4G2 EUTHANASIA. 



the calf-deer he could lay hands upon. Assuming the mark 

 011 this particular deer to have been authentic, then the 

 animal's age could not have been less than a hundred and 

 fifty, and it might have been a hundred and eighty years. 



The anecdote is narrated by Mr. Scrope, who, however, 

 suggests that the old forester's mark was known to the hill- 

 men, and had been by them imitated. Hundreds of Highland 

 traditions might be cited in regard to the alleged longevity 

 of deer. The belief has always prevailed in the Highlands, 

 and hence a certain Gaelic proverb, which stands thus trans- 

 lated into English : 



' Thrice the age of a dog is that of a horse, 

 Thrice the age of a horse is that of a man, 

 Thrice the age of a man is that of a deer, 

 Thrice the age of a deer is that of an eagle, 

 Thrice the age of an eagle is that of an oak-tree.' 



What may be considered the normal age of man, the age 

 to which the human mechanism might be expected to endure 

 but for disease, accident, or other collateral interference? 

 Threescore years and ten is the scriptural answer ; but with- 

 out irreverence we may easily assume that the scriptural 

 statement contemplated the probability of disease, of acci- 

 dent, of one or another amongst the extraneous causes which 

 in by far the majority of cases terminates human life ; not 

 allowing euthanasia, or death from actual wearing out of the 

 animal mechanism, to supervene. 



The physiologist Blumenbach came to the conclusion that 

 there is no period which can be said to be entitled by its 

 frequency and marked regularity to be considered the natural 

 term of advanced old age. Trying to determine this point, 

 he consulted all the bills of mortality he could gain access 

 to, and the conclusion he was able to arrive at was, that in 

 Europe no inconsiderable number of individuals reach their 

 eighty-fifth year, but few get beyond it ; that farther, from 

 one or other cause, only one in every seventy-eight human 



