4 AGE, GROWTH, AND DEATH 



and at forty it is already less ; at fifty decidedly less ; 

 and at sixty the change has become more marked ; un- 

 til at seventy years we find that the height has shrunk 

 from 174 to 1 6 1. There it remains, or thereabouts, 

 through the remainder of life, though there may be 

 a small further diminution. This decrease in stature 

 is due largely to the changes in the vertebral column. 

 First of all there is a stoop. The vertebral column 

 is, to be sure, never straight, but in old age it be- 

 comes more curved, and the result is a falling of the 

 total stature. But this is not the chief cause, for in 

 addition to this the softer cartilages and elements of 

 the spinal column become harder, change into bone, 

 and as that change occurs they acquire a less extent 

 and become smaller, and the result is that the verte- 

 bral column as a whole collapses somewhat and thus 

 increases the diminution of height. 



We find, as we look at the old, a great change to 

 have come over the face. The roundness of youth 

 has departed ; the cheeks are sunken ; the eyes have 

 fallen far back ; the lips are drawn in. All of these 

 changes indicate to us, when we think upon them, 

 the fact that there has been a certain shrinkage and 

 shrivelling of that which is within and beneath the 

 skin. Expressed in technical terms, we should call 

 this an atrophy, and to anatomists the mere sight of 

 the face of a very old person, Fig. 2. reveals at once 

 this fundamental fact of an atrophy of the parts, an 

 actual loss of some of their bulk, which is one of 

 the most characteristic and fundamental marks of old 



