LONGEVITY.*
OUR EADIES, VAN EUTCHELS, and a thousand beside, have long ago demonstrated the absurdity of tolerating disease in the world ; but these learned personages are only of use when we are sick—they don't pretend to make antedeluvians of their patients. "The lotions and the potions" are excellent things for an occasional crack or flaw ; but against old age, which goes creeping, like the dry rot, from rib to rib, until the whole framework tumbles asunder, they offer no protection. It is here that the lecturer on dietetics, the compiler of codes of longe- vity, comes opportunely to our assistance ; for it is obviously of small consequence that the doctor can cure us of every disease that has been created or invented, so. long as we may slip from his fingers without' any disease at all. Sir ,TonN SiNcLai it some years ago wrote a huge book on the art of living for ever. The fault of Sir JOHN'S treatise was that it would have required half a century of an ordinary mortal's patience to get through it. We were in pretty much the same condi- tion, in reference to the Baronet's rules, that the philosopher's mare, which died the day that she had learned to live without food, was to his—our day of doom must have arrived by the time we had mastered them. Sir JOHN seems to have thought, that in presenting some couple of centuries of additional existence to his readers, he had a right to a handsome percentage for his awn benefit. Our friend the " Physician " is more moderate in his demands ; his book may be got through in a week at farthest, without confinement or interruption of business. The general rules, medical and dietetic, for enabling a man or woman to attain to the age of Methuselah, we shall leave to his readers ; we deem it sufficient to present ours with a few particulars of the practice of the aged worthies whose cases he cites. "Aval-dy pi, intde: So says PINDAR. St. ANTHONY lived one hundred and five years On bread and water, adding in his latter days a little salad ; at least such is the testimony of ATHANASIUS. The rule is not general, however. Mr. ROBERT SEMPLE, who also lived one hundred and five years, "loved spirits and strong ale ; " and when he drank toddy, "he had not above two-thirds of it water." The Earl of MANSFIELD took claret ; so did Dr. STIRLING, and he preferred a whole bottle to a half one. The con0equence of this injudicious preference was, that the worthy Doctor only reached his eighty-third year. Old HESIOD showed more wisdom, when he declared for the half bottle, in that famous remark which has so puzzled his commentators: MliOYo tiperav zarTac.
It is a good thing to have a fever and a consumption or two. JOHN WESLEY could preach better at seventy-three than at twenty-three ; which wonderful effect he attributes, among other wonderful causes, to his having had two violent fevers and two consumptions. The ne- *essay of consumption is not absolute, for several long-lived indivi- duals do not seem to have been visited by it. Fever is rather more frequent. Mrs. TRIMEN had a fever when she was fifty; Jours MAXWELL had a fever when he was sixty : but neither is fever es- sential, for Mrs. MARGARET CARNEGIE, who completed her eighty- seventh year, never had a fever in her life. Touching tobacco, whole or ground, the authorities are divided : Mr. LAUDER took tobacco, but no snuff; Miss CARNEGIE took snuff, but no tobacco; Mrs. T. mother-in-law of Bishop B. took neither; while WILLY MACDONALD, "who served Captain MATHESON'S grandfather in the year 1715 as a halflad," took both freely. Suppers have their advocates : Mrs. T.
* An Account of Persons Remarkable for their Health and Longevity. By a Physi- cian. London, 1829. Siropkin and Marshall.
aforesaid "could take a heavy supper,"—the precise weight is not men- tioned ; but poor Mrs. 'fantail "has been known to fall down as one
dead after eating of pork sausages at supper." Indeed Mrs. TanireN had a poor stomach, for "indigestible food would often create great distress to her." We hope our friends will eschew indigestibles, and especially pork sausages, sup how they may. Of other meals than supper, no such regular account has been preserved as to enable its to form a correct judgment. Porridge, milk, broth, meat, tea, have all their approvers. Mr. LAUDER could eat or drink any thing hi mode- ration—but one—" he was fond of sheep-heads." Exclusive attach- ments are to be avoided : we are told of WILLY MACDONALD, that
"he was not addicted to any particular vice." Regularity is of first-
rate importance. JAMES DONALD "walked about two miles every day." When the weather was bad, he walked in the barn until he completed his two miles. JAMES was a seven-months child, and this is perhaps the reason why his walk was measured. Old NOBBS walked on the declivity of a steep hill in summer, and in winter he climbed to the top of a mountain covered with snow. The name of the snowy mountain is not given by his eulogist, but it rises in the neighbourhood of Canterbury, where he lived. Old Nosus was as regular in his jokes as in his journeys. " 'Tuck up your under petticoats,' he would Say in passing near a dairy ; and, the dairymaids, with cheeks of the colour of a rose, immediately replied, 'a pleasant walk, Master Nobbs.' When he passed the tailor's he said, iia making a friendly nod, `snuff the candle ;' and they would pleasantly cry out, 'stop, old wag.' Approaching a kennel, he Would strike the outside, when the dogs came out to caress him. Near the parsonage, he took off his hat, and chaunted many times devoutly, 'Amen.'" When the weather prevented Old NOBDS from going out, he made a circuit of his apartment, repeating at the appointed periods, "Tuck up your under petticoats," " Snuff the candle," and " Amen ;" and thus walked he and talked he, until Death tucked hint up, snuffed out his candle, and said Amen over his remains. " You who are dis- posed to laugh at this extraordinary old man," quoth his biographer, " should allow serious. reflexion to take place of ridicule, and imitate him." So say we to our readers. Climb a hill daily with your coats half-buttoned, bid the dairy-maids tuck up their nether garments, the tailors snuff their candles, and when you pass the parsonage, " chaunt devoutly many times, Amen." " By the aid of these daily exercises, Old NOBBS arrived to the age of ninety-six years !"
But we must quit our Physician ;—in whose book, after all, we discover nothing that is new. The Scotsman, some twelve
months ago, in an ingenious essay endeavoured to show that sound
health and long life depended mainly on the proper adjustment of the thinking, respiratory, and digestive organs. It is indeed true that the
brains, as the old fable teaches, can do little without the stomach ; but it is amazing with how small a modicum of brains the operations of the stomach may be soundly carried on. Nearly all the long-lived in-
dividuals that ever we heard or read of exemplify this doctrine. Great talents, and great susceptibility of nervous excitement, seem, however connected, to bd inseparable. It is the latter that frets and wears out "this 'earthly vesture of decay." The out-of-doors habits, the love of simple fare, the clockwork regularity, the early bedding, early rising, and other particulars which are so often dwelt on by superficial observers as the causes of longevity, are, we suspect, no more than the natural effects of everyday circumstances operating on peculiar organization. On this principle, it does not appear impossible to ac- count for the seemingly incredible ages of the Antedeluyians,—when the objects of hope and desire were so few and so simple, and when that multifariousness of pursuits and studies which in these latter days press on the attention, gradually refining and eleyatinc, the immortal tenant at the expense of its mortal habitation, were unknown and un- imagined.
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