AND DEATH. 



But, admitting the fterility of old men to be 

 t>wing to a defedt in the organic particles of 

 their ieminal fluids, this defed: may ftill be fup- 

 plied by a young woman *, which not unfre- 

 quently happens; for old nien fometimes, though 

 rarely, generate ; and, when they do produce^ 

 they have a much fmaller (hare in their chiidreii 

 than young men. This is likewife one realont 

 why young women, who are married to old, de- 

 crepit, and deformed men, often produce mon- 

 fters, or children dill more deformed than their 

 fathers. But this is not a proper place for fuch 

 difculfionSi 



The greateft part of rnankirid die of the fcur- 

 vy, the dropfy, or other difeafes which feem td 

 proceed from a vitiation of the blood and other 

 fluids. Whatever influence the fluids may have 

 in the animal oeconomy, they are onlv p^'flTive 

 and diviiible fubllances, and obey the impuifes 

 of the folids, which are the true organic ad.ive 

 parts, and upon which the motion, the quality^ 

 and even the quantity of the fluids entirely de- 

 pend. In old age, the cavities of the veirels 

 contract, the mufcles lofe their torie, the fecre- 

 tory organs are obflr. idled 5 the bloud, the lymph^ 

 and the other fluids, of courfe, grow vifcid, ex- 

 travafate, and produce all thole dilsafcs and 

 fymptoms which are ufually afcribcd to a vitia- 

 tion of the humours. But the natural decay of 

 the folids is the original caufc of thcfe maladies. 



II h 3 ThougH 



• See above, ch. 10; 



