Old Age Deferred: The causes of old age and its postponement by hygienic and therapeutic measuresLorand, Arnold
Science
Old Age Deferred: The causes of old age and its postponement by hygienic and therapeutic measures
Lorand, Arnold
Hygiene; Longevity; Old age
Courage is a specific feature that can only be found in a man who is
still in possession of healthy sexual glands; it is entirely wanting in
eunuchs. Cowardice, superstition, laziness, avarice, vanity, cruelty,
and other bad qualities are typical features in eunuchs. Our friend Sir
Hugh Adcock, formerly physician to the late Shah of Persia, told us that
his own experience with hundreds of eunuchs showed him that they all had
these bad qualities. Capacity for hard work, generosity,
kind-heartedness, and religion may be found in persons who are in the
possession of healthy, vigorous, sexual glands; but by exhaustion, after
sexual excesses, a condition may be created analogous to myxœdema after
previous Graves’s disease. This exhaustion of the sexual glands may
create a condition in which some of the features of the castrated may
appear. This is noticeable in the character of many of the dignitaries
of oriental countries who possess large harems, and also in occidental
countries in many men who lead a life of debauchery. The influence of
the pituitary is shown by changes that invariably occur in the nervous
system and mind after any alteration in it. Thus, in two millionaires
suffering from acromegaly we have observed great stinginess. We do not
intimate that this is a characteristic of millionaires, but these
gentlemen were quite the reverse before becoming afflicted with their
disease. In one case of acromegaly, for the knowledge of which we are
indebted to Dr. Dercum of Philadelphia, there was a great distrust of
anything new, even the most useful of innovations. This caused great
discontent among the gentleman’s business partners, although he himself
showed this disposition only after the symptoms of his disease were
apparent. In acromegaly there exists a hyperactivity of the pituitary;
Renon was able to produce the disease by giving large doses of pituitary
extracts, and Hochenegg obtained good results in his treatment of it by
extirpating the pituitary body.
Extirpation of the adrenals is also followed by important alterations in
the nervous system, as was noted by Jersoni and others. Also, in
Addison’s disease, which is accompanied by a degeneration of these
glands, we notice a diminution of the intellect together with a general
mental depression.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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