We have also knowledge of a very interesting case, that of an Irishman, an ex-navy man, who, according to the admiralty official statistics, was 113 years old, and whose body was dissected by Professor Cunningham, Professor of Anatomy of Edinburgh University. As Dr. Cunningham, himself, told us, the testes were sound and healthy looking, and the cartilages of the chest bone not yet ossified. Death was not due to old age, but to a prostate abscess, except for which the body was in good condition. Metschnikoff also mentions in his “Etudes sur la Nature Humaine” examples of old men between 94 and 104 years, who suffered from copious spermatorrhœa, and in whose semen he has found a great quantity of spermatozoa. He and Dr. Weinberg observed similar conditions in old dogs of 18 to 22 years of age, one of whom, just before his death, had shown marked sexual tendencies.[107] Saverio Spangaro,[108] examining the testicles of a number of old men, found many of them atrophied, but others showed microscopically no difference to the testicles of younger individuals; there were only slight microscopical changes. This again proves our theory, that old age is not due to the degeneration of one, but of several glands with internal secretion, similarly to other diseases of these glands, like diabetes, acromegaly, etc. Footnote 107: Essais optimistes, p. 47, Paris, 1907. Footnote 108: S. Spangaro: Anatomische, Hefte, Heft lx., p. 630, Wiesbaden, 1902. The above facts of the preservation of the sexual glands in advanced old age, proves also the important fact that though the actual age be there, the symptoms of it may not be very pronounced if but the sexual glands are in good order. Of course the condition of the other ductless glands is of importance, for old age must be regarded as the consequence of the degeneration of the different ductless glands, and not of one gland alone. When we consider the splendid health enjoyed by most of these patriarchs and the good condition of their organs, why should we deny the possibility that they were disposing of at least one lively spermatozoön, and thus we shall have no reason to doubt their happiness as fathers. We must also add that the truth of the extraordinary age of these persons has been proved, in most cases, by documents, sometimes even in courts of law; also by the recollections of very old people who, in their own early childhood, personally knew them. That people with strong sexual impulses very often reach a very advanced old age, we can often observe. There are plenty of examples in the history of the world. Thus, the greatest debauchery did not prevent Louis XV becoming very old, and the Emperor Tiberius lived to be 78 after his notorious life. However, in the same way as with alcohol and tobacco, we would here repeat “Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi” (or, “what suits Peter may not suit Paul”).