394 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 5.32. 



40 years of age. This may seem shocking, 

 and j'et read aright the world's history bears 

 out the statement. Take the sum of human 

 achievement in action, in science, in art, in 

 literature — subtract the work of the men above 

 40, and, while we should miss great treasures, 

 even priceless treasures, we should practically 

 be where we are to-day. It is difficult to 

 name a great and far-reaching conquest of tbe 

 mind which has not been given to the world 

 by a man on whose back the sun was still 

 shining. The effective, moving, vitalizing 

 work of the world is done between the ages of 

 25 and 40 years — these 15 golden years of 

 plenty, the finabolic or constructive period, in 

 which there is always a balance in the mental 

 banl^ and the credit is still good. 



In the science and art of medicine there has 

 not been an advance of the first rank which 

 has not been initiated by young or compara- 

 tively young men. Vesalius, Harvey, Hunter, 

 Biehat, Laennec, Virchow, Lister, Koch — the 

 green years were yet on their heads when their 

 epoch-making studies were made. To modify 

 an old saying, a luan is sane morally at 30, 

 rich mentally at 40, wise spiritually at 50 — 

 or never. The young men should be encour- 

 aged and afforded every possible chance to 

 show what is in them. If there is one thing 

 more than another upon which the professors 

 of the university are to be congratulated, it 

 is this very syinpathy and fellowship with 

 their junior associates, upon whom really in 

 many departments, in mine certainly, has 

 fallen the brunt of the work. And herein lies 

 the chief value of the teacher who has passed 

 his climacteric and is no longer a productive 

 factor; he can play the man midwife, as 

 Socrates did to Thesetetus, and determine 

 whether the thoughts which the young men 

 are bringing to the light are false idols or 

 true and noble births. 



My second fixed idea is the uselessness of 

 men above 60 years of age, and the incalcul- 

 able benefit it would be in commercial, polit- 

 ical and in professional life if, as a matter 

 of course, men stopped work at this age. 

 Donne tells us in his ' Biathanatos ' that by 

 the laws of certain wise states sexagenarii 

 were precipitated from a bridge, and in Rome 



men of that age were not admitted to the 

 suffrage, and were called depontani because 

 the way to the senate was per pontem and 

 they from age were not permitted to come 

 hither. In that charming novel, the ' Fixed 

 Period,' Anthony Trollope discusses the prac- 

 tical advantages in modern life of a return 

 to this ancient usage, and the plot hinges on 

 the admirable scheme of a college into which 

 at 60 men retired for a year of contempla- 

 tion before a peaceful departure by chloro- 

 form. That incalculable benefits might fol- 

 low such a scheme is apparent to any one who, 

 like myself, is nearing the limit, and who has 

 made a careful study of the calamities which 

 may befall men during the seventh and eighth 

 decades ! 



Still more when he contemplates the many 

 evils which they perpetuate unconsciously and 

 with impunity! As it can be maintained that 

 all the great advances have come from men 

 under 40, so the history of the world shows 

 that a very large proportion of the evils may 

 be traced to the sexagenarians — nearly all the 

 great mistakes politically and socially, all of 

 the worst poems, most of the bad pictures, a 

 majority of the bad novels, and not a few of 

 the bad sermons and speeches. It is not to 

 be denied that occasionally there is a sexa- 

 genarian whose mind, as Cicero remarks, 

 stands out of reach of the body's decay. Such 

 a one has learned the secret of Hermippus, 

 that ancient Koman, who, feeling that the 

 silver cord was loosening, cut himself clear 

 from all companions of his own age, and be- 

 took himself to the company of young men, 

 mingling with their games and studies, and so 

 lived to the age of 153, puerorum halitu re- 

 focillatus et educatus. And there is truth in 

 the story, since it is only those who live with 

 the yovmg who maintain a fresh outlook on 

 the new problems of the world. 



The teacher's life should have three periods 

 — study until 25, investigation until 40, pro- 

 fession until 60, at which age I would have 

 him retired on a double allowance. Whether 

 Anthony Trollope's suggestion of a college 

 and chloroform should be carried out or not, 

 I have become a little dubious, as my own 

 time is getting so short. 



