306 LJFE AND DEATH. 



it, but with whom death seems but an accident, 

 avoidable in principle if not in fact. The anatomical 

 elements of this higher animal are a case in point. 

 Flourens once tried to persuade us that the threshold 

 of old age might be made to recede considerably, and 

 there are biologists in the present day who give us 

 some glimpse of a kind of vague immortality. We 

 may, therefore, ask our readers to follow us in our 

 examination of these re-opened if not novel questions, 

 and we shall explain the views of contemporary 

 physiology as to the nature of death, its causes, its 

 mechanisms, and its signs. 



