Volume 1

The philosophy of health ; or, an exposition of the physical and mental constitution of man, with a view to the promotion of human longevity and happiness / by Southwood Smith.

  • Smith, Southwood, 1788-1861.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The philosophy of health ; or, an exposition of the physical and mental constitution of man, with a view to the promotion of human longevity and happiness / by Southwood Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    tude. In this stage of existence, the physical changes that successively take place clog, day by day, the vital machinery, until it can no longer play. In a space of time, fixed within narrow limits, the flame of life must then inevitably expire, for the processes that feed it fail. But though, when fully come, the term of old age cannot be extended, the coming of the term may be postponed. To the preceding stage, an indefinite number of years may be added. And this is a fact of the -deepest interest to human nature. The division of human life into periods or epochs is not an arbitrary distinction, but is founded on constitutional differences in the system, dependent on different physiological conditions. The periods of infancy, childhood, boyhood, adolescence, man- hood, and old age, are distinguished from each other by external characters, which are but the outward signs of internal states. In physiological condition, the infant differs from the child, the child from the boy, the boy from the man, and the adult from the old man, as much in physi- cal strength as in mental power. There is an appointed order in which these several states suc- ceed each other; there is a fixed time at which one passes into another. That order cannot be inverted: no considerable anticipation or post- ponement of that fixed time can be effected. In all places and under all circumstances, at a given time, though not precisely at the same time in all