ALBINO. 



83 



why growth does not continue stationary, and 

 maintain the bodily structures for a series of 

 ages, so long as external circumstances remain 

 the same. We live in the midst of agents 

 that both supply us with life and infest us 

 with poison : for a time we resist the baneful 

 tendencies, and then gradually succumb, but 

 in what manner we are at present ignorant. 

 The prevalence of certain functions has been 

 supposed to fortify certain animals against the 

 outward agents or inward processes that would 

 otherwise urge them to dissolution. The in- 

 fluence of respiration upon nutrition is well 

 known, and consequently a large sum of respi- 

 ration has been alleged to account for the 

 longevity of birds ; but there are equal or 

 much greater instances to be found among fishes 

 and reptiles, the amount of whose respiration is 

 extremely small. In the one case the vitality 

 is said to be less rapidly consumed, in the 

 other to be more abundantly supplied ; expla- 

 nations which amount to little more than 

 statements of the same facts in different lan- 

 guage. Lord Bacon was of opinion that birds 

 owe their lengthened existence partly to the 

 smallness of their bodies, and partly to their 

 being so well defended by their teguments 

 from the atmosphere ; while he accounted for 

 the long life of fishes by the non-occurrence 

 of desiccation in their aqueous element. There 

 is nothing satisfactory to be obtained from 

 speculations of this sort. The most that we 

 can learn is the variation in the term of exist- 

 ence by the influence of various outward 

 agents and modes of life. But whatever 

 variation may be discovered, it will still appear 

 that climate, and time, and custom, and 

 science have never prolonged the date beyond 

 certain limits. The study of these circum- 

 stances, and the appliances of art, undoubtedly 

 tend to enable a greater number to attain the 

 extreme goal, but can never give the power 

 of transgressing it. Vain, then, as Boerhaave 

 observes, are the hopes of men who look for 

 an agerasia! 



Although at present, then, we cannot trace 

 the causes of the bounded nature of our existence, 

 yet it is not difficult to discern its fitness to our 

 constitution, and to the universal frame of 

 things. The brevity of life is an ancient com- 

 plaint ; lamentations have been chaunted over 

 it time out of mind : but its antiquity does 

 not redeem this, any more than many other 

 opinions equally hoary, from the character of 

 a prejudice. Every consideration of the fact in 

 question with reference to the universe must 

 "justify the ways of God to man" in the dis- 

 position of this as of every other event. We have 

 only to conceive the circumstance altered, in cor- 

 respondence to the idle wish of some aspirant 

 to longevity, and we see that every thing else 

 also would require to be changed ; that, in 

 short, the beautiful arrangements of the world 

 and of our social relations would be broken. 

 To notice one or two of these : if the life of 

 man were longer than it now is, his progeny 

 would need to be greatly abridged from their 

 present numbers, or they would soon exceed 



the ratio of subsistence. The time occupied 

 in attaining maturity bears a direct proportion 

 to the period of existence in the mainmalia ; 

 consequently, if life were prolonged beyond 

 its present limits, that time during which the 

 offspring of man is either helpless or very 

 dependent on the parents, would be also length- 

 ened, and the accidents of disease or other 

 casualties remaining the same, it is clear that 

 confusion, distress, and manifold calamities 

 would accrue to a rising generation. After 

 the attainment of maturity and of its accompa- 

 nying faculties, it is not clear that any thing 

 would be gained by the possession of these 

 for a longer period than is now allowed ; since we 

 know but too well that men, after a time, lose the 

 spirit of enterprise once engendered by the con- 

 sciousness of increasing or lately-acquired 

 powers, and fall into habits of action which 

 they are unwilling to abandon, but which 

 do not advance the resources of the species 

 beyond a certain limit. Hence the advan- 

 tage of their giving way to others, to whom, 

 they can commit their knowledge, and who, 

 by their unworn energy, will advance it fur- 

 ther. " Life is sufficient for all its purposes 

 if well employed," was well observed by Dr. 

 Johnson ; and what follower of medicine can 

 forget that the immortal sage of Cos, by the 

 example which he afforded in his well-spent 

 life, disarmed his own antithesis of its woful 

 point: 6 /3*o$ 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. Lord Bacon, Historla vitae et 

 mortis. Pollich, Diss. de nutrimento, incremcnto, 

 statu, et decrements corp. hum. 4to. Strasb. 1763. 

 Ploucquet, Diss. sistens aetates humanas eorumque 

 jura, 4to. Tubing. 1778 ; (Recus in Frank Delect. 

 Opuscul. vol. vii.) Daignan, Tableau des varietes 

 de la vie hum. 2vol. 8vo. Par. 1786. Rush, Med. 

 inquiries, vol. iv. Esparron, Ess. sur les ages de 

 1'homme, Thes. de Paris, an. xi. Ranque, Des 

 predominances organiques des differens ages, Thcs. 

 de Par. 1803. Wesener, Spec. hist, hominis varias 

 ejus periodos, &c. sistens, 8vo. Kraeberg. 1804. 

 Lufice, Grundriss der Entwickelungsgeschichte des 

 menschlichen Korpers.8vo. Marburg, 1819. Burdach, 

 Die Physiologic als Erfahrungswissenschaft, 8vo. 

 Leipz. 1803. Renauldm, Diet, des Sc. Med. art. 

 < Age/ Rullier, Diet, de Med. art. 'Ages.' Begin, 

 Diet, de Med. et Chir. Prat. art. 'Age.' Roget, 

 Cyc. of Pract. Med. art. ' Age.' Copland's Diet. 

 art. 'Age.' Also the anatomical and physiological 

 systems of Adelon, Beclard, Bichat, Bostock, &c. 

 &c. &c. 



(J. A. Symonds.) 



ALBINO. (Syn.Albinismus,leucopathia, leu- 

 cathiopia). This term, as employed in phy- 

 siology, appears to have been first used by the 

 Portuguese* to designate a peculiar condition 

 of the human body, which was occasionally 

 observed among the negroes in the western 

 parts of Africa. It consists in the skin and 

 the hair being perfectly white, while in the 



* Vossius, de Nili origine, cap. 19. p. 69; see 

 also Ludolf, Hist, ^thiop. Com. lib. i. cap. 14. 

 No. 100. p. 197. The name by which the African 

 Albinoes are known among their countrymen is 

 Dondos : by the French they are frequently termed 

 JSlafarUs. 



G 2 



