as the period of its growth. He was near the truth. The true relation is five, or very nearly.

"Man being twenty years growing, lives five times twenty; that is to say, one hundred years."

Flourens confines his observations to the mammalia. But in order, as it would seem, to reconcile his conclusions with Haller's assumed historical facts, he proceeds to say, that extraordinary life may go on to double ordinary life. That a century of ordinary life, and almost a second century, half a century at least, of extraordinary life, is the prospect science holds out to man.

We adopt the opinion in the text, that the historical evidence up to the present time fails in proof of any person's having reached even one hundred and five years.

NOTE C.

POPULAR ERRORS RESPECTING LONGEVITY.

Sir Henry Holland, whose recent decease has given great currency to his writings at the present time, has in an essay on longevity the following passage :

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We have sufficient proof of the frequent prolongation of human life to periods of 110 to 130 or 140 years; cases which thus authenticated we must take into view when dealing with the question of human longevity."

Mr. Thoms quotes this passage, and remarks that any evidence which can be produced of any human being having attained the age, not of 130 or 140, but of 110 years, will be found upon examination to be perfectly worthless.

Sir Henry Holland had no reliable evidence whatever to produce, he merely expressed a popular belief. The newspapers, and even the medical press, are constantly

inserting accounts of persons dying at fabulous ages, without the slightest inquiry or proof; and Mr. Thoms rebukes what he calls the childlike faith of men eminent in the medical profession in accepting such stories as true, while they ostentatiously proclaim their scepticism respecting the origin of man, and other well-established facts. This disposition to embrace and hold fast sensational errors, and to reject simple truth, is not confined to medical men.

We cannot, however, be surprised at finding popular opinion formed and held without evidence when we read in the Times such paragraphs as this :—

"LONGEVITY.—The report recently issued by the RegistrarGeneral, relating to the year 1871, contained further testimony on the subject of long life. In 1871 the following deaths were registered in England, the ages (like other particulars) being taken on the statement of the relatives or other persons supplying information of the death. There were 27 persons registered as dying at the age of 100 years, 17 at 101, 10 at 102, 5 at 103, 3 at 104, 2 at 105, 2 at 106, I at 107, I at 108, I at 109 years. The last three should have special mention; a man in the district of Sevenoaks was registered as dying 107 years old; a man in the district of Ledbury 108; a woman in the district of Chester, 109 years old. Seven centenarians died in the Metropolis, and seven in Lancashire. Of the whole 69, 25 were men and 44 were women. From 1861 to 1871 the deaths of people registered as being 100 years old or more averaged 78 a year; 21 men and 57 women. The Registrar-General mentions, as the only known instance of an insured life reaching 100 years, that of Jacob William Luning, who died in 1870 at the age of 103 years. His age was clearly established by documentary evidence submitted to the Registrar-General, and published by him in his weekly return."

Another popular error very prevalent, is that cold, and even frost, is congenial to life and health. There is a proverb: "A green yule (i.e. Christmas) makes a fat churchyard." The registration of deaths directly contradicts this opinion. Cold, frosty weather destroys many lives, which might have lasted for years were the weather continuously mild.

NOTE D.

WASTE OF HUMAN LIFE.

In one of his Annual Reports, the Registrar-General says, -“ England is a great country, and has done great deeds. It has encountered in succession, and, at times in combination, all the Great Powers of Europe; has founded vast colonies in America; and has conquered an empire in Asia. Yet greater victories have to be achieved at home. Within the shores of these islands the twenty-eight millions of people dwell who have not only supplied her armies, and set her fleets in motion, but have manufactured innumerable products, and are employed in the investigation of scientific truths, and the creation of works of inestimable value to the human race. These people do not live out half their days. A hundred and forty thousand of them die every year unnatural deaths; two hundred and eighty thousand are constantly suffering from actual diseases which may be prevented. Their strength is impaired in a thousand ways, their affections and intellects are disturbed, deranged, and dimmed. Who will deliver the nation from these terrible enemies? Who will confer on the inhabitants of the United Kingdom the blessings of health and long life?" In a subsequent paper the Registrar-General tells us there are "two thousand medical men in the metropolis alone engaged in

treating existing diseases, whilst very few, if any, bestow any attention on measures of prevention, the reason being that they are paid in the one case, but would find no remuneration in the other." Perfectly true: even the rich neglect the first attacks of disease from reluctance to pay the Physician's fee. The services of the general practitioner are paid for in the shape of a bill for medicines-can anything be more impolitic?

A sensible course would be to pay the Physician an annual stipend for visiting the household periodically-to advise measures of prevention, and afford immediate aid on the first appearance of disturbed health, whether of the family or domestics. More attention would then be given to hygiene. It is not enough to appoint public officers of health; although this is highly proper and useful, it can never safely exclude individual efforts.

NOTE E.

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF LONGEVITY.

The influence of age on the mental faculties, the moral and religious aspects of longevity, do not come within my design. Writers of all ages, heathen and Christian, have treated on the subject: Cicero, Seneca, Cornaro, Sir Thomas Brown Sir Thomas Bernard, Sir Henry Holland, Lord Brougham, Mr. James Grant, and many others.

The following is profoundly interesting and suggestive:-"It is related of the late Lord Lyndhurst, so long Lord Chancellor of England, who reached the age of ninety-two, in the full possession of his faculties, that in his declining years it was with him a perpetual theme of gratitude to God that his life had been so extended as to enable him to make

preparation for death, in which he was earnest and incessant. He applied, says a friend, all the power of his marvellous intellect and all his apprehensive quickness to the study of religion. And through its influences, his natural kindliness and loving disposition were refined into the highest Christian graces-true humility, hearty repentance, serene and earnest hope. He died in peace and charity with all mankind. His last words expressing supreme happiness."

I cannot refrain from making one remark-the result of long observation-for the benefit of those who have attained to an advanced age and are blessed with wealth. It is, that money, be it much or little, given to relatives as their needs occur, to charitable institutions or religious uses during the life of the donor, is far more beneficial, morally and materially, both to the recipient and the giver, than double, or rather many times, the amount devised by will.

NOTE F.

THE BONES OF OLD PEOPLE BRITTLE.

So little has the condition of the system in elderly people been investigated scientifically, that it is almost universally believed that the brittleness of the bones in age arises from a redundancy of earthy matter. This will be found stated in many books as if it had ever been ascertained. The simple truth is, it is a false inference from the fact that earthy concretions are often met with around the joints, in the blood-vessels about the heart, and other parts, which are then said to be ossified.

On the sure ground of chemical analysis, we know that the bones of aged persons have less earthy matter in them than in earlier life.