| Show Chloroform All AllMen Men at Age of Sixty I Osler Osier Statement Made in Playful Spirit Some years years ago Sir William Osier Osier Osler Os Os- ier ler British physician and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins university university university uni uni- who made the statement that men should shou d be chloroformed at sixty found that it was accepted by so many persons as a serious proposal on his part that he lie thought it advisable later to point out that it had been said in a somewhat playful playful play play- ful spirit His observations on the comparative comparative comparative uselessness of elderly men were made in the course of a farewell farewell farewell fare fare- well address at Johns Hopkins university university uni uni- February 22 1905 at a time when he was approaching the flOs himself I HI have two fixed ideas well known to my friends he said harmless obsessions with which I sometimes bore them but which have a direct bearing on this important important important im im- im- im problem The first is the comparative uselessness of men above forty years of age My second fixed idea is the uselessness of men above sixty years of age and the incalculable benefit it would be in m commercial political and in professional life if as a matter of course men stopped work at this age Donne tells us in his hana tos tos' that by the laws of certain certain Wise states were precipitated from a bridge and in Rome men of that age able w were not admitted to the theIn suffrage suffrage In that charming novel The Tho Fixed Period Anthony Tr dis llope a discusses dis dis- cusses the practical advantages of return to this ancient a usage and the plot hinges tinges upon the admirable scheme of a college into which at sixty men retired for a year o of f contemplation contemplation con con- before a peaceful departure de de' by chloroform That incalculable benefits might follow such a scheme is apparent to anyone who vho like myself i is nearing the limit and who has made cap a careful careful care care- ful study of the calamities which may befall men during the theand s sand seventh and eighth decades |
