112 HUMAN LONGEVITY. 



exact or sufficient evidence belonging to them ; a fault which 

 no present research can now repair. Still we are bound to 

 admit some, even of the extreme cases, as authentic ; and to 

 presume an increasing proportion of others, which, though 

 lower in the scale, do yet greatly transcend the average term 

 of life. We shall have occasion afterwards to refer to these 

 more especially. At present it is enough to state that we 

 have sufficient proof of the occasional prolongation of life to 

 periods of from 110, to 130, or 140 years; cases which, 

 thus far authenticated, we must necessarily take into view 

 when dealing with this question of human longevity. But 

 in so doing, we are called upon to submit them all to the 

 great general law of averages, and not to propound them, as 

 M. Flourens does, as exponents of the natural capacity for 

 life in man. We might just as reasonably assert that six 

 feet is the natural stature, because some men have reached 

 the stature of eight, or even nine feet ; or on the other hand, 

 that four feet is the normal measure, because Count Benyowsky 

 and the American Tom Thumb were dwarfed down to two 

 and a half or three feet ; or yet further affirm that fifteen 

 stone is the natural weight of the species, because Daniel 

 Lambert, and some of his brethren in obesity, have nearly 

 doubled this weight. The real fact is, that these anomalies, 

 either of excess or deficiency, occur in every part of the 

 physical structure of man, as in every part of the world of 

 nature that surrounds us. Exceptional however to the 

 general laws which govern the animal creation, they are 

 continually checked and controlled by these laws. They can- 

 not pass certain limits without bringing into action fresh 

 physical causes, tending to destroy the anomaly, and to restore 

 that particular condition, which, as far as we can see, is 

 specifically annexed to every organism in the natural world. 



Here then we find the value and import of the great law of 

 averages, to which we have just alluded. Almost it may be 



