CHAPTER I

ON THE CLIMACTERIC PERIOD IN MEN.

Some men glide so insensibly from one stage of le into another, that no line of demarcation can be perceived. It appears as one continuous journey, and nothing seems to point out the different stages; whilst in others the periods of life are more clearly marked and the changes more apparent. The change from childhood to puberty is always shown by distinct phenomena, the youth soon ripens into the young man and gradually proceeds to attain complete maturity; after that condition has endured for some years there are often certain perceptible changes, oc

The ancients believed that very important changes took place in the economy at certain periods-the first being the seventh year, and the subsequent epochs commencing at the numbers resulting from the multiplication of five, seven, and nine into each other, as the twentyfifth, forty-ninth, sixty-third, and eighty-first years. The last two were called grand climacterics, as the life of man was supposed to have reached its allotted term. This doctrine has been traced to Pythagoras, who derived it from the Egyptians. (Copland's Dictionary, p. 336.)

Dr. James Johnson, in his work 'The Stream of Life,' &c., divides life into periods of seven years each. I believe such arbitrary divisions completely fanciful; each phasis of life will come on at various periods in various individuals, and endure different lengths of time.

curring without any apparent cause. The period of the occurrence of these changes is various, but it is generally between the age of fifty and sixty-five years, that those derangements arise which have been called climacteric. Sir H. Halford says from fifty to seventyfive years of age, but surely changes occurring at the latter period can scarcely be called climacteric, or such as occur in passing from manhood into age. Without the occurrence of any manifest cause the individual becomes weak, is easily fatigued, sleeps badly and restlessly, and rises unrefreshed; the whole frame loses much of its vigour, the face becomes thinner, and the countenance assumes the appearance of anxiety and age. The tongue is furred, the skin hot, the bowels constipated, the urine natural and plentiful, yet the legs become oedematous, the body emaciated, and the pulse slightly quickened. Headache, giddiness, general emaciation, want of appetite and indigestion, often supervene. All this may go on

for some time until the latent seeds of some evil spring forth, and organic disease becomes manifest; or, after enduring a short time, all these symptoms may go off or yield readily to medical treatment, leaving the patient hale and hearty, free from disease, but his countenance evidently bearing the marks of change. The whole frame, although apparently still

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vigorous and capable of exertion, has lost the plump freshness of maturity, and the presence of a healthy green old age is at once manifest. Happy are they in whom such result appears! Full often, even when no latent organic affection breaks forth, the vital powers do not appear capable of sufficient reaction, and after many attempts to re-establish the healthful balance, they gradually give way, the emaciation progresses, adema increases, the appetite fails, indigestion is constant, a low feverish action continues, and the patients gradually sink into premature decay and death. All this occurs without any evident origin; often some slight cause is named, a trifling fall, a slight excess or over-exertion, such as would at first seem to be wholly inadequate to induce such disorder; but this is not so, in truth, the general disorder was approaching, but unobserved, the limits between health and disease had been nearly attained, and it required but the slightest cause to disturb the balance. Of all causes inducing this condition, those which spring from the mind are the most common and certain in their effects; anxiety, over-exertion, watchfulness, are certainly the most common causes of climacteric disease, and hence this disease is much more common in those whose daily labours are more mental than physical, and more common in men

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than women. It is amongst the very heavy taxes which are paid by intellectual superiority, and hence, perhaps, it arises that it has not been much noticed until in late years; the best account we have of it is from the pen of Sir H. Halford, who lived and practised amongst those whose energy and activity of mind but too often destroyed their bodily frames, the restless sword destroying its own scabbard. have often doubted indeed whether this state of general debility, and failure of all the bodily functions without any organic cause, ever does arise, except from exhausting mental labour, or long-continued mental anxiety: it is certainly possible that physical exertion carried to undue excess might induce it, but this, I feel convinced, is very rarely the case, except perhaps from an undue indulgence in venereal pleasures, and, hence, ill-assorted marriages, late in life, often lead to climacteric decay. It is perhaps most frequently in the robust and vigorous that this disorder occurs; men whose corporeal structure seems perfect and fitted to endure for a great length of time, whose mental qualifications are of the highest order, and who do not bear about them any hereditary taint or proneness to disease. To such model men (if I may use such a phrase) all things seem possible, they despise slothfulness and case, and enjoy the active exertion of their

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DECLINE OF LIFE IN DISEASE.

powers and faculties, hence they overtax both; they go on labouring as usual, either without noticing or wholly disregarding the slow and insidious progress of decay. No organ or function has given way, no marked disease has sprung up, as would have occurred with less favoured mortals, their organisation is so perfect and well balanced, that no part, weaker than the rest, yields, but the whole becomes debilitated and deranged. There is no attack of gout or apoplexy, no paralytic seizure, no sudden hæmorrhage, no cancerous development, but all the organs of the frame become weaker, all their functions are more feebly performed, and this admirably formed and highly endowed individual falls into a gradual decay and sinks into a premature grave, the victim of self disregard and of the want of caution in the preservation of those endowments and capabilities, which great as they really were, he rated still more highly.

But from whatever cause it may arise, climacteric derangement is greatly to be feared, because it so weakens the conservative powers of the constitution, as to lay it open to all the evils which may be watching to attack it, and especially enables the latent seeds of hereditary diseases to develop themselves. It is the duty, then, of all persons who have attained the climacteric age, carefully to avoid