ABSTRACT
Gerontology is the science concerned with the study of ageing. Also encompassed within the term is a more expansive definition of the study of ageing to include the study of later life, old age and older people. As such it is a comparatively `young' science: the term `gerontology' was first used by a Russian biologist Metchnikoff in his book The Prolongation of Life published in 1908. However, the recency of the identification of the science of gerontology masks an interest in old age and older people that has existed for thousands of years. Distinguished scientists such as Francis Bacon, Benjamin Franklin and Francis Galton all wrote about ageing. There have always been `older' people present within societies. The oldest reported lifespan is that of Methuselah, who is supposed to have lived for 969 years. The longest verifiable lifespan was that of Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997, aged 126. Individuals living to advanced age is not a feature unique to contemporary society: Thomas Parr was presented to Charles I as being 152 years old, but such claims were largely unverifiable because individuals were not always certain as to their exact date of birth. As a society we have always been interested in what it is about certain individuals that means that they can survive to very advanced old age while others do not. Writers from the times of Aristotle onwards have been interested in the attributes required for living to old age and the first question many are asked upon achieving their centenary is what do they ascribe their long life to.
