2o6 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 300 



not one was found really one hundred years old. In Canada the 

 census at the same time showed 421 centenarians. Of these, only 



82 could prove their citizenship, and of these only 9 were really one 

 hundred years old, while it was probable that a still smaller pro- 

 portion of the others were genuine centenarians. The 1886 census 

 of France records 184 centenarians, — 66 men and 118 women. 

 This number, though not in excess of the usual record, has aroused 

 suspicion, and led to further inquiry. 



The reasons for falsification are quite evident. A peculiar and 

 innocent kind of pride ; ignorance of their real age ; the assurance 

 of being very, very old, — all these, in passing from mouth to mouth, 

 become cases of advanced centenarianism. Upon closer inquiry, 

 of these 184, only 83 stood the slightest investigation; of the re- 

 maining 101, many were really very old, but not one hundred years 

 old ; and three young persons gave in their answers as a joke. A 

 reference to the birth register showed that 49 of the alleged cen- 

 tenarians were really of the following ages : I of T}, 2 of 78, i of 79, 

 I of 80, I of 82, I of 86, I of 89, 4 of 90, 4 of 91, 6 of 92, I of 93, 4 

 of 94, 6 of 95, 5 of 96, 2 of 97, 2 of 98, and 7 of 99. Of the rest, no 

 reliable information was obtainable. 



Of the 83. only 16 showed their baptismal records to the authori- 

 ties at Paris ; the other 67 did not send their records of baptism to 

 Paris (in some cases these were seen at their houses), but produced 

 the less satisfactory evidence of a marriage certificate, etc. Of these 



83 (containing an uncertain number of fraudulent cases, no doubt), 

 31 were men and 52 women. Of the men, 6 had never married, 2 were 

 married, and 23 widowers : corresponding numbers for the women 

 were 10, I, and 41. Again : 44 were just 100 years old, 16 were 

 loi, 7 were 102, 6 were 103, 5 were 104, 3 were 105, and i claimed 

 to be 1 12 and another 116 years old, yielding an average age of loi 

 years and 4 months. The veteran of 1 16 years is reported to be in 

 good health in June last at 118 years. But dismissing this as well 

 as the preceding case, 105 may be regarded as the extreme limit 

 of life in France.' 



The profession of 59 of the 83 was ascertainable : 22 were farm- 

 ers and laborers, 9 were handicraftsmen, 8 were land-holders, 6 

 were cooks or domestics, 5 were merchants, 2 were shepherds, and 

 of the other 7, l was a teacher, i an insurance-agent, I a hotel- 

 keeper, I a midwife, i a widow of a costumer, i a widow of a doc- 

 tor, and I a widow of a stone-cutter. They can also be classified 

 as follows : those living in actual poverty, 22 ; of very limited 

 means, 10; of a modest fortune. 7; in easy circumstances, 6; 

 wealthy, i ; present fortune unknown, but quite limited in means 

 (as can be deduced from their former professions), 37. The fact 

 that so large a proportion of centenarians come from the poorer and 

 the hard-working classes is a striking one, and is borne out by the 

 statistics of other countries. Their habits of life, too, when such 

 information is obtainable, point to a simple, wholesome diet, much 

 outdoor activity, and little care. 



Another means of gauging the number of centenarians is by the 

 number of annual deaths of persons of 100 years or more. In the 

 twenty years from 1866 to 1886 the deaths of 1,474 such persons 

 are reported (553 men and 921 women), or about 73 such deaths 

 annually (27 men, 46 women). This justifies the conclusion that 

 about 70 centenarians for France is a liberal if not a maximum 

 estimate, and the every-day reports are greatly exaggerated. The 

 average annual death-rate of centenarians for the years 1855 to 

 1885 is 87, or I to about 15,000 of the population, — a doubtlessly 

 greatly exaggerated account. 



A topic of interest to French but hardly to American readers, is 

 the local distribution of the centenarians in the different depart- 

 ments of France. The southern portion, and especially the region 

 bordering upon the Pyrenees, is particularly fruitful of centenarians. 



While these statistics serve to correct popular estimates, they are 

 themselves not rigid enough to be accepted as they stand. Many 

 suspicious points still occur : the preponderance of women over 

 men is too great to be capable of a biological explanation ; the pre- 

 ponderance of the working-classes may be a sign of ignorance or of 

 mendacity as well as of longevity ; and so on. At any rate, the 

 general conclusion seems warranted that there are really very few 

 centenarians to a million souls. 



1 One of these patriarchs stands at the head of five generations, and counts ninety- 

 five children and grandchildren ; another has seventy direct descendants. 



THE TOPOGRAPHIC MAP OF NEW JERSEY. 



Mention has been made in Science from time to time of the topo- 

 graphic maps of different parts of the country, and in particular 

 of the numerous sheets that constitute the ' Atlas of New Jersey.* 

 The seventeen sheets, on a scale of a mile to an inch, and with 

 contours every ten or twenty feet, covering the whole State, have 

 all been issued, and are now followed by two general maps of the 

 State on a scale of five miles to an inch. The first of these gives 

 counties, townships, cities, villages, railroads, and many of the 

 roads, but gives no indication of the topographic relief. The sec- 

 ond has the railroads and a small number of towns, and indicates 

 the topography with great nicety by a series of tints of increasing 

 darkness with increasing height. Thus for the first time in this 

 country is the form of one of our States duly portrayed. 



The map is a picture that the geographer may lean over for 

 hours with increasing interest. The features of the State are 

 brought out with perfect distinctness. The broad plains of the 

 southern half, where the railroads run along the flat divides between 

 the streams, is shown in the strongest contrast with the rugged 

 highlands of the northern half, where the valleys alone afford high- 

 ways. The curiously curved ridges formed by the trap sheets of 

 the triassic area appear with their well-marked individuality. The 

 faintly submerged valleys of all the salt-water coast-line are dis- 

 tinctly revealed by the estuary-like form of the lower stream- 

 courses ; and all this not merely in outline, as it appears on ordi- 

 nary maps, but with accurately determined contours, giving the 

 quantity as well as the quality of the form of the State. Besides 

 this, the map is very suggestive in the way of displaying hitherto 

 unsuspected problems, whose very quantities were unknown before. 

 Now they take definite shape, and call for solution. Look, for ex- 

 ample, in the southern half of the State, at the general line of 

 divides between the streams flowing into the Atlantic and those 

 flowing into the Delaware, and note not only the great bend, but 

 also the diminution in height of the line at the head of the Ran- 

 cocas : has this not some connection with the bend of the Dela- 

 ware from its direct course at Bordentown ? See the oblique 

 truncation of Sourland Mountain on a line, that, when extended, 

 leads to the similarly oblique truncation of the Watchung Ridges : 

 is there not some great dislocation responsible for this coincidence.'' 

 Notice the heavy morainic barrier that bisects the Passaic basin 

 within the Watchung Ridges : the present line of escape for the 

 Passaic from the Great Swamp that lies outside of the moraine 

 must have been adopted since the glacial period. It is only when 

 the relief of the ground is given quantitively, as by contours, that 

 problems such as these can be discussed satisfactorily : hence the 

 great advance that geography may count upon vi'hen accurate con- 

 toured and shaded maps are published for other States. 



This map of New Jersey recalls a similar one of Scotland, pre- 

 pared by Bartholomew, with explanatory text by James Geikie, and 

 published in the first number of the Scottish Geographical Mag- 

 azine a few years ago. Professor Geikie did good service to geog- 

 raphy in calling attention to the absolute need of good maps, 

 showing the real form of the country that one has to study ; and 

 we would gladly repeat and emphasize every word that he says as 

 to their educational value. But there is another curious corre- 

 spondence between the two cases : Geikie's physical description of 

 the Scottish highlands and lowlands applies with extraordinary ac- 

 curacy to the northern third of New Jersey. In both, the highlands 

 are distorted and ancient hard rocks, which have been heavily 

 eroded, and whose general upland surface is an old lowland, ele- 

 vated, and now deeply consumed by valley-making streams. Both 

 highlands are separated from the lowlands that lie south-east of 

 them by a great fracture, with up and down throw on correspond- 

 ing sides. Both lowlands owe their present moderate elevation 

 not so much to any depression that they have suffered as to the 

 broad wasting-away of their relatively soft rocks ; while the hard 

 crystallines of the highlands have wasted more slowly, and still 

 retain much of the height that the lowlands have lost. The 

 ridges that rise above the lowlands, both in Scotland and New 

 Jersey, are beds of volcanic rock that have, like the highlands, 

 wasted slowly, so as to stand up in strong relief above the softer 

 rocks on either side. There are, of course, differences in plenty 



