AND OTHEK ANIMAL& 115 



37. The greater length or duration of human life man's 

 superior longevity- in relation especially to time for the 

 accumulation of knowledge for exhibiting the fruits of 

 education and experience. In man, however, maturity is a 

 much slower process than in other animals; his progress, 

 mental and moral, is confined in general to his earlier years. 

 Man's advantage is therefore rather apparent than real. 

 Moreover, the elephant and certain other animals are 

 sometimes older than man, while many attain quite suffi- 

 cient an age for the maturity of their mental and moral 

 faculties. Thus at an exhibition held in London, in October 

 1874, in connection with a prize given by the Baroness 

 Burdett-Coutts to costerntongers, carters, waggoners, and 

 drivers for humane treatment of donkeys, horses, and ponies, 

 4 one pony was 38 years old, one donkey 34 and another 26 

 years old.' Orangs live for 40 or 50 years (Biichner). 

 * Dr. M'Bain, R.N., at Trinity, near Edinburgh, has an 

 Actinia, called Grannie (A. mesembryanthemum), which has 

 lived in a glass tumbler for 51 years, having been taken 

 from the Frith of Forth at North Berwick, in August 1823, 

 by the late Sir John G. Dalzell.' * I have myself been 

 introduced to Grannie by her present proprietor. But even 

 greater ages occasionally occur. Several instances are given 

 of animal centenarians. Thus the common grey parrot of 

 Africa 'has been known to attain the age of nearly 100 

 years' (' Chambers's Journal'). There is, or recently was, 

 a cat at Gundagai, in New South Wales, supposed to be at 

 least 100 years old. It was brought from England in 1788 

 (' Science Gossip'). A swan belonging to the Earl of Fife, 

 that lately died at Macduff, and is now preserved (in the 

 stuffed state) in the family museum at Macduff House, ' was 

 supposed to be about 80 or 90 years of age.' 2 



38. Preservation of the body in health the prolongation 

 of life by artificial means by knowledge of and attention to 

 the laws of health. This applies only to the sensible minority 

 of highly civilised races in man, while the chapter which 

 describes self-submission of the lower animals to medical and 



1 'Globe Encyclopaedia,' Edin., 1875. 



2 ' Glasgow Weekly Herald,' January 20, 1877. 



