THE ART OF PROLONGING LIFE. 761 



be multiplied by five, the result will in all probability not be far 

 from the truth. 



If we seek historical evidence, and from it attempt to discover 

 the extreme limit of human life, we are puzzled at the differences 

 in the ages said to have been attained. The longevity of the 

 antediluvian patriarchs when contrasted with our modern expe- 

 rience seems incredible. When we look at an individual, say 

 ninety years of age, taking even the most favorable specimen, 

 a prolongation of life to ten times that number of years would 

 appear too absurd even to dream about. There is certainly no 

 physiological reason why the ages assigned to the patriarchs 

 should not have been attained, and it is useless to discuss the sub- 

 ject, for we know very little of the conditions under which they 

 lived. It is interesting to notice that after the Flood there was a 

 gradual decrease in the duration of life. Abraham is recorded to 

 have died at one hundred and seventy-five; Joshua, some five 

 hundred years later, " waxed old and stricken in age " shortly 

 before his death at one hundred and ten years ; and his prede- 

 cessor, Moses, to whom one hundred and twenty years are as- 

 signed, is believed to have estimated the life of man at threescore 

 years and ten — a measure nowadays pretty generally accepted. 



There is no reason for believing that the extreme limit of 

 human life in the time of the Greeks and Romans differed materi- 

 ally from that which agrees with modern experience. Stories of 

 the attainment of such ages as one hundred and twenty years and 

 upward may be placed in the same category as the reputed lon- 

 gevity of Henry Jenkins, Thomas Parr, Lady Desmond, and a host 

 of others. With regard to later times, such as the middle ages, 

 there are no precise data upon which any statements can be based, 

 but there is every reason to believe that the average duration of 

 life was decidedly less than it is at present. The extreme limit, 

 indeed, three or four centuries ago, would appear to have been 

 much lower than it is in the nineteenth century. At the request 

 of Mr. Thorns, Sir J. Duff us Hardy investigated the subject of the 

 longevity of man in the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and six- 

 teenth centuries, and his researches led him to believe that per- 

 sons seldom reached the age of eighty. He never met with a 

 trustworthy record of a person who exceeded that age. 



To bring the investigation down to quite recent times, I can 

 not do better than utilize the researches of Dr. Humphry, Pro- 

 fessor of Surgery at Cambridge. In 1886 he obtained particulars 

 relating to fifty-two individuals then living and said to be one 

 hundred years old and upward. The oldest among them claimed 

 to be one hundred and eight, the next one hundred and six, while 

 the average amounted to a little more than one hundred and two 

 years. Many interesting facts connected with the habits and 



