314: CAUSES OF HUMAN DECAY. 



" The good time of which you speak," said the Doctor, 

 " when there shall be no more infirmity of age, no growing 

 old, save in, years ; when there shall be no wasting by 

 disease, through the perfectability of the curative science, 

 or the discovery of some recuperative agency, stronger than 

 the law of decay, will never come. When it is granted, as 

 an abstract proposition, that the capabilities of science are 

 sufficient to counteract the mere wasting influence of time 

 upon the human system, you are met by a great practical 

 fact which will overturn your theory. The excesses of the 

 world are a much more fruitful source of disease and death 

 than the attritions of age. There is a constant struggle on 

 the part of nature to build up and beautify, to strengthen 

 and recuperate, against the results of human excesses. Not 

 one in a million of those who pass away every year, die from 

 the effects of age, as a primary cause. Hence, you must not 

 only perfect science, but you must perfect the morals and 

 the habits of the human family, before you can exempt them 

 from decay and death. The instincts of men, the appetencies 

 which they possess in common with the whole animal crea- 

 tion, are each made the source of disease, and premature 

 decay. Some men eat too much ; some drink too much; 

 some sleep too much ; some waste their vital energies in 

 sensual indulgence, while all have some vicious habit (I 

 mean with reference to the preservation of life), known or 

 unknown to the world, which, sooner or later, undermines 

 the constitution, and helps on the work of dilapidation. 

 These excesses will always exist; they are inherent in the 



