Certain Eastern nations, it is said, still reckon but three months to the year; this substantiates the opinion of Hensler, and, as Hufeland says, it would be inexplicable why the life of man should be shortened nearly one-half immediately after the flood.
Accepting these conclusions as correct, the highest recorded age, that of Methuselah, nine hundred years, will be reduced to about two hundred, an age that can hardly be called impossible in the face of such an abundance of reports, to which some men of comparatively modern times have approached, and which such substantial authorities as Buffon, Hufeland, and Flourens believed possible.
Alchemy and the "Elixir of Life."-- The desire for long life and the acquisition of wealth have indirectly been the stimulus to medical and physical investigation, eventually evolving science as we have it now.
The fundamental principles of nearly every branch of modern science were the gradual metamorphoses of the investigations of the old searchers after the "philosopher's stone" and "elixir of life." The long hours of study and experiment in the chase for this will-o'-the-wisp were of vast benefit to the coming generations; and to these deluded philosophers of the Middle Ages, and even of ancient times, we are doubtless indebted for much in this age of advancement.
With a credulous people to work upon, many of the claimants of the discovery of the coveted secret of eternal life must be held as rank impostors claiming ridiculous ages for themselves.

In the twelfth century Artephius claimed that by the means of his discovery he had attained one thousand and twenty-five years.

Shortly after him came Alan de Lisle of Flanders with a reputed fabulous age.

In 1244 Albertus Magnus announced himself as the discoverer.

In 1655 the celebrated Doctor Dee appeared on the scene and had victims by the score.