SECT. II.] DURATION OF LIFE. 123 



saw an Indian who could remember 107 years. Stevenson 1 

 has traced similar cases in the parish registers. 2 Men of dark 

 complexion, Negroes and Indians, reach, in spite of their 

 unwholesome diet, even under the tropics, a very advanced 

 age. 3 Poppig 4 is of opinion that only men of colour and 

 Indians reach such an age. It seems therefore exceptional 

 that in South America the Indians on the Orinoco are described 

 by Gilii (p. 250) as weakly, sensitive to changes of tempera- 

 ture, subject to many diseases, and frequently to an early 

 death. It is very remarkable that on the hot coast of Vera 

 Cruz many instances of extraordinary longevity are met with. 

 In 1831 there were in the village Cosoliacac, among 1,595 souls, 

 40 whose collective ages amounted to 3,407 years, and in 1830 

 a woman died aged 136. 5 As regards the Malays, we find that 

 Lichtenstein gives instances of their reaching, at the Cape, 

 ages of 107 120 years. Among the natives of the Philip- 

 pines there are many centenarians ; men 80 years of age are 

 seen working vigorously in the fields. 6 Foissac also has col- 

 lected instances of old age among Polynesians and Negroes. A 

 woman at Cape Coast Castle lived to see the fifth generation. 7 

 In the Island of St. Thomas, Negroes have reached an age of 

 110 years. 8 According to the census of the United States of 

 1850, instances of advanced age from 80 to 100 occur more 

 frequently among the free coloured population, and still more 

 so among the Negroes than among the White population. 

 Among 3 millions of slaves there were 1,400 from 100 years 

 upwards, while among the Whites there were but 800 instances 

 of the kind among 20 millions. 9 Among the Negro slaves in 

 Cuba grey hair and other signs of age appear very late, and 



1 "R. in Arauca, CHI.," i, p. 267, 1826. 



2 Compare also Tschudi, ii, p. 360; Spix & Martins, p. 1152; Dobrizhoffer, 

 ii, pp. 51, 281 ; Rengger, " Naturg. den Saugeth v. Paraguay," p. 12 ; Azara, 

 loc. cit. ; Clavigero, " Hist, of Mex.," Lond., 1787, Append, v, p. 1 ; Sigaud, 

 " Du climat et des maladies du Bresil," p. 448, 1844. 



Humboldt and Bonpland, " R.," iii, p. 86. 



"R./'i, p. 208. 



Muehlenfeldt, " Schilderung der Rep. Mejico," ii, p. 47, 1844. 



Mallat, p. 114. 



W. T. Mviller, "Die Afric Landscliaft Fetu," p. 280, 1676. 



8 Omboni, p. 262. 



9 Petermanns, " Mittheilungen," p. 134, 1855. 



