The Annual Oration, on Old Age and the Changes Incidental to It
Authors: G. M. Humphry
Journal: BMJ (1885)

OLD age acquires a gradually increasing interest, as advancing civilisa- tion enables a larger number of persons to attain to it, and affords them additional means of enjoying it, and profiting by it.From the schoolboy-day, now full fifty years ago, when the De Senectute of the great Roman orator made a lasting impression upon me, the subject of old age has had some fascination for me, though multifarious avo- cations have prevented my giving much attention to it.In the past year, the Collective Investigation Committee of the British Medical Association, at my instance, commenced an inquiry respecting aged persons, and issued a form, with a memorandum, for the purpose of collecting information of various kinds respecting the condition, habits, etc., past and present, of persons who had attained to advanced age.The minimum age for the sub- jects of inquiry was fixed at 80. We are indebted to many mem- bers of the profession, and to some others, for the returns they have taken the trouble to make, which at the present exceed 500, the number of males and of females being nearly equal.These have been, in part, carefully tabulated and analysed by myself, with the aid of my friend and assistant, Mr. A. Francis.It is not to be sup- Dosed that from this, or other investigations of the like kind, any very startlingresults will be obtained; for the hill of knowledge is mounted with slow and laborious steps; and we must be content to advance little by little.Moreover, I do not propose to weary you with many of the details of this inquiry, which, I may observe, is not yet com- pleted, but to make a few remarks upon the subject of old age, which will be to some extent based upon information derived from the in- quiry just mentioned.We are, I think, too much accustomed in our ideas to limit the work of development to the periods of adolescence and maturity ; and, indeed, the surpassing wonders of that work-I say surpassing wonders, for, unquestionably, the processes of development of an animal body are the most marvellous, the most mysterious, and the most interesting in the whole range of the physical world-are most fully demonstrated in the early But they do not end in them, nor even when the body has been brought to its fully matured condition.They continue in a definite and orderly manner, though with lessened and lessening activity, to the termination of life, at whatever period that termination may occur.The march of changing events in the human body, from the. age of 40 or 50 to 100, is as regular, as orderly, as developmental, thoughi less quick, and therefore 1lss apparent, as it is from birth to adolescence, or from conception to birth.It is one of the resultants of that inscrutable vis, calf it what you will, and refer it to whatyou will, which makes all nature one, which determines the course and end of each animate and i'nanimate object, and by which, in the well known wordsof Keble, " To its funeral pile this aged world is borne."A main feature of the ascending," if we may so call it, develop- ment-the development from birth to maturity-is an increase of material, an increase of activity, and an increase of strength-of passive or resisting, as well as of active, strength ; and the-main feature of the "descending"development-thedevelopment fror maturity on- wards-is a lessening of material, a lessening of 4ctivity, and a lessen- iLg of strength.Inthe normal " ascending developjp nt, piterial and strength are addea to the several parts of the tody in due rela- tion to their respective requirements, that they may all grow on pari passu, and the proper harmony of proportion m'aybe maintained between them; and in the normal desending" development, the relative proportions of the several structures and orgajis are preserved, while weight, force, and activity are being lowered by gradual and well adjusted diminution qf mn4erial and of nutritiveactivity.During the time that the bones are becoming li ter and less cap,ble of offering resistance, the muscles becme, lke proportion, lighter and weaker, and with a narrowingg range of action; and the associated rL ')'i L-LS -L volitional and other nerve-apparatus exhibits a correspondinglowering of energy and force.The loss of will to run, jump, and indulge iii