There are a number of instances in which there is extraordinary renovation of the senses or even of the body in old age,--a new period of life, as it were, is begun. A remarkable instance is an old magistrate known to Hufeland, who lived at Rechingen and who died in 1791 aged one hundred and twenty. In 1787, long after he had lost all his teeth, eight new ones appeared, and at the end of six months they again dropped out, but their place was supplied by other new ones, and Nature, unwearied, continued this process until his death. All these teeth he had acquired and lost without pain, the whole number amounting to 150. Alice, a slave born in Philadelphia, and living in 1802 at the age of one hundred and sixteen, remembered William Penn and Thomas Story.
Her faculties were well preserved, but she partially lost her eyesight at ninety-six, which, strange to say, returned in part at one hundred and two. There was a woman by the name of Helen Gray who died in her one hundred and fifth year, and who but a few years before her death had acquired a new set of teeth.
In Wilson's "Healthy Skin" are mentioned several instances of very old persons in whom the natural color of the hair returned after they had been gray for years. One of them was John Weeks, whose hair became brown again at one hundred and fourteen. Sir John Sinclair a mentions a similar case in a Scotchman who lived to one hundred and ten. Susan Edmonds when in her ninety-fifth year recovered her black hair, but previously to her death at one hundred and five again became gray. There was a Dr. Slave who at the age of eighty had a renewal of rich brown hair, which he maintained until his death at one hundred. There was a man in Vienna, aged one hundred and five, who had black hair long after his hair had first become white This man is mentioned as a parallel to Dr. Slave. Similar examples are mentioned in Chapter VI.
It is a remarkable fact that many persons who have reached an old age have lived on the smallest diet and the most frugal fare.
Many of the instances of longevity were in people of Scotch origin who subsisted all their lives on porridges. Saint Anthony is said to have maintained life to one hundred and five on twelve ounces of bread daily. In 1792 in the Duchy of Holstein there was an industrious laborer named Stender who died at one hundred and three, his food for the most part of his life having been oatmeal and buttermilk. Throughout his life he had been particularly free from thirst, drinking little water and no spirits.
Heredity.--There are some very interesting instances of successive longevity. Lister speaks of a son and a father, from a village called Dent, who were witnesses before a jury at York in 1664. The son was above one hundred and the father above one hundred and forty. John Moore died in 1805 aged one hundred and seven. His father died at one hundred and five and his grandfather at one hundred and fifteen, ****** a total of three hundred and twenty-seven years for the three generations.
Recently, Wynter mentions four sisters,--of one hundred, one hundred and three, one hundred and five, and one hundred and seven years respectively. On the register of Bremhill 1696, is the following remarkable entry: "Buried, September 29th, Edith Goldie, Grace Young, and Elizabeth Wiltshire, their united ages ****** three hundred." As late as 1886 in the district of Campinos there was a strong active man named Joseph Joachim de Prado, of good family, who was one hundred and seven years old.
His mother died by accident at one hundred and twelve, and his maternal grandmother died at one hundred and twenty-two.
Longevity in Active Military Service.--One of the most remarkable proofs that under fickle fortune, constant danger, and the most destructive influences the life of man may be long preserved is exemplified in the case of an old soldier named Mittelstedt, who died in Prussia in 1792, aged one hundred and twelve. He was born at Fissalm in June, 1681. He entered the army, served under three Kings, Frederick I, Frederick William I, and Frederick II, and did active service in the Seven Years' War, in which his horse was shot under him and he was taken prisoner by the Russians. In his sixty-eight years of army service he participated in 17general engagements, braved numerous dangers, and was wounded many times. After his turbulent life he married, and at last in 1790, in his one hundred and tenth year, he took a third wife.
Until shortly before his death he walked every month to the pension office, a distance of two miles from his house.
Longevity in Physicians.--It may be of interest to the members of our profession to learn of some instances of longevity among confreres. Dr. R. Baynes of Rockland, Maine, has been mentioned in the list of "grand old men" in medicine; following in the footsteps of Hippocrates and Galen, he was practicing at ninety-nine. He lives on Graham's diet, which is a form of vegetariani**; he does not eat potatoes, but does eat fruit. His drink is almost entirely water, milk, and chocolate, and he condemns the use of tea, coffee, liquors, and tobacco. He has almost a perfect set of natural teeth and his sight is excellent.
Like most men who live to a great age, Dr. Baynes has a "fad," to which he attributes a chief part in prolonging his life. This is the avoidance of beds, and except when away from home he has not slept on a bed or even on a mattress for over fifty years. He has an iron reclining chair, over which he spreads a few blankets and rugs.