The Press.
London, England, 1855-01-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS.•

there is a means, and a very certain means, and that is to
live soberly. A sober life, by which I mean a well-ordered,
well-conducted, reasonable life, is the means, the sure
means, of prolonging life. But to prolong it otherwise,
that is to say, to make it last beyond the term marked by
the constitution of man—no, undoubtedly there are no
means.
Each species of animal has its determined duration of
life. This Bunn understood. He sought, and I believe
he was the first who did so, the physiological law of this
duration. "As the stdg," he says, "is five or six years in
growing, it lives seven times five orsix years, that is to say,
thirty-five or forty years." He says elsewhere—" The
duration of life may be measured by that of the time of
growing. An animal which in a short time attains its full
growth perishes sooner than another which is longer in
growing." And he says of man—" The man who does not
die of sickness, lives everywhere eighty or one hundred
years."
It is now about' fifteen years since I commenced
researches into the physiological law of the duration of
life, both in man and in some of our domestic animals.
The most striking result I have obtained is that the
normal duration of the life of man is one hundred years.
A century's life—such is what Providence has given to
man. Few men, it is true, attain that great term ; but
how few men are there who do what is necessary to attain
it I With our way of living, our passions, oar vexations,
man does not die, but he kills himae(f.

That length of life is strictly proportioned
to the time an animal is in growing, is a fact
which is demonstrated beyond all question by
innumerable observations. It is true alike of
the camel and the ox, the horse and the lion,
the dog and the cat—true, so far as can be as-
certained, of the elephant, of fishes, and of
insects—and is, no doubt, true by analogy of
every living creature. To ascertain the
natural limit of the life of man, we have, then,
in the first place, to discover when ho leaves
off growing. On this point no absolute cer-
tainty has hitherto existed, but M. Flourens
thinks himself warranted in announcing that
he has discovered it :

As long as the bones are not united to their epiphyses,
the body grows. When once the bones and the epiphyses
are united the body grows no more : and it is at about the
age of twenty that this union is effected.

Assuming this to be correct, the next thing
to be asked is—what does experience demon-
strate to be the ordinary period man should
live after he has ceased to grow? Is it seven
times the period of growth, as Buffon said of
the stag ? M. Flonrens, who has the advantage
of possessing all the knowledge acquired since
Buffon, and who has made long and patient
researches for himself, says that it is five
times the term of growth, and not seven
And so he comes to the conclusion that man
ought to live one hundred years. He says :

The union of the bones and the epiphyses is, as I have
said, effected in man at twenty years of age. In the camel
it takes place at eight, in the horse at five, in the lion at
four, in the dog at two, in the cat at eighteen months, in
the rabbit at twelve, &c. Man, being twenty years in
growing, lives five times twenty years—that is to say, one
hundred years ; the camel is eight years in growing, and
lives five times eight years—that is to say, forty years ; the
horse is five years in growing, and he lives five times live
years—that is to say, twenty-five years; and so with the
others.

Having thus lengthened life, M. Flourens
divides it as follows :
Life is divided into two nearly equal halves—one of
growth, the other of decline. Each of these halves is
divided into two others, and hence the four ages of life—
infancy, youth, virility, and old age. Each of these ages
is subdivided into two ages. There is a first and second
infancy, a first and second youth, a first and second viril
age, a first and second o.d age. It is not easy to deter-
mine the precise duration of each of these ages and sub-
ages. But I propose the following duration :—For the
first, infancy—from the birth up to ten years—that is
infancy properly so called ; and for the second, from ten to
twenty is adolescence : the first youth extends from twenty
to thirty, and the second from thirty to forty; the first
viril age extends from forty to fifty-five, and the second
from fifty-five to seventy. The viril age, taken altogether,
is the best of man—it is literally the viril epoch of his life.
At seventy the first old age commence', and it extends to
eighty•five ; and at eighty-five the second and last old age
begins.
I prolong the duration of the first infancy to ten years
because it is only from nine to ten that the second denti-
tion is terminated. I prolong adolescence to twenty years
because it is only at twenty years that the development of
the bones is terminated, and with it the growth of the body
in length. I prolong youth to forty years because it is only
towards that age that the increase of the body in bulk ter-
minates. After forty the body does not, properly speaking,
become enlarged; the augmentation of volume which then
takes places is not a veritable organic development, but a
simple accumulation of fat.
After the growth, or, to speak more exactly, after the de-
velopment in length, and after that in bulk, I find a third,
which, it is true, is not indicated by physiologists, but
which seems to me not less real. I mean the internal and
profound movement which acts in the most secret tissues
of our parts, and which, rendering those parts more firm
and perfect, renders all ftuietions ram Assured and the

SATURDAY,

entire organism more complete. I call this invigoration,
and it takes place from forty to fifty years. Once effected,
it maintains itself to the age of sixtyfive or seventy:

At seventy old age commences. 13ut, physiologickly speak.
ing, what has taken place which enables me to recognise
that it has commenced? What is the fact, the character
which reveals it to me? Ancient physiologists distin-
guished, with great reason, two species, or rather two pro.
visions, of force—that in reserve and that in use; or, as
they said, vires in posse et vires in acts; or, as liarthez says,
the radical and the acting forces. In youth there is
great deal of force in reserve ; and it is the progressive
diminution of that fund which constitutes the physiological
character of old age. As long as the old man only employs
his acting forces he does not perceive that he has sustained
any loss ; but when he somewhat exceeds the limits of
these usual and acting forces he feels himself fatigued,
exhausted ; he feels that be has no longer the hidden re-
sources, the reserved and superabundant forces of youth.

We have now quoted enough to show on
what grounds M. Flourens thinks himself
justified in telling us that we are warranted
by God's providence in hoping to live for thirty
years more than the "three score and ten" to
which we have hitherto been contented to
look. It is to be expected that his marvellous
discovery will be vehemently assailed by his eon-
frerea, and it is certainly very right and proper
that it should be subjected to vigorous contro-
versy. For ourselves, however, we receive it with
the respect due to everything which a prince of
science proclaims ex cathedra, and with the
profound conviction that, since the first phy-
siologist of our time so proclaims it, it must be
true. There is one very essential point, how-
ever, on which we could have wished M. Flou-
rens to be more explicit. He expressly de-
clares that a sober life is essential to the attain-
ment of the longevity for which a man is
destined, but he does not tell us what
sobriety is. The " well-ordered, well-conducted,
" and reasonable life " mentioned in our first
extract is a very vague definition, inasmuch as
there are thousands of men who lead such a
life who will, in all human probability, go to
their long homes at the ages their fathers did.
Neither does the definition which he presents
in another place help us out of the difficulty :
" good conduct, an existence always occupied,
" labour, study, moderation, sobriety in all
things." What he should have done was to
have given us soli() indication as to what we
should eat, drink, wear, what time we should
sleep, what work, what spend in study or
amusement, what in exercise. True he goes
at great length into the manner in which old
Cornaro, the Italian, contrived by sobriety to
spin out his life to upwards of one hundred
years, though physicians had declared when
he was thirty-five that ho had not two years
to live ; but he himself says that Cornaro's
sobriety was excessive, and, besides, what suited
him would not suit others, and what was good
in Venice and Padua would be death in damper
and colder climates.

In writing of old age, M. Flourens repudiates
Horace's growl, and draws the most charm-
ing pictures of the pleasures of the latter
period of life, when, as old Fontenelle said,
" Fortune is established, reputation made,
" consideration obtained, the state of life fixed,
" and passions calmed down." But that inexo-
rable tyranny of newspapers—space—warns us
to close. For the same reason we must leave
altogether unnoticed the chapters on the
" Quantity of Life on the Globe," and the " Ap-
pearance of Life on the Globe," though they
are brimful of instruction and of observations
which make men ponder.

The Warden. By Anthony Trollope. London

Longmans.
IT would be wrong to deny that there is in
this volume a good deal of " cleverness," but
it would be equally wrong to give it much fur-
ther praise. The mal administration of edu-
cational and other charities on which the tale,
if it can be so called, is founded, has been at-
tacked of late years in the fair demagogical
style of alternate exaggeration and invention
of abuses. The majority of " reformers,'
especially of episcopal and capitular institu-
tions, are energetic, not because they hate
Christian education less, but hate bishops and
deans more. Their remedies are always of
two classes, either that the income of each
charity should be handed over to the literary
institutions and town councils, or that the
" intentions of the founder" should be carried
out by giving a carriage and pair to each