According to the Bible man's days shall be 120 years (Gen. vi, 3), but this does not har monize with the ages of antediluvian Biblical characters. We find however a progressive reduction in ages after the flood. Noah was 950 years old, his son Shem was 600 years old and Sheen's son Arphaxad was 438 years old. The first born of the 4th, 5th and 6th genera tions after Arphaxad were between 230 and 239 years and those who came later were less than 200 years old. Abraham was 175 and Joseph, the third generation after Abraham, was 110 years old. Few later Biblical charac ters exceeded this age. Moses was 120 years old and Aaron reached the age of 123 but David was only 70 when he was described as being old and stricken in years.
Numerous instances of extreme longevity are recorded by ancient writers but it is impos sible to verify them. Pliny records 170 cen tenarians found in a population of 3,000,000 inhabitants living between the Apennines and the Po, in a tax census taken during the reign of Vespasian. Pliny, Lucian and other writ ers record ages ranging from 200 to over 800 years. It is possible that under the rigorous regimen then in vogue the weaklings died young and those who survived reached old age but we have no means of verifying those ages. Hippocrates is one of the few notables whose age is suposed to have exceeded 100, yet his biographers give his age variously as 84, 90, 104 and 109 years.
In most modern instances of extreme lon gevity critical investigation fails to substantiate the reputed age. In the celebrated case of Thomas Parr, the Shropshire peasant who died at the reputed age of 153, and who was buried in Westminster Abbey, critical investi gation has virtually disproven the recorded age. In the case of Petraz Czarten, a peasant who died in 1724 in the village of Kapros, Hungary, at the reputed age of 185, there are no records except the statement of his son who was 95 years old at the time of his father's death. In 1797 Joseph Surrington, a Norwe gian peasant, died at the reputed age of 160, leaving several children the oldest claiming to be 103, the youngest 9 years old. A factor which makes the verity of these great ages still more doubtful is the late age at which they are said to have married. Parr is said to have married at the age of 120 years; Drakenburg, a Danish peasant, married at the age of 111 and reached the age of 146, and a number of other centenarians are said to have married in the ninth and tenth decades of life. Gurgen Doug las who married at the age of 85 had eight children, Peter Albrecht had seven children after he married at the age of 85. In these cases the individuals were ignorant peasants, there are no records by which the ages can be verified and the ages given were probably rough guesses made by persons who had no means of determining the real age.
A number of cases of extreme longevity have been reported in the United States but in very few cases has it been possible to verify the ages owing to lack of records. Most cases
were those of Indians, negroes and illiterate whites who had no means of knowing their i exact age. The tendency to exaggerate is evi dent from the census reports which show a greater number of persons who give their age as at a semi-decade, 80, 85, 90, 95 or 100, than at a year or two younger. In cases where it has been possible to make a critical investiga don exaggeration has almost invariably been found. In the celebrated case of Noah Raby who died in 1904 in Piscatawney almshouse, New Jersey, at the reputed age of 132, the Census Bureau made a critical investigation. No record of his birth could be found. Raby stated that he was in the United States navy in 1809 but the records of the navy showed that Noah Raby was first mentioned in the navy records in 1839. The census records showed that Noah Raby was in the almshouse in 1870, his age then given being 59. This and other incidents of his life that could be verified made his actual age 93 or 94.
The unreliability of longevity statistics is apparent when we consider that the largest number of reputed centenarians are found in countries having a large illiterate population and incomplete records or no records at all. According to the 1910 census there were 3,300 centenarians in Rumania in a population of 8,00000 and the same number in Bulgaria with half that population. The largest number is reported from Russia. In countries where census and church records are fairly reliable the number of centenarians is small. In France there were 164, in Great Britain there were 94, in Germany there were 76 and in the United States there were only 40 centenarians whose ages could be verified. Statements from igno rant peasants which cannot be verified through reliable data are devoid of scientific value. It is safe to assume, however, that under the un hygienic conditions existing in Rumania, Bul garia and Russia only the most vigorous sur vive the vicissitudes of childhood and these have a fair chance to complete the normal cycle of life. In other countries where im proved methods of hygiene have been intro duced, where the science of medicine has di minished infant mortality and through a better understanding of tuberculosis and other infec tious diseases diminished the death rate in early life, more persons reach middle age. After this time, however, the causes for rapid ageing, especially insufficient sleep, improper food, intense excitement and depressing emo tions, cause a rapid increase in the death rate and few reach old age. Only a complete revolution in our mode of life, involving a re turn to the slow, quiet life of the country, and applying to it the advantages of modern sani tary science, gives any hope for an increase of human longevity. See Om AGE; SEttiurt.