AN ESS A Y ON LONGEVITY. 35 



small instalments slowly paid. Such are the "lean 

 and slippered pantaloons," and their " shrunk shanks" 

 declare the pervading atrophy. Others, women more 

 often than men, as old and as ill-nourished as these, 

 yet make a far different appearance. With these the 

 first sign of old age is that they grow fat ; and this 

 abides with them till, it may be, in a last illness, 

 sharper than old age, they are robbed even of their 

 fat. These too, when old age sets in, become pursy, 

 short-winded, pot-bellied, pale and flabby ; their skin 

 hangs not in wrinkles but in rolls ; and their voice, 

 instead of rising "towards childish treble," becomes 

 gruff and husky.' — 'Surgical Pathology,' p. 82. 



The germinal matter which abounds more in youth 

 than age, obviously embraces Mr. Spencer's physio- 

 logical units, thus accounting for and correlating its 

 power of general and special repair. It also must 

 include Mr. Darwin's gemmules, and must be im- 

 mensely called upon therefore in reproduction, far 

 more largely, perhaps, than is represented by the 

 mere bulk of the generative products. Mr. Spencer 

 recognizes this, and alludes to the shrinking and 

 diminution of the germinal matter in advancing life 

 in the following passage : ' Protoplasm, which has 

 become specialized tissue, cannot be again general- 

 fzed and afterwards transformed into something else, 

 and hence the progress of structure in an organism, 

 by diminishing the unstructured part, diminishes the 

 amount available for making offspring;' or, we may 



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