TY  - JOUR
T1  - THe span of human life
Y1  - 1909/10/30
N1  - 10.1001/jama.1909.02550180048005
JO  - Journal of the American Medical Association
SP  - 1490
EP  - 1491
VL  - LIII
IS  - 18
N2  - It is often asked if men do not live longer now than formerly—if the length of human life is not actually increased? It is evident that two distinct problems may be hidden in this question as it is ordinarily put. The first relates to what may be called the natural term of existence. The duration of a normal life not cut off by accident or infectious disease was placed by the Psalmist at about threescore years and ten; seventy or eighty years is, indeed, to-day commonly reckoned as the normal life.There seems to be no reason for supposing that within historical times man's natural term of life has materially varied. Like that of the dog or the horse, it is determined by unknown biologic causes. While some statements in old documents might be taken to indicate that in antiquity men lived hundreds and even thousands of years, such assertions
SN  - 0002-9955
M3  - doi: 10.1001/jama.1909.02550180048005
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1909.02550180048005
ER  -