A N D D E A T H. 483 



multiplying thefe two numbers by feven, for 

 example, the age of the prefcnt race will be 9cr, 

 and that of the Antedeluvians will be 910. The 

 period of man's exiftence, therefore, may have 

 gradually diminiflied in proportion as the fur- 

 face of the earth acquired more folidity by the 

 conftant adion of gravity ; and it is probable, 

 that the period from the creation to the davs of 

 David, was fufficient to give the earth all the 

 denfity it was capable of receiving from the in- 

 fluence of gravitation ; and, conlequently, that 

 the furface of the earth has ever fince remained 

 in the fame ftate, and that the terms of growth, 

 in the productions of the earth, as well as in the 

 duration of life, have been invariably fixed from, 

 that period. 



Independent of accidental difeafes, which are 

 more frequent and dangerous in the latter pe- 

 riods of life, old men are fubjed: to natural in- 

 firmities, that originate folely from the decay of 

 the different parts of the body. The mufcles 

 lofe their tone, the head fhakes, the hands trem- 

 ble, the legs totter, the fenfibility of the nerves 

 decreaies, and every fenfe is blunted. But the 

 incapacity for generating is the mod charaderif- 

 tic infirmity of old age. This impotency may 

 be afcribed to two caufes ; an alteration in the 

 feminal fluid, and a want of tenfion in the ex- 

 ternal organs. The defe<5l of tenfion is eafily 

 explained from the conformation of the organ 

 itfelf, which is a fpongy cavernous I'ubftance, 



H h 2 fitted 



4 



