BOOK VII.] History of Nature. 237 



is evident, that in the Tract of Italy, Men may reach to a 

 hundred and twenty-six Years. They denied that a Man 

 could possibly pass the ascendant Space of 90 Degrees 

 (which they call Anaphoras) ; and that even these are cut 

 short, either by the encounter of malevolent Planets, or by 

 the radiations of them or the Sun. Again, the Sect of Ascle- 

 piades 1 affirm, that the appointed Length of Life proceedeth 

 from the Stars ; but concerning the utmost term, it is uncer- 

 tain. But they say, that the longer Ages are Rare, because 

 the greatest Number by far have their Nativity at the 

 marked Moments of the Hours of the Moon, or of Days 

 according to the Number of Seven or Nine (which are 

 Daily and Nightly observed) : by the gradual declining Law 

 of the Years, called Climacteric, 2 and such as are so Born 

 scarcely exceed the fifty-fourth Year. But here, first, the 

 Uncertainty of the Art itself declareth how doubtful this 

 matter is. To this are added the Observations and Instances 

 of the very recent Census, which within the Space of four 

 Years, the Imperators, Caesars, Vespasians, Father and 

 Son, Censors, have accomplished. And here we need not 

 search every Cupboard, we will only set down the examples 

 of the middle part, between the Apennine and the Po. At 

 Parma, three Men were found of the Age of a hundred and 



1 In book xxvi. c. 3, Pliny gives a more precise, and not very com- 

 plimentary, account of this physician. Wern. Club. 



2 A large portion of the physiological learning of ancient physicians 

 consisted in the arithmetical calculation of types and periods of vital and 

 diseased actions ; in connexion with which they also arranged the motions 

 of the celestial bodies and their influences. It thus became necessary, 

 that he who was a physician in the modern meaning of the word should 

 also be able to interpret the stars, and to apply mathematical reasoning 

 to the laws of health and disease. The calculation of climacterical 

 years, and the ultimate duration of human life, were thus decided by a 

 combination of intricate mathematical probabilities. These climacteric 

 years were formed on the multiplication of the number seven by the 

 unit numbers, and at them the most important of the periodic changes 

 of the body were accomplished. The highest number thus multiplied 

 formed the grand climacteric, after which the changes produced a retro- 

 gression towards feebleness and decay; the danger of which was ever 

 greatest at the climacterics. See bookii. c. 52. Wern. Club. 



