OP THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 411 



In the dissection of other moribund mammalia the 

 struggle of the heart may be perceived, and the right 

 auricle and ventricle are found to live rather longer than 

 the left. (117) 



664. Death is manifested by the coldness and rigidity 

 of the body, the flaccidity of the comea, the open state 

 of the anus, the lividness of the back, the depression 

 and flatness of the loins (59 note), and, above all, by an 

 odour truly cadaverous.* If these collective marks are 

 present, there can scarcely be room for the complaint of 

 Pliny, — that we ought not to feel assured of the fate of 

 a man though we see him lie dead, f (D) 



665. It is scarcely possible to define the natural pe- 

 riod of life, or, as it may be termed, the more frequent 

 and regular limit of advanced old age. % But, by an 

 accurate examination of numerous bills of mortality, I 

 have ascertained a remarkable fact — that a pretty large 

 proportion of Europeans reach their eighty-fourth year, 

 while, on the contrary, few exceed it. (E) 



666. On the whole, notwithstanding the weakness of 

 children, the intemperance of adults, the violence of 

 diseases, the fatality of accidents, and many other cir- 

 cumstances, prevent more than about perhaps seventy- 

 eight persons out of a thousand from dying of old age, 



* Durondeau, Nouveaux Mem. de V Ac. de Bruxelles. vol. i. 1788. P. i. 



f C. Himly, Commentatio (which gained the royal prize) mortis historian* 

 causa* et signa sistens. Gotting. 1794. 4to. 



Sol. Anschel, Thanatologia s. in mortis naturam, causas, genera, species, et 

 diagnosin disquisitiones. ib. 1795. $vo. 



% Among other well known treatises on this subject, consult J. Gcsncr, 

 De termino vita. Tigur. 1748. 4to. reprinted in the Excerptum Italica et 

 Helvetica litter at. 1759. T.iv. 



