variable accompaniment of it. In women the changes are more marked. Sooner or later, after the cessation of the catamenia, the external form begins to lose something of its luxurious softness, and all the indications of age, similar to those which occur in men take place; indeed, the whole system appears to approach the masculine character. The voice becomes more harsh and gruff; hair sometimes grows on the upper lip. (See Dr. R. Lee's Clinical Reports of Ovarian and Uterine Diseases, p. 2.) Burlieu says that it often appears on the chin also, (De Famines ex suppressione mensium barbatis; Altorf, 1664.) The muscular power is sometimes greater than before, and there is often an increase of energy and decision. Dr. Elliotson states that similar changes often occur in the females of brutes. "Birds, after ceasing to lay eggs, often lose the feathers peculiar to their sex, and acquire the characteristic of the male, as well as spurs, and, according to the remark of Aristotle, combs and wattles. Mares will acquire the mane of the horse; female giraffes the coats of the male; the doe will acquire the horns of the stag and roebuck." (Human Physiology, 1821.) From the termination of the period of maturity to senility, those changes go on more or less rapidly, which sometimes convert the active and healthful individual into the

42

THE DECLINE OF LIFE.

decrepit old man-a second childhood, almost as helpless as the first—a sad picture of the decay of nature, and the loss of those powers and faculties which so lately commanded respect and admiration.

:

The great characteristic of all the changes which gradually occur from early to extreme old age, is consolidation, a diminished plasticity and mobility of parts, increased firmness of structure, and diminished bulk interstitial fat is then everywhere absorbed; the muscles become stringy and fibrous, and at their terminations ligamentous; cartilages become bony; bones lose their internal cancellous structure; those of the cranium their diploe, and become merely solid masses, whilst the blood-vessels are diminished or obliterated, and hence they become fragile. The coats of the

arteries become harder, and lose their tonicity; many of the smaller trunks are obliterated, whilst, however, the veins have become larger and more dilateable than they were in early life; perspiration is nearly at an end, for the skin has become harsh and dry, wrinkled, and discolored; and even, as in the vegetable world, plants as they grow older become more and more woody, and the sap traverses only the larger vessels, so, too, in the old man, the circulation is carried on only by the larger trunks, and hence the whole body becomes. thinner, firmer, more harsh, more dry, and loses strength

and mobility, and the power of repairing injured, or regenerating lost parts. The muscular system has become so weak as to be almost useless. The once powerful man, now unable to stand erect, stoops; the shoulders are raised, and the head falls forward. In walking, the spine is much curved; the aid of a strong stick or an able arm is required to keep the body in equilibrium ; the step is tottering and uncertain; the spine is curved even when sitting, and the head hangs forward; the hands are unable to grasp any object firmly, they tremble in a palsied manner if the attempt be made, and the command over the movements of particular fingers is very uncertain.

The voice is generally changed, the strength and fulness of tone is gone; if it be loud, it is shrill, but more commonly it is weak as well as shrill. The voice of women, which, often during the later half of maturity had become gruff and sonorous as those of man, now falls equally into the "treble-pipe" of age.

The external senses become less delicate, or are nearly or altogether lost. The sight is perhaps the first that gives warning of the course of time; even yet, whilst the other powers appear to be in full vigour, at a period varying from forty to sixty years of age, the organs of vision begin to change; persons, in reading, hold books further from them; small objects are

#13 DECLINE OF LIFE.

...... fistingmshed, or a stronger light is nake them distinct; spectacies that is.

ses of low power,, are required: the ...* se presented to the eye under a different here is somewhat flatter than heretofore, imptoma has lost something of its pristine sensiA this occurs in various degrees, not only hug to the constitution of the individual, but also ng to the way the eye has been habitually em1 The lens becomes harder and not unfrejuly loses its transparency, constituting cataract; od the cornea a peculiar opaque line is often id, hunting the extent of its transparency, which bown by the appropriate name of arcus senilis.

Thad the hearing becomes less acute in age is certain, tod ik may be doubted whether this arises from dimisensibility in the auditory nerves, or from minished flexibility and moisture in the auditory ggeulus. It is certam that the external ear becomes

414

"

Hecilde; that it, like all the integuments of the ... is harsher and drier; that the meatus is more pully Alled with hardened wax, and it is affirmed au authors, that the liquor Cottunii in the labyall bud unflequently absorbed. (Dict. de Med.,

( ! །

the same, or nearly the same, may be said of Ilaut od touch the dry and wrinkled state of

the skin renders delicacy of touch impossible; and the sense of taste, like that of smell, loses much of its discrimination, but retains its susceptibility to the force of impressions. Delicacy of flavour, or of odours is lost on the aged; but strong smells are detected and strong viands are relished up to the latest period.

Thus, then, as all the organs of those faculties which connect the mind of man with the world around him become changed, as he cannot receive impressions from without through the channel of the senses as completely as he used to do, nor can move, speak, and act as perfectly as heretofore, it follows that the mind must appear to partake of the corporeal decay. It matters not that this "spark of heavenly flame" may be actually the same as it has ever been, the same in age as in youth or maturity, the links connecting it with all around are weakened or destroyed, and the mind retreats within itself in calm and peaceful contemplation; yet I fully believe that it exists as heretofore, when the body was young and vigorous, unchanged, unchangeable, the same in youth, in manhood, and in age. In early life, acquiring knowledge from all sources, and arranging its stores; in middle life, vigorously employing them for good or ill, and ceasing to act thus in age, only because its means of communication with the external world have become