LIFE. 
died of the fmall-pox, and feven of the meafles. Among 
the adult females, eight at leaft died in child-bed : con- 
fumption and afthma, difeafes more frequent in England 
than in France, carried olf an hundred and ninety-one of 
the lame fex, audalmofta fifth part of the full-grown men. 
An hundred and fifty died of fevers. At a more advanced 
age, twelve died of apoplexy, and forty-one of dropfy; 
without mentioning thofe to whom difeafes of little im¬ 
portance in themfelves became mortal. There only re¬ 
mained feventy-eight whofe death could be afcribed to 
old age; and of thefe tvventy-feven lived to the age of 
eighty and upwards. Among the different difeafes of 
which we have now feen the fatal effects, and which carry 
off more than nine-tenths of mankind, not one, it muff; 
he allowed, is natural to the conftitution. The inhabit¬ 
ants of this ifland are in general but little fubjeft to dif¬ 
eafes, excepting confumption and the meafies; and many 
of them enjoy uninterrupted health to old age. And here 
at may be proper to mention what are the molt prevalent 
difeafes in other countries, which prove equally fatal to the 
duration of human life. In northern climates, fcurvy, 
the cholic of the Laplanders, and difeafes of the lungs, 
snoft frequently occailon death. In temperate climates, 
dropfy carries off’ a great many at the beginning of old 
age, which is the boundary of life in the .greateft part of 
both fexes, when tiiey have cfcaped the acute difeafes, 
fuch as putrid fever, See. Acute difeafes are rnoft com¬ 
mon in warm countries. In fome places the rays of the 
.fun kill in a few hours thofe who are expofed to its burn¬ 
ing heat. The air of Egypt and of Alia Minor engen¬ 
ders the plague, by which one half of the inhabitants are 
carried off. Between the tropics men are fubjeft: to dy- 
fenteries and violent fevers. The cold of the night, in 
warm climates, occafions fometimes violent difeafes, fuch 
as palfy, quinfy, and a fwelling of the head. Damp and 
marfliy places give rife to fevers of a different kind, but 
alfo very dangerous. The life of failors has a great ten¬ 
dency to produce fcurvy. How many profeffions prove 
fatal to the health, and in moll men haffen that period 
which nature would have brought on by flow degrees ! 
Miners, ffone cutters, gilders, perfons employed in emp¬ 
tying privies, See. are fubject to difeafes of the lungs, and 
become paralytic. Other profeffions bring on other acci¬ 
dents, of which it would carry us too far to give a parti¬ 
cular account. What has been fhid is fufiicient to fliow, 
that it is the dangers with which we are furrounded that 
fhorten the period of human exiftence. 
By examining the lift of thofe who have attained a 
great age, it will be found that mankind are longer-lived 
in northern than in fouthern countries. It has been ob- 
ferved, that there are more old men in mountainous and 
elevated filiations, than in plains and low countries. We 
repeat it, if the duration of life among the inhabitants of 
fouthern climates be compared with the duration of life 
in northern nations, it wiil be allowed, that the latter 
enjoy both longer life and better health than the former. 
Their growth being retarded by the rigour of the climate, 
their decay muff alfo be flower, becaufe of the proportion 
which exifts between the growth of animals and the length 
of their lives. Among ten perfons who have lived to the 
age of an hundred, eight or nine will be found to have 
lived in the north. 
It appears'from the bills of mortality, that in the coun¬ 
try more boys are born than girls ; in cities, on the con¬ 
trary, the number of females is commonly greateft. Ob- 
fervations made with great care prove, that in molt coun¬ 
tries there are fewer men alive than women, and that more 
males die, chiefly at the firft and laft periods of life. In 
Sweden, the whole number of females, in 1763, was to 
that of the males in the proportion of ten to nine. The 
number of old women who exceeded eighty years of age, 
was to that of old men of the fame age, in the proportion 
of thirty-three to nineteen ; and there were more women 
than men who had attained the age of eighty-fix, in the 
proportion of almoft two to one. 
M. Daubenton has given, in the Encyclopedie Metho- 
dique, a table of the probabilities of the duration of life, 
conltrucied from that which is to be found in the feventb 
volume Of the Supplemens a l’Hiftoire Naturelle de M. de 
Buffon. The following is an abridgement of it: 
Of 23994. children, born at the fame time, there will 
probably die, 
In one year, — — 
Remaining 2-3ds, or 15996. 
7998 
In eight years, — 
Remaining i-half, or 11997. 
U997 
In thirty-eight years, 
Remaining i-3d, or 7998. 
15996 
In fifty years, — 
Remaining i-^.th, or 5998. 
17994 
In fixty-one years, — 
Remaining i-6th, or 3999. 
3 9995 
In feventy years, — 
Remaining i-ioth, or 2399. 
a 1 595 
In eighty years, - 
Remaining 1-40U1, or 599. 
22395 
In ninety years, - 
23914. 
Remaining 1-300th, or 79. 
I11 one hundred years. 
Remaining i-iooooth, or 2. 
23992 
It thus appears, that a very fmall number of men in¬ 
deed pafs through all the periods of life, and arrive at the 
goal marked out by nature. Innumerable caufes accele¬ 
rate our difl’olution. The life of man, we have obferved, 
conlifts in the aftivity and exercife of his organs, which 
grow up and acquire itrength during infancy, adolefcence, 
and youth. No fooner has the body attained its utmoft 
perfection, than it begins to decline. Its decay is at firft 
imperceptible; but in the progrefs of time the membranes 
become cartilaginous, the cartilages acquire the conliftence 
of bone; the bones become more folid, and all the fibres 
are hardened. 
The age of decline extends from forty or forty-five to 
fixty or lixty-five years of age. At this time of life, the 
diminution of the fat is the caufe of thofe wrinkles which 
begin to appear in the face and fome other parts of the 
body. The fkin, not being fupnorted by the fame quan¬ 
tity of fat, and being incapable, from want of eiafficity, 
of contracting, finks down and forms folds. In the de¬ 
cline of life, a remarkable change takes place alfo in vi- 
fion. In the vigour of our days, the cryftalline lens be¬ 
ing thicker and more diaphanous than the humours of 
the eye, enables us to read letters of a very fmall charac¬ 
ter at the diftance of eight or. ten inches. But, when 
the age of decline comes on, the quantity of the humours 
of the eye diminifties, they lofe their clearnefs, and the 
tranfparent cornea becomes lefs convex. To remedy this 
inconvenience, we place what we wifli to read at a greater 
diftance from the eye; but vifion thereby is very little 
improved, becaufe the image of the objeft becomes finaller 
and more obfeure. Another mark of the decline of life 
is a weaknefs of the llomach, and indigeltion, in molt 
people who do not take fufiicient exercife in proportion 
to the quantity and the quality of their food. 
At fixty, fixty-three, or fixty-five, years of age, , the 
figns of decline become more and more vifible, and indi¬ 
cate old age. This period commonly extends to the age 
of feventy, fometimes to feventy-five, but feldom to eighty. 
When the body is extenuated ar.d bent by old age, man 
then becomes crazy. Crazinefs therefore is nothing but 
an infirm old age. The eyes and ftomach then become 
weaker and weaker; leannefs increafes the number of the 
wrinkles; the beard and the hair become white; the 
ftrength and the memory begin to fail. After feventy, or 
at molt eighty, years of age, the life of man is nothing 
but labour and forrow, fuch was the language'of David 
near three thoufand years ago. Some men of ftrong con- 
ftitutions, and in good health, enjoy old age for a long 
time without decrepitude; but fuch inffances are not very 
common, 
T.hq. 
