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.
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