Paragraph 3.—Of the longevity of the American and other
races of men.
I t has been supposed by some that the native Americans
are of-shorter life than the races of men inhabiting Europe.
Dr. Rush informs us, that the Indians of North America
have at an earlier period than Europeans the marks of old
age, and that longevity is more rare among them than among
white people.
I t may be suspected that the fact asserted by Dr. Rush
ought to be attributed to accidental circumstances and to the
peculiar state of the tribes from whom his information was
obtained. The native Americans appear, from the* accounts;
given by many well-informed writers, to be rather remarkable
for longevity.
Don Felix de Azara seems to have formed this opinion of
the natives of South America. In describing the Charruas of
Paraguay, he says that they never lose their hair, which only
becomes grey by half in persons aged about eighty years.
The Mexicans, says Clavigero, become grey-headed and
bald earlier than the Spaniards; and although mostt of them
die of acute diseases, it is not very uncommon among them to
attain to the age of a hundred years.*
“ Among those Americans,” says the same writer, “ whose
great fatigues and excessive toil do not anticipate their death,
there are not a few who reach to the age of eighty,, ninety,
and a hundred years; and, what is more, without there being
observed in them that decay which time commonly produces
in the hair, in the teeth, in the skin, and in the muscles of the
human body.” *f*
We have a similar observation from M. de Humboldt respecting
the native Americans. He says, “ It is by no means
uncommon to see at Mexico, in the temperate zone, half way
up the Cordillera, natives, and especially women, reach a
hundred years of age. This old age is generally comfortable
; for the Mexican and Peruvian Indians preserve their
• Mexican History, book i. t Idem, Dissertations.
strength to the last. While I was at Lima, the Indian,
Hiiari© Pari* sdie,d at -the>>.vill&ge. of Chigqata,. four leagues
distant from the town of Arequipa, at the age. of one hundred
and forty-three. He had been united in marriage for ninety
-years* t@,.; an. Indian of ..the namehóf Andrea Alea Zar, who
attained 'the. age of one hundredi|and.i-sevdnteen. This old
Peruvian went, at the :ag£ of, ^ne. hundred and thirty, from
tiling fo, fpur^êagiies, dai|v,; ,p% 4pot. *
Another, rape, of men, vtgry different from the above-mentioned,
and .also from, the generality qfj Europeans*/are?i the
Laplanders. , According to Rheen, who is cited by Sheffeiyf'
the Laplafrdéifiare^aif*^ long1 life.? He says,
*‘,th@ Laplanders, not;bfeingvgub§ecti to any dangerous distempers,;
grow old, and live even to a: great agon'soine live above
a h undred,* years, but most to twen ty ; eighty^or ninety years.
Notwithstanding which,! they I’ose^iiot much of ‘their natural
vigour, feeing' able to traverse'-the* Mghêst. mountains and
thickest woo&spand#iand.ge a ft other‘-affairs as béfore ; neither
g e t they any grey hairs till they are very old.”
We »might be almost inclined* to suspect, from these statements',
that the longevity-of some other races of men, instead
of falling short óf the laverage duration of life, rather exceeds
the term-prevalent in those nations who inhabit most of the
countries @f' Europe. B u tto n the whole, it does not appear
that any; well-marked differences exist between the? several
-races of men, that can furnish a constant character.*
It is interèstinig, in connexion with thié subject, to notice
the very wide interval which separates frota mankind the
tribe, of animals most approximating • to them in physical
structure. Of all the simise and indeed of the -whole brute
creation, the orangs and the troglodyte most nearly resemble
man : this analogy is very striking in the internal organization,
on which the natural functions principally depend. According
to M. Lesson, who has with great accuracy described the
* Political Essay on New Spain. t Sheffer’s History of Lapland.