years, but as each person who has got so far has died of weaknesses
inherited through thousands of years, it is impossible to say to what number
of years he would have reached in a natural state. It seems more than
possible that true old age--the slow and natural decay of the body apart
from inherited
flaw--would be free from very many, if not all, of the petty
miseries which now render extreme age a doubtful blessing. If
the limbs grew weaker they would not totter; if the teeth
dropped it would not be till the last; if the eyes were less
strong they would not be quite dim; nor would the mind lose its
memory.

But now we see eyes become dim and artifical aid needed in comparative
youth, and teeth drop out in mere childhood.
Many men and women lose teeth before they are twenty. This simple fact is
evidence enough of inherited weakness or flaw. How could a person who had
lost teeth before twenty be ever said to die of old age, though he died at a
hundred and ten? Death is not a supernatural event; it is an event of the
most materialistic character, and may certainly be postponed, by the united
efforts of the human race, to a period far more distant from the date of
birth than has been the case during the historic period. The question has
often been debated in my mind whether death is or is not wholly preventable;
whether, if the entire human race were united in their efforts to eliminate
causes of decay, death might not also be altogether eliminated.

If we consider ourselves by the analogy of animals, trees, and
other living creatures, the reply is that, however postponed,
in long process of time the tissues must wither. Suppose an ideal man, free
from inherited flaw, then though his age might
be prolonged to several centuries, in the end the natural body