Duration of Life : Part 1

Maintaining Health
by R. L. Alsaker

(Page 28 of 37)

Old age today brings to mind a picture of decrepitude and decay. This is because there is practically no natural old age. Those who live so that they are unhealthy during the early years of life will not be well if they reach advanced years. Old people can be well in body and sound in mind. In order to attain this desirable end, it is necessary to live properly during the first part of life. It is true that people may dissipate and reform and then live long in comfort, but usually those who spend too lavishly destroy their capital and go into physical or mental bankruptcy.

There are many who during their prime say that they do not wish to grow old. Their desire for a short life can easily be satisfied. All that is necessary is to live in the conventional manner and the chance of dying before reaching the age of fifty or sixty is good. A few live to be seventy or more in spite of dissipation, but these are the exceptions. They were endowed with excellent constitutions to begin with, constitutions that were made to last over one hundred years. Where we find one who has lived long in spite of intemperance, thousands have died from it.

Most people desire to remain on earth long and they can have their wish. They can advance in years healthy in body and with growing serenity of mind. Physical and mental well-being are necessary to attain one's life's expectancy. Old age should not be considered as apart from the rest of life. It is but one of the natural phases. Those who do not live to be old have failed to live completely.

Those who express their desire to die young generally change their mind when they face death. Man clings to life.

Old age is a desirable condition. The physical tempests have been subdued, if the life has been well spent. On the other hand, the faults and foibles of the self-indulgent are accentuated and in such cases old age is a misfortune.

No one knows what man's natural length of life is. Anatomists and physiologists compare the human body with the bodies of various animals. In this they are justified, for we all develop according to the same laws. Most of the animals, when allowed to live as nature intended them to live, reach an age of from five to six times the length of the period of their growth. Human beings, with their ability to control their environment, should be able to do even better than that. Man reaches physical maturity between twenty and twenty-five years of age. This would make his natural age one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty years. There are cases on record that have lived longer and it may be that if man would cease going in the way of self-destruction and spend more thought and time on the welfare of the race, life would be prolonged beyond even one hundred and fifty years. R. T. Trall, M. D., thought that man should live to be two hundred years old.

"What man has done man can do." If long life is worth while, doubtless a time will come when long life will be enjoyed. The worry, fretting and foolish haste of today will doubtless be partly done away with some time. Then men and women will have time to live, instead of merely existing, as most people do today. Men have lived long and found life good. Long life for its own sake is perhaps not to be desired, but the benefit that can be bestowed upon the race by those advanced in years is desirable. Occasionally a brilliant individual appears on the scene, doing superior work in life's morning, but most of the work that has been found worthy of the consideration of the ages has been done by men of mature years.

Galen, the famous physician, is said to have lived to a great age. It is hard to tell exactly how old he was, but he was probably well past the century mark at his death. His long life gave him time to do work that is appreciated after the lapse of eighteen centuries. For many hundred years after his death he dominated the practice of medicine and he is today spoken of as often as any living medical man.

Thomas Parr, an Englishman, died at the age of one hundred and fifty-two. He was hale and hearty to the very end. Unfortunately, his reputation traveled far. He was brought to the English court, where he was wined and dined, and as a consequence he died. Before this he had always led the simple life. An autopsy was performed and the physicians found his organs in excellent condition. The only reason they could give for his death was his departure from the simple life which he had led in his home.

Henry Jenkins, also an Englishman, lived to the age of one hundred and sixty-nine years. He lived very frugally and was always on friendly terms with nature. His favorite drink was water, though he partook in moderation of "hop bitters." He was moderate in all things, and it is said that he was never really ill until near the end of life. He was not shriveled and shrunken, but a wholesome looking man. King Charles II. sent a carriage to bring Mr. Jenkins to London, when he was one hundred and sixty years old. The old gentleman declined to ride and walked the two hundred miles to the metropolis. The king questioned him regarding his life and desired to know the reason for his longevity. Mr. Jenkins replied that he had always been sober and temperate and that this was the reason for his many years. The Merry Monarch was neither sober nor temperate, and you may be sure that this reply did not please him. Mr. Jenkins was wiser than Mr. Parr had been, refusing to dissipate, even though he was old. Consequently he returned to his home to enjoy life nine years longer.

These two cases are authentic.

All are familiar with the records given in the Bible. Whether they are figurative or not it is hard to tell. However, so many cases of longevity are recorded that they in all probability have a basis in fact. The Hebrews of old must have been a long-lived people. One hundred and twenty years was not an extreme age. In Genesis is the record of many over five hundred years old, and a few over nine hundred years of age. At the time of the apostles the life span of the Hebrews had grown shorter and hence the dictum of three score years and ten. Between the time of Moses and that of the apostles the Hebrews had advanced - or shall we say degenerated? - from a semi-barbarous people to one that had the graces and also the vices of a higher civilization. The Hebrews of old were husbandmen, who lived simply and got their vigor from the soil.