YOUNG AT A HUNDRED

Gisborne Times, Volume LXI, Issue 9846, 27 October 1924, Page 6

YOUNG AT A HUNDRED

(By Walter M. Gallichnn, in the Daily Mail.) A medical officer of health, who is also a coroner in the west of England, c alms that he- is still cjuito ' t( pable of performing Ins duties at the ripe ape of 99. An example of such activity in a nonagenarian lends support to the view of some of our physiologists that human life may he greatiy prolonged in the future._ Dr. Carrel, of the Rockefeller Institute, has just announced that Ids experiments show that, 'seme of the tissues of the human body can be “considered as potentially immortal.” Long-living persons are generally the descendants of long-living, ancestors. Their age is not to be estimated by dates, but bv the cofidition oi the arteries, the retention cf the capacity for physical and mental activity, and their recuperative power. ‘A considerable number of people who have survived long after reaching the age of 100 were horn in Scotland. The longest-lived men, according to a* record said to be faiik authentic, was Colour McC-rain. who died in the Island of Jura, during the reign of Chnrlcs I. 3 ut the ago ol 180° Thos. Parr, known as “Old Parr” was a Shropsire peasant, who showed no signs of ill-health when hs was 153. Among the Scott - sh super-cen-tenarians we read of Dr. Mo vet. oi Dumfries, who died, at 139; Lanrencc of- Orkney, 140; Robert Mneßnce--130; Mnrv lnr.es. of Skye. 137; and Peter oGvdon, 131. In 1782 Evan WRiains died at Carmarthen, aged 145. Mary Brook, a Staffordshire woman, attained the age of 14S; ar.cl Mrs Judith Scott, of Islington, dec! at 162 in 1792. / Compared with these veterans, tnc man of 60 is still young and the man of 80 should he in his prime.