1028 CHARACTERISTICS OF DIFFERENT AGES. 



in the Male sex is not usually attended with any specific tendency to dis- 

 ease : nor would it probably be in the Female, if her mode of life were more 

 accordant with the rules of health. Although disorder of the Menstrual 

 function is one of the most common phenomena of female youth, yet it is 

 undoubtedly to be looked upon more frequently as a symptom of general de- 

 fect of nutrition (and especially of an impoverished condition of the blood), 

 than as itself constituting a disease. The extraordinary reduction in the 

 probability of life, indicating a large mortality, during the years which im- 

 mediately succeed puberty, seems to depend in great degree, in the Male, 

 upon the premature use of his generative powers, and upon his entrance 

 upon the active employments of life before his constitution has received that 

 iuvigoration which results from the completion of his bodily development; 

 whilst in the Female it is very commonly attributable to the accumulation 

 of unhealthy influences, which begin to " tell " upon the powers of her system, 

 when its germinal capacity no longer ministers to its active regeneration. It 

 is then, in both sexes, though from causes whose immediate nature is differ- 

 ent, that the Tubercular diathesis is prone to develop itself with peculiar 

 intensity, and that, by fixing upon the Respiratory organs, it produces the 

 most rapidly fatal alterations in structures whose integrity is essential to life. 

 875. Period of Maturity. The cessation of growth, and the completion of 

 the developmental processes, which indicate the attainment of Manhood, are 

 accompanied by a marked increase in the general vigor of the organism, and 

 by a special augmentation in the power of endurance in the exercise of the 

 Animal faculties. With the exception of those parts of the fabric whose 

 utility was confined to the earlier periods of its development, we find every 

 organ now presenting its greatest capacity for sustained activity; and thus 

 it is from the characters which each presents at this period, that we base our 

 ideas of its typical perfection of structure and composition. All the previous 

 changes which the organism has undergone, both as a whole and in its 

 separate parts, concur to the attainment of this perfection, as we have espe- 

 cially seen in regard to the evolution of the solid framework of the body ; 

 and every subsequent change, as we shall presently perceive (877), involves 

 a deterioration from it. The whole nisus of development, during this period, 

 appears to be directed towards the maintenance of the organism in the state 

 which it had acquired at its commencement; by the regeneration of its tis- 

 sues as fast as they undergo disintegration, and by the renovation of its vital 

 force in proportion as this is expended. There is no longer any capacity 

 for the production of new organs, and comparatively little for the augmenta- 

 tion of those already existing ; the increase of the Uterine and Mammary 

 structures, during the period of gestation, being the most important exam- 

 ples of formative power, and these presenting themselves in the sex in which 

 there is least of nervo-muscular activity and of general vigor. We should 

 infer, then, that the "germinal capacity" is now on the decline; and this 

 further appears from the diminished energy and completeness with which 

 the reparative processes are performed, as compared with the mode in which 

 they are executed during the period of growth. There is consequently a less 

 demand for alimentary material (allowance being made for the augmented 

 bulk of the body) than during the previous periods; and the dependence of 

 life upon a constant supply of aliment is far less close. Moreover, the ordi- 

 nary rate of waste or degeneration of tissue is now much less rapid than dur- 

 ing the period of growth ; for we have seen that decay and removal, in the 

 latter case, are among the very conditions of increase ; whilst in the former, 

 they proceed, for the most part, only from the expenditure of the vital 

 powers of the tissues, consequent upon their functional activity. Hence it is 

 upon the degree in which the Animal powers are exercised, that the demand 



