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

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If many children be considered a sign of sexual activity and capacity, these very old men distinguished themselves in this respect, as most of them had numerous progeny. Several had a score of children after they were 80. Peter Albrecht, who lived to be 123, married in his 85th year, and had 7 children. Another patriarch, Gurgen Douglas, born in Marstrand, near Gothenburg, in Sweden, who reached to 120 years and 7 months, married in his 85th year and had 8 children, one of which was born when he was in his 103rd year. This child was an idiot, but as it is very interesting to note, otherwise physically well developed.

An Italian, Baron Baravicino de Capellis, died in 1770 at Meran, a climatic resort in the Tyrol (Austria), in his 107th year. He had 4 wives, the first of whom he married when he was 14, and the last when he was 84. He had 7 children, and it is an interesting fact that his wife was pregnant when he died.

As an English paper has reported, in 1796 there was a shoemaker, R. Glan, living near Philadelphia, Pa., who died at 114, and never missed a Sunday service. At his decease his third wife was but 30, and his virile powers were normal.