WOMEN LIVE LONGER THAN MEN
Heller, who has collected the greatest number of instances of extreme
long life, found 1,000 persons who lived from 100 to 110, 60 from 110 to
120, 30 from 120 to 130, 15 from 130 to 140, 6 from 140 to 150, and one
who lived to be 169 years of age.
French writes that from 1881 to 1890, in Massachusetts, there were 203
deaths of persons past the age of 100. Of these 153 were women and 50
were men. Let us add that the parts of the world which have supplied, in
proportion to their population, the greatest number of centenarians, are
New England, Scotland, and Brittany.
All these centenarians, without exception, have been found among the
humbler classes, and most of them among peasants--that is to say, among
the workers of the community who lead quiet, regular, and busy lives.
It is worthy of note that just those very principles which were laid
down by the Founder of the Christian religion as best for the eternal
welfare of the soul have been proved by the passing years to be best for
the body also.
It is not those who are clad in purple and fine linen and fare
sumptuously every day who are strong enough to climb to the clear
heights of a great age. Neither titles nor wealth keep the feet from
wearying of the uphill path of life.
They who would have their days long in the land must honour their great
mother, Nature. They must walk in her ways. Nature does not rejoice in
sluggards, therefore they must work, and the more steadily they work the
longer they live.
Men of thought have always been distinguished for their age. Solon,
Sophocles, Pindar, Anacreon, and Xenophon were octogenarians. Kant,
Buffon, Goethe, Fontenelle, and Newton were over eighty. Michael Angelo
and Titian were eighty-nine and ninety-nine respectively. Harvey, the
discoverer of the circulation of the blood, lived to be eighty.
Victor Hugo was over eighty. Gladstone, who worked every minute of his
life, always in search of new subjects to master, and who took his
recreation in bodily work--gardening, cutting down his trees--died at
eighty-eight.
Sidney Cooper, the English animal painter, whose work of last year will
be exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, this year, died at
ninety-nine, practically with his brushes in his hands.
The preponderance of females over males in the matter of long life is a
striking fact. It is also constant. All authorities agree in this, that
more women than men live to be very old. The more fragile pitcher is
not so soon broken at the fountain. Why?
One would hardly expect woman, with all the dangers and sufferings
attending motherhood, to last longer than man. Yet undoubtedly she does.
I know in Brittany a peasant woman who is now ninety-seven. She does her
sewing without spectacles; she walks a couple of miles every day; goes
to bed at eight, rises at six in the winter and at five in the summer.
She eats and sleeps well, and is in the enjoyment of perfect health. She
had seventeen children. The healthiest trees are those which bear fruit
every year.
The reason for woman's longevity is not far to seek. Women lead more
careful, regular, and sheltered lives than men. It is the man who has to
fight daily with the world, and how hard and trying the fight often is
none but the fighter himself can tell.
He succumbs to more temptations than woman, because more come his way.
It is the man who is often called upon to undermine his bodily vigour by
earning his bread at unhealthy occupations. It is he who goes down the
mines, to sea, and to the battlefield.