Examples of Longevity

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 3, 1865

Examples of Longevity.

FROM that very excellent work on health, "Trall's Hydropathic Encyclopedia," pp. 384—386, we take the following article which will doubtless prove interesting to those who desire great "length of days."

"Haller collected most of the cases of longevity known in Europe in his time. Among them were over a thousand who attained to ages between 100 and 110 years; sixty, from 110 to 120; twenty-nine from 120 to 130; fifteen from 130 to 140; six from 140 to 150; one reached 169 years. The Russian statistics of 1830 give examples of two hundred and fifty-five individuals between the ages of 100 and 160. In England and Wales, during a period of eighteen years preceding 1830, over seven hundred persons were buried, each of whose ages exceeded 100 years. Baker's 'Curse of Britain' gives a list of about one hundred individuals whose ages ranged from 95 to 370! Twenty-one of them reached the age of 150 and upward, and about thirty exceeded 120 years. Pliny copied from the records of the census in the time of Vespasian, the cases of one hundred and twenty-four men living between the Po and the Apennines, who had attained ages from 100 to 140 years. At the same time there were living in Parma five men of ages from 120 to 130; in Placentia one of 130: at Facentia a woman of 132; and in Vellagacian ten persons, six of whom were 110 and four 120 years of age. Herodotus informs us that the average life of the Macrobians was 120 years. The Circassians, according to the traveler, Mr. Spenser, attained a very advanced age. Modern statistics exhibit numerous examples of persons, in various parts of the United States, in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, Ireland, Poland, Greece, and among the vegetarian Bramins of India, attaining more than one hundred years of age. France, Spain, and Germany afford a few examples. Many places on Long Island in the State of New York, will compare advantageously with almost any equal number of places on the globe, as regards the longevity of their inhabitants, and the number who have attained 100 years of age. The American Indians, previous to the introduction of the white man's 'fire-water,' frequently lived to the age of 100 years. The following catalogue of names and ages of persons distinguished for length of years has been collected by Baker, Horsell, and others. There is a discrepancy of a few years in relation to four or five of the individuals between the ages here stated and those given by other authors. The differences, however, is not material, and can in no way affect our argument or inferences.

"William Dupe 95, William Dupe's father 102, his grandfather 108, Michell Vivian 100, John Crossley 100, Lewis Cornaro 100, Admiral H. Rolvenden 100, Jane Milner 102, Eleanor Aymer 103, Eleanor Pritchard 103, her sisters 104 and 108, William Pepman 103, William Marmon 103, wife of Cicero 103, Stender 103, Susan Edmonds 104, St. John the Silent 104, James the Hermit 104, Hippocrates 104, Bar Decapellias 104, Mrs. Hudson 105, Helen Gray 105, Mrs. Alexander 105, St. Theodosius 105, Mazarella 105, John Pinkham 105, St. Anthony 105, Mary Nally 106, Thomas Davies 106, his wife 105, Ann Parker 108, Gorgias 108, Simon Stylites 109, Coobah Lord 109, Democrates 109, De Longueville 110, Ant. Semish 111, Ann Wall 111, Luceja 112, Mittelstedt 112, J. Walker 112, W. Kauper 112, W. Cowman 112, E. M. Gross 112, Paul the Hermit 113, F. Lupatsoli 113, M. Mahon 114, John Weeks 114, R. Glen 114, St. Epiphanus 115, George Wharton 115, Louis Wholeham 115, Bamberg 120, Arsenius 120, Romualdus 120, John Bailes 122, Margaret Darley 130, Francis Peat 130, William Ellis 130, Bamberger 130, Peter Gordon 132, John Garden 132, Richard Loyd 132, John Taylor 133, Catherine Lopez 134, Margaret Forster 136, John Mount 136, Margaret Patten 137, Juan Marroygota 138, Rebecca Perry 140, Galen 140, Dumitor Radaloy 140, Laurence 140, Countess of Desmond 140, Mr. Eccleston 140, Solomel Nibel 143, William Evans 145, Joseph Bam 145, Colonel Thomas Winslow 146, Llywark Ken 150, Judith Crawford 150, Catharine Hyatt 150, Thomas Garrick 151, Francis Consist 152, James Bowels 152, Thomas Parr 152, Thomas Damma 154, Epimenides 157, Robert Lynch 160, Letitia Cox 160, Joice Heth 162, Sarah Rovin 164, William Edwards 168, Henry Jenkins 169, John Rovin 172, Peter Porton 185, Mongate 185, Petratsch Czarten 185, Thomas Cam 207, Numes de Cugna 370."

"Zeno, the founder of the stoical sect, lived 100 years; Titian the painter, nearly 100; Francis Secardia Hongo, died A. D. 1702, aged 114; in 1757, J. Effingham died at Cornwall, aged 144; Alexander Macintosh, of Marseilles, lived 112; James Le Measurer of Navarre, 118 years; Valentine Cateby, of Preston, England, 118 years; Henry Grosvenor, of Wexford, Ireland, 115 years, John de la Somet, of Virginia, 130 years; Elizabeth Macpherson, of Caithness, Scotland, 117 years; Owen Carollan, of Ireland, 127 years; Ann Day, an English gipsy, 108 years; Cardinal de Salis, of Seville, 110 years."