7 6z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mode of life of these individuals were obtained by Dr. Humphry, 

 and will be referred to in subsequent paragraphs. 



A short account of the experience of a few life-assurance 

 companies will conclude this part of my subject. Mr. Thorns 

 tells us that down to 1872 the records of the companies showed 

 that one death among the assured had occurred at one hundred 

 and three, one in the one hundredth, and three in the ninety-ninth 

 year. The experience of the National Debt Office, according to 

 the same authority, gave two cases in which the evidence could 

 be regarded as perfect ; one of these died in the one hundred and 

 second year, and the other had just completed that number. In 

 the tables published by the Institute of Actuaries, and giving the 

 mortality experience down to 1863 of twenty life-assurance com- 

 panies, the highest age at death is recorded as ninety-nine ; and I 

 am informed by the secretary of the Edinburgh Life Office that 

 from 1863 onward that age had not been exceeded in his experi- 

 ence. In the valuation schedules, which show the highest ages of 

 existing lives in various offices, the ages range from ninety-two 

 to ninety-five. It is true that one office which has a large busi- 

 ness among the industrial classes reports lives at one hundred 

 and three, and in one instance at one hundred and seven ; but it 

 must be remembered that among those classes the ages are not 

 nearly so well authenticated as among those who assure for sub- 

 stantial sums. There is, moreover, another source of error con- 

 nected with the valuation schedules. "When a given life is not 

 considered to be equal to the average, a certain number of years is 

 added to the age, and the premium is charged at the age which 

 results from this addition. It follows, therefore, that in some 

 cases the ages given in the schedules are greater by some years 

 than they really are. . 



Taking into consideration the facts thus rapidly passed under 

 review, it must, I think, be admitted that the natural limit of 

 human existence is that assigned to it in the book of Ecclesiasti- 

 cus, " The number of a man's days at the most are an hundred 

 years " (chapter xviii. 9). In a very small number of cases this 

 limit is exceeded, but only by a very few years. Mr. Thoms's in- 

 vestigations conclusively show that trustworthy evidence of one 

 hundred and ten years having been reached is altogether absent. 

 Future generations will be able to verify or reject statements in 

 all alleged cases of longevity. It must be remembered that pre- 

 vious to the year 1836 there was no registration of births, but 

 only of baptisms, and that the registers were kept in the churches, 

 and contained only the names of those therein baptized. 



Whatever number of years may be taken as representing the 

 natural term of human life, whether threescore and ten or a cent- 

 ury be regarded as such, we are confronted by the fact that only 



