Martin Brown wrote:     > I have a few like this in a family of brewers - who perhaps lived longer > because they *didn't* drink the water! It has to be partly genetic since > it seems to be that extreme longevity runs in families.     Though you could also argue that a family of brewers was likely to live in a place that had access to clean water.     <snip> > ISTR they had a daily beer allowance of 12 pints for hot working > at the furnace hearth (OK it was watery beer).     We should really, as genealogists and historians, be more aware that a large proportion of our ancestors were probably pissed or stoned most of the time.     Chris