Why Quakers Live Long.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 429, 18 December 1889, Page 6

Why Quakers Live Long.

j It 13 quite true that many 'Friends' live long. It ia equally true that cci tain circumstances in their history militate again&t long life. Among these latter intermarriage is perhaps the most important of all. The followers of (jleorge Fox have never been very numerous, but until late years they have been extremely exclusive. The inevitable result of that has been extensive intermarriage throughout the whole community. The consequences of the frequency of intermarriage have been.andarestill, very evident. Quakers, as a class, arc not muscularly robust ; many of them are decidedly atM'tnic, and not a few are mentally feeble. Yet, in spite of these practical and serious drawbacks, the Friends, as a claps, do more than their proportion of the world's serious business, and they manage to attain to a high average of longevity. Now this is exactly the kind of fact that true medical science likes to get hold of, and to interrogate and learn from. What is the reason, asks the sensible man, why Quakers, with so many undoubted disadvantages, attain to such a high average of success in all that constitutes worthy life, and aleo succeed in enjoying their success to an exceptionially old age? The reason, we are convinced, is to be found in their quiet habits and disciplined life. An. ordinary doctor, or even layman, would probably have felt much more interest in the subject at this point if we had been able to affirm that the Quakers owed their success and long life to certain drugs, as, for example, to arsenic, phosphorus, strychnia, and the like ; or to certain methods of feeding, as vegetarianism, or meat eating, or fruit eating, or wine drinking, or teetotalism, or smoking, and so on. But we submit that that shows a want of real mental capacity. For what, after all, is the true importance of the subject ? Does it not consist in the undoubted character of the results ? The results are really the things to be considered. As a matter of fact the Quakers ure'successfui in life. As o matter of fact they do live long. Then, surely, true science will not curl the lip of scorn because those results are obtained by what may be called _• natural and simple' instead of by elaborate preparations and out-of-the-way methods.— From 'The Hospital.' - *