time of maturity in man, the natural term of human
life would be one hundred and five. Sir Richard Owen fixes it at one
hundred and three and a few months.

Censuses of Centenarians.--Dr. Farr, the celebrated English
Registrar-General, is credited with saying that out of every 1,000,000
people in England only 223 live to be one hundred years old, making an
average of one to 4484. French says that during a period of ten years,
from 1881 to 1890, in Massachusetts, there were 203 deaths of persons
past the age of one hundred, making an average, with a population of
394,484, of one in 1928. Of French's centenarians 165 were between one
hundred and one hundred and five; 35 were between one hundred and five
and one hundred and ten; five were between one hundred and ten and one
hundred and fifteen; and one was one hundred and eighteen. Of the 203,
153 were females and 50 males. There are 508 people in Iowa who are
more than ninety years of age. There are 21 who are more than one
hundred years old. One person is one hundred and fifteen years old, two
are one hundred and fourteen, and the remaining 18 are from one hundred
to one hundred and seven.

In the British Medical Journal for 1886 there is an account of a report
of centenarians. Fifty-two cases were analyzed. One who doubts the
possibility of a man reaching one hundred would find this report of
interest.

The Paris correspondent to the London Telegraph is accredited with the
following:--

"A census of centenarians has been taken in France, and the results,
which have been published, show that there are now alive in this
country 213 persons who are over one hundred years old. Of these 147
are women, the alleged stronger sex being thus only able to show 66
specimens who are managing to still "husband out life's taper" after
the lapse of a century. The preponderance of centenarians of the
supposed weaker sex has led to the revival of some amusing theories
tending to explain this phenomenon. One cause of the longevity of women
is stated to be, for instance, their propensity to talk much and to
gossip, perpetual prattle being highly conducive, it is said, to the
active circulation of the blood, while the body remains unfatigued and
undamaged. More serious theorists or statisticians, while commenting on
the subject of the relative longevity of the sexes, attribute the
supremacy of woman in the matter to the well-known cause, namely, that
in general she leads a more calm