In M. Chemin’s list I have counted twenty-six centenarians, distinguished by their frugal life. Most of them did not drink wine, and many of them limited themselves to bread, milk and vegetables.
Sobriety is certainly favourable to long life, but it is not necessary, because quite a number of centenarians have drunk freely. Several of those who are catalogued by Chemin, drank wine and spirits even to excess. Catherine Reymond, for instance, who died in 1758 at the age of 107 years, drank much wine, and Politiman, a surgeon who lived from 1685 to 1825, was in the habit, from his twenty-fifth year onwards, of getting drunk every night, after having attended to his practice all day. Gascogne, a butcher of Trie (Hautes-Pyrénées), died in 1767 at the age of 120, and had been accustomed to get drunk twice a week. A most curious example is that of the Irish land-owner Brawn, who lived to the age of 120, and who had an inscription put upon his tombstone that he was always drunk, and when in that condition was so terrible that even death had been afraid of him. Some districts, even, are distinguished at once for the longevity of their inhabitants and for the large local consumption of alcohol. In 1897, village of Chailly in the Côte-d’Or had no less than twenty octogenarians amongst 523 inhabitants. This village is one of the localities in France where most alcohol is consumed, and the old people are very far from being distinguished from their younger fellows by any special sobriety.
In some cases centenarians have been much addicted to the drinking of coffee. The reader will recall Voltaire’s reply when his doctor described the grave harm that comes from abuse of coffee which acts as a real poison. “Well,” said Voltaire, “I have been poisoning myself for nearly 80 years.” There are centenarians who have lived longer than Voltaire, and have drunk still more coffee. Elisabeth Durieux, a native of Savoy, reached the age of 114. Her principal food was coffee, of which she took daily as many as forty small cups. She was jovial and a boon table companion, and used black coffee in quantities that would have surprised an Arab. Her coffee-pot was always on the fire, like the tea-pot in an English cottage (Lejoncourt, p. 84; Chemin, p. 147).
It has been noticed that many centenarians do not smoke, but this like all other traits is not universal. M. Ross, who gained a prize for longevity in 1896 at the age of 102, was an inveterate smoker. In 1897, a widow named Lazennec, died at La Carrière, in Kérinou, Finistère, at the age of 104. She lived in a hovel on charity, and she had smoked a pipe ever since she was quite young.
It is plain that any factor to which long duration of life has been attributed disappears when many cases are examined. Naturally a sound constitution and a simple and sober life are favourable to longevity, but apart from these, there is something unknown which tends to long life. The celebrated physiologist of Bonn, Pflüger,[70] came to the conclusion that the chief condition of longevity is something “intrinsic in the constitution,” something which cannot be defined exactly, and which must be set down to inheritance.
In the present state of knowledge, we cannot denote the chief cause of human longevity, but the proper course will be to seek it out as we would seek out that of animal longevity. As human longevity is often local in its character, and is exhibited by married people who have nothing in common except their mode of life, we may enquire into the intestinal flora and the mechanism by which the organism resists its harmful effect as factors which influence the duration of life. It is reasonable to suppose that in persons living in the same district or under the same roof, the intestinal flora may be similar. The problem can be settled only by a series of laborious researches which have yet to be made. At present I can do no more than bring together a large number of facts regarding the duration of life in man and in animals, with the hope of suggesting the lines for future investigation.