Old age, so-called (all age being old), is not a matter of years, but rather of condition.

Thus, one may exhibit the signs of senility while yet young in years, while others at great ages may exhibit very few of the signs of this state.

The body's resistance to the passing of time determines what we call age, the body being most resistant enduring the longest without traces of the years, while the one least resistant shows early signs that time is taking heavy toll of vitality.

Anything that lessens resisting power, that lowers vitality, hastens the advance of senility.

We eat, play or work and sleep, as a rounded day, and for so many hours of activity we demand so much rest to offset the effects.

It is wholly while sleeping that we restore the lowered vitality to the normal, which does not mean that the more we sleep the more vital we become, but only that we must have enough sleep to permit of a complete recharging of our run down batteries, if we would avoid a gradual bankruptcy in this respect.

The average length of sleep habit is about eight hours, as previously remarked, but there are those who can seem to acquire the habit of a more intensive rate of recharging that does not require so much time, as in the case of Thomas A. Edison, whose habit for years had been five hours or less.

A few years ago a policeman, a park officer in Philadelphia, was said to have lived entirely without sleep for twenty-one years, his wife and the members of the force all testifying to this fact.

He would sit in the station house in a sort of siesta that was not real sleep, for he would take part in the conversation that went on about him, and apparently was awake to all that happened, but he would sit for two or three hours in this state, and seem perfectly-refreshed afterward, resume his beat, and go through his turn as well as any.

He died at about sixty-five years, of pneumonia, as any one might do, apparently as well as the rest up to the time he took to his bed.

Nature had seemed to come to his relief, following a long period of insomnia, with this substitute for sleep that answered the purpose very well, yet we do not know how much better he might have been or how much longer he might have lived if he had enjoyed normal sleep.

Age is nothing more than the inability of the body to keep clear of its own wastes, so is an autointoxication, just as is disease, and for the same reason is controllable through proper feeding habits persisted in continually.

Instances of extreme age are plentiful, one of the most noted examples being Thomas Parr, who two centuries or more ago repaired shoes somewhere in England. He lived to be 152 years of age and some months.

He was married three times, all his wives preceding him to the next world, lived a very simple life, on simple foods, but smoked a pipe much of the time, and it is also recorded that he got intoxicated on occasion; but these were not habitual or frequent occasions.

We know little of his food habits, but they were said to have been very simple always.

When he had passed the 150 mark, the king, hearing of him, and thinking to profit by his manner of life, invited him to the castle for a closer association that he might observe his habits.

But transported to the surroundings of royalty, Thomas¹ habits no doubt changed, and he did not live much longer after this. His simple manner of eating would not have created immunity or tolerance for the meats of the king's table, and he would rapidly become toxic, so it is probable that this fact was the more immediate cause of his taking off.

A Turkish burden-bearer is said to be well over 160 years of age, also has had a number of wives, but lives simply, and still carries his usual load as porter, working hard every day and threatening to take another wife.

Numerous instances of longevity are reported from various quarters proving that man can, under certain circumstances, live to a much greater age than the usual span.

Perhaps the most striking of these in recent times is furnished by Dr. Robert McCarrison, formerly of the British Army Medical Service, who reports that in a colony in the Himalayan region he found natives who were so old that it would be hard to believe their records correct, yet he was not able to detect possible errors in their •way of keeping these records.

Ages up to and well beyond a century were very common among them, and the economic necessities of the tribe were so urgent that they were unable to support any who could not earn their own living, so these were thrown over the cliff when dependence threatened.

He found men of well attested age up to 100 years and over, recently married and raising families of healthy children.

Men said to be well over one hundred years of age were working in the fields with younger men and doing as much work as any, in fact looking so like the younger men that he was not able to distinguish the older from the younger.

These people were restricted by religious dogma to the outgrowth of the ground for food, no animal foods of any kind being permitted beyond a small amount of milk or cheese, which were considered luxuries.

The rest of the food was grains in their natural state, nuts, vegetables and fruits, and most of this was eaten raw.

The region is very arid, so food was guarded very closely, and each family had to provide fully for itself, and if unable to do so had to go the road of the old over the cliff.

He reported that these people were never sick; they had none of the usual diseases of the civilized countries, as they could not afford to cause these.

There was during his nine years' residence in this post, no case of indigestion, constipation, appendicitis, gastric or duodenal ulcer; no cancer, tuberculosis, kidney disease, gallstones, asthma, hay fever; he never heard of a case of cold or pneumonia or pleurisy, in fact, he might as well have been placed in some remote part of the country except for the illness and surgery of the hangers-on of the post itself.