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

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We need not be too skeptical as to the legitimacy of the children of fathers of such advanced age for reasons we will mention later. Examples of fathers at ages above 60 or 70 are not so exceedingly rare. A very good example of this is that of a crowned head of one of the European countries, married morganatically, who, in his 72nd year, was presented by his wife with a child, and nobody who is acquainted with the powerful constitution of this monarch and his predilection for the fair sex will doubt his happiness as a father. He is noted for his marvelous intellect, which, again, is so frequently met with in persons with very active sexual glands.

Several of these ancient patriarchs, at the autopsy, presented a wonderfully good state of preservation of the various organs. Thomas Parr died in his 153d year, and his autopsy was made by one of the greatest physicians in the history of medicine—the celebrated Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood. Harvey found every organ in this wonderful old man in perfect condition. His death was attributed by Harvey to over-eating, as Parr had always lived a very frugal life. The King of England invited this astonishing personage to London in his 152d year, as he wanted to know this most interesting of his subjects; but the rich food he received in the royal household did not prove beneficial to him, and though his 152 years of frugal life were unable to kill him, nine months of an opposite style of living succeeded in so doing.