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:
1835-1838
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 The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    climates and under all modes of life, infancy passes into childhood, childhood into boyhood, boyhood into adolescence, and adolescence into manhood. In the space of two years from its birth, every in- fant has ceased to be an infant, and has become a child; in the space of six years from this period, every male child will have become a boy $ add eight years to this time, and every boy will have become a young man; in eight years more, every young man will have become an adult man; and in the subsequent ten years, every adult man will have acquired his highest state of physical perfection. But at what period will this state of physical per- fection decline? What is the maximum time during which it can retain its full vigour? Is that maximum fixed? Is there a certain number of years in which, by an inevitable law, every adult man necessarily becomes an old man? Is pre- cisely the same number of years appointed for this transition to every human being? Can no care add to that number? Can no imprudence take from it? Does the physiological condition or the constitutional age of any two individuals ever ad- vance to precisely the same point in precisely the same number of years ? Physically and mentally, are not some persons older at fifty than others are at seventy? And do not instances occasionally occur m which an old man, who reaches even his hundredth year, retains as great a degree of juve- nility as the majority 0f those who attain to eighty ?