July 9 Anna Farmer 100 years United States Old Age Heat prostration The present census laws enable us with the regulations of the Health Department to make an accurate and reliable report, respecting the centenarians who have died within the years named. Indeed without the regulations of the Health Department we would be unable to obtain this reliable data. The officers who take both the State and the United States Census are compelled to take the age of every person they enumerate, so that if we could utilize and crystalize the last federal census we would have with great pains and labor the names of every living centenarian enumerated by the census taker. The list we publish is therefor not of the living centenarians but of those who have been entitled to be classed as such up to the dates of their deaths respectively as reported by Dr. Guilfoy. It would be within the power of the director of the census returns to furnish an actual list of all the living centenarians, returned as such by the census enumerators at the time the census was taken in any State, city or section, but it would be attended with a great deal of labor, require careful research of very voluminous records, which the director of the census has not yet attempted in detail. I have been up to the present moment unable to obtain anything like a reliable statement of living centenarians of the city of New York or in the cities of London, Paris, or of any of the great cities of the world. I think it is due to science that efforts should be made to secure legislation which would secure the census of the living centenarians, which could be done by a slight modification of the present census law, and by concerted movement to induce all the states to participate in the necessary steps, to make such a list for the centenarians and for the non-agenarians, and I have been endeavoring to enlist the co-operation of those who would be in sympathy with such a movement and such an effort. I have already obtained a large number of names of living centenarians in the City of New York and in the State of New York and in other states and will feel obliged to all readers or persons who will furnish me with reliable and authentic reports of the ages of all who have reached the age of 90 years with detailed reports and also those that have reached and passed the age of 100 years. I am under great obligations to Dr. Guilfoy for the light he has thrown upon this subject and hope to be able shortly to complete an interesting table of living centenarians. The London Lancet announces that Mrs. Drew of Anden Caple House near Helidsburgh, Dunbarton Shire, celebrated her hundredth birthday on August 1, 1911, and received a letter of congratulation on behalf of the King. In 1829 Mrs. Drew met and conversed with Sir Walter Scott, in her aunt's house at Orbiston, Lanark Shire. The New York Sun publishes the following: DIES AT 102. GARDENER Goss CAME TO MT. VERNON WHEN THE PLACE HAD BUT 50 HOUSES. MOUNT VERNON, N. Y., September 30.-Frank Goss, one of the pioneer residents of Mount Vernon, died late last night in the Mount Vernon Hospital from old age. He was 102 years old. He came to Mount Vernon from Ireland when Mount Vernon consisted of less than fifty houses. He was employed by wealthy residents as a gardener until a few months ago. He seldom rode in the street cars, but walked sometimes ten miles a day to and from his work. Walking, he, said, was the cause of his living to such an old age. Sir Francis Bacon must be regarded as a high authority on the question of ages of individuals-where that was the question. Concerning which he wrote. He tabulated the ages of a large number of names of which I quote a few on his authority: Abraham lived to the age of 175 years. Isaac exceeded him to 180 years. Jacob 147 years. Ishmael lived to the age of 137 years. Joseph to the age of 110 years. Levi, his elder brother, 137 years. Moses, the lawgiver, to 120 years. Joshua to 110 years. Isaiah, the prophet, just filled out his 100 years. Tobias, the Elder, 128 years. Elias, the Priest, fell short of his century, 98 years. Elijah, the prophet, exceed 100 years. Anna, the Prophetess, because she was 7 years a wife, 84 years a widow, and the time she lived after the prophecy, must have made her over 100 years of age. Marcus Valerius Corinarius, 100 years. Xenophanes, 102 years. Terentia Cicero's wife, 103 years. Lucia exceeded her century because she acted on the stage at the dedication of the Theatre by Pompey ninety-nine years after she was brought on the stage as a child actor. Lord Bacon says that in the year 76 A. D. there were found 124 men between the Appenines and the Palatine 100 years of age. Simeon, the Bishop, suffered martyrdom at 120 years. Aquilla and Priscilla lived in wedlock until each and both were over 100 years old. St. Paul, the Hermit, lived to the age of 113 years. St. Anthony who founded the first monastery to Quintius Melitus, 105 years. This is an incomplete list of the names Lord Bacon gives but is enough to form an interesting table and roll of names. PHYSICAL QUALITIES HEREDITARY. PARENTAGE-ITS REPRODUCTIVE EFFICIENCY. Parentage perpetuates our race. It not only repairs the ravages of death, but far outstrips him, and rises above him, defying his power to limit the multiplication of the species. Man will multiply, the earth will be replenished, in spite of him. What magnificent results from an arrangement so simple! Regions but yesterday desolate, today are beginning to be peopled, and anon will be crowded with homes, hamlets, villages, and cities, swarming with millions, and teeming with life and happiness. It plants its seed of humanity upon solitary islands, and fills them with throngs of busy occupants. It sends its hardy progeny almost to the icy poles to multiply in spite of all that is terrible in cold. Anon it takes possession of the tropics, still urging on its process of propagation, amidst scorching heat. In short, wherever life can be sustained, thither does this prolific principle send its swarming off-spring. Parentage also ushers in the connubial, parental, and filial affections, together with all the domestic ties. But for it, the delightful relations of husband and wife, parents and children, and all the heaven-born pleasures of domestic life, would have no existence. Annihilate parentage, and you blot out all the tender yearnings of connubial love, all the fond delights of parental endearment, all the pleasures of infantile and juvenile provision and guardianship, and thus extinguish a cluster of the holiest and happiest emotions that mortals can experience. REPRODUCTION GOVERNED BY LAW. Nor is this reproductive process left to chance. In common with every other department of nature, it is governed by immutable law. All the regularity and uniformity of causation govern all its products, whether vegetable, animal or human. But for this uniformity, some horses might have feet, others none, and others a thousand. Some human offspring might have heads, hearts and muscles; and others neither. Our world would be a perfect bedlam. As it is, however, every member of the human family has the same number of bones, muscles, limbs, and organs, and the same general appearance together with more or less of every primary mental element; or in other words, a kindred physical and mental constitution. It nevertheless allows a beneficial diversity of form, stature, character, and capability; hence some are born with certain organs larger, and certain faculties stronger than others; so that though all have eyes, hands, feet, and the like; and though all have reason, affection, and all the primitive mental elements, no two are exactly alike either in shape or character. LIKE BEGETS ALIKE This great law is summed up in the great arrangement, that all things shall bring forth "after their kind." The product of the oak is an acorn, which produces another oak; and thus of beasts and human beings. But for this law of resemblance of products to their parentage, the farmer might plant corn and reap thorns-might sow stones and raise cattle; and the offspring or human beings would be as liable to resemble beasts, or trees, as their parents. But this institution causes children to inherit the natures of their parents, and ALL their constitutional peculiarities. Let parents learn and remember then, that their prospective children will be the images of themselves, reflectig all their shades of feeling and phases of character-inheriting similar tastes, swayed by similar passions, governed by kindred sentiments-debased by kindred vices-ennobled by kindred virtues-adorned by kindred graces, and endowed with similar powers-great, or good, or bad-happy or miserable, as they themselves may be. To the elucidation and enforcement of this greath truth, this work is devoted. THE HUMAN ANATOMY AND PHYSIOGNOMY HEREDITARY The hieroglyphics and likenesses handed down to us from past ages, show that man retains at present the general form and features which he possessed in earlier ages. They prove that he has always been endowed with his present upright posture and general aspect and mien-that he has always possessed the same form and position of head, nose, eyes, cheeks, mouth, chin, hair, arms, feet, and the general physiognomy and anatomy now found in all mankind. To attempt to prove this would be superfluous, because all admit it. Yet this admission presupposes the TRANSMISSION from our first parents of all our physical organs and functions. What else, but transmission, governed by uniform laws, could have secured a sameness so extended in duration, so vast in extent, and so perfect in detail? And this same law assures us that these characteristics of humanity will be handed down as long as the race exists. THE COLOURED RACE. Human beings are divided into races, each of the members of which are characterised by physical peculiarities which distinguish them from individuals of every race. And all these peculiarities are hereditary. Of this the well-known characteristics of the African furnish an example. The colour of this race is hereditary and descends to every individual, even in all their crosses, in proportion to the amount of African parentage. Their mode of moving and walking, their tones of voice, their manner of laughing, their form of nose and mouth, the colour of their eyes and teeth, and other peculiarities, are hereditary. In all ages and climes, the members of their race have borne these marks of their origin. Another mark of African descent is this. All pure-blooded Caucasians have division or furrow in the gristle of the nose, plainly discerned by touch, while Africans and Mulattoes have no such separation. THE INDIAN, CAUCASIAN AND OTHER RACES. The physiognomical and physical characteristics of the Indian race are also hereditary. Their copper colour, high cheek-bones, wide mouth, straight black hair, light beard, prominent bones, sunken eyes, para-toed gait, and Indian aspect, all descend from father to son, and appear in all their crosses, in proportion to the amount of Indian mixture. Who ever saw curly hair on a son of the forest? Or a Caucasian face on a red man's shoulders? Or an Indian body with Malay features? All such diversities the hereditary law under discussion prevents. The Caucasian characteristics are so strongly marked as to be easily and universally recognised. That the Caucasian characteristics are transmitted is too obvious to require proof. Of the Malay and Mongolian races, these same general principles and facts are equally apparent; but as the truth of our subject is liable to no rational doubt, enlargement is unnecessary. NATIONAL FEATURES. Not only can any Caucasian, Malay, Indian, Mongolian, or Tartar, be instantly recognised by their feature and complexion, but individuals of nearly every nation. Every shrewd observer knows an Irishman, a Scotchman, a Frenchman, a German, a Russian, a Turk, a Spaniard, and the like, the moment he sees them. This general fact is too obvious to require comment. And that their respective physiognomies are hereditary, admits of no manner of doubt; because a child born in America of Irish or German parents, will resemble the physiognomy of its nation almost as much as if born in the land of its parents. But probably the most striking and extensive exemplification of this doctrine of the descent from parents to offspring of physiognomical peculiarities is to be found in the Jewish physiognomy. Every Jew bears so close a resemblance to the national stamp of face, that this origin can easily be determined. A knowing observer can select every Jew, however dressed, from among thousands congregated from all nations. MUSCULAR STRENGTH HEREDITARY: BIHIN Stature being hereditary, and strength depending in part on stature, we might infer that both muscular force and muscular feebleness are transmitted. And facts attest the truth of this inference. Mons. J. A. J. Bihin, the Belgian giant, who was exhibited a few years ago in our museums, measured nearly SEVEN AND A HALF FEET in height, four feet two inches round his chest, twenty-eight inches round the thigh, and twenty round the calf of his leg, and weighed THREE HUNDRED POUNDS. He was symmetrically formed throughout. At birth his length was twenty-five inches, and his weight twenty-six pounds. When twelve years old, he was five feet ten inches high, and at fourteen, over six feet. He could lift EIGHT HUNDRED POUNDS, and straighten himself under TWO TONS. Both of his parents are athletic, and his father's father was nearly as large and strong as himself; and so was his father's paternal grandfather, as the author learned from the giant himself. JONATHAN FOWLER AND HIS DESCENDANTS. Jonathan Fowler, of Coventry, Connecticut, was the son of an immensely large woman, of about 300 pounds weight. She was endowed with extraordinary strength, which her son Jonathan inherited. An immense shark had been left in a pool near the shore, at Guilford, Connecticut, by the retiring tide, still alive, though weakened by scarcity of water. Fowler captured, shouldered, and brought it, through mud and water, to shore. It weighed FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS-quite a load, especially for so slippery a commodity and so bad a road. Other stories are told of his wrestling with an Indian, striking a very turbulent slave at the master's request, lifting one corner of a small house which several men tried in vain to do, and many other feats of strength, all showing that he was one of the strongest men on record. And what confirms our hereditary doctrine is, that those descendants generally have been remarkable, throughout the States and Canada, as the strongest men of their times and places. Thus, Eliphalet Fowler, of Bradford, Canada, who died some thirty years ago was reputed, in his prime, the strongest and most able-bodied man of his time. His nephew, Levi Fowler, formerly of Pompey, New York, had the name of being able to roll more logs, and clear more land in a day as well as handle larger logs, than any other man in town. He was also a great wrestler while young. The father of William Fowler, of Bradford, Vermont, a great grandson of Jonathan, broke a large iron bar while screwing down a press-the bar having been made and used expressly for turning the screw. And thus William Fowler and also his son William, are very stout men. The Fowlers in Bradford, Pennsylvania, are also equally remarkable for their strength and size. So are those of Lichfield, Massachusetts, and in the Connecticut Valley generally. And whether the author's endurance of labour confirms this doctrine of transmitted strength as applicable to the power of undergoing mental exertion, his diversified labours must answer. Ranges of facts like the foregoing, which attest the descent of great muscular vigour from ancestors to descendants for many successive generations, and throughout all the branches of these strong families, might be cited to any required extent, yet are doubtless known to every reader, so that we need not further enlarge. Our object in thus dwelling upon this and other kindred points in the early progress of the work will be seen when we come to make the application of these principles. We wish to render our premises absolutely IMPREGNABLE, that our inferences may be both irresistible and tangible. SIX FINGERS AND TOES HEREDITARY. The Old Testament mentions several giants who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. PLINY describes a like peculiarity as existing in his day. |