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

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We should not wish to omit mentioning again the important fact that, with few exceptions, the persons who lived to such an extraordinary age were married, and some of them three or four times, which again serves to show us the great importance of marriage as a means to reach a good, old age.

We have quoted these instances of longevity from Hufeland,^[104] one of the greatest German physicians of the eighteenth century, of whose truthfulness there can be no doubt. The great German physiologist, Pflüger, also quoted some of the above examples of great age in his address in celebration of the birthday of Emperor William II, at the University of Bonn. When Parr had been found guilty of a misdemeanor in his 102d year facts were adduced in the courts which showed that, as Pflüger says, this “100 jährige durchaus die Eigenschaften eines Kräftegen jugendlichen mannes besass” (the man of 100 years really had the qualities of a powerful young man). Pflüger quotes this from Flourens, and we were pleased to find an account of the autopsy of the celebrated patriarch in a letter from Harvey, himself, to his nephew, published by the Sydenham Society^[105]: “The body was in such a good condition in a man of 153 that the cartilages of the chest bones were not yet ossified.” Harvey put it: “The cartilages were soft and flexible,” black hair on the forearms, and the organs apparently healthy. Probably the fact that the testes, as Harvey says, “were sound and large,” had something to do with it. He was also an affectionate husband, and to quote Harvey again, “His wife told me that until twelve years ago he never ceased to embrace her frequently”; that is, when he was 140 years old! At the autopsy of John Bayley, of Northampton, who died 130 years old, Dr. James Keill^[106] found his testes of large size.