A defence of the Graham system of living, or, Remarks on diet and regimen : dedicated to the rising generation.

Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A defence of the Graham system of living, or, Remarks on diet and regimen : dedicated to the rising generation. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    dern tunes, even if wo doubted the antediluvian account ? And would we l>o justified in asserting thai no one of the present generation could attain such longevity by proper management ? The most eminent writers on longevity agree, that those who have exceeded one hundred years, have en- joyed a good constitution from nature; that they did not attain their growth until a very advanced period of life; that they have been laborious, sober, careful to observe the strictest regimen, and kept their appetites and passions in the most complete subjection. Among these may be cited the memorable Henry Jenkins, who died at the age of 169, and whose epitaph, inscribed by Dr. Chapman on his tombstone, contains these words: Though the partial world despised and disregarded his low birth and humble state, the equal eye of Providence beheld and blessed it with a patriarch's health and length of years, to teach mistaken man these blessings are en- tailed on temperance, a life of labor, and a mind of ease! Longevity is frequent among the various orders of the religious, whose statutes confine them to a moderate diet, and oblige them to abstain from wine and the use of meat. The primitive Christians of the East, who retired from persecutions into the deserts of Arabia and Egypt, lived heathfully and cheerfully on twelve ounces of bread per day, with mere water; with this diet, St. Anthony lived 105 years; James the Hermit, 104 ; Ar- senius, 120; St. Epiphanius, 115; Simeon, the Stylite, 112; and Romauld, 120. According to the author of a very curious little work entitled An Apology for Fasting, 152 hermits, taken in all ages, and under every climate, produced a sum total of 11,589 years of life, and, consequently, an ave- rage of 76 years and a little more than three months for each ; whereas the same number of Academicians, the one-half belonging to the Academy of Sciences, and the other to that of Belles-Lettres, gives only 10,511 years of life; consequently, 69 years, and a little more than two months for the mortal career of each. Now, it is well known that hermits, in general, confine them-