THE ART OF PROLONGING LIFE. 773 



that at the end of the septennial period, 1881-'87, 400,000 persons 

 were alive in England and Wales whose death would have taken 

 place had the mortality been in the same proportion as during 

 the previous decade. It may be reasonably expected that as time 

 goes on there will be an increase in the proportion of centenarians 

 to the population as a whole. 



The question whether long life is, after all, desirable does not 

 admit of any general answer. Much depends upon the previous 

 history of the individual, and his bodily and mental condition. 

 The last stages of a well-spent life may be the happiest, and while 

 sources of enjoyment exist, and pain is absent, the shuffling-off of 

 the mortal coil, though calmly expected, need not be wished for. 

 The picture afforded by cheerful and mellow old age is a lesson to 

 younger generations. Elderly people may, if they choose, become 

 centers of improving and refining influence. On the other hand, 

 old age can not be regarded as a blessing when it is accompanied 

 by profound decrepitude and disorder of mind and body. Senile 

 dementia, or second childishness, is, of all conditions, perhaps the 

 most miserable, though not so painful to the sufferer as to those 

 who surround him. Its advent may be accelerated by ignorance 

 and neglect, and almost assuredly retarded or prevented by such 

 simple measures as have been suggested. No one who has had op- 

 portunities of studying old people can shut his eyes to the fact that 

 many of the incapabilities of age may be prevented by attention to a 

 few simple rules, the observance of which will not only prolong life 

 and make it happier and more comfortable, but will reduce to a 

 minimum the period of decrepitude. Old age may be an incurable 

 disease, admitting of but one termination, but the manner of that 

 end, and the condition which precedes it, are, though not alto- 

 gether, certainly to a very great extent, within our own power. — 

 Fortnightly Revieiu. 



Note. — Since the above was sent to press, the civilized world has lost its most noted 

 centenarian in the person of M. Chevreul, the famous French chemist, who died on the 9th 

 of April, aged one hundred and two years and seven months. Only a few days before his 

 death he went in his carriage to see the Eiffel Tower, in which he took a lively interest. 

 Throughout his long life he had worked hard, sparing neither mind nor body, and it would 

 seem that his faculties were preserved with but slight impairment up to the time of 

 his death. 



It is observed by Mr. Stanley, in one of his recent letters from Central Africa, 

 that Nejambi Rapids, about two hundred and fifty miles above the junction of the 

 Aruwimi and Congo Eivers, marks the division between two different kinds of 

 architecture and language. Below, the cone-huts are to be found; above the 

 rapids we have villages, long and straight, of detached square huts surrounded by 

 tall logs, which form separate courts, and add materially to the strength of the 

 village. 



