XXXV111 INTRODUCTION. 



sent a very different case from the organs of animal 

 life. 



The distinction of the two lives is farther kept up in 

 their manner of ceasing in old age. Natural death, says 

 Bichat, is remarkable, in terminating animal life almost 

 entirely, a long time before it does organic life. The 

 functions of the first cease successively. The Sight be- 

 comes dim, confused, and finally is extinguished. The 

 Ear receives the impression of sounds indistinctly, then 

 faintly, and afterwards they are entirely lost upon it. 

 The skin becomes shrivelled, hardened, loses many of 

 its vessels, by their obliteration, and is only the seat of 

 an obscure and indistinct touch; the hair and beard be- 

 come white, and fall from it. The Nose loses its sen- 

 sibility to odours. Of all the senses, it has been often 

 remarked, that the Taste remains the longest, and ex- 

 hibits the last efforts of animal life. 



The powers of the mind disappear along with those 

 of the senses. The imagination and the memory are ex- 

 tinguished ; the latter, however, under striking circum- 

 stances. The old man forgets, in an instant, what was 

 said to him, because, his external senses being weak- 

 ened, do not confirm sufficiently the impressions on his 

 mind : he is, however, able to recollect the transactions , 

 of early life, and sometimes retains a vivid impression 

 of them. He differs from the infant in this, that the 

 latter forms his judgments from what is passing, where- 

 as, the former forms his from what has already past. 

 Both are, therefore, liable to great errors ; for, the ac- 

 curacy of knowledge, in regard to things present, can 

 only be obtained by comparing them with other things. 

 Locomotion and voice also participate in the decline of 

 the other organs of animal life; their powers are intrin- 

 sically weakened ; besides which, a certain degree of 

 inactivity is imposed on them, by the previous decline 

 of the brain and senses. 



