By following his own precepts, Dr. Weber has enjoyed a vigorous and happy old age. A Mde. Nausenne, who died on March 12th, 1756, at the age of 125 years, in the Dinay Infirmary (Côtes-du-Nord) explained the secret of her still greater longevity as follows: “Extreme sobriety, no worry, body and mind quite calm” (Chemin, _op. cit._, p. 101).
Hygienic measures have been the most successful in prolonging life and in lessening the ills of old age.
Although until quite recently hygiene has rested upon a very small number of scientifically established facts, and although its precepts have not been followed rigidly, none the less it has already succeeded in increasing the duration of human life. This becomes evident if we compare the mortality tables of the present day with those of the past.
There is reason to state definitely that the mortality in civilised countries has decreased on the whole in the last one or two centuries. I have taken some facts regarding this from the valuable monograph of M. Westergaard.[114] That author came to the conclusion that the mortality rate in the 19th century in civilised countries was “much lower than in most earlier centuries.” This diminution has been chiefly in infantile mortality. According to Mallet, the mortality rate of infants in the first year of their life was, in Geneva, 26 per cent. in the 16th century, and fell gradually to 16-1/2 per cent. at the beginning of the 19th century. A similar change has been reported from Berlin, Holland, Denmark and other places. However, it is not only very young infants that have shown a diminution in the death-rate. The life of old people has been prolonged to an extent equally remarkable. The following are some of the facts which support this statement. Whilst the old Protestant clergymen of Denmark at ages varying from 74-1/2 to 89-1/2 years had a mortality rate of 22 per cent. in the second half of the 18th century, the rate had sunk to 16·4 per cent. by the middle of the 19th century. This is not an isolated fact. The old clergymen of England (65 to 95 years) have also come to live longer, because in the 18th century the mortality rate was 11·5 per cent. and in the 19th century (1800-1860) only 10·8 per cent. There has been a similar decrease in the mortality rate in the members of both sexes of the Royal Houses of Europe (Westergaard, p. 284).