5W THE PHILOSOPHY 



defirbus of feeing many inftances of longevity, he may con« 

 fult Bacon's Hijiot-y of Life and Death *, Whitehurft's Inquiry 

 into the Original State and formation of the Earth f, and Dr. 

 Fothergill's Obfervations on Longevity \. 



The general caufes of death have already been mentioned. 

 But, in women, the operation of thefe caufes is frequently 

 retarded. In the female fex, the bones, the cartilages, the 

 mufcles, as well as every other part of the body, are fofrer 

 and lefs folid than thofe of men : Neither are they generally 

 fo much fubjedled to bodily exertions. Their conftituent 

 parts, accordingly require more time in hardening to that 

 degree which occafions death. Women of conrfe ought to 

 live longer than men. This reafoning is confirmed by the 

 bills of mortality ; for upon confulting them, it appears, that, 

 after women have pafTed a certain time, they live much lon- 

 ger than men who have reached the fame period. The du- 

 ration of the lives of animals may in fome meafure beeftima- 

 ted by the time occupied in their growth. An animal, or 

 even a plant, as we learn from experience, which acquires 

 maturity in a fhort time, periflies much fooner than thofe 

 ^hich are longer in arriving at that period. In the human 

 fpecies, when individuals grow with uncommon rapidity, 

 they genefally die young. This circumftance feems to have 

 given rife to the common proverbial expreflion, feon ripe f. on 

 rotten. Man grows in ftature till he be fixteen of eighteen 

 years of age ; but the thicknefs of his body is not completely 

 unfolded before that of thirty. Dogs acquire their full 

 length in one year v but their growth in thicknefs is not 

 iinifhed till the end of the fecond. A man, who continues 

 to grow for thirty years, may live ninety or a hundred : But 

 a dog, whofe growth terminates in two or three years, lives 

 only ten or twelve. The fame obfervation is applicable to 



* Sylva Sylvarum, page 273. &c. 



f id Edit page 1 65. 



\ Annual Regifter, Natural Hiftory divlfion, page 6 f. 



