Chapter Lodbrog to Longevity of L by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Longevity in Russia.

The Greek Church is noted for its careful registration of births and deaths. From these authenticated documents we learn that in the year 1835 there were 416 persons between the ages of 100 and upwards, the oldest being 135.

From official accounts in 1839 we learn that in the Russian empire there were 850 persons between the ages of 100 and 105; 126 persons between the ages of 110 and 115; 130 persons between the ages of 115 and 120; and 3 persons between the ages of 120 and 130.

Longevity in the United States of America.

Dr. Fitch, in his treatise On Consumption, mentions the following instances:—

Alice, of Philadelphia, reached the age of 116 (1686–1802).

Francisco (Henry) died at Whitehall, New York, at the age of 134.

Hightower (John) died in Marengo County, Albania, in 1845, at the age of 134.

He gives examples from other states of persons dying between the ages of 111 and 136.

Longevity of men of learning.

It is said that thr ee of the seven sages of Greece, viz. Pittachos, Solon, and Thales , all reached the age of 100, and the other four reached a good old age. According to Lucian, Democritos the philosopher reached the age of 104. Gorgias, the sophist reached the age of 108 (B.C. 485–377). Isocratês reached a great age, some say as much as 102 years. Juvenal the satirist is supposed to have lived out an entire century. Fabius Maximus the Roman augur died at the age of 100. Fohi, founder of the Chinese empire, is said to have died at the age of 115. Some say Sophocles, the tragic poet, lived above a century, but his age is generally given B.C. 495–405.

(The dates of the Greeks and Romans cannot be depended on, as there is no fixed starting-point, as we have had since the commencement of the Christian era.)