Hufeland's Art of prolonging life / edited by Erasmus Wilson.

  • Hufeland, Christoph Wilhelm, 1762-1836.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hufeland's Art of prolonging life / edited by Erasmus Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    fever, which continued with so much violence for tliirty- i five days, that my life was despaired of. But, by the j blessing of God, and my former regimen, I recovered ; and now, in my eighty-third 3'ear, I enjoy a happy state both of body and mind. I can mount my horse with- j out assistance; I climb steep hills ; and I have latelj^ written j a play abounding in innocent wit and humour. When I return home from private compan}', or the senate, I find eleven grandchildren, whose education, amusements, and songs, are the delight of my old age. I often sing myself along with them, for my voice is now clearer and stronger than it ever was in my youth ; .and I am a stranger to those peevish and morose humours which fall so often to the lot of old age.” In this happy disposition he attained to his hundredth year ; but his example has never been imitated.* There was a period when people in France seemed to be so little acquainted with the value of blood, that Louis XIII., in the last ten months of his life, was bled forty-seven times; and besides, he was made to take two | hundred and fifteen pui-gatives, and to use a glyster two hundred and ten times. Soon after, attempts were made, by a process directly contrary, that of filling the veins with ^ fresh j'outhful blood, to invigorate and prolong the life of; man and to remove incurable disorders. This method was called transfusion; and the operation was performed by opening two veins, and by means of a #mall pipe, con- veying blood from the artery of another living creature i into the one vein, whilst the blood was suffered to flow off through the other. Some successful experiments of this kind had been made in England upon animals; and it is certain that some old, lame beasts, sheep, calves, and horses, by filling their bodies with the blood of a young animal, had acquired, at least, after some time, sufficient activity and vigour; nay, attempts were even made to * I would earnestly advise people, before they begin thi.s regimen in the strictest sense, to consult their physician; for abstinence carried so far will not be salutary to every one.