Читать книгу Old Age Deferred. The causes of old age and its postponement by hygienic and therapeutic measures онлайн

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If we study the history of persons who have lived over 100 years, we shall find in nearly every case that their forefathers, or their descendants, or other relatives of the same blood have, as a rule, also lived to a great age. This will be illustrated by a few examples which we will now give.

In the year 1724 there died in Hungary in a village called Köprös, about ten miles from Temesvar, a man, Petraz Czarten, who was 185 years of age. When he died, his son was 95.

We have already referred to the case of a man named Thomas Parr in our chapter on the influence of the sexual glands upon vitality and long life. This man died in 1635 in his 153d year, and after death his body was dissected by the great physician Harvey. That longevity had existed in his family was shown by the fact that one of his female descendents died in Cork, in Ireland, at the age of 103.

In the year 1797, in a village near Bergen, there died a man, Joseph Surrington, in his 160th year. That he left a young widow, after having been married several times, is not so extraordinary if we consider the facts in the chapter in this book on the influence of the sexual glands upon vitality and long life. When this man died his eldest son was 103 and his youngest only 9!