PHYSIOLOGY. 
in admitting tlie impressions of exciting 
causes. Together with these distinctions, 
tliere are numerous ditferences of bodily 
loi Illation, of diversity in the proportion 
and connection of parts, as well as in the 
energy relative to certain organs, accom- 
panying each temperament, which cannot 
be particularized here, without entering too 
much into detail. 
Each individual has a particular manner 
of being, which distinguishes his tempera- 
ment from that of every other, to which, 
notwithstanding, it may bear a very strong 
resemblance. These individual tempera- 
ments, the knowledge of which is of no 
small importance in the practice of physic, 
are called idio-syncrasies. 
Theie are many both predisposing and 
occasional causes, which have an operation 
in producing this diversity of temperaments : 
as hereditary disposition, habit of body, 
climatd, diet, religion, culture, luxury, &c. 
For the accoimt of the various races of 
mankind, see the article Man. 
Advanced Age and Decay. Cessation of 
the menses iii women, which is occasionally 
accompanied by the production of a beard ; 
an indisposition to venery in the male sex ; 
and, in both, a peculiar dryness, and sensi- 
ble decrease in the vital powers, are the 
signs of approaching old age. The body 
now diminishes, and loses the power it had 
acquired ; the decrease following the same 
progression as the grow'th, and occupying 
about the same space of time, when no ac- 
cident hastens the approach of death. The 
whole volume of the body diminishes, the 
skin wrinkles, particularly in the forehead 
and face ; the hair turns grey, and organic 
action becomes languid. 
The decay of the body is evidenced by 
an increasing dulness both of the external 
and internal senses, necessity of longer 
sleep, and general torpor of all the func- 
tions. The hair grows white, and falls off, 
the teeth drop from their sockets, the carti- 
lages ossify, all the organs become hard, 
and the fibres more dry and contracted. 
The head is no longer supported by the 
neck, nor can the legs sustain the trunk ; 
nay, the bones themselves, the foundations 
of the machine, partake of the general de- 
cay. On these phenomena we may observe, 
that the animal or exterior life ceases first : 
the senses fail in succession, and then the 
functions of the brain cease. The cessation 
of the locomotive and vocal powers follows 
as a necessary consequence. Here, then, 
the old man is dead to ail surrounding ob- 
jects, but his organic life still subsists ; so 
that this state is analogous to that of ute- 
rine existence, where the life is nearly of 
the vegetable kind. Thus, the body gra- 
dually dies, life is extinguished by succes- 
sive shades, and death is only the last term 
in this succession of degrees. We arrive 
now at the conclusion of physiology ; death 
without disease, which is the object of all 
medicine, and the causes of which are ne- 
cessary and inevitable. It is no more pos- 
sible for us to avert the fatal term, than to 
change the laws of nature. 
Tlie phenomena of death consist in a 
coldness of the extremities, gradually mount- 
ing to the trunk ; dimness of the eye ; fee- 
ble, slow, and irregular pulse ; respiration 
performed at longer intervals, and termi- 
nated at last by a strong expiration. In 
experiments on animals, a struggle is oh. 
served about the heart, and the right ven- 
tricle and auricle are found to survive the 
opposite cavities for a short time. That 
death has taken place is shown by coldness 
of the body, combined with rigidity ; flac- 
cidity of the cornea, relaxed state of the 
anus, lividity of the back, and a certain 
cadaverous odour. When all these circum- 
stances are combined, there will scarcely 
be any opportunity for repiarking the un- 
certainty of the signs of deatli. 
Although the weakness of the thread of 
life in its early stages, the iiitemperance of 
manhood, the power of disease and of acci- 
dent, exert such destructive effects on the 
human race, that out of one thousand chil- 
dren born into the world, not more than 
seventy-eight die as we have now described, 
without disease ; yet on comparing the lon- 
gevity of man with that of other mammalia, 
under nearly similar circumstances, we shall 
he immediately convinced, that, of all 
the querulous declamations concerning the 
wretchedness of human life, none is more 
unjust than the complaint of its short- 
ness. 
Putrefaction. As soon as life abandons 
the organs, they become totally influenced 
by physical law's; and their component 
parts have a tendency to separate from each 
other ; which is stronger in proportion to the 
multiplicity of their elements. The entire 
cessation of life is necessary to this change, 
for life and putrefaction are two ideas abso- 
lutely contradictory of each other. A mild 
temperature, humidity, and the presence of 
air, are necessary to putrefaction. Icy 
coldness, or great heat, prevent it: the 
former by condensing the parts, the lat- 
