866 THE YEAR-BOOS <>F AGRICULTURE. 



. ich, where all it- nutritive matter is extracted by the proper organs created for 



that purpose. The horse and the hog, having no Boefa organs to re-chew . d ' derive so mooh 



benefit from the ^r i-< > ti 1 1< 1 cob as the animals above named. Hen- derive more benefit from 



b iiic.il than they do from corn meal alone. Iu fowls of this class there is an 



apparatus analagous to animals that chew the cud. First, they take dry f 1 into their 



crop- : here it becomes soaked us if it were in ■ warm vat; from this it passes into the giz- 



i. which, furnished with gravel-stones, acts the part of grinding fine, by aid of the strong 



muscles of that organ, whatever passes into it. Here the particles of the oob meal, thoroughly 



pulverised, and mingled with the gastric juices, become dissolved, and form nutrition for 

 the body. 



\\ . do le.t mean to say that corn and cob meal is not good provender for horses and hogs, 

 but that they do not derive BO much benefit from pound for pound, or bushel for bushel, as 

 oxen, cows, etc. do. — Sfaitu Farmer. 



Period of Human Life. 



M. Fum ukss, the distinguished French physiologist, has recently published a book, in 

 which lie announces that the normal period of the life of man is one hundred yean. The 

 grounds on which he comes to this new philosophic conclusion may be briefly Btated: It is, 



we believe, a fact in natural history that the Length of each animal's life is in exact propor- 

 tion to the period lie is in growing. Buffon was aware of this truth, and his observa- 

 tions led him to conclude that the life in different species Of animal- is -i\ or -even times as 

 long as the period of growth. M. Flourens. from his own observations and those Qf hi- j 

 deoet • of opinion that it may be more -afcly taken at five times. When BuffoD wrote, 



the precise period at which animals leave off glowing, or, to speak more correctly, the precise 



circumstance which indicates that the growth has ceased, was aot known. M. Flourens has 



itiine. I that period, and thereon lies his present theory. "It COhsiBtB," Bays he, "in 

 the union of the bones to their epiphyses. As long as the bones are not united to their 

 epiphyses, the animal grows; as soon as the bones are united to the epiphyses, the animal 



. - to grow." Now, in man the union of the bones and the epiphyses take- place, accord- 

 ing to M. Flourens, at the age of twenty; and, consequently, he proclaims that the natural 



duration of life i- five time- twenty years. "It is now fifteen year- BgO," he Says, " -ince I 



commenced researches into the physiological law of the duration of life, both in man and in 



some of our doine-t';c animal-, and I have arrived at the result that the normal duration of 



man'- life i- one century. Ye-, a century'- life is what Providence meant to give us." Ap- 

 plied to domestic animals, M. Flourens's theory ha-, he tell- as, been proved ooi root. " The 

 union of the bones with the epiphyses," In- i; -. "tafc mel at eight yean 



age. and he live- forty year : in the hoi-.' at live yean, and he live- t went\ -ti\c \cir-; in 



the ox at four j ' ii -. and he li\.-- from fifteen t.. twenty years ; in the dog at two j ears, and 



he live- from ten to twelve year-; and in the lion at four years, and he lives twenty. " A- a 



necessarj consequence of the prolongation of life to which M. Flourens assures man he is 



entitled, he modifies \' derablj bis different age-. "1 prolong the duration of 



infancy," he says, "up to ten years, because it i- from nine to ten that the Becond dentition 



Dated. I prolong adolescence np to twentj years, because it i- at that age that the 



development of tlie b..ie . and c n-e.|iiently the increase of the body in length. I 



prolong youth up to the age of forty, because it i- only at that age that the increase of the 

 >\ In bulk terminates. After forty the body does Dot grow, properl] speaking; the aug- 

 mentation of it- volume, which then takes place, i- n,.t a veritable Organic development, but 



nmulation of tat. After the growth, or more exactly speaking, the development 

 in length and bulk ha- terminated, man enters into what I call the period of im in — 



! i-. when nil our part- become more i iplete and firmer, oar function" more I 



i the whole organism more perfect Thi- period Usui to sixty-five or ■erencj ml 



old age, which hi-t- for thirty year-." I'.at though If. Floiircn- thus lengthens 



man'i daj . he warm him, more than once, that the prolongation of them oanonlj be obtained 



00 one rigorous condition — " that of g I conduct, of . copied — of labor, of 



