Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1867-11-15
The commencement of Old Age.

la What are the signs OF natural decay?
When does old age commence :. The natu-
raj history of individual death, without
disease, is one of the subjects which 1t re-
mains for modern physicians to study.
When does the vital machine begin to
wear out in the typical healthy man, and
what are the ways by which normal decay,
inevitable death, invade the aged man !?
With our modern means Of precise obser-
walton and minute pathological research,
VIC should be able now to layith fOunda-
ton for the answer to this most important
question. The subject is suggested to us
| ten thesis, on death, considered from The
Geological points of view, by DIR. Acosta,
llof Paris, which will repay the perusal of
| reflective men. Discussing the difficulty
of determining the commencement of old
age,s DIR. Aeosta reminds US that, whilst the
Greeks regarded the age of forty nine
i (seven times seven, their climacteric num-
| ber) as the eliminating point of human
strength, and at the same time, as the
commenceme mt of decadence, NJ. Flourens
| holds that decadence does not commence
until the SEVENTEEN year; an age which
| the Chinese, according to Sir John Bow
ring, regard as metaphorical one, calling
those who have STAINED it rare birds"
apd men of ninety years old :" loiterers."
The two climacteric ages of the Arabs
were sixty-three and eighty one, being the
multiplication of nine (their magic num-
ber) by seven and nine. The age of sixty
three was considered so critical that 1t was
called the grand climacteric, and the an
clients were accustomed to mutually
! congratulate each other when they had
tpassedi il. AQuetelet, to9a certain extent,
admits the danger of this critical period /;
for he says: 8 From sixty to sixty-five
years Of age vitality loses much Of. its en-
ergy that is to say the probability Of con-
tinuing to live diminishes greatly" MI
Reveille PARSE, while, in common with
some other Psychologists, allowing the exr
istence of two sources of strength in the
constitution, which he names force in re-
serve and force in use, believes that the
physiological fact which reveals old age is
the progressive diminution7 of reserved
force SO superabundant in youth. There
certainly exist some organizations which
are proof against the ravages of time, and
the attacks of sickness and death. Some
men at the age of eighty, ninety, even one
hundred years, have preserved their SEN
serial and intellectual faculties, and great
mental energy, even toithe last days of their
life. A complete list of them would be
too long. We will, therefore, only men
ton few names. Plato died at the age of
eighty one, pen in hand; Georgias contin-
ued his literary labors at the age OF one
hundred and seven; Socrates wrote his
famous "Panegyric of Athens" in his
ninety fourth year; Theophrstus- his
Characters" at ninety mine Cato learn
ed Greek after his sixtieth year; Cicero
composed his charming work, ode Senec-
tute," one year before his violent death
Voltaire wrote a great number of tragedies,
Tancrede" and L. Orphelin de Ia Chine, ?
amongst others, worthy of his best time, at
4 the age of sixty-fve, and he came to Paris
in his fourteenth year to give himself an
intellectual treat, the representation of his
tragedy of Irene" There are also still
living members of our profession, as well
as the literary, scientific and political
world, who would illustrate the list OF
Nestoras, remarkable both for their lon
gevity and for intellectual labors to which
they continue to devote themselves: Dis
raeli has said,- "Old age has been thing
unknown to many, men Of, genius.-Bs7tisl
EaTir1I To7i9.,l0{ 1't'a tfsri - ~.