36 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[March. 



anything. We pass long summer days with- 

 out even drinkius water. But, "what is 

 sauce for the goose," is not always "sauce for 

 the gander;" or in other words, "what is one 

 man's meat is another man's poison." Much 

 depends on long continued habit, through 

 which a sort of "second nature" is cultivated; 

 we therefore do hot pretend to set ourself up 

 as a teacher as to how, when, and what men 

 ought to eat, or abstain from eating. Much 

 will depend upon their temperament, the tex- 

 ture of their physical constitutions, their sec- 

 ular occupations, their private habits, and 

 freedom from extremes. There certainly 

 have been diverse theories advanced on the 

 subject of eating during the last half century; 

 all of which perhaps, have some good in them, 

 if honestly observed; and it is equally certain 

 that men's minds have undergone a great 

 change as to what is healthful and what inju- 

 rious. Perhaps what people eat, and ^vhen 

 they eat, is less essential than how they eat. 

 The appropriation of nutriment, or eating, is 

 the great moving force of the animal universe 

 — and proximately also of the vegetable— and 

 unless that all pervading want is supplied, 

 everything animate would hopelessly perish; 

 but the rationale of eating depends upon 

 assimilation, in order to produce the most fa- 

 vorable result. Hunger is a great leveler, and 

 has no respect to any condition in life. The 

 rich and the poor, the intelligent and the ig- 

 norant, the high and the low, are all amena- 

 ble to its absolute and universal demands. 

 Perhaps the greatest mistakes, blunders, and 

 willful perversions in eating, occur araong^ 

 the human family. All in the animal world, 

 below the genus Homo, "eat to live," whilst it 

 is very evident that many people "live to eat." 

 Seeing that physical life is bassed upon this 

 primary condition, too little regard is paid to 

 rational eating, and also to healthful culinary 

 preparation, to say nothing about social con- 

 dition. The first thing that every living mor- 

 tal craves — after fresh air — that comes into 

 the world, is eating and sleeping, and if the 

 first is not supplied, the second will not follow, 

 and the subject is liable to' perish. It cannot 

 and will not sleep if hungry, whether man or 

 beast. 



HOW LONG ARE WE TO LIVE. 



It is not every one who asks himself this 

 question, because, strangely enough, it is the 

 belief of many persons that their lives will 

 be exceptionally lengthy. However, life as- 

 surance companies are aware of the credulous 

 weaknesses of those whose lives they assure, 

 and have therefore compiled numerous tables 

 of expectancy of life for their own guidance, 

 which are carefully referred to before a policy 

 is granted. The following is one of the au- 

 thenticated tables, in use among London as- 

 surance companies, showing the length of life 

 at various ages. In the first column we have 

 the present ages of persons of average health, 

 and in the second column we arc- enabled to 

 peep, as it were, behind the scenes of an as- 

 surance office, and gather from their table the 

 number of years they will give us to live. 

 This table has been the result of careful cal- 

 culation, and seldom proves misleading. Of 

 course, sudden and premature deatlis, as well 

 as lives unusually extended, occasionally 

 occur, but this is a table of average expec- 

 tancy of life of an ordinary mau or woman : 



Age Years to live. Age Years to live. 



1 39i50 2i 



10 31 60 U 



21. ... 41^70 9 



30 :...34[80 4 



40 2S| 



Our readers will easily gather from the 

 above tabulated statement the number of 

 years to which their lives, according to the 

 law of averages, may reasonably be expected 

 to extend. — iJarpcr's Bazar. 



Inasmuch as the above claims to be the basis 

 upon which the London insurance companies 

 operate, it may be regarded about .as reliable 

 as the subject could well be presented, al- 

 though by no means absolute or infalible. If 

 we understand the table rightly, if a child is 

 fortunate enough to attain the age of one year 

 there is a reasonable probabitity that it will 

 attain the age of furty years. Of course there 

 is a possibility that it may live longer ; but in- 

 surance companies would not be likely to deal 

 in risks founded upon mere possibilitit^s — 

 probabilities are sufficiently dubious. But 

 should the juvenile subject attain the age of 

 toi years, then he may expect to reach life's 

 prime, or forty-one years ; and if he should 

 score twenty, then he is good for three score and 

 one. If he is fortunate enough to number 

 thirty years he may entertain a reasonable ex- 

 pectation to number sixty-four. But every 

 decade after thirty the number of years still 

 alloted to him are shortened, or supposed to 

 be shortened. These calculations are pre- 

 sumably made upon the general life tenure of 

 men in health, and take no account of epi- 

 demic's and accidents. 



The followingjarticle relating to the tenure 

 of human life is rather argumentative than a 

 statement made upon business experience. 

 We do not think, however, that either Buffon, 

 Heusler, Voltaire or Flourens could make 

 any nearer approximation to the truth of the 

 matter than persons less intellectually en- 

 dowed than they were, ^, when they attempted 

 a literal explanation of the ages of the Bible 

 patriarchs. They might as well have at- 

 tempted to explain the speeches and actions 

 of the animals in ^sop's fables, on a literal 

 basis. The Bible on this subject has never 

 yet been explained — never tvill be, and perhaps 

 never can be — so as to be literally comprehend- 

 ed by the masses of mankind, nor is it moral- 

 ly, socially or philosophically essential that it 

 should be, in order to be a text- book of morals 

 to the human family. It may be regarded 

 rather as a system of sacred-symbols, tropes, 

 figures and parables, having no special 

 signification relating to the physical universe ; 

 but, at the same time, a moral instructor to 

 the human family through spiritual corres- 

 pondence, illustrating mutual relations exist- 

 ing between the Creator and the created ; and 

 the obligations of the latter to the former. 



The Extreme Limit of Human Life. 



Can man reach and pass the age of one 

 hundred years V is it question concerning 

 which physiologists have difierent opinions. 

 Buffon was the first one in France to raise 

 the question of the extreme limit of human 

 life. In his opinion, man, becoming adult at 

 sixteen, ouglit to live six times that age, or to 

 ninety-six years. Having been called upon 

 to account for the phenomenal ages attributed 

 by the Bible to tbe Patriarchs, he risked the 

 ibllowiiig as an explanation : Before the flood 

 the earth was less solid, less compact than it 

 is now. The law of gravitation had acted 

 for only a little time ; the productions of the 

 globe had less consistency, and the body of 

 man, being more supple, was more suscepti- 

 ble of extension. Being able to grow for a 

 longer time, it should in consequence live for 

 a longer time than now. 



The German Heusler has suggested on the 



same point that the ancients did not divide as 

 we do. Previous to the age of Abraham the 

 year, among some people of the East,iwas 

 only three montliR, or a season ; so that they 

 had a year of spring, one of summer, one of 

 fall, and one of winter. The year waslTex- 

 tendcd so as to consist of eight months after 

 Aliraham and of twelve months after Joseph. 

 Voltaire rejected the longevity assigned to 

 the patriarchs of the Bible, but accepted 

 without questi(jn the stories of the great ages 

 attained by some men in India, where, he 

 says, "it is not rare to see old men of one 

 hundred and twenty years." The eminent 

 French physiologist, Flourens, fixing the 

 complete development of man at twenty years, 

 teaches that he should live five times as long 

 as it takes him to become an adult. Accord- 

 ing to this author the moment of a complete 

 development may be recognized by the fact of 

 the junction of the bones with their apopyses. 

 This junction takes place in horses at five 

 years, and the horse does not live beyond 

 twenty-five years ; with the ox at four years, 

 and it does not live over twenty years, with 

 the cat at eighteen months, and that animal 

 rarely lives over ten years. With man it Is 

 effected at twenty years ; and he only excep- 

 tionally lives beyond one hundred years. The 

 same physiologist admits, however, that 

 human life may be exceptionally prolonged 

 under certain conditions of comfort, sobriety, 

 freedom from care, and observance of the 

 rules of hygiene. 



Weak Lungs. 

 Every one knows that physical exercise in- 

 vigorates the muscular system ; that the con- 

 stant action, within limits, of any muscle 

 enlarges and strengthens that muscle. It is 

 the working of the same lavv that gives full- 

 ness and vigor to the blacksmith's arm. This 

 law is physiologically universal, and therefore 

 applies to the lungs. 



The one work of the lungs is to inhale and 

 exhale air: and this depends on the alternate 

 expansion and contraction of the chest. Now, 

 some persons are born with thin, narrow 

 chests. The lungs of these persons are gen- 

 generally weak, and easily become diseased, 

 because seldom brought into full, vigorous 

 action. 



The employmeutsof other people— students, 

 tailors, seamstresses, shoemakers, etc. — are 

 such as do not call out the full actions of the 

 lungs. In some cases, they inteifere with it. 

 If such persons are troubled with general 

 weaknesses, have difliculty of breathing after 

 exercise, and dull pains in the sides, the 

 lungs should be, looked after, although there 

 may still be no oraianic disease. What is 

 needed is to strengthen them — not by medicine 

 — but by their own proper action. Tlie Medi- 

 cal and Surgical lieporter gives an account of 

 a young student whose pulmonary symptoms 

 of weakness were wholly overcome. It was 

 done by his simply breathing through a small 

 tube the size of a quill, a dozen times every 

 three or four hours eacli day. Every third 

 respiration he vvithdi-ew the tube, wheu the 

 lungs were thoroughly filled, and held his 

 breath as long as he could without distress. 

 Keeping this up during his student-life, he 

 acquired the ability to enlarge his chest five 

 inches by an inspiration, and to hold his 

 breath without disiress a full minute. 



It is our belief that the same thing may be 

 accomplished by breathing as above through 

 a single nostril, closing the other with tlie 

 finger — Youtli^s Comprtnion. 



So far as the matter relates to our own per- 

 sonal experience, the above extract contains 

 sound doctrine. When we were first bound 

 an apprentice to the tailoring business (1827) 

 we were jeeriugly admonished that we would 

 not live to serve out our term of five years, 

 and we confess we sometimes felt some boy- 

 ish anxiety about it; for our mother had died 

 of consumption when we were just twelve 

 years old, and since then our elder sister, our 

 two brothers and one of our sister's daugh- 



