The longevity of man : its facts and fictions : with a prefatory letter to Prof. Owen ... on the limits and frequency of exceptional cases / by William J. Thoms.

  • William Thoms
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The longevity of man : its facts and fictions : with a prefatory letter to Prof. Owen ... on the limits and frequency of exceptional cases / by William J. Thoms. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    107/364 page 67
    v.] Cases of Jenkins, Parr, &c. 6j CHAPTER V. HAVING shown in the preceding chapters the caution with which, not only all unsupported statements of abnormal Longevity are to be received, but that such caution should be extended to the various species of evidence brought forward in support of cases supposed to be clearly established, I propose to illustrate the value of such caution by giving the results of its application to a variety of cases of Longevity which I have inves- tigated. But before doing so, I will endeavour to remove from the paths of the honest inquirer after truth those stum- bling-blocks, the 169 years of Henry Jenkins, the 152 years of Old Parr, and the seven score years of the Old Countess of Desmond. As Henry Jenkins is the greatest offender against probability and common sense, I will begin with him. It is now several years since, upon my attention being accidentally called to the subject of abnormal Longevity, I came to the conclusion, strengthened and confirmed by subsequent inquiry and consideration, that there was not the slightest evidence in support of the statements so frequently and confidently repeated, that Henry Jenkins had lived to reach the incredible age F 2
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