series of letters, the general purport of which 

 was to cast a doubt on records of extreme longevity. Could 

 it be demonstrated that, since the existence of scriptural patri- 

 archs, any man or any woman had completed a hundred 

 years ? 



Such was the general question ; and much argument was 

 expended to prove the negative. Amongst other reasons for 

 disbelieving the statements of persons of extreme age, their 

 failure of memory was insisted on ; also a certain pride of 



