trolling the animal desires. Great urgency is often caused by too frequent indulgence, and may be moderated by active bodily exertion, by serious mental labour, or even by the resolute exertion of the will determined to preserve the body from the exhausting effects of so debilitating a function. Thus, then, by a well-regulated activity of mind and body, health may be preserved, and a mature and vigorous condition be greatly prolonged, yet as years roll on decay will gradually advance, at first almost imperceptible-the sure impress of the hand of time. will be gradually marked in every feature and member of the external frame, in every organ of the intelligent mind. It behoves the individual to watch closely the steps by which old age comes on, to study his own constitutional idiosyncrasy with a view to find out the weakest points; and, as a good general would most carefully guard the weakest portal, or that by which the enemy might easiest enter a citadel, so should every man advanced in life avoid exciting those organs which he knows to be weakest, select those foods which experience has taught him his digestive organs can most easily assimilate, follow such pursuits as he has found to be least exhausting, and seek such relaxation as he has found most exhilarating and recruiting. All that has been said as to the promoting of vigorous PART III. ON THE DECLINE OF LIFE IN DISEASE. INTRODUCTION. I HAVE hitherto spoken of the Decline of Life in Health, and have endeavoured to show how the body may best be sustained under the inevitable effects of time. I have now to take a very different and less agreeable view of the latter years of life,-to regard them under the baneful influence of disease, to mark the way by which the enemy gains footing into the citadel and becomes master of the fortress, sometimes so gradually that it is very difficult to observe his approaches and withstand his efforts; sometimes more boldly by a coup de main, if any portal be left thoughtlessly unguarded. I shall, first, shortly consider that perceptible failing in constitutional power and general health, which often marks the accession of old age, mine, ny hjeet is physician or with netice. I visa i zach the aged invalid what he may well do for us own safety and comfort to avoid the attacks of disease, and when it does come to mingute its evils and prevent its banefil consequences, and all this not to supersede but to and those really curative means which the skill and ability of his physician can acne suggest. Seif-medication is at all times a most silly practice; but in age, when the constitutional processes, weakened by time, are least able to resist disease, its attacks can only be properly opposed by a combination of learning, skill, and experience. No man of common sense would attempt to repair a watch, however long he had been accustomed to wear one; the human frame is, in heller u ispense with the |