4o6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE CONSEEVATION OP ENEEGY IN THOSE OF 

 ADVANCING YEAES. II. 



By J. MADISON TAYLOR, A.M., M.D., 



PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



Developmental Processes in Ageing Tissues; Physiology of Decadence. 



Senile Involution. 



THE brevity of this communication does not warrant a discussion 

 of senility from the standpoint of the physician, but rather a 

 presentation of such facts to the person who is growing old as may 

 prove helpful and suggestive in postponing the more serious results 

 of advancing years. It is, however, important to glance at the manner 

 and processes by which the inevitable end is reached. The clinical 

 picture of approaching death is divided by Tessier into those structural 

 degenerations involving, first, the heart and blood vessels; second, the 

 lungs; third, the kidneys; fourth, the digestive organs, and fifth, the 

 brain. First of the heart, which is now recognized to be the organ 

 which plays the chief part in the ending of life. Before we knew 

 much about the subject it was natural to infer that the heart was chiefly 

 at fault and the common phrase was often used of death by 'heart 

 failure,' one which we now know to be scientifically correct but afore- 

 time vaguely employed. Then discoveries were made that the arteries 

 in the aged were nearly always diseased, and medical thinkers went so 

 far as to assert that all instances of death in old age resulted from the 

 hardening of the arteries. It is true that this is an accompanying 

 phenomenon in most instances, and perhaps in all, but it is recognized 

 to be not the most potent factor in a certain large proportion. 



What is to be said here is not meant for a guide to the aged individ- 

 ual by which he may be encouraged to form independent judgments for 

 himself, but rather to act as items of useful information, through which 

 he can better interpret the statements and appreciate the importance of 

 following the directions of his physician. 



The heart of a healthy old person has become fatigued in its structure 

 through a decadence of its nerve supply. The pulse is rather quicker 

 than during middle life; it is more or less irregular and becomes in- 

 creasingly so. In a healthy heart there is, however, a regular irregularity ; 

 a normal sequence of alterations in the rhythm and force which is only 

 significant when studied by the trained physician. The phenomenon 

 which is one of the most constant and inevitable, as the effects of age 



