In the literature pertaining to longevity there is much to encourage those who are advanced in years. The heart may weaken somewhat, the body shrink, the hair whiten, the teeth decay, but after all there is enough left on which one can establish a useful and enjoyable old age.

George M. Humphry, M.D., of England, says that in a close examination made some years ago it was found that in three hundred and sixty-two persons over eighty years old, the arteries were found to be knotty or abnormal in only four cases, even in two hundred and fifty-seven, and tortuous in seventy-one. The pulse was compressible in three hundred and eleven cases, and unnatural or incompressible in only seventy-two. In a large majority of cases, therefore, the arterial system appeared to present a healthy condition in those who had lived beyond the allotted years of man.

According to Dr. Humphry, the action of the heart did not vary much as age advanced. From eighty to ninety years it averaged seventy-three to seventy-four in men, and seventy-eight to seventy-nine in women. It was said to be regular in three hundred and twenty-two cases out of four hundred and seven, and irregular in only eighty-five.

The failure of nutritive force in the brain manifests itself sometimes in the lessening of that power of concentration and quickness of attention upon which the sharp stamping of impressions and the ready recall of them, depends; hence the memory of recent events is commonly impaired. But Dr. Humphry remarks that many of the very aged persons examined were in possession of normal mental faculties. He also says that it was satisfactory to find that the active and long-continued functional activity of the matured brain seemed in no way to impair its enduring qualities, and that good, earnest, useful employment of body and mind, are not only compatible with, but even conducive to longevity.

Among the many excellent examples of this preservation of mental and bodily faculty to extreme old age is that of Titian, who painted his famous "Pieta" - now in the gallery at Venice - in his ninety-ninth year, and it is said to tell of his incomparable steadiness of hand.

Dr. Humphry is firm in the belief - founded upon investigations - that the aged people are not, on the whole, prone to disease. No special malady, he is assured, seems to visit them. The nutritive processes are said to be more easily led astray in early life, when they are in greatest activity, than in old age.

W. R. C. Latson, M.D., of New York, published in Health Culture, a short time ago, the results of a careful examination as to certain physical characteristics which are usually associated with longevity. His conclusions are as follows:

First. Ninety-nine out of one hundred people have curvature of the spine. The octogenarian is the hundredth man. His spine is a straight line, his head erect, his chest broad and deep. This means that the vital organs are properly supported by the attachments provided by nature, and that they do not rest upon and crowd each other. The heart, lungs, stomach, liver, and kidneys are thus enabled to do their work unimpeded.

Second. Another important characteristic of those who achieve longevity is the habit of slow, deep respiration. Deep, full breathing means an immensely increased amount of oxygen ingested, and an equally augmented quantity of poisonous matter eliminated by the lungs. Mental quietude is essential to proper breathing. The excited man, the emotional individual, who suffocates with joy, palpitates with enthusiasm, chokes with rage, gasps with astonishment, sighs from the intensity of his attachments - the emotional individual by every inequality in his respiration, abbreviates his life.

Third. The old person - the hale, vigorous, healthy old man - moves easily, lightly, silently. He has always moved that way. That's the reason he is here now instead of with others who, with their gasps and sighs, their clinched brows and twirling thumbs, their intense emotions, and complaints, are gone and forgotten.

Fourth. Those who live long are invariably small eaters. Gourmands die young. The octogenarian is always frugal. The enormous physiological task of digesting and excreting daily pounds of food not needed by the organ ism, is not performed by the frugal eater, and so he has the more vitality to expend in thought, in working and in living out his century. We live not so much because of what we eat as because of what we do not eat.

In an article on "Exercise for the Aged," published in Good Health, John H. Kellogg, M.D., of Battle Creek, Michigan - a voluminous writer on matters pertaining to health and longevity - agrees with Dr. Humphry in an important particular. He says:

"Recent observations have shown that the arteries which convey the blood to the brain retain their natural size, taking on these changes much later than other parts of the body. Hence it is that the brain maintains its integrity to a more advanced age than do most of the organs. This very fact shows the value of exercise in delaying the approach of old age. The average brain does more work as years advance, while the average body does less. It is only the brain that has been accustomed to constant, systematic activity that is exempt from the senile changes that occur in other parts."

Another characteristic of old age is given by the Rev. William Jowett of England, who said many wise things when writing on how to grow old naturally. He suggests that the aged are less disturbed by care and the world. We begin to understand that things never really matter so much as we supposed. We are able to see them more in their true proportion instead of being overwhelmed by them. We are more resigned to the will of God, neither afraid to depart nor over-anxious to stay. We cannot see into another life, but we believe with inextinguishable hope that there is something still reserved for us.