Sex in Relation to Society
1630. The last lady of this remarkable trio is hale and hearty, and has
3351 words | Chapter 22
just successfully undergone an operation for cataract. Similar to the
case of the centenarian who had seen Henry Jenkins was that of James
Horrocks, who was born in 1744 and died in 1844. His father was born in
1657, one year before the death of the Protector, and had issue in
early life. He married again at eighty-four to a woman of twenty-six,
of which marriage James was the offspring in 1744. In 1844 this man
could with verity say that he had a brother born during the reign of
Charles II, and that his father was a citizen of the Commonwealth.
Among the Mission Indians of Southern California there are reported
instances of longevity ranging from one hundred and twenty to one
hundred and forty. Lieutenant Gibbons found in a village in Peru one
hundred inhabitants who were past the century mark, and another
credible explorer in the same territory records a case of longevity of
one hundred and forty. This man was very temperate and always ate his
food cold, partaking of meat only in the middle of the day. In the year
of 1840 in the town of Banos, Ecuador, died "Old Morales," a carpenter,
vigorous to his last days. He was an elderly man and steward of the
Jesuits when they were expelled from their property near this location
in 1767. In the year 1838 there was a witness in a judicial trial in
South America who was born on the night of the great earthquake which
destroyed the town of Ambato in 1698. How much longer this man who was
cradled by an earthquake lived is not as yet reported. In the State of
Vera Cruz, Mexico, as late as 1893 a man died at the age of one hundred
and thirty-seven. The census of 1864 for the town of Pilaguin, Ecuador,
lying 11,000 feet above the level of the sea and consisting of about
2000 inhabitants, gives 100 above seventy, 30 above ninety, five above
one hundred, and one at one hundred and fifteen years.
Francis Auge died in Maryland in 1767 at the age of one hundred and
thirty-four. He remembered the execution of Charles I and had a son
born to him after he was one hundred.
There are several other instances in which men have displayed
generative ability in old age. John Gilley, who died in Augusta, Maine,
in 1813, was born in Ireland in 1690. He came to this country at the
age of sixty, and continued in single blessedness until seventy-five,
when he married a girl of eighteen, by whom he had eight children. His
wife survived him and stated that he was virile until his one hundred
and twentieth year. Baron Baravicino de Capelis died at Meran in 1770
at the age of one hundred and four, being the oldest man in Tyrol. His
usual food was eggs, and he rarely tasted meat. He habitually drank tea
and a well-sweetened cordial of his own recipe. He was married four
times during his life, taking his fourth wife when he was eighty-four.
By her he had seven children and at his death she was pregnant with the
eighth child.
Pliny mentions cases of men begetting sons when past the age of eighty
and Plot speaks of John Best of the parish of Horton, who when one
hundred and four married a woman of fifty-six and begat a son. There
are also records of a man in Stockholm of one hundred who had several
children by a wife of thirty.
On August 7, 1776, Mary, the wife of Joseph Yates, at Lizard Common not
far from London, was buried at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven.
She had walked to London in 1666, and was hearty and strong at one
hundred and twenty, and had married a third husband at ninety-two.
A case without parallel, of long survival of a deaf mute, is found in
Mrs. Gray of Northfleet, Kent, who died in 1770, one hundred and
twenty-one years old. She was noted for her cheerful disposition, and
apparently enjoyed life in spite of her infirmity, which lasted one
hundred and twenty-one years.
Macklin the actor was born in 1697 and died in 1797. Several years
before his death he played "Shylock," displaying great vigor in the
first act, but in the second his memory failed him, and with much grace
and solemnity he advanced to the foot-lights and apologized for his
inability to continue. It is worthy of remark that several instances of
longevity in Roman actresses have been recorded. One Luceja, who came
on the stage very young, performed a whole century, and even made her
public appearance in her one hundred and twelfth year. Copiola was said
to have danced before Augustus when past ninety.
Influence of Stimulants, etc.--There have been men who have attributed
their long lives to their excesses in stimulants. Thomas Wishart of
Annandale, Dumfries, died in 1760 at one hundred and twenty-four. He
had chewed tobacco one hundred and seventeen years, contracting the
habit when a child; his father gave it to him to allay hunger while
shepherding in the mountains. John de la Somet of Virginia died in 1766
aged one hundred and thirty. He was a great smoker, and according to
Eaton the habit agreed with his constitution, and was not improbably
the cause of his long health and longevity. William Riddell, who died
at one hundred and sixteen carefully avoided water all his life and had
a love for brandy.
Possession of Faculties.--Eglebert Hoff was a lad driving a team in
Norway when the news was brought that Charles I was beheaded. He died
in Fishkill, N.Y., in 1764 at the age of one hundred and twenty-eight.
He never used spectacles, read fluently, and his memory and senses were
retained until his death, which was due to an accident. Nicolas
Petours, curate of the parish of Baleene and afterward canon of the
Cathedral of Constance, died at the age of one hundred and
thirty-seven; he was always a healthy, vigorous man, and celebrated
mass five days before his death. Mr. Evans of Spital Street,
Spitalfields, London, died in 1780 aged one hundred and thirty-nine,
having full possession of his mental faculties. Of interest to
Americans is the case of David Kinnison, who, when one hundred and
eleven, related to Lossing the historian the tale of the Boston Tea
Party, of which he had been a member. He died in good mental condition
at the age of one hundred and fifteen. Anthony Senish, a farmer of the
village of Limoges, died in 1770 in his one hundred and eleventh year.
He labored until two weeks before his death, had still his hair, and
his sight had not failed him. His usual food was chestnuts and Turkish
corn; he had never been bled or used any medicine. Not very long ago
there was alive in Tacony, near Philadelphia, a shoemaker named R. Glen
in his one hundred and fourteenth year. He had seen King William III,
and all his faculties were perfectly retained; he enjoyed good health,
walking weekly to Philadelphia to church. His third wife was but thirty
years old.
Longevity in Ireland.--Lord Bacon said that at one time there was not a
village in all Ireland in which there was not a man living upward of
eighty. In Dunsford, a small village, there were living at one time 80
persons above the age of four score. Colonel Thomas Winslow was
supposed to have died in Ireland on August 26, 1766, aged one hundred
and forty-six. There was a man by the name of Butler who died at
Kilkenny in 1769 aged one hundred and thirty-three. He rode after the
hounds while yet a centenarian. Mrs. Eckelston, a widow in
Phillipstown, Kings County, Ireland, died in 1690 at one hundred and
forty-three.
There are a number of instances in which there is extraordinary
renovation of the senses or even of the body in old age,--a new period
of life, as it were, is begun. A remarkable instance is an old
magistrate known to Hufeland, who lived at Rechingen and who died in
1791 aged one hundred and twenty. In 1787, long after he had lost all
his teeth, eight new ones appeared, and at the end of six months they
again dropped out, but their place was supplied by other new ones, and
Nature, unwearied, continued this process until his death. All these
teeth he had acquired and lost without pain, the whole number amounting
to 150. Alice, a slave born in Philadelphia, and living in 1802 at the
age of one hundred and sixteen, remembered William Penn and Thomas
Story. Her faculties were well preserved, but she partially lost her
eyesight at ninety-six, which, strange to say, returned in part at one
hundred and two. There was a woman by the name of Helen Gray who died
in her one hundred and fifth year, and who but a few years before her
death had acquired a new set of teeth.
In Wilson's "Healthy Skin" are mentioned several instances of very old
persons in whom the natural color of the hair returned after they had
been gray for years. One of them was John Weeks, whose hair became
brown again at one hundred and fourteen. Sir John Sinclair a mentions a
similar case in a Scotchman who lived to one hundred and ten. Susan
Edmonds when in her ninety-fifth year recovered her black hair, but
previously to her death at one hundred and five again became gray.
There was a Dr. Slave who at the age of eighty had a renewal of rich
brown hair, which he maintained until his death at one hundred. There
was a man in Vienna, aged one hundred and five, who had black hair long
after his hair had first become white This man is mentioned as a
parallel to Dr. Slave. Similar examples are mentioned in Chapter VI.
It is a remarkable fact that many persons who have reached an old age
have lived on the smallest diet and the most frugal fare. Many of the
instances of longevity were in people of Scotch origin who subsisted
all their lives on porridges. Saint Anthony is said to have maintained
life to one hundred and five on twelve ounces of bread daily. In 1792
in the Duchy of Holstein there was an industrious laborer named Stender
who died at one hundred and three, his food for the most part of his
life having been oatmeal and buttermilk. Throughout his life he had
been particularly free from thirst, drinking little water and no
spirits.
Heredity.--There are some very interesting instances of successive
longevity. Lister speaks of a son and a father, from a village called
Dent, who were witnesses before a jury at York in 1664. The son was
above one hundred and the father above one hundred and forty. John
Moore died in 1805 aged one hundred and seven. His father died at one
hundred and five and his grandfather at one hundred and fifteen, making
a total of three hundred and twenty-seven years for the three
generations. Recently, Wynter mentions four sisters,--of one hundred,
one hundred and three, one hundred and five, and one hundred and seven
years respectively. On the register of Bremhill 1696, is the following
remarkable entry: "Buried, September 29th, Edith Goldie, Grace Young,
and Elizabeth Wiltshire, their united ages making three hundred." As
late as 1886 in the district of Campinos there was a strong active man
named Joseph Joachim de Prado, of good family, who was one hundred and
seven years old. His mother died by accident at one hundred and
twelve, and his maternal grandmother died at one hundred and twenty-two.
Longevity in Active Military Service.--One of the most remarkable
proofs that under fickle fortune, constant danger, and the most
destructive influences the life of man may be long preserved is
exemplified in the case of an old soldier named Mittelstedt, who died
in Prussia in 1792, aged one hundred and twelve. He was born at Fissalm
in June, 1681. He entered the army, served under three Kings, Frederick
I, Frederick William I, and Frederick II, and did active service in the
Seven Years' War, in which his horse was shot under him and he was
taken prisoner by the Russians. In his sixty-eight years of army
service he participated in 17 general engagements, braved numerous
dangers, and was wounded many times. After his turbulent life he
married, and at last in 1790, in his one hundred and tenth year, he
took a third wife. Until shortly before his death he walked every
month to the pension office, a distance of two miles from his house.
Longevity in Physicians.--It may be of interest to the members of our
profession to learn of some instances of longevity among confreres. Dr.
R. Baynes of Rockland, Maine, has been mentioned in the list of "grand
old men" in medicine; following in the footsteps of Hippocrates and
Galen, he was practicing at ninety-nine. He lives on Graham's diet,
which is a form of vegetarianism; he does not eat potatoes, but does
eat fruit. His drink is almost entirely water, milk, and chocolate, and
he condemns the use of tea, coffee, liquors, and tobacco. He has almost
a perfect set of natural teeth and his sight is excellent. Like most
men who live to a great age, Dr. Baynes has a "fad," to which he
attributes a chief part in prolonging his life. This is the avoidance
of beds, and except when away from home he has not slept on a bed or
even on a mattress for over fifty years. He has an iron reclining
chair, over which he spreads a few blankets and rugs.
The British Medical Journal speaks of Dr. Boisy of Havre, who is one
hundred and three. It is said he goes his rounds every day, his
practice being chiefly among the poor. At one time he practiced in
India. He has taken alcoholic beverages and smoked tobacco since his
youth, although in moderation. His father, it is added, died at the age
of one hundred and eight. Mr. William R. Salmon, living near Cowbridge,
Glamorganshire, recently celebrated his one hundred and sixth birthday.
Mr. Salmon was born at Wickham Market in 1790, and became a member of
the Royal College of Surgeons in 1809, the year in which Gladstone was
born. He died April 11, 1896. In reference to this wonderful old
physician the Journal of the American Medical Association, 1896, page
995, says--
"William Reynold Salmon, M.R.C.S., of Penllyn Court, Cowbridge,
Glamorganshire, South Wales, completed his one hundred and sixth year
on March 16th, and died on the 11th of the present month--at the time
of his death the oldest known individual of indisputably authenticated
age, the oldest physician, the oldest member of the Royal College of
Surgeons, England, and the oldest Freemason in the world. His age does
not rest upon tradition or repute. He was the son of a successful and
esteemed practicing physician of Market Wickham, Suffolk, England, and
there is in the possession of his two surviving relatives, who cared
for his household for many years, his mother's diary, in which is
inscribed in the handwriting of a lady of the eighteenth century, under
the date, Tuesday, March 16, 1790, a prayer of thankfulness to God that
she had passed her 'tryall,' and that a son was born, who she hoped
'would prosper, be a support to his parents, and make virtue his chief
pursuit.' The Royal College of Surgeons verified this record many years
ago, and it was subsequently again authenticated by the authorities of
the Freemasons, who thereupon enshrined his portrait in their gallery
as the oldest living Freemason. The Salmon family moved to Cowbridge in
1796, so that the doctor had lived exactly a century in the lovely and
poetic Vale of Glamorgan, in the very heart of which Penllyn Court is
situated. Here on his one hundred and sixth birthday--a man of over
middle height, with still long, flowing hair, Druidical beard and
mustache, and bushy eyebrows--Dr. Salmon was visited by one who
writes:--
"'Seen a few days ago, the Patriarch of Penllyn Court was hale and
hearty. He eats well and sleeps well and was feeling better than he had
felt for the last five years. On that day he rose at noon, dined at
six, and retired at nine. Drank two glasses of port with his dinner,
but did not smoke. He abandoned his favorite weed at the age of ninety,
and had to discontinue his drives over his beautiful estate in his one
hundredth year. One day is much the same as another, for he gives his
two relatives little trouble in attending upon his wants. Dr. Salmon
has not discovered the elixir of life, for the shadows of life's
evening are stealing slowly over him. He cannot move about, his hearing
is dulled, and the light is almost shut out from the "windows of his
soul." Let us think of this remarkable man waiting for death
uncomplainingly in his old-fashioned mansion, surrounded by the
beautiful foliage and the broad expanse of green fields that he loved
so much to roam when a younger man, in that sylvan Sleepy Hollow in the
Vale of Glamorgan.'
"Eight weeks later he, who in youth had been 'the youngest surgeon in
the army, died, the oldest physician in the world."
Dr. William Hotchkiss, said to have reached the age of one hundred and
forty years, died in St. Louis April 1, 1895. He went to St. Louis
forty years ago, and has always been known as the "color doctor." In
his peculiar practice of medicine he termed his patients members of his
"circles," and claimed to treat them by a magnetic process. Dr. A. J.
Buck says that his Masonic record has been traced back one hundred
years, showing conclusively that he was one hundred and twenty-one
years old. A letter received from his old home in Virginia, over a year
ago, says that he was born there in 1755.
It is comforting to the members of our profession, in which the average
of life is usually so low, to be able to point out exceptions. It has
been aptly said of physicians in general: "Aliis inserviendo
consumuntur; aliis medendo moriuntur," or "In serving others they are
consumed; in healing others they are destroyed."
Recent Instances of Longevity.--There was a man who died in Spain at
the advanced age of one hundred and fifty-one, which is the most
extraordinary instance from that country. It is reported that quite
recently a Chinese centenarian passed the examination for the highest
place in the Academy of Mandarins. Chevreul, born in 1786, at Angers,
has only recently died after an active life in chemical investigation.
Sir Moses Montefiore is a recent example of an active centenarian.
In the New York Herald of April 21, 1895, is a description and a
portrait of Noah Raby of the Piscataway Poor Farm of New Jersey, to
whom was ascribed one hundred and twenty-three years. He was discharged
from active duty on the "Brandywine," U.S.N., eighty-three years ago.
He relates having heard George Washington speak at Washington and at
Portsmouth while his ship was in those places. The same journal also
says that at Wichita, Kansas, there appeared at a municipal election an
old negress named Mrs. Harriet McMurray, who gave her age as one
hundred and fifteen. She had been a slave, and asserted that once on a
visit to Alexandria with her master she had seen General Washington.
From the Indian Medical Record we learn that Lieutenant Nicholas Lavin
of the Grand Armee died several years ago at the age of one hundred and
twenty-five, leaving a daughter of seventy-eight. He was born in Paris
in 1768, served as a hussar in several campaigns, and was taken a
prisoner during the retreat from Moscow. After his liberation he
married and made his residence in Saratoff.
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