OCR Text |
Show MAN'S SHORT TERM,' OF LIFE In Comparison; Wittt Other Animals He Does (io) Nearly Live Out His.vAllct,ted Time. A rule w hich "hoids 'fairly true among the higher animals' is Ih-at an animal lives five times as long as-it requires for his .niuscular system to reach its futl strc'ivg'th.' The dog is" fully developed devel-oped ftt'betw'oen two and three years of age; and ;livcs fifteen years: the horse reaches his prime not later than five, and if he escapes overwork and ill usage, lives to be twenty-five and even thirty. In fact, the ruie seems to be an understatement of animal expectation ex-pectation of life, rather than an overstatement. over-statement. The one conspicuous exception is man. who seldom reaches his full muscular mus-cular strength before he is twenty-five and counts himself living on borrow ed time if he passes the age of seventy. If man were as well circumstanced in this matter as the horse, dog or cat, J his average term of life would vary from one hundred and ten to one hundred hun-dred and twenty-five years. |