XII. 



NOTES ON THE POST-MOETEM EXAMINATION 

 OF A MAN SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN ONE 

 HUNDKED AND SIX YEARS OLD. 



A man, reputed to have been in his 107th year, died at Oxford, 

 on Thursday, September nth, 1862. By the kind offices of Mr. 

 Tyerman, who has published an account of his life \ I was enabled 

 to make a post-mortem examination of his body. From Mr. Tyer- 

 man's account of his life, I learn that he was born on the 5th of 

 March, 1 7 56 ; and that his father died at the age of 75, and his 

 mother at 104, and his grandmother at no. 



Extra-anatomical discussion as to his age may be found in 

 'Notes and Queries,' April 12th, 1862, May 17th, 1862, June 17th, 

 1862 ; and a letter seriously impugning his claims to this length- 

 ened term of years may be found in ' Jackson's Oxford Journal,' 

 for September 27th, 1862. After making many enquiries myself, 

 and after examining the evidence collected for me by my friend, 

 A. B. Shepherd, Esq., of Brasenose College, upon the spots con- 

 nected by tradition with the old man's early days, I have not been 

 able to convince myself that one would be justified in rejecting as 

 unfounded the statements as to his age which he himself uniformly 

 and consistently made. 



I am not clear that it is possible to bring conclusive evidence as 

 to a single case, such as this, from the revelations of anatomical in- 

 vestigation. Sir Anthony Carlisle may not have been quite justi- 

 fied in saying that most aged persons die of actual disease in organs 

 not worn out by the length of time they have been performing 

 their functions ; but his dictum was not so far from the truth as 



1 ' Notices of the life of John Pratt (now in his 106th year),' by Thomas F. Tyerman, 

 Esq. Oxford, Slatter and Rose, 2 and 3, High Street. 1861. 



