On human longevity and the amount of life upon the globe / by P. Flourens ; translated from the French second edition, by Charles Martel.

  • Flourens, P. (Pierre), 1794-1867.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On human longevity and the amount of life upon the globe / by P. Flourens ; translated from the French second edition, by Charles Martel. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    42/216 (page 24)
    It is not easy to determine the precise duration of each of these ages and sub-ages. I propose, however, the following durations: for the first infancy, from birth to the tenth year, this is infancy, properly so called; and for the second, from ten to twenty, this is adolescence for the first youth, from twenty to thirty, and for the second, from thirty to forty; for the first manhood, from forty to fifty-five, and for the second, from fifty-five to seventy. Manhood, taken as a whole, is the period of strength, and, as the word so well expresses it, the virile epoch of the life of man. At seventy, the first old age begins, and continues to eighty-five, and at eighty-five, begins the second and last. What renders it difficult to mark the term at which each age ends, is that there is no repose, no pause between them. The passage from one to another proceeds insensibly. We look at a growing plant, with a desire to see it grow. This action is so very gradual, that it escapes the closest observation. Leave the plant but for a short time, upon returning to it, we find it has very much increased. * Or puberty. Strictly speaking, puberty is only a very important phenomenon of adolescence.