Show claims to longevity hard to substantiate zaro agha who died in the childrens hospital nt at istanbul turkey a short ume time ago may indeed have been the worlds oldest man though widespread doubt will resist the claim of 0 the ancient turk that lie he was one hundred bundred and sixty sisly years of age lie ile could have been many years younger than the a age e he claimed and still compete with authenticated cases of extreme age that hae been checked by men interested in longevity in fact he could have cast olt off almost a halt half century from his claim and still have been in sharp competition with the most extreme case of 0 longevity ever fully authenticated hy by scientific investigation not quite years there can be no doubt but that agha wits was a very old man and that he carried his years lightly but the evidence of its his greatest dependence in support of his claim a birth certificate til leate in which the or date of birth is set at 1191 on the moslem calendar or february 10 1774 few months more than two years before the american states declared their independence may lie be questioned not so much its authenticity as to the record of a birth on the day mentioned as that the zaro agha wiio who has just fled died was the person whose birth was recorded As to remembrance of having fought 0 in the bulgarian war when lie he was one hundred and three and nt at that age of carrying heavy artillery on his shoulders to heights that horses could not carry it of his employment in a gun factory until he was one hundred and tour four or one hundred and five and his seeking other and easier work which he performed until he was one hundred and thirty five we must credit inaccuracies that must creep into memory for there Is no warrant in mans knowledge of 0 the persistence of life to give support to his claims in fact science service which Is mak ing its place in collecting the findings of men of science and presenting them for the edification of 0 those nho have no aptitude for scientific understanding leads us in the other direction as it cites the one hundred and eleven year age record that was substantiated by an english investigator who early in the century had considered close to a million cases of centen centenarians arians and found only 30 persons 21 women and 9 men who from outside sources could be shown to have lived years or more it Is said that in this country several hundred death certificates annually show ages of more than one hundred years and occasionally the certified ages run as high as one hundred and twenty years when reports are looked into such things as inaccurate memories or mistaken identity identify often account for many of the mistakes that creep into the death statistics we are inclined to mislead ourselves in the matter of ages st louls louis globe democrat |