LONGEVITY.
[TO TIER EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR?' 1 Sta,—As a constant reader of your excellent paper, I have been: much interested in the letters on "Longevity." Regarding the instance adduced by General Robertson in your number for- September 29th, I may remark that, owing to a slight error in calculation, he does not make the best of his case—the lady therein mentioned having been born on May 11th, 1748, and. dying on April 2nd, 1858, was within thirty-nine days of com- pleting her 110th year—not 108th, as erroneously stated.* I venture to submit the following instance, which fell under my own observation. When passing through Moscow on my way overland to India in 1828, I made the acquaintance of a medical man, a Scotch man by birth and education (whose name,. however, has escaped my recollection), who had been settled there for many years, and was then physician to the Shereme- tieff Hospital, an establishment founded and maintained by Count Sheremetieff, one of the old Russian Boyards, for the use of his own serfs, who in those days num- bered 120,000 souls (as they were called in Russian), i.e., males paying " obrok." My friend, in going round the wards of the hospital, pointed out to me a hale-looking, little, old man, sitting on his bed, but who stood up and answered. intelligibly some questions addressed to him, his only infirmity being slight deafness. This man had been drafted into the Army in the time of Peter the Preat, before whom he had passed, iu review shortly before that monarch's death, which took place in 1725. This was, the doctor said, authentically proved by papers in his possession, and the man's career clearly shown. until his reception into the hospital thirty years before. Sup, posing his age to have been only fifteen at the time of his- marching past the Emperor, this makes his age when I saw, him to be one hundred and eighteen. My friend assured me that instances of very advanced age were very common among
• No; the mistake was in the years, the longevity was given rightly.—En Spectator.
the peasantry in Russia, but that, owing to the absence of all parish records or other similar documents, it was difficult, if not impossible, to get at their exact age, except in an instance like this, where the subject had entered the Army, and his future career was therefore a matter of public notoriety.—I am,
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