HUMAN LONGEVITY. 105 



or other unwonted means, we look upon with awe and amaze- 

 ment; forgetting, in their familiarity, those equally strange 

 phenomena under which we periodically pass this portion of 

 our existence. 



We have hitherto been speaking of Life in its larger phy- 

 siological sense. We now come to that more especial view of 

 it indicated by the title of the volume before us ; in pur- 

 suing which subject however, it will still be needful to recur 

 occasionally to the more general theory for aid and illustra- 

 tion. The questions regarding human longevity are far too 

 complex to be submitted to any single solution, or separated 

 from the elementary consideration of life itself. 



The name and repute of M. Flourens in the scientific 

 world might well warrant some high expectations of a work 

 coming from him, and bearing this title. We are bound to say 

 that these expectations are in no way fulfilled by the trea- 

 tise before us ; the greatest merit of which is that it is not 

 long, and not otherwise tedious than through its loose and 

 inconsecutive reasoning. The result he seeks to establish as 

 to human longevity we consider to be unfounded ; and his 

 arguments on behalf of it vague and unsatisfactory. Of this 

 first part of his work we shall speak more in detail hereafter. 

 Meanwhile we may content ourselves with a very cursory 

 notice of the latter half of the volume, indicated in the title- 

 page by the phrase ( De la Quantite de Vie sur le Globe.' 



Though aware that this phrase is borrowed from Buffon, 

 we still claim the right to object to it here, as an affectation 

 of higher philosophy and originality than really belongs to 

 this portion of M. Flourens's work. The doctrine of Buffon, 

 upon which his own views are founded, is this ; that taking 

 all created beings into account, the total quantity of life on 

 our earth is always the same ; that the Creator has brought 

 into being an incalculable number of living organic molecules, 

 indestructible and common to all forms of organic life, the 



