Centenarians and nonagenarians / by W. Gilman Thompson.

  • William Gilman Thompson
Date:
[1913]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Centenarians and nonagenarians / by W. Gilman Thompson. 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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    diseases or by the unhygienic or irrational habits of individuals. All things considered, however, heredity appears to be a much stronger factor in producing nonagen- arians than any special habits, as of diet or hygiene, for the latter are found to present the greatest vari- ety in different cases—hence extreme longevity is largely a matter of natural selection. That the aged very often exhibit no predomi- nating symptoms of any one disease to which their death is attributable, is a striking fact. They may become so universally sclerosed and atrophic that a general weakness is their only complaint, and al- though they may have marked arteriosclerosis, nephritis, or myocardial change, the more active symptoms which characterize such diseases early in life may be entirely wanting. They rarely show marked edema, for example, and the typical picture of the last stages of failing compensation of the heart, so familiar in early life, the orthopnea, cyanosis, and general anasarca, etc., is very rarely met with. They die suddenly and peacefully—it is as if the clock had run down. Hence in the mor- tality statistics “senility” is so often given as the cause of death and accepted by the health author- ities without further question. In the group of cases in 1910 this was' the final diagnosis in 26 per cent, of the nonagenarians and in 40 per cent, of the centenarians. Fortunate it is, indeed, that the reward of a long life well spent should so often be a peaceful ending without the long drawn out sufferings so common in the middle decades. 34 East Thikty-fikst Stket.
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