Longevity : the means of prolonging life after middle age / by John Gardner.

  • Gardner, John, 1804-1880.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Longevity : the means of prolonging life after middle age / by John Gardner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    eighty or ninety. A few exceed these years, and nearly or quite touch one hundred. There are others, still fewer indeed, who live even longer than one hundred years. The late Sir George Cornewall Lewis having expressed doubts as to the evidence of any life exceeding one hundred years, much inquiry en- sued. The • affirmation, if not absolutely proved, must appear to those who have followed the controversy to be most probable. Quite recently however, the first case on record verified by an Assurance society of a person dying at the age of one hundred and three occurred. One such case is conclusive, and must not be ignored in dealing with the question before us. Whilst all the re- corded stories of persons living one hundred and fifty to two hundred years and upwards, Jenkyns, Parr, etc., must in the present state of our know- ledge be regarded as myths. The very numerous cases claiming an age somewhat beyond one hundred, when no positive evidence could be adduced, are now proved to have no inherent impossibility. {See Note A, p. 150.) There have been many attempts to determine