342 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



filled by those in mature and advanced life, or (as in clerkships) by 

 the young who have not yet reached the golden decade. The enor- 

 mous stupidity, and backwardness, and red-tapeism, of all departments 

 of governments everywhere, are partly due to the fact that they are 

 too much controlled by age. The conservatism and inferiority of col- 

 leges are similarly explained. Some of those who control the policy 

 of colleges — presidents and trustees — should be young and middle- 

 aged. Journalism, on the other hand, has suffered from relative excess 

 of youth and enthusiasm." 



Before passing from the lecture of Dr. Beard, I shall venture to 

 quote the remarks which he makes on the evidence sometimes afforded 

 of approaching mental decay by a decline in moral sensitiveness. 

 " Moral decline in old age," he says, " means — ' Take care ; for the 

 brain is giving way.' It is very frequently accompanied or preceded 

 by sleeplessness. Decline of the moral faculties, like the decline of 

 other functions, may be relieved, retarded, and sometimes cured by 

 proper medical treatment, and especially by hygiene. In youth, mid- 

 dle age, and even in advanced age, one may suffer for years from dis- 

 orders of the nervous system that cause derangement of some one or 

 many of the moral faculties, and perfectly recover. The symptoms 

 should be taken early, and treated like any other physical disease. 

 Our best asylums are now acting upon this principle, and with good 

 success. Medical treatment is almost powerless without hygiene. 

 Study the divine art of taking it easy. Men often die as trees die, 

 slowly, and at the top first. As the moral and reasoning faculties are 

 the highest, most complex, and most delicate development of human 

 nature, they are the first to show signs of cerebral disease. When they 

 begin to decay in advanced life, w T e are generally safe in predicting 

 that, if these signs are neglected, other functions will sooner or later 

 be impaired. When conscience is gone, the constitution is threatened. 

 Everybody has observed that greediness, ill-temper, despondency, are 

 often the first and only symptoms that disease is coming upon us. 

 The moral nature is a delicate barometer, that foretells long before- 

 hand the coming storm in the system. Moral decline, as a symptom 

 of cerebral disease, is, to say the least, as reliable as are many of the 

 symptoms by which physicians are accustomed to make a diagnosis 

 of various diseases of the bodily organs. When moral is associated 

 with mental decline in advanced life, it is almost safe to make a diag- 

 nosis of cerebral disease. . . . Let nothing deprive us of our sleep. 

 Early to bed and late to rise make the modern toiler healthy and 

 wise. The problem for the future is to work hard, and at the same 

 time to take it easy. The more we have to do, the more we should 

 sleep. Let it never be forgotten that death in the aged is more fre- 

 quently a slow process than an event ; a man may begin to die ten or 

 fifteen years before he is buried." 



When mental decay is nearing the final stage, there is a tendency 



