SOME REMARKS ON THE PATHOLOGICAL 

 BASIS OF AGEING 



G. R. Cameron, d.Sc, f.r.c.p., f.r.s. 



Depar1?nn)f of Morbid .inatomy, University College Hospital Medical School, 



London. 



Two years ago, two Swiss doctors, A. L. Vischer and F. C. 

 Roulet (1952) reported the death of two of their countrymen 

 at or near the age of one-hundred-and-two. Both of these old 

 people had led healthy active lives, escaping serious illness 

 and remaining free from any disability up to the end. Death 

 came to the man as the result of gangrene of a limb after 

 influenza; the woman faded out after the death of a daughter, 

 bronchopneumonia being the immediate cause of death. 

 Careful investigation of bodily functions in both towards the 

 end of their lives failed to disclose any serious disturbance. 

 Basal metabolism, recovery from fractures, plasma proteins, 

 haemoglobin index, blood cell counts, blood pressure and pulse 

 were within normal limits. 



Autopsy on the one-hundred-and-two-year-old male dis- 

 closed generalized arteriosclerosis, especially severe in the 

 abdominal aorta and lower extremities, with thrombosis of 

 both femoral, })opliteal and tibial arteries and of the accom- 

 panying veins, gangrene of the left foot, terminal broncho- 

 pneumonia and chronic pulmonary emphysema. Other findings 

 included a carcinoid tumour in the lower ileum, regeneration 

 nodules in the thyroid, and glandular and muscular increase 

 in the prostate. 



The old lady, almost one-hundred-and-two years of age when 

 she died, showed at post mortem examination cancer of the 

 breast associated with cystic mastitis but no metastases, 

 severe arteriosclerosis of the aorta, coronary disease with 

 obstruction, calcification of the annulus fibrosis of the heart 



16 



