ON SPECIES, HYBRIDS, AND VARIETIES. 173 



In the warmer latitudes of Europe, females are marriageable at twelve 

 or fourteen years of age.* It is remarkable, however, that, in the hotter cli- 

 mates of the east, age comes on much earlier in the female sex than in the 

 male. Women are old at thirty or forty, in Arabia, Syria, Persia, &c. ; 

 whereas, the men retain their physical powers to an advanced period. f 



Instances of extreme longevity among the human race, are far from 

 being unfrequent. Mr. Easton, of Salisbury, in a curious work on longevity, 

 has collected notices of 1712 persons, who exceeded their hundredth year ; 

 and, of these, many advanced considerably beyond that period. 



The following are a few of the more recent instances : 



Thomas Parr . ,., diedinA.D. 1635 . . aged 152 



Henry Jenkins .... 1670 .... 169 



Countess of Desmond . . 1612 .... 145 



Thomas Damme .... 1648 .... 154 



Peter Torton .... 1724 .... 185 



Margaret Patten . . . 1739 . . . . 137 



John Rovir and his wife . . 1741 . . . 172,164 



St. Mongaha Kentigen . . 1781 .... 185 



Baron Larrey states, " that there were, at Cairo, thirty-five individuals, 

 upwards of 100 years of age." The Cenobites of Mount Sinai are reported 

 to attain, very frequently, to the age of 110 or 120. The Arabians of the 

 Desert are said often to exceed 100 years. 



Maturity succeeds the age of puberty, and is the completion of the pre- 

 paratory steps, by which the system acquires the due conditions necessary 

 for the reproduction of the species. In the human species, the indicia of 

 approaching maturity are well known ; in the male sex, puberty is accom- 

 panied by a remarkable change of the voice ; it loses the feminine characters 

 which it previously possessed, and becomes deep and sonorous ; the larynx 

 acquires an increase of development, and the thyroid cartilage, hitherto 

 small, becomes large and prominent. J 



* In Italy, the phenomena of the female economy are established at twelve years of age ; and in 

 the south of Spain, marriages take place at. that period. At Smyrna, women are sometimes mothers 

 at eleven or twelve years of age. In Persia, Chardin reports, that females are mature at nine or ten 

 years of age. The age of ten is the ordinary period, according to Niebuhr, in Arabia. In Jamaica, 

 says Mr. Long, the women attain earlier to maturity, and sooner decline, than in the northern climates : 

 they often marry very young, and are mothers at twelve years of age. Diversities of an opposite 

 kind are observed in northern climates. In the north of Germany, the system is not perfected until 

 the fifteenth year, according to Blumenbach. In some parts of Europe, the period is still more 

 tardy. Prichard's Res. Phy. Hist, of Mankind. 



t " Speaking of the Arab nations, Bory St.Vincent, says : " Les femmes sont nubiles de tres bonne 

 heure ; quelquefois des 1'age de neuf ans, jamais plus tard que douze ou treize aussi perdent-elles 

 promptment la faculte d'engendrer, tandis que les hommes la conservent jusque dans 1'age avance." 



I II y a des rapports singuliers, dont nous ignorons les causes, entre les parties de la generation et 

 celles de la gorge; les eunuques n'ont point de barbe; leur voix, quoque forte et percante, n'est jamais 

 d'un ton grave; souvent les maladies secretes se montrent a la gorge. La correspondance, qu'ont cer- 

 taines parties du corps humain avec d'autres fort eloignees et fort differentes, et qui est ici si marquee, 

 pourroit s'observer bien plus g6neralement ; mais on ne fait pas d'attention aux effets, lorsqu' on ne 



