756 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sparkle. It brings to many of us a flood of recollections : pleas- 

 ant company bright eyes and rosy cheeks laughter, sunburned 

 mirth, and Provengal song the feast of reason and flow of soul 

 the flow of words, repartee and banter after-dinner speeches, 

 and dull, formal dinners all jumbled together. Even at this late 

 day many a Cassio listens to the voice of the tempter lago, who 

 says : " Come, come ; good wine is a good familiar creature, if it 

 be well used ; exclaim no more against it ! " 



SOME LESSONS FROM CENTENNARIANS. 



BY J. M. FKENCH, M. D. 



A N examination of the Massachusetts registration reports re- 

 -X veals some facts with reference to centennarians which are 

 of interest, both in themselves considered and as illustrating some 

 of the conditions favorable to great longevity. 



The whole number of persons who died in Massachusetts dur- 

 ing the ten years from 1881 to 1890, inclusive, at the age of one 

 hundred years or over, was 203. The whole number of deaths re- 

 ported during the same time was 394,484, making the proportion 

 of centennarians one for every 1,928 of all deaths reported. 



Dr. Farr, the celebrated English registrar general, in his 

 March of an English Generation through Life, states that out of 

 every 1,000,000 persons born in England only 223 live to the age 

 of one hundred years. This is one in 4,484, or less than one half 

 the proportion in Massachusetts. It must be remembered, how- 

 ever, that in respect to certain elements the conditions in the two 

 cases are not parallel ; inasmuch as, in the first place, the returns 

 of deaths, especially of infants and young children, are much less 

 complete in Massachusetts than in England ; and, in the second 

 place, a large proportion of persons of the younger ages are con- 

 stantly going out from Massachusetts to settle in the newer por- 

 tions of our country, leaving an abnormally large proportion of 

 aged persons. Nevertheless, after all allowances have been made, 

 the proportion of centennarians in Massachusetts is unexpectedly 

 large, and leads to the belief that its climate and conditions of 

 life are favorable to longevity. 



The average age of these 203 centennarians was one hundred 

 and two years, five months, and twenty-five days. One hundred 

 and sixty-five were between one hundred and one hundred and 

 five, thirty-one were from one hundred and five to one hundred 

 and ten, seven were from one hundred and ten to one hundred and 

 fifteen, and one was one hundred and eighteen years of age. 



The next fact which claims our attention is that, of these 203 



