230 CENTENARIANISM VI 



This is one way of keeping up the interest in the 

 specimens of abnormal longevity; but inasmuch as 

 several well -attested cases of persons exceeding a 

 hundred years of age were adduced at the time when 

 Sir George was interested in this matter, and were 

 actually admitted by him not long before he died 

 as sufficiently conclusive to make him modify the 

 opinion he had held, viz. that there was no proof of 

 the existence of centenarians, we are fully warranted 

 in concluding that the importance attached to such 

 cases from this point of view is as delusive as is the 

 interest they gain from the supposition that we can 

 learn by them how to live long ourselves. What Sir 

 George Lewis at one time stated (it was during the 

 last few months of his life that he brought his valu- 

 able sceptical criticism to bear on the matter) was, 

 that he could find no sufficient proof of any man or 

 woman having exceeded, or even completed a century 

 of life ; and having found so many cases advanced on 

 the slenderest and most worthless evidence, he was 

 inclined to regard all centenarianism as either delu- 

 sion or imposture. In this he reminds us of a remark 

 made by Professor Huxley : '' No mistake is so com- 

 monly made by clever people as that of assuming a 

 cause to be bad because the arguments of its sup- 

 porters are to a great extent nonsensical." Sir 

 George fell into this error, as he afterwards had to 

 acknowledge ; for upon the evidence which the publi- 

 cation of his incredulity brought down upon him in 

 abundance, he was compelled to admit that persons 

 do reach one hundred years of age, and that some 



