HUMAN LONGEVITY. 121 







In the single town of Valciatium, near Placentia, he men- 

 tions 6 persons of 110; 4 of 120; 1 of 150 years. These 

 round numbers convey suspicion as to the reality of the ages 

 in question ; and the whole statement, drawn from a district 

 by no means noted for its salubrity, is so much in excess of 

 any similar record in other countries, that we must repeat 

 our expression of entire disbelief. If true, it could only 

 be solved by supposing a remarkable aggregation of cases 

 of hereditary family longevity, through intermarriages in 

 the same province. Nor can we draw from these, or other 

 memorials of ancient longevity, any argument for believing 

 that the mean duration of human life was ever above that 

 which belongs to the period in which we now live. 



From the question of comparative longevity in ancient and 

 modern times, we come to that of races of men ; an enquiry 

 subordinate in some sort to the higher question, whether we 

 must regard all races as derived from a single primitive 

 stock? or whether, to explain the remarkable physical 

 diversities which we see, it is needful to suppose the original 

 creation of more than one type on the earth ? This question 

 is one which has been keenly agitated of late years. For 

 ourselves, we assent to the former belief, or that of unity of 

 type and origin. We find evidence for this in the very mul- 

 tiplicity of existing varieties ; and in the manner in which 

 they graduate into one another. Of abrupt lines of demar- 

 cation there are none ; and we follow the Negro into the 

 Caucasian races through every step and stage of variation. 

 This argument may not be positive ; but it at least answers 

 the objection from the disparity of the extreme cases. 



We must not, however, be seduced from our subject by 

 this higher enquiry, curious and important though it be. 

 It is enough to recognise here that Man forms, in every 

 proper sense in which the term can be defined, a single and 

 separate species in the animal creation. The varieties or 



