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

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It is a well-known fact that extirpation of the testicles and of the ovaries is followed by obesity and other symptoms of old age; in the same way cessation of the menstruation with degeneration of the ovaries at the climacteric is followed by all the symptoms of old age and certain nervous disturbances, as, for instance, troublesome flushings, which occur here, as after castration. Eunuchs, as a rule, look much older than their age. The Oriental eunuchs, and also the members of a religious caste in Russia, the Skopse, who castrate themselves through fanaticism, because of their parchment-like face covered with innumerable wrinkles, appear aged beyond their years.

Degeneration of the pituitary body is also followed by premature senility. This is shown by the fact that acromegalic persons, as a rule, look much older than their age. This also holds good in the case of myxœdematous patients. We have had opportunity to see, quite recently, the skeleton of a female acromegalic patient of Dr. G. A. Gibson in Edinburgh, and found typical indications of old age, an enormous augmentation of connective tissue and vascularization of the bones, with great porosity.