and unimpassioned existence than a
man, whose life is so often one of toil, trouble, and excitement.
Setting aside these theories, however, the census of French
centenarians is not devoid of interest in some of its details. At
Rocroi an old soldier who fought under the First Napoleon in Russia
passed the century limit last year. A wearer of the St. Helena medal--a
distinction awarded to survivors of the Napoleonic campaigns, and who
lives at Grand Fayt, also in the Nord--is one hundred and three years
old, and has been for the last sixty-eight years a sort of rural
policeman in his native commune. It is a rather remarkable fact in
connection with the examples of longevity cited that in almost every
instance the centenarian is a person in the humblest rank of life.
According to the compilers of these records, France can claim the honor
of having possessed the oldest woman of modern times. This venerable
dame, having attained one hundred and fifty years, died peacefully in a
hamlet in the Haute Garonne, where she had spent her prolonged
existence, subsisting during the closing decade of her life on goat's
milk and cheese. The woman preserved all her mental faculties to the
last, but her body became attenuated to an extraordinary degree, and
her skin was like parchment."

In the last ten years the St. James' Gazette has kept track of 378
centenarians, of whom 143 were men and 235 were women. A writer to the
Strand Magazine tells of 14 centenarians living in Great Britain within
the last half-dozen years.

It may be interesting to review the statistics of Haller, who has
collected the greatest number of instances of extreme longevity. He
found:--

1000 persons who lived from 100 to 110
15 persons who lived from 130 to 140
60 " " " " 110 to 120
6 " " " " 140 to 150
29 " " " " 120 to 130
1 person " " " to 169

Effect of Class-Influences, Occupation, etc.--Unfortunately for the
sake of authenticity, all the instances of extreme age in this country
have been from persons in the lower walks of life or from obscure parts
of the country, where little else than hearsay could be procured to
verify them. It must also be said that it is only among people of this
class that we can expect to find parallels of the instances of extreme
longevity of former times. The inhabitants of the higher stations of
life, the population of thickly settled communities