2-714-149 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Thomas Parr, Who died at the Age of 152 Years', 1821. Portrait of Englishman Thomas Parr who claimed to be a supercentenarian. ' Old Parr' claimed to have been born in 1483, and died in 1635. The physician William Harvey performed an autopsy on Parr, who had allegedly survived on a diet of 'subrancid cheese and milk in every form, coarse and hard bread and small drink, generally sour whey'. From "Wonderful Characters: Comprising Memoirs and Anecdotes of the Most Remarkable Persons of Every Age and Nation", Vol. II, by Henry Wilson. [J. Robins and Co. Albion Press, London, 1821]