Ill 



THE RATE OF GROWTH 



AND GENTLEMEN.- in the first of 



the lectures, I described those grosser character- 

 istics of old age, which we ourselves can readily dis- 

 tinguish, or which an anatomical study of the body 

 reveals to us. In the second lecture I spoke of the 

 microscopic alterations which occur in the body as 

 it changes from youth to old age. But besides the 

 changes which we have already reviewed, there are 

 those others, very conspicuous and somewhat known 

 to us all, which we gather together under the com- 

 prehensive term of growth. It is growth which I 

 shall ask you to study with me this evening, and I 

 shall hope, by the aid of our study, to reinforce in 

 your minds the conclusion which I have already 

 indicated, that the early period of life is a period of 

 rapid decline, and that the late period of life is one 

 of slow decline. 



In order to study growth accurately, it is desirable, 

 of course, to measure it, but since we are concerned 

 with the general problem of growth, we wish no par- 

 tial measure, such as that of the height alone would 



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