682 IMPORTANCE OF NUTRITION. 



son, the power of resisting the various causes of 

 disease is greater during youth than at any other 

 period of life ; for it has been ascertained, that 

 from the fifth to the sixteenth year, fewer deaths 

 occur in England than at any other age. But 

 after the completion of growth, or when nutrition 

 and absorption become equal, all the functions of 

 life are performed with less rapidity, while fatigue 

 is much sooner induced by muscular exertion. 

 And as old age comes on, the lungs diminish in 

 volume, respiration, sanguification, circulation, 

 secretion, nutrition, and all the operations of life 

 become languid, the extremities cold, the skin dry 

 and harsh, the hair grey or white, the muscles 

 stiff, the eyes dim, the mind feeble, and " man 

 hastens to his long home."* 



In the theory of nutrition is to be sought tlte 

 proximate cause of all diseases, from the simplest 

 state of inflammation to general fever, consump- 

 tion, dropsy, tetanus, and other spasmodic affec- 

 tions. For if the blood be the fountain of life, from 

 which all the organs are immediately formed, 



* In a fragment preserved by Philo, and ascribed to Hippo- 

 crates, the life of man is divided into seven ages ; the first of 

 which included the period of infancy, from birth to the end of 

 seven years ; the second, or that of boyhood, extended to the 

 fourteenth year ; that of adolescence to the twenty-first year ; 

 that of youth till twenty-eight, or full developement of the whole 

 body ; that of perfect manhood until forty-nine ; that of seniority 

 until fifty-six, when old age commences. (Opera Hippocratis, 

 vol. i. p. 315. Vander Linden Edition.) 



