MEASURES OF VITAL TENACITY. 543 



greater vitality centered in the nervous system, in the muscular, in the 

 respiratory, in the blood, in the membranes? 



And wherever centered, what is the endowment ? 



The difference of tenacity in animals of the same species is more 

 approachable, because we know certain factors that afford an explana- 

 tion of it. 



Age is a factor. In the young the tenacity is more distinctly marked 

 than in the old. In a broad sense there is no exception to this rule. 



Degenerations of tissues are factors. Fatty degenerations are re- 

 ducers of tenacity. Lessened arterial tension is a reducer. 



Race or breed is another factor. The strong, wiry, muscular ani- 

 mal of any species is more tenacious of life than the heavier and less 

 elastic. The terrier outlives the spaniel or retriever. The man of 

 sanguine temperament outlives the nervous and lymphatic man. 



In the operation of tracheotomy for croup or diphtheria in childi-en, 

 other things being equal, the chances of a successful issue will be as 

 two to one to a spare, active, wiry subject compared with the chances 

 of the full-cheeked, full-bodied child with luscious lips and rich flow- 

 ing curls of pale or golden hue. The first of these will live almost 

 through the gate of death ; the second will succumb without a strug- 

 gle for life. 



Will is a factor. I have twice seen tenacity of life maintained, as 

 it were, against all possibilities by what is called the will of the suf- 

 ferer. Mr. F. Hall, of Jermyn Street, had a patient in the last stage 

 of pulmonary consumption, whom I had seen with him in what ap- 

 peared to be a condition of emaciation and exhaustion that precluded 

 the feeblest effort toward rising from bed. Yet one day, and three 

 weeks only before actual death, this sick man by a supreme effort of 

 volition rose, dressed himself, went out of his house, and had to be 

 sought for by his friends and brought back, with gentle compulsion, 

 simply to die. 



A young authoress of great promise, suffering from the same dis- 

 ease pulmonary consumption in the very last days of her life rose 

 from bed, and in the most vigorous style was engaged for several 

 hours in composition on letters and work which had been for months 

 laid aside. Her friends, bewildered by the phenomenon, could scarcely 

 accredit that the effort did not presage recovery, until rapid collapse 

 dispelled the illusion. 



This tenacity of life illustrated through volition is the equivalent 

 of that courageous endurance w r hich some in famine and war have 

 " miraculously " exhibited. 



These examples illustrate the influence of certain factors on te- 

 nacity of life, and they may, one day, lead up to the prime cause of 

 the difference of tenacity if they and other facts bearing on the matter 

 be carefully observed and recorded. But, as yet, the prime cause re- 

 mains a troubled and troublous question. The Aselepiad. 



