Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [211]
and his chest 27 inches. His genitals, both internal and external, were defectively developed. Figure 175 represents the well-known Ohio "living skeleton," J. W. Coffey, who has been exhibited all over the Continent. His good health and appetite were proverbial among his acquaintances.
In some instances the so-called "living skeletons" are merely cases of extreme muscular atrophy. As a prominent example of this class the exhibitionist, Rosa Lee Plemons at the age of eighteen weighed only 27 pounds. Figure 177 shows another case of extraordinary atrophic condition of all the tissues of the body associated with nondevelopment. These persons are always sickly and exhibit all the symptoms of progressive muscular atrophy, and cannot therefore be classed with the true examples of thinness, in which the health is but slightly affected or possibly perfect health is enjoyed.
CHAPTER VIII.
LONGEVITY.
Scope of the Present Article.--The limits of space in this work render impossible a scientific discussion upon the most interesting subject of longevity, and the reader is referred to some of the modern works devoted exclusively to this subject. In reviewing the examples of extreme age found in the human race it will be our object to lay before the reader the most remarkable instances of longevity that have been authentically recorded, to cite the source of the information, when possible to give explanatory details, and to report any relative points of value and interest. Throughout the article occasional facts will be given to show in what degree character, habit, and temperament influence longevity, and in what state of mind and body and under what circumstances man has obtained the highest age.
General Opinions.--There have been many learned authorities who invariably discredit all accounts of extraordinary age, and contend that there has never been an instance of a man living beyond the century mark whose age has been substantiated by satisfactory proof. Such extremists as Sir G. Cornewall Lewis and Thoms contend that since the Christian era no person of royal or noble line mentioned in history whose birth was authentically recorded at its occurrence has reached one hundred years. They have taken the worst station in life in which to find longevity as their field of observation. Longevity is always most common in the middle and lower classes, in which we cannot expect to find the records preserved with historical correctness.
The Testimony of Statistics.--Walford in his wonderful "Encyclopedia of Insurance" says that in England the "Royal Exchange" for a period of one hundred and thirty-five years had insured no life which survived ninety-six. The "London Assurance" for the same period had no clients who lived over ninety, and the "Equitable" had only one at ninety-six. In an English Tontine there was in 1693 a person who died at one hundred; and in Perth there lived a nominee at one hundred and twenty-two and another at one hundred and seven. On the other hand, a writer in the Strand Magazine points out that an insurance investigator some years ago gathered a list of 225 centenarians of almost every social rank and many nationalities, but the majority of them Britons or Russians.
In reviewing Walford's statistics we must remember that it has only been in recent years that the middle and lower classes of people have taken insurance on their lives. Formerly only the wealthy and those exposed to early demise were in the habit of insuring.
Dr. Ogle of the English Registrar-General's Department gives tables of expectancy that show that 82 males and 225 females out of 1,000,000 are alive at one hundred years. The figures are based on the death-rates of the years 1871-80.
The researches of Hardy in the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries are said to indicate that three-score-and-ten was considered old age; yet many old tombstones and monuments contain inscriptions recording age far beyond this, and even the pages of ordinary biographies disprove the alleged results of Hardy's research.
In some instances the so-called "living skeletons" are merely cases of extreme muscular atrophy. As a prominent example of this class the exhibitionist, Rosa Lee Plemons at the age of eighteen weighed only 27 pounds. Figure 177 shows another case of extraordinary atrophic condition of all the tissues of the body associated with nondevelopment. These persons are always sickly and exhibit all the symptoms of progressive muscular atrophy, and cannot therefore be classed with the true examples of thinness, in which the health is but slightly affected or possibly perfect health is enjoyed.
CHAPTER VIII.
LONGEVITY.
Scope of the Present Article.--The limits of space in this work render impossible a scientific discussion upon the most interesting subject of longevity, and the reader is referred to some of the modern works devoted exclusively to this subject. In reviewing the examples of extreme age found in the human race it will be our object to lay before the reader the most remarkable instances of longevity that have been authentically recorded, to cite the source of the information, when possible to give explanatory details, and to report any relative points of value and interest. Throughout the article occasional facts will be given to show in what degree character, habit, and temperament influence longevity, and in what state of mind and body and under what circumstances man has obtained the highest age.
General Opinions.--There have been many learned authorities who invariably discredit all accounts of extraordinary age, and contend that there has never been an instance of a man living beyond the century mark whose age has been substantiated by satisfactory proof. Such extremists as Sir G. Cornewall Lewis and Thoms contend that since the Christian era no person of royal or noble line mentioned in history whose birth was authentically recorded at its occurrence has reached one hundred years. They have taken the worst station in life in which to find longevity as their field of observation. Longevity is always most common in the middle and lower classes, in which we cannot expect to find the records preserved with historical correctness.
The Testimony of Statistics.--Walford in his wonderful "Encyclopedia of Insurance" says that in England the "Royal Exchange" for a period of one hundred and thirty-five years had insured no life which survived ninety-six. The "London Assurance" for the same period had no clients who lived over ninety, and the "Equitable" had only one at ninety-six. In an English Tontine there was in 1693 a person who died at one hundred; and in Perth there lived a nominee at one hundred and twenty-two and another at one hundred and seven. On the other hand, a writer in the Strand Magazine points out that an insurance investigator some years ago gathered a list of 225 centenarians of almost every social rank and many nationalities, but the majority of them Britons or Russians.
In reviewing Walford's statistics we must remember that it has only been in recent years that the middle and lower classes of people have taken insurance on their lives. Formerly only the wealthy and those exposed to early demise were in the habit of insuring.
Dr. Ogle of the English Registrar-General's Department gives tables of expectancy that show that 82 males and 225 females out of 1,000,000 are alive at one hundred years. The figures are based on the death-rates of the years 1871-80.
The researches of Hardy in the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries are said to indicate that three-score-and-ten was considered old age; yet many old tombstones and monuments contain inscriptions recording age far beyond this, and even the pages of ordinary biographies disprove the alleged results of Hardy's research.