J.—PSYCHOLOGY 159 
the adjectives ‘ senile’ and ‘ pathological.’ If a person of ninety were 
found as mentally alert as he was at fifty he would certainly be ab- 
normal but decidedly not pathological. If, however, he showed the 
expected mental deterioration due to age, it would seem preferable to 
denote it a senile and not a pathological change. Similarly with 
presbyopia. In the early forties it is quite the normal occurrence for 
people to become aware of the steady diminution of accommodation 
power. It is true this is a sensory deterioration, but probably most of 
those who have experienced it would prefer to call it a senile rather than 
_a pathological change. With a little ingenuity it might be possible to 
find a still less objectionable term, for there are individuals who resist 
_ the suggestion that it is a senile change and by refusing to wear glasses 
may do themselves harm, just as, at the other extreme, are individuals 
who harm themselves by concluding that they are already old at the 
first onset of the symptoms. 
Other senile changes such as those which slow down the motions of 
a sprint runner occur in the twenties. Such senile changes may be 
contrasted, for instance, with definitely pathological changes such 
as dental decay during childhood. In the individual personality, 
then, there may be both pathological and senile changes occurring 
which cause a deterioration of functions long before the total personality 
has attained its maximum integration. Unfortunately, ‘ maximum 
integration ’ is a little vague, but it is probably true that most personalities 
are not fully integrated till long after maturity is reached. More- 
over, there are functions which improve with age, at least up to middle 
age, others which deteriorate with age, and still others which are 
largely independent of age. 
A few years ago the readers of many German newspapers were invited 
y Giese to give an account of the signs by which they noticed that they 
had become old, and to say at what age these signs first appeared. When 
these reports were analysed it appeared that the average age of becoming 
subjectively old was forty-nine years, but this age of becoming old varied 
idely with the individual—indeed from age eighteen to eighty-two. 
The bodily signs were twice as numerous as the mental. The bodily 
Signs in decreasing order of frequency from 17-4 to 1-2 per cent. may 
riefly be summarised thus: (1) Motor (muscles, back, teeth, bones, 
extremities), (2) nerves (including memory and insomnia), (3) sensory 
(eye, ear), (4) skin (hair, wrinkles), (5) fatigue, (6) sexual, (7) circu- 
atory (heart, arteries), (8) metabolic (sugar, gout, fat), (9) digestive, 
(10) kidney, (11) respiratory. 
_ It would, of course, be expected that the layman would be more likely 
to refer to bodily symptoms than to mental, and it was natural that the 
‘more educated should show a higher percentage of mental signs. 
_ The subjects who reported mental signs were divided into three classes : 
_ (a) The negatory type. About 18 per cent. of those who reported 
mental signs opposed the suggestion of being old and either indignantly 
tefused to acknowledge it or perhaps referred to the health or longevity 
of their stock. 
(2) About 38 per cent. ascertained that they were old by noting the 
