Mortal Coil: A Short History of Living Longer (review)

How often do we encounter a book that addresses the ancient six non-naturals, René Descartes, and Woody Allen in the space of 240 pages? This short but richly detailed survey covers the physiology of aging and myriad attempts to divine and prolong the span of human life in six chronologically arranged long chapters. Through a close reading of numerous primary and secondary sources, David Boyd Haycock sticks rigorously to his agenda, situating each new actor within the context of time and place. Familiar themes from medical history are presented— mechanism, romanticism, hereditarianism, biological oxidants, and natural and unnatural death—and each is scrutinized through the specific lens of longevity. Various long-lived individuals make appearances, such as Thomas Parr, dead in 1635 at age 152 (it was said) and dissected by William Harvey, or France’s Jeanne Calmet, who died in 1997 at 122 years.

Most of the work is devoted to explication of scientific narrative, told in concise but stylish and often amusing fashion. One especially elegant feature is the reliable attention given to ages attained by the proponents of longevity and their causes of death. They include Francis Bacon, Paracelsus, Robert Boyle, Condorcet, the many proponents and consumers of sex organ transplants (including Freud and Yeats), and Nobel laureates and nominees. The tale ends in the twenty-first century with the molecular biology of aging and lucid analyses of biochemical modalities aimed at preserving our telomeres and of the commerce of cryopreservation. The subject of death itself is not far behind these considerations: is it necessary, does it have a purpose, and is it permanent?

In every era, it seems that those who believe the human lifespan can naturally reach 150 years or more have far outnumbered those who conceive of an “instinct for death” just as necessary to the elderly as food or sleep (p. 163). Given the right diet, exercise, or medication, people should live until a time when all natural ailments could be conquered. This opinion may simply be a product of wishful thinking—a refreshing tribute to how much most of us love life and want to stick around for as long as possible. However, the often austere dietary and physical restrictions would have the effect of making life seem longer even if they were ineffective.

Haycock concludes with philosophical musings about whether longer lives are desirable. Referring to the Gaia hypothesis, he addresses the idea that if the earth is an organism, humans may be its cancer. Yet, he admits that his historian’s skepticism has sometimes been charmed by the possibility of immortality; if he can live up to reliable precedents, he might see the last decades of this century. He has given us an engaging book. I hope he makes it.