AGE. 



81 



pose that absorption increases, when the cessa- 

 tion or diminution of deposition fully explains 

 the fact, provided the absorption is only main- 

 tained in its usual ratio. 



Concerning the lessened quantity of fluid we 

 have already made some remarks, and hinted 

 at its relation with impaired digestion and 

 slackened circulation. Here it is sufficient to 

 observe that the fact is a sign of diminished 

 vitality, by which we mean merely a diminu- 

 tion of vital actions, especially of those of nu- 

 trition. The abundance of fluid in the young 

 succulent body is adapted to the constant accu- 

 mulation of new particles, and to the increasing 

 complexity of the organization of the tissues, 

 as well as to the reparation of waste, or to the 

 counteraction of decomposition; by the still 

 abundant though diminished quantity in the 

 adult the composition is maintained and ren- 

 dered more exquisite; in the old man there is 

 only enough required to keep up that degree of 

 renovation, which is necessary to the integrity 

 of the structure, and even this action is less 

 than in former periods, because the organiza- 

 tion, from its chemical nature, is less prone to 

 decomposition. This brings us to the con- 

 sideration of the third general fact, or the 

 condensation of tissue, which will require 

 more particular notice, because great impor- 

 tance has been assigned to it by some writers. 

 The condensation is a result of the deficient 

 humidity just spoken, of; but this is not all, 

 otherwise the condensation would be merely 

 that of dryness ; the tissue itself is of firmer 

 materials. Thus membrane becomes ligament, 

 ligament cartilage, cartilage bone, and bone 

 increases in its earthy proportions. This har- 

 dening of the whole body is spoken of by 

 many writers as the cause of decay, and ulti- 

 mately of death, by the gradual closure of all 

 the small vessels, and the obstruction to vital 

 motions ; while the methods of averting old 

 age, proposed by the same authors, turned 

 chiefly upon an artificial supply of moisture to 

 the body. Galen constantly alludes to this 

 condition when treating of old age, and the 

 means of resisting its tendencies.* Lord Bacon, 

 in his curious and highly interesting treatise, 

 entitled HistoriaVitse et Mortis, has much to 

 say upon desiccation and the methods of pre- 

 venting it, such as bathing and inunction. 

 The fable of the restitution of old ^Esop by 

 the cauldron of Medea, he considers typical 

 of the utility of the warm bath in softening 

 the substance of the body. So much stress 

 does Haller lay on the effect of the universal 

 tendency to induration, that he tells us that one 

 of the reasons why fishes are so long-lived is 

 because their bones are never hardened to the 

 same degree as in the higher animals " Inter 

 animalia aves longseviores sunt, longaevissimi 

 pisces, quibus cor minimum, et lentissimum 

 incrementum, et ossa nunquam indurantur." 

 Prims Lineae, 972. There is, however, we 

 think, but little foundation for the supposition 

 that induration stands in the relation of cause 



> See his treatises De Sanitate Tuenda, and De 

 Marasmo. 



VOL. I. 



to the general failure of the functions of the 

 body. It is rather a symptom of decline, or 

 one of the phenomena in which decline con- 

 sists, and is therefore itself the effect of the 

 failure or alteration of some of the functions, 

 more especially of the assimilative. It is a 

 deterioration of interstitial secretion, partly 

 promoted by the changes in circulation, in di- 

 gestion, and probably in innervation, and partly 

 itself contributing to these changes, but pri- 

 marily owing its origin, like the latter, to the 

 ultimate law, which determines that at a certain 

 period decay shall transpire. It is in one re- 

 spect a descent in the scale of organization. This 

 indeed is indicated by the paucity of fluids and 

 by the slow nutritive motions, which conditions 

 are always sufficient to warrant our application 

 of the terms, diminished vitality or less vitalized 

 structure; but the substance itself, indepen- 

 dently of these deficiencies of action, belongs 

 to a more simple organization. We examine a 

 bloodvessel, and instead of finding its coats of 

 that complex texture which enables it to ac- 

 commodate itself by a property, known only 

 in living bodies, similar but superior to elasti- 

 city, we mean tonicity, we observe a plate of 

 osseous matter, unyielding, insensible, immo- 

 bile, possessing no other vital character than 

 bare assimilation or molecular growth. We 

 search for those admirably constructed sub- 

 stances which are interposed between the ribs 

 and the sternum, and by their elasticity give 

 extent and facility to the respiratory move- 

 ments, and we discover them converted into 

 the same matter as the contiguous bones, with 

 the coarse property of cohesion, and, as in the 

 former instance, with nothing but its growth to 

 redeem it from the character of mere inorganic 

 matter. We untangle the muscle, and instead 

 of the irritable fibre, soft in texture but firm in 

 contraction, we find a torpid substance, scarcely 

 fibrous in form, firm in mere physical cohesion, 

 weak in vital contraction, and consequently of 

 a degraded organization. The processes of 

 induration about the joints, the glands, and 

 the integuments, will all, when examined, be 

 found to approximate more than the former 

 conditions of these parts to the qualities of the 

 inanimate world. Homogeneousness of sub- 

 stance is alone an indication of a low organi- 

 zation, and a body which possesses both this 

 property and hardness, may be considered on 

 the very outskirts of the region of vitality. 

 Such are the properties of osseous deposits. 

 May we not here perceive an analogy with the 

 animals of the inferior classes ? In many of 

 the mollusca how trifling a degree of vitality 

 seems adequate to the formation, growth, and 

 reparation of their calcareous coverings and 

 appendages; or to go down to the coralines, 

 madrepores, and porifera, we observe that the 

 very lowest structure that can be considered 

 animal is sufficient to secrete or assimilate 

 those vast collections of earthy matter which 

 pave the ocean, and rise into islands, moun- 

 tains, and mighty continents. In this har- 

 dened constitution, this simplified but dege- 

 nerate structure, we see that the frame of man, 

 in its natural decay, loses the characters that 



G 



