m l i 
I found the defcent -was only from on?, but in general it 
was from both parents. The "knowledge of this fact may 
ferve, not only to aflitt in calculating what are called the 
chances of lives, but it may be made ufeful to a phy¬ 
sician. He may learn from it to cherilh hopes of his pa¬ 
tients in chronic and in fome acute difeafes, in pro¬ 
portion to the capacity of life they have derived from 
their anceftors. Dr. Franklin, who died in his 84th year, 
was defcended from long-lived parents. His father died 
at 89, and his mother at 87. His father had feventeen 
children by two wives. The doftor informed me that he 
once fat down as one of eleven adult fons and daughters 
at his father’s table. In an excurfion he once made-to 
that part of England from which his family migrated 
to America, he difccvered, in a great grave-yard, tomb- 
ftones of feveral perfons of his name, who had lived to be 
very old. Thefe perfons he fuppofed to have been his 
anceftors. 
Temperance in Ealing and Drinking. —To this remark I 
found feveral exceptions. I met with one man of 84 years 
'of age, who had been intemperate in eating; and four or 
five perfons who had been intemperate in drinking ardent 
fpirits. They had ail been day-labourers, or had deferred 
drinking until they began to feel the languor of old age. 
1 did not meet with a tingle perfon who had not, for the 
laft forty or fifty years of their lives, ufed tea, coffee, and 
bread and butter, twice a-day,*as part of their diet. I am 
difpofed to believe that thofe articles of diet do not mate¬ 
rially affeCt the duration of human life, although they 
evidently impair the flrength of the fyftem. The dura¬ 
tion of life does not appear to depend fo much upon the 
Strength of the body, or upon the quantity of its excita¬ 
bility, as upon the exaCt accommodation of ftimuli to 
each of them. A watch-fpring will laft as long as an an¬ 
chor, provided the forces which are capable of defraying 
both are in an exaCt ratio to their flrength. The ufe of 
tea and coffee in diet feems to be happily fuited to the 
change which has taken place in the human body by fe- 
dentary occupations, by which means lefs nourifhment 
and flimulusare required than formerly' to fupport animal 
life. 
A moderate Ufe of the Underfanaing. —It has long been 
an eftabliflied truth, that literary men (other circumftances 
being equal) are longer-lived than other people. But it is 
not neceffary that the underftanding fhould be employed 
upon philofophical fnbje&s to produce this influence 
upon human life. Bufinefs, politics, and religion, which 
are the objefts of attention of men of all claffes, impart a 
vigour to the underftanding, which, by being conveyed 
to every part of the body, tends to produce health and 
long life. 
Equanimity of Temper. —The violent and irregular adtions 
of the pafflons tend to wear away the fprings of life. Per¬ 
fons who live upon annuities in Europe have been obferved 
to be longer-lived, in equal circumftances, than other peo¬ 
ple. This is probably occafioned by their being exempted, 
by the greater certainty of their fubflftence, from thofe 
fears of want which fo frequently di(tract the minds, and 
thereby weaken the bodies, of people. Life-rents have 
been fuppofed to have influence in prolonging life. Per¬ 
haps the defire of life, in order to enjoy for as long as 
pofllble that property which cannot be enjoyed a fecond 
time by a child or relation, may be another caufe of the 
longevity of perfons who live upon certain incomes. It 
Is a faff, that the defire of life is a very powerful ftimulus 
in prolonging it, efpecially when that defire is fupported 
by hope. This is obvious to phyficians every day. De- 
fpair of recovery is the beginning of death in all difeafes. 
But, obvious and reafonable as the effeCts of equanimity 
of temper are upon human life, there are fome exceptions 
in favour of paflionate men and women having attained 
to a great age. The morbid ftimulus of anger, in thefe 
cafes, was probably obviated by lefs degrees, or lefs adtAe 
exercifes, of the underftanding, or by the defedt or weak- 
r.efs of fome of tfte other ftimuli which kept up the mo- 
, tions of life. 
Matrimony. —In tile courle of my enquiries, I me? vnfh 
only one perfon beyond eighty years of age who had ne¬ 
ver been married. I met with feveral women who had 
borne from ten to twenty children, and fuckled them all. 
I met with one woman, a native of Kererordfhire in Eng¬ 
land, who is now' in the 100th year of her age, who bore 
a child at 60, menftruated till 80, and frequently fuckled 
two of her children (though born in fucceflion to each 
other) at the fame time. She had palled the greateft pars 
of her life over a vvaftiing-tub. 
I have not found that acute, nor that ail chronic, dif¬ 
eafes, fhorten life. Dr. Franklin had two fucceftive vo- 
micas in his lungs before be was forty years of age. I 
met with one man beyond eighty, who had furvived a 
nroft violent attack of the yellow fever; a fecond, wild 
had feveral of his bones fradtured by falls and in frays ; 
and many who had frequently been, affeCted by intermit- 
tents. I met with one man of eighty-fix, who had all his 
life been fubjeCt tofyncope; another who had been for 
fifty years occafionally affeCted with a cough; and two 
inftances of men who had been afflicted for forty years* 
with obitinate head-achs. I met with only one perfon be¬ 
yond eighty who had ever been affeCted by a dilorder in 
the ftomach; and in him it arofe from an occafional rup¬ 
ture. Mr. John Strangeways Hutton, of Philadelphia, 
who died in the 100th year of his age, informed me that: 
he never had vomited in his life. This circumftance is 
the more remarkable, as he pafied feveral years at lea when 
a young man. This venerable old man was bom in New/. 
York in the year 1684.. His grandfather lived to be 101, 
but was unable to walk for thirty years before he died, from 
an exceflive quantity of fat. His mother died at 91. His 
drink was water, beer, and cider: he had a fixed diflikq 
to fpirits of all kinds. His appetite was good, and lie ate 
plentifully during the laft years of his life. He feldom 
drank any thing between his meals. He was intoxicated, 
but twice in his life, and that was when a boy, and at fea, 
where he remembered perfectly to have celebrated by ^ 
feu-de-joye the birth-day of queen Anne. He was for¬ 
merly afflicted with the liead-achand giddinefs, but never 
had a fever, except from the fmall-pox, in the courfe of 
his life. His pulfe was flow, but regular. He had been 
twice married. By his firlt wife he had eight, and by hi3 
fecond feventeen, children : one of them lived to be eighty- 
three years of age. He was about five feet nine inches in 
height, of a flender make, and carried an ereCt head to the 
laft year of his life. 
I have not found the lofs of teeth to affeCt the duration 
of human life fo much as might be expefted. Edward 
Drinker, who lived to be 103 years old, loft his teeth 
thirty years before he died, from drawing the hot fmoke 
of tobacco into his mouth through a fflort pipe. Dr. 
Sayre, of New Jerfey, to whom I am indebted for feveral 
valuable hiitories of old perfons, mentions one man aged 
81, whofe teeth began to decay at fixteen, and another of 
90, who loft his teeth thirty years before he favv him. 
I have not obferved baldnefs, or grey hairs, occurring 
in early or middle life, to prevent old age. In one of the 
hiftories furnifhed by Dr. Sayre, I find an account of a 
man of 80, whofe hair began to affume a filver colour 
when he was only eleven years of age. Notwithftanding 
there appears in the human body a certain capacity of 
long life, which feems to difpofe it to preferve its ex- 
iftence in every fituation, yet this capacity does ndt al¬ 
ways protect it from premature deftruCtion; for, among 
the old people whom I examined, I fcarcely met with 
one who had not loft brothers or filters in early and mid¬ 
dle life, and who were born under circumftances equally 
favourable to longevity with themfelves. 
Let us now take a retrofpeflive view of man’s life from 
his infancy, and enumerate the chief of thefe different 
caufes. Of a thoufand infants, extracted from the Lon¬ 
don bills of mortality, twenty-three died almoft as foon 
as they came into the world : teething carried off fifty, 
and convwJfiQhs two hundred and feventy-feven; eighty 
. died 
