VI CENTENAKIANISM 227 



teach us than the man who exceeds eight feet in 

 height : both are monstrosities, and attain their 

 special distinction by no particular behaviour on their 

 part. A certain amount of care will produce its due 

 effect on the longevity of any individual ; but there 

 is a set limit beyond which it cannot be extended. 

 In some individuals this limit is at a greater distance 

 than it is in the most of mankind, and if they escape 

 the accidents of disease and violence they live longer 

 than other men : the cases of these men must be 

 looked upon as distinctly abnormal ; they are to be 

 held as freaks of nature, monsters — giants of age ; 

 just as we have converse cases recorded of dwarfs of 

 age — human beings who became old after twelve 

 years of life, and began to exhibit senile decay at a 

 time when ordinary m^en are still growing children. 



Longevity, as we have elsewhere pointed out,^ is of 

 several kinds, which need to be distinguished. There 

 is the longevity characteristic of species of plants and 

 animals, men included, — that is to say, the age which 

 each individual of the species born may be expected 

 to reach ; this is average specific longevity, and is a 

 very low figure indeed as compared with other kinds 

 of longevity. For Europeans it does not appear to 

 be above forty years. This average longevity is 

 brought to so low a figure by the great amount of 

 death in the first years of life. By an excess of 

 deaths in early life the average longevity of a species 

 or of any given group of individuals might be brought 

 down to a year or two, though the individuals which 



1 Comparative Longevity in Man and Animals. Macinillaii, 1870. 



