Modern Methuselahs, or, Short biographical sketches of a few advanced nonagenarians or actual centenarians who were distinguished in art, science, literature, or philanthropy. Also, brief notices of some individuals remarkable chiefly for their longevity / By John Burn Bailey. With an introductory chapter on "long-lasting".

  • Bailey, John Burn.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Modern Methuselahs, or, Short biographical sketches of a few advanced nonagenarians or actual centenarians who were distinguished in art, science, literature, or philanthropy. Also, brief notices of some individuals remarkable chiefly for their longevity / By John Burn Bailey. With an introductory chapter on "long-lasting". Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    An old man who was in very vigorous health at the age of ninety-seven, had been from early youth to hoar hairs a lover of gin straight, and a smoker and chewer of the strongest and rankest possible tobacco. But without dwelliug on such evidently pernicious habits, it may be well to notice that in some cases very great liberty may be taken with Nature without bringing a punishment for the disregard of her laws. There does not appear, any reason to doubt that the Rev. W. Davis, incumbent of Staunton-on-Wye, who died in 1790, had truly reached his one hundred and fifth year. Yet for the last thirty-five years of his existence he habitually transgressed the ordinary methods of preserving health, for although he took very little indoor and no outdoor exercise, he fed heartily on substantial food, not always easy of digestion for the most active. He began the day with hot buttered rolls for breakfast, and concluded it with hot roast meats for supper. He w^as also a fair wine-drinker. Most of the centenarians whose cases have been here cited were, it is stated, of short stature ; the greater number of them were married, many of them several times, some after they were one hundred years old ; one took matrimonial fetters twice after he was a century old, and another risked the lottery three times after he was that age. John Weeks married his tenth wife when he had attained his one hundred and six years. Not a few, on the other hand, communicated the secret of long-lasting to