440 



to be impressed, in the same manner, by surrounding bodies. His judg- 

 ments are incorrect, because self-love preventing him from being aware 

 of the changes which he lias undergone, he is more disposed to ascribe 

 to a universal degeneracy, the difference which exists between the sensa- 

 tions which he now experiences,- and those which he experienced in his 

 youth, (laudator temporis acti.) The digestion is bad, the pulse weak 

 and slow; the absorption difficult, from the almost complete obliteration 

 of the lymphatics and the induration of the conglobate glands; the lan- 

 guid secretion and imperfect nutrition. The old man is slow in all his 

 actions, and stiff in all his motions; his hair falls off, his teeth drop from 

 their sockets; the cartilages ossify; the bones grow irregularly and be- 

 come anchylosed, their internal cavity enlarges; all the organs become 

 indurated, and the fibres dried and shrivelled. The bones become heavier, 

 from the gradual accumulation of phosphate of lime, and if those of the 

 skull, as is justly observed by Soemmering, on the contrary, become 

 lighter, it is that they are, in a manner, worn out. 



The ossification of some of the cartilages, for example, those of the 

 ribs and vertebrae, is productive of remarkable effects. The ribs be- 

 coming soldered, in a manner, to the sternum, perform very imperfectly 

 their natural motion of elevation and twisting, (LXXI.) which produces 

 the enlargement of the chest. This cavity dilating 1 less fully, the pulmo- 

 nary combinations, which are the abundant sources of animal heat, take 

 place in a less effectual manner, which, joined to a want of tone and 

 energy in the lungs, and in all the organs, lowers the temperature of old 

 people, as was observed by the father of physic*, a circumstance, how- 

 ever, which has been denied by Dehaen. 



Those fibre-cartilaginous lamina, -with oblique fibres crossing each 

 other, which unite so firmly the bodies of the vertebrae, become indu- 

 rated, dried, and shrivelled, sink under the weight of the body, and do 

 not recover their former thickness, so that the stature is really reduced ; 

 besides, the weakened condition of the muscles which raise the trunk, 

 makes the weight of the viscera bend forward the vertebral column, 

 whose different parts may remain fixed in this attitude, so that the whole 

 column, consisting of twenty-four vertebrae, may come to consist of 

 only seven or eight distinct bones. It should not be imagined, however, 

 that all the soft parts become more compact, for several, as Haller ob- 

 serves, the muscles, for instance, become softerf, and seem, in losing 

 a part of their vital properties, to draw towards a speedy dissolution; 

 not that death is entirely owing to the accumulation of phosphate of 

 lime, which enters into the composition of all the organs, converts into 

 ossific matter the whole osseous system, and interrupts the action of the 

 animal machine. If this ossific matter invade every part of the animal 

 system, it is because the digestive powers, gradually weakened, cease to 

 affect, in a suitable manner, the alimentary substances. The exuberance 

 of calcareous salts, is, therefore, not so much the cause as the effect of 

 the successive destruction of the vital powers. 



* Senibus autem jpodicus est calor * * * * f rigidum est enim ipsorum corpus. Hip- 

 pocr. Aph. 14. Sect. 2. 



f Non ergo in sola rigiditate causam senum mortis oportet ponere ; nam ex defectu 

 irritahiiitatiSj plurimi in senibus musculi languent, mollesque pendent. 



ElementaPhvsiol. torn. VIII. 4to. lib. 30. 



