, are living in an
age and under conditions almost incompatible with longevity. In fact,
the strain of nervous energy made necessary by the changed conditions
of business and mode of living really predisposes to premature decay.

Those who object to the reliability of reports of postcentenarianism
seem to lose sight of these facts, and because absolute proof and
parallel cannot be obtained they deny the possibility without giving
the subject full thought and reason. As tending to substantiate the
multitude of instances are the opinions of such authorities as
Hufeland, Buffon, Haller, and Flourens. Walter Savage Landor on being
told that a man in Russia was living at one hundred and thirty-two
replied that he was possibly older, as people when they get on in years
are prone to remain silent as to the number of their years--a statement
that can hardly be denied. One of the strongest disbelievers in extreme
age almost disproved in his own life the statement that there were no
centenarians.

It is commonly believed that in the earliest periods of the world's
history the lives of the inhabitants were more youthful and perfect;
that these primitive men had gigantic size, incredible strength, and
most astonishing duration of life. It is to this tendency that we are
indebted for the origin of many romantic tales. Some have not hesitated
to ascribe to our forefather Adam the height of 900 yards and the age
of almost a thousand years; but according to Hufeland acute theologians
have shown that the chronology of the early ages was not the same as
that used in the present day. According to this same authority Hensler
has proved that the year at the time of Abraham consisted of but three
months, that it was afterward extended to eight, and finally in the
time of Joseph to twelve. Certain Eastern nations, it is said, still
reckon but three months to the year; this substantiates the opinion of
Hensler, and, as Hufeland says, it would be inexplicable why the life
of man should be shortened nearly one-half immediately after the flood.

Accepting these conclusions as correct, the highest recorded age, that
of Methuselah, nine hundred years, will be reduced to about two
hundred, an age that can hardly be called impossible in the face of
such an abundance of reports, to which some men of comparatively modern
times have approached, and which such substantial authorities as
Buffon, Hufeland, and Flourens believed possible.

Alchemy and