Methuselah et al.

Abstract

METHUSELAH ET AL. CARL A. DRAGSTEDT* I regret that there is nothing obscure or misleading in the tide of this paper so that I might conform to a well-established Literary Club tradition , but perhaps I can compensate somewhat by making the discussion a bit fuzzy. Methuselah lived to become 969 years ofage and then he died. It seems remarkable that in such a length oftime he could not have made some small notch in the totem pole ofhistory beyond that of becoming grandfather to Noah, but who am I to criticize? I will read this abridged version ofthe fifth chapter ofGenesis: I.This is the book ofthe generations ofAdam. 5. And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. 8. And all the days ofSeth (son ofAdam) were ninehundred and twelve years: and he died. II.And all the days ofEnos (son ofSeth) were nine hundred and five years: and he died. 12. And all the days ofCainan (son ofEnos) were nine hundred and ten years: and he died. 17. And all the days ofMahalaleel (son ofCainan) were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died. 20. And all the days ofJared (son ofMahalaleel) were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died. 23.And all the days ofEnoch (son ofJared) were three hundred sixty and five years. 24.And Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him. 27. And all the days ofMethuselah (son ofEnoch) were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. Now if you have paid attention to this reading of scripture you have noticed that Methuselah et al. lived upward of 895 years and then died, with the notable exception of Enoch, who went for only 365 years and then God took him. Thus, from the very beginning, there is the virtual statement that for man there is a span oflife at the end ofwhich he dies, while prior thereto he may be taken in one way or another. So far as I know, the actuaries ofcertain English insurance companies were the first * Present address: 909 South Knight Avenue, Park Ridge, Illinois Ö0068. This paper was written for and presented to the Chicago Literary Club, November, 1968. It is reprinted here with their permission. 419 to study mortality statistics, life expectancies, and so on, and to introduce the terms "senescent deaths" and "anticipated deaths" to correspond to this classification. Anticipated deaths are those due to injury, starvation, disease, etc., while senescent deaths are those which come when one's time is up and the grim reaper wields his scythe. The distinctions are somewhat muddy. On the onehand, there are those who would call my death a senescent one ifa speeding automobilejumped the curb and hit me while I was mowing the lawn, on the basis that I was old and thus not agile enough tojump out ofthe way. On the other hand, autopsies performed on persons in their seventies and upward reveal that the majority have well-recognized morbid conditions such as cancer, arteriosclerosis, nephritis, and so on, which are then, rightly or wrongly, listed as die cause ofdeath. An interesting example ofthis sort ofdilemma with respect to a death was described recently. It seems that an old man married a luscious young maiden and then died some ten days or so later. As he died without benefit of the advice or consent ofa physician, it became a coroner's case. The coroner's pathologist performed an autopsy. He reported that he found no morbid anatomical cause for death and thus, in view ofthe man's age, recorded it as a senescent death. But the mortician, however, who prepared the body for burial, reported that he had found it extremely difficult to remove the smile from the man's face, and thus he thought it was likely the man died from overexertion and that it was therefore an anticipated death. It is not my purpose to resolve the distinctions between anticipated deaths and senescent deaths. I think we may say that senescence is the deterioration which accompanies old age, and is therefore a disease itself which may predispose the body...