LON 
slightly lengthened nose, two beards at the 
lower jaw, and the first ray of the ventral 
fins elongated into a bristle. Its colour is 
a ferruginous brown. 
LOf^G (Roger), D. D. Master of f*em- 
broke-hall in Cambridge, Lowndes's pro- 
fessor of astronomy in that university, &c. 
was author of a well known and much ap- 
proved treatise of astronomy, and the in- 
ventor of a remarkably carious astronomical 
machine. This was a hollow sphere of 18 
feet diameter, in which more tlian 30 per- 
sons might sit conveniently. Withinside 
the surface, which represented the hea- 
vens, was painted the stars and constella- 
tions, with the zodiac, meridians, and axis 
parallel to the axis of the world, upon which 
it was easily turned round by a winch. He 
died December 16, 1770, at 91 years of 
age. 
A few years before his death, Mr. Jones 
gave some anecdotes of Dr. Long, as fol- 
lows : “ He is now in the 88th year of his 
age, and for his years vegete and active. 
He was lately put in nomination for the 
office of vice-chancellor : he executed that 
trust once before, I think in the year 1737. 
He is a very ingenious person, and some- 
times very facetious. At the public com- 
mencement, in the year 1713, Dr. Greene 
(master of Rennet College, and afterwards 
Bishop of Ely) being then vice-chancellor, 
Mr. Long was pitched upon for the tripos 
performance : it was witty and humorous, 
and has passed through divers editions. 
Some that remembered the delivery of it, 
told me, that in addressing the vice-chan- 
cellor, (whom the university wags usually 
styled Miss Greene) the tripos orator, 
being a native of Norfolk, and assuming the 
Norfolk dialect, instead of saying, ‘Domine 
vice-cancellarie,’ archly pronounced the 
words thus, ‘ Domina vice-cancellaria 
which occasioned a general smile in that 
great auditory. His friend, the late Mr. 
Boufoy, of Ripton, told me this little inci- 
dent : That he and Dr. Long, walking 
together in Cambridge, in a dusky evening, 
and coming to a short post fixed in the 
pavement, which Mr. Bonfoy, in the midst 
of chat and inattention, took to be a boy 
standing in his way, he said in a hurry, 
‘ Get out of my way, boy.’ ‘ That boy, 
sir,’ said the Doctor, very calmly and 
slyly, ‘ is a post-boy, who turns out of his 
way for nobody.’ I could recollect several 
otlier ingenious, repartees, if there were 
occasion. One thing is remarkable, he 
never was a hale and hearty man, always 
LON 
of a tender and delicate constitution, yet 
took great care of it ; his common drink 
water ; he always dines with the fellows in 
the hall. Of late years he has left off eating 
flesh-meats ; in the room thereof puddings, 
&c. sometimes a glass or two of wine.’’ 
LONGEVITY, the continuance of life 
beyond its ordinary period of duration. The 
term of human life does not in general 
much exceed 80 years, but it is well known 
that instances occasionally occur of persons 
living to the age of 100 years and upwards. 
Such instances however have not excited 
that general attention, which from the na- 
ture of the subject might be exjiected, and 
it is only of late years that any extensive 
collection of them has been formed, or at- 
tempts made to ascertain the circumstances 
and situations in which the different indivi- 
duals preserved their lives to an age so 
much beyond the usual lot of man. The 
most extensive catalogue of this kind, is 
that published by J. Easton, which, though 
very defective, contains the names and some 
particulars of 1712 persons who had attained 
to a centuiy and upwards, having died at 
the following ages : 
from 100 to no years 1310 
110 to 120 277 
120 to 130 84 
130 to 140 26 
140 to 150 7 
150 to 160 3 
160 to 170 2 
ITJ) to 185 3 
1712 
The circumstances which chiefly tend to 
promote longevity may be reduced to the 
following heads : 
1. Climate. A large majority of the re- 
corded instances of great age were inhabi- 
tants of Great Britain or Ireland, of France, 
Germany, or the north of Europe, from 
which it appears that moderate or even cold 
climates are the most favourable to long 
life. Heat relaxes and enfeebles, while 
cold consolidates and strengthens the hu- 
man frame. The diet also of hot countries 
is less nourishing than that of cold ones j 
and there is generally a greater disposition, 
and greater opportunities to indulge in va- 
rious excesses in the former, than in the lat- 
ter. There are however a few instances of 
natives of very hot climates having attained 
to great age, but they have been chiefly 
negroes in the West Indies and America, 
whose ages were probably not very cor- 
rectly ascertained. 
