A MAN ONE HUNDRED AND AND EIGHTY YEARS OLD.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 182, 31 August 1878, Page 4

A MAN ONE HUNDRED AND AND EIGHTY YEARS OLD.

At a recent meeting ff physicians at Bogota, iu New Granad-j, nn interesting account, was given by Dr. Luiz Hernandez of u visit which he had paid to a half-caste farmer, named Miguel Solis, living in the Fort Hills of tho Sierra Mesilla, who confessed t> being 180 years old, but is believe! by his neighbors to be really much older. Dr Hernandez wa3 informed by some of the oldest inhabitants of the district that tbey well remetnbered Miguel as a reputed centenarian wheu tbey were boy 8; also, (hat the name of Migue! Solis, colored farmer, appears in a writ, still preserved, of tbe contributors te the building fund of a Franciscan monastery near Sau Sebastian, whioh was founded in 1712, and that the present Abbot is positive it is tbe same man. Dr Hernandez, when he visited Miguel, found him at work in his orchard; his skin was tbe color of parchment, but he was robust and active-; his snow-white hair wrs twist9d turban fashion round his head, and his eyes were so bright tbat the doctor felt quite uncomfortable when they were turned upon him. In anßwer to questions 68 to bis habits, Migue! said that the secret of his living a century or two was ve»y simple — simply never getting drunk, and never overfeeding. " I eat only once a day a big hearty meal, which it ofteu takes me half an hour to get through with; but," he added, "you see it is not impossible in half an hour to eat more than you can digest in the next twenty-four." He went on to say tbat he had uot made up his mind about in*>at, but he did not eat much of it. Hd fasted on the first and middle days ol each month, eating nothing, but drinking all the water be could swallow. Ha always let cooked food cool before tasting it; aud to this precaution he attributed tbe fact that bis teeth were ns sound now aa they were 170 years ago.