Buffon's Natural History. Volume 04 (of 10)
by comte de Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon · English · Gutenberg #45729 · 450,338 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Buffon's Natural History. Volume 04 (of 10)
Author: comte de Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon
Editor: James Smith Barr
Release date: May 23, 2014 [eBook #45729]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
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Transcriber Note
Emphasized text displayed as _Italic Text._
Whole and fractional parts of numbers are displayed: 33-1/2
_Barr's Buffon._
Buffon's Natural History.
CONTAINING
A THEORY OF THE EARTH,
A GENERAL
_HISTORY OF MAN_,
OF THE BRUTE CREATION, AND OF
VEGETABLES, MINERALS,
&c. &c.
FROM THE FRENCH.
WITH NOTES BY THE TRANSLATOR.
IN TEN VOLUMES.
VOL. IV.
London:
PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETOR,
AND SOLD BY H. D. SYMONDS, PATERNOSTER-ROW.
1807.
T. Gillet, Printer, Wild-court.
CONTENTS OF THE FOURTH VOLUME.
Page
_Infancy continued_ 1
Chap. III. _Of Puberty_ 23
Chap. IV. _A Description of Man_ 62
Chap. V. _Of Old Age and Death_ 95
Chap. VI. _Of the Sense of Seeing_ 137
Chap. VII. _Of the Sense of Hearing_ 159
Chap. VIII. _Of the Senses in General_ 171
Chap. IX. _Of the Varieties in the Human Species_ 190
_Directions for placing the Plates._
Page 91, Fig. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.
BUFFON'S NATURAL HISTORY.
INFANCY CONTINUED.
Infants, when newly born, sleep much, though with frequent
interruptions. As they are also in frequent want of nourishment, they
ought in the day to receive the breast every time they awake. The
greatest part of the first month they pass in sleep, and do not seem
to awake, but from a sense of pain or hunger; their sleep, therefore,
generally terminates with a fit of crying. As they are compelled to
remain in the same position in the cradle, confined by shackles, their
situation soon becomes painful. Their excrements, whose acrimony is
offensive to their tender and very delicate skin, often render them
wet and chilly; and in this distress, by their cries alone can they
call for relief. With the utmost assiduity ought this relief to be
given them; or rather such inconveniences ought to be prevented by
frequently changing part of their cloathing both night and day. The
Savages deem this an object so essential, that though their changes of
skins cannot possibly be so frequent as ours of linen, yet they supply
this deficiency by the use of other substances; of which there is no
necessity to be sparing. In North-America, a quantity of dust obtained
from wood that has been gnawed by worms is placed at the bottom of the
cradle, and which they renew as often as appears requisite. On this
powder the infant is laid, and covered with skins; and though a bed
of feathers, it is pretended, cannot be more soft and easy, yet it is
not used to indulge the delicacy of the child, but to keep it clean;
which in effect it does, by drawing off the moisture of every kind. In
Virginia, they place the child naked upon a plank covered with cotton,
and provided with a hole as a passage for the excrement. Here the cold
is often unfavourable to such a practice; but it is almost general in
the East of Europe, and especially in Turkey. This custom has this
further advantage, it precludes all care, and is the most certain
method of preventing the ill effects which too frequently result from
the usual negligence of nurses. It is maternal affection alone which is
capable of supporting that continual vigilance, that minute attention,
which a new-born infant requires. How then can such vigilance, such
care, be expected from a mercenary groveling nurse?
Some nurses desert their children for several hours without feeling
the smallest anxiety; and others are so cruel as to be unaffected with
their cries; then do the helpless innocents seem to be in a kind of
despair; then do they exert every effort of which they are capable;
and, till their strength actually forsakes them, implore assistance by
their cries. If these violent agitations do not create some distemper,
they discompose, however, the temperament and constitution of the
child, and even influence perhaps its disposition.
There is another abuse which lazy nurses are frequently guilty of:
instead of employing effectual methods for pleasing the infant, they
rock it furiously in the cradle; this procures a momentary cessation
of its cries, by confusing its brain, and if long continued stuns the
child into a sleep. But this sort of sleep is merely a palliative, and
so far is the agitation by which it was obtained from removing the
cause of complaint, that it may disorder the head and stomach, and be
the foundation of future disorders of very fatal consequence.
Before children are put into the cradle, we ought to be certain they
want nothing, and they should never be rocked with such violence as to
confound or stun them. If their sleep is not sound, a slow and equal
motion of the cradle is sufficient to render it so; nor ought they
to be rocked often, for if accustomed to this motion they will not
sleep without it. Though children in good health should sleep long
and spontaneously, yet the temperament of the body may be injured by
too much. In this case they should be roused by gentle motion; their
ears ought to be amused with some soft and agreeable sounds, and their
eyes with some brilliant and striking objects. It is at this age they
receive their first impressions from the sense, and these are, perhaps,
of more future importance than many may imagine.
The eyes of infants are always directed to the strongest light in the
room, and if from the child's situation only one eye can be directed to
it, the other, for want of exercise, will remain more weak. To prevent
this inconvenience the foot of the cradle ought to be so placed that
the light, whether it comes from a window or a candle, may front it. In
this position both eyes receive it alike, and thus by exercise acquire
equal strength. If one eye becomes stronger than the other, the child
will squint; for it is incontestably proved, that the inequality of
strength in the eyes is the cause of squinting.
For the first and second months, and even for the third and fourth, the
infant, especially when its constitution is weak and delicate, ought
to receive no nourishment but milk from the breast. Whatever be its
strength, it may receive material injury if any other food is given it
during the first month. In Holland, in Italy, in Turkey, and in general
over all the Levant, children have nothing but the breast for a whole
year. The savages of Canada suckle them till they are four or five,
and sometimes six or seven years of age. With us most nurses have not
a sufficiency of milk to satisfy the demands of their children; and in
order to be frugal of what they have, they feed them, even from the
first, with a composition of boiled flour and milk. This nourishment
allays their hunger; but as their stomachs and bowels are yet too weak
to digest a gross and viscous substance, they suffer by it, and not
unoften die by indigestions.
The milk of animals may supply the deficiency of that of the mother in
cases of necessity; but then it is highly necessary the child should
receive it, by sucking the animal's teat, in order that it may be of
an equal and proper warmth, and that by the action of the muscles in
sucking it may mix with the saliva, which facilitates digestion. In the
country I have known several peasants who had no other nurses but ewes;
and these peasants were as vigorous as any that had been suckled by
their mothers.
After two or three months, when the child has acquired strength, they
begin to give it food a little more solid, consisting of a kind of
bread made of flour and milk, which disposes the stomach to receive
the common bread, and such other nutriment as it will afterwards be
accustomed to.
As an introduction to the use of solid food, the consistency of liquid
food is gradually increased, and therefore, after having habituated
the child to flour and milk boiled, they next give it bread diluted
in some convenient fluid. During the first year infants are incapable
of mastication, their teeth still continuing enveloped in the gums,
which are so soft that their feeble resistance can produce no effect
on any solid matter. Some nurses, especially among the common people,
chew the food first, and then give it to the child, a practice from
which, before we reflect upon it, we ought to banish every idea of
disgust, which can make no impression upon infants. So far from feeling
anything of that kind, they as readily receive food from the mouth
of the nurse as from her breasts; nay it seems to proceed, from a
natural propensity, by its being introduced in a number of countries
widely different from each other. We find it in Italy, in Turkey, in
the greatest part of Asia, in America, in Canada, &c. I conceive it
to be highly useful, from being the only method by which the stomach
of children can be furnished with the saliva that is required for
the digestion of solid food. If the nurse chews a bit of bread, her
saliva dilutes it, and renders it more nutritious than if it had been
moistened in any other liquid, yet this practice is only necessary till
they are supplied with teeth to chew their food, and dilute it with
their own saliva.
The incisores, or fore teeth, are eight in number, four in the front of
each jaw-bone. These generally appear first, though seldom till seven,
eight, or ten months. Some few infants have been born with teeth so
sharp as to cut their nurse's nipple. The original substance of the
teeth is lodged in sockets, and covered by the gums, to the bottom
of which it extends its roots, and pressing forward by little and
little, at length forces its way through them. Though this operation is
natural, it is not, however, consonant to the general laws of Nature,
which constantly operate upon the human body, without exciting any
painful sensation. Here Nature makes a violent and an excruciating
effort, which is sometimes attended with fatal consequences. In
breeding their teeth children lose their sprightliness, and become
peevish and restless. The gums are at first red and swelled, and
afterwards, when the pressure is ready to intercept the course of the
blood in the veins, they appear white. They are constantly applying
their fingers to the affected part as if endeavouring to assuage its
irritation: they obtain further relief by putting into their mouth a
bit of ivory, coral, or any other hard and polished substance they
are supplied with, which they rub on that part of the gums that is
most affected. This action relaxes the parts, and affords a momentary
cessation of the pain; it also helps to attenuate the membrane of the
gum, which, from the double pressure it then sustains, must break the
more easily; yet this laceration, or rupture of the gums, is frequently
attended with no small degree of pain and danger. When the gums are
more firm than usual, by the solidity of the fibres of which they
are composed, their resistance to the action of the tooth is more
obstinate, and occasions an inflammation, with all its deadly symptoms.
In order to preclude this, an incision may be successfully made on the
gum, by means of which minute operation the inflammation ceases, and
the teeth obtain a free passage.
The canine, or dog teeth, which are next to the incisores, are in
number four, and commonly appear in the ninth or tenth month. About the
end of the first, or in the course of the second year, sixteen other
teeth appear, which are called molares, or grinders, four of which are
situated on each side of the dog teeth. The periods for the cutting of
the teeth vary in different children, and though it is pretended that
those of the upper jaw usually appear first, yet it often happens that
they are preceded by those of the under.
The incisores, the canine, and the first four of the molares, are
generally shed in the fifth, sixth, or seventh year, but they are
commonly replaced by others in the seventh year, though sometimes
not till the age of puberty. The shedding of these sixteen teeth is
occasioned by the expansion in the gums for the new set which are at
the bottom of the sockets, and by their growth press out the first.
There not being any beneath the other grinders they remain, unless
forced out by accident, and when lost they are hardly ever recovered.
There are four other teeth still, which are situated at the extremity
of each jaw, but which every person does not have. These seldom appear
till the age of puberty, and sometimes later; they are called dentes
sapientiæ, or wisdom-teeth, and either appear one after another, or two
at a time. The only reason of there being a variety in the number of
teeth, which is from 28 to 32, is the irregularity of the wisdom-teeth.
Women, it has been observed, have generally fewer teeth than men.
Some authors pretend that the teeth would continue to grow through
life, if it were not for their continual attrition, occasioned by the
food on which man subsists, and increase in size (as is the case in
several animals) in proportion as he advances in age. But this opinion
is contradicted by experience; for persons who live wholly on liquid
nutriment have not teeth longer than those who live on solid food, and
if any thing is capable of wearing the teeth, it is rather their mutual
friction one against another than mastication. Besides, they possibly
deceive themselves by confounding teeth with tusks, as to the growth
of the former in certain animals. The tusks of the wild boar and
elephant, for example, continue to grow during life, but it is highly
improbable that the teeth of either, when once arrived at their natural
size, should afterwards increase. Tusks have a greater affinity, by
far, with horns than with teeth; but this is not the proper place to
enter into their specific differences, nor shall any thing further be
added, than that the first set of teeth in children is of a substance
less solid than the subsequent one, and more loosely fixed in the jaws.
It is often asserted, that the first hair of children is always
brown, but that it presently falls off, and is succeeded by hair of a
different colour. Whether the remark is just or not I cannot determine,
but the hair of most children is fair, and, in many instances, almost
white. In some it is red, and in others black, yet in those who are
to have fair or brown complexions, the hair in the earliest stage of
infancy, is fair in a greater or less degree. Those who give a promise
of future fairness have generally blue eyes, those likely to be red
have a yellowish shade in their eyes, and those who will be brown have
a darker yellow; but colours are very imperfectly distinguished in the
eyes of new-born infants, because they have almost all the semblance of
blue.
When a child is suffered to cry too violently, and too long, it may
in consequence be afflicted with a rupture, in which case an early
application of bandages is necessary; with this assistance the
complaint is removed with ease, without it the disease may last for
life.
The limits of my plan admit not a detail of every disease incidental to
children. I shall only remark, that worms, and all verminous diseases,
very evidently owe their origin to the nature of their food. Milk is a
kind of chyle, an unadulterated nutriment; it consists of organic and
generative substances, and, therefore, if not digested by the stomach,
and made use of in the expansion and growth of the body, it assumes,
by its essential activity, other forms, and produces animated beings,
particularly worms, in such quantities, that the infant is often in
danger of falling a victim to them. A part of the bad effects that
accrue from worms, might probably be prevented, by allowing children
to drink a little wine, because all fermented liquors counteract the
generation of worms, and besides contain but few organic nutritive
particles: it is chiefly by its action upon the solids that wine
gives strength, and it may be rather said to fortify the body than to
strengthen it. Besides, the generality of children are fond of wine, at
least easily accustomed to drink it.
However delicate the frame may be in infancy, it is yet less sensible
of cold than during any other period of life. As the pulse of infants
is more quick than that of adults, it may, from this circumstance
alone, be concluded, that the internal heat is proportionally greater.
On the same principle it is hardly to be doubted, that of this heat
small animals have a greater share than the large; it has invariably
been found, that, in the same degree the animal is small, the motion
of the heart and arteries is proportionally vigorous and quick; and
this is ever the case in the same as well as in different species. The
pulse of an infant, or of a man of small stature, is more frequent than
that of a grown person, or a man of a large size. The pulse of an ox is
slower, and a dog quicker than that of a man; and so precipitate are
the motions in the heart of an animal still smaller, as a sparrow, for
instance, they can hardly be counted.
Till the age of three years the life of an infant is highly precarious.
In the course of the ensuing two or three years, however, it becomes
more certain; and at the age of six or seven a child has a greater
probability of living than at any other age. By consulting Simpson's
tables of the degrees of mortality, at different ages, as applicable
to London, it appears, that, of a certain number of children, born at
one time, above a fourth of them died in the first year, above a third
in two years, and, at least, one half in the first three years. If
this calculation is just a wager might be proposed, that an infant,
when born, would not live three years. A man who dies at the age of
twenty-five is to be lamented for the short duration of his life; and
yet, according to these tables, one half of mankind die before the
age of three years, consequently, every individual who has passed his
third year, far from repining at his fate, ought to consider himself
as treated with superior favour by his Creator. But this mortality in
children is by no means so great in every place as in London. M. Dupré
de St. Maur has proved, by a number of experiments made in France, that
one half of the children born at the same time are not extinct in less
than seven or eight years. By these experiments it is also shewn, that
at the age of five, six, or seven years, the life of a child is more
certain than at any other age, and that an equal bet may be laid for 42
years more, whereas in proportion as a child lives beyond five, six, or
seven years, the probable number of years it will live decreases. At
twelve years, for instance, the equal chance is only for 39 years; at
20, for 33-1/2; at 30, for 20; and thus forward, till the age of 85,
when there is an equal chance of living three years longer.[A]
[A] In the course of this volume we shall present our readers with a
table, at large, of the different probabilities of human life.
There is one thing very remarkable in the growth of the human body.
The foetus in the womb continues to increase more and more in equal
periods, till the birth. The infant, on the contrary, increases less
and less, that is in the same period of time, till the age of puberty,
to which it seems to bound, as it were, at once. The foetus, for
example, is an inch long in the first month, two inches and a quarter
in the second; three inches and a half in the third; five inches and
upwards in the fourth; six inches and a half, or even seven inches,
in the fifth; eight inches and a half, or nine inches, in the sixth;
eleven inches, in the seventh; fourteen inches, in the eighth; and
eighteen inches, in the ninth. Although this measurement may vary in
different children, yet if the child be 18 inches at its birth, it will
hot increase more than six or seven inches in the first year after:
that is, at the end of the first year, it will be 24 or 25 inches; of
the second, 28 or 29 inches; of the third, only 30, or, at most 32
inches; and from this age till that of puberty, it will not advance
more than one inch and a half, or two inches, in the course of each
year. From these remarks it is evident that the foetus increases
more in a month, towards the close of its residence in the matrix than
the infant does in a year, till it arrives at the age of puberty; when
Nature seems to make one grand effort to unfold the animal machine, and
render her work complete.
So essential is it, that the constitution of the nurse should be sound,
and her juices untainted that we have many instances of diseases being
imparted from the nurse to the infant, and from the infant to the
nurse. Whole villages have been infected with the venereal virus, by
nurses suckling the children of other women.
Were mothers to suckle their own offspring it is probable the latter
would be more strong and vigorous. The milk of a stranger must be
less proper for them than that of the mother, for as the foetus is
nourished in the matrix by a fluid, which bears a strong resemblance
to the milk that is formed in the breasts, the infant, therefore, is
already, as it were, habituated to the milk of its mother. The milk of
any other woman, on the contrary, is a nourishment new to the child,
and sometimes so different from the other that it is difficult to make
the child take it: and if forced will sicken and languish, from not
being able to digest the milk of the nurse; a circumstance which, if
the consequences are not seasonably prevented by the substitution of
another nurse, soon proves fatal.
I cannot help observing, that the custom of crowding a multitude of
children into one place, as in the hospitals of large cities, is
highly repugnant to what ought to be the grand object proposed, their
preservation. The greatest part of such children fall victims to a
kind of scurvy, or to other diseases, from which they might have been
exempted, had they been brought up in different houses, or rather in
the country. The same expence would be sufficient for their support,
and an infinity of lives, in which it is well known consist the real
riches of a state, would be saved.
At twelve or fifteen months infants begin to lisp. _A_ is the vowel
which they articulate with most ease, as it requires nothing more than
the opening of the lips, and forcing out the breath. _E_ requires that
the tongue should be raised as the lips are opened; and is therefore
pronounced with a degree of more trouble. _I_ is attended with greater
difficulty, as in the articulation of the vowel the tongue is elevated
still more, and made to approach the teeth of the upper jaw. In
the pronunciation of _O_, the tongue must be lowered, and the lips
contracted; and in that of _U_, the latter must be also contracted, and
in some degree extended. The first consonants which children pronounce
are those which require the least motion in the organs. Of these the
most easy of articulation are _B_ _M_ and _P_. For that of _B_ and
_P_ it is simply requisite that the lips should be closed and then
opened with quickness, and for that of _M_, that they should be first
opened and then closed with celerity. The articulation of the other
consonants supposes motions more complicated. The pronunciation of _C_
_D_ _G_ _L_ _N_ _Q_ _R_ _S_ and _T_ depend each on a particular action
of the tongue, which it would be very difficult to explain; and for
the pronunciation of _F_, a more continued sound is necessary, than
for that of any other consonant. _A_ being the most easily articulated
of the vowels, as are _B_ _P_ and _M_, of the consonants, we need not
wonder that the first words which children pronounce, in every country,
should be composed of, that vowel, and of those consonants; and that,
for example, in every language, _Baba_, _Mama_, _Papa_, should be the
primitive articulations. They are the most familiar sounds to man, and
the most natural to him, because the most easily pronounced, and the
letters of which they are composed must exist wherever there is any
typical mode for the denotation of sounds.
It is to be observed, however, that as the sounds of several consonants
are nearly similar; those, for instance, of _E_ and _P_, of _C_ and
_S_, of _K_ and _Q_, in certain cases; of _D_ and _T_, of _F_ and
_V_, of _G_ and _J_, of _G_ and _K_, of _L_ and _R_, so there may
be many languages in which such consonants are not to be found. But
in every language, there must be a _B_ or a _P_, a _C_ or an _S_, a
_K_ or a _Q_, a _D_ or a _T_, an _F_ or a _V_ consonant, a _G_ or
a _J_ consonant; an _L_ or an _R_, and in the most contracted of
all alphabets, there cannot be less than six or seven consonants,
for of that number there are simple sounds, which have all a very
sensible difference from each other. Those children who do not readily
articulate _R_, substitute _L_ for it; and in the place of _T_ they
articulate _D_. Indeed _L_ and _D_ require more difficult movements
in the organs than either _R_ or _T_; and it is from this difference,
and from the choice of consonants more or less easy of articulation,
that the softness or the harshness of a language proceeds. But on this
subject it would be superfluous to enlarge.
Some children pronounce distinctly, and repeat whatever is said to
them, at two years, though the generality do not speak for the first
two years and a half, and often not so early. It has been observed,
that those who are most backward, never speak with the same facility
as those who begin to articulate more early, and that those who are in
that respect the most forward, may learn to read before the expiration
of the third year. Some I have myself known, who had begun to read
at two years, and who read to admiration at four. After all, it is
difficult to determine whether there is any advantage to be derived
from such premature education. With so little success indeed, is it
generally attended, that we see and hear of numbers, who, though they
had been prodigies at the age of four, eight, twelve, and sixteen
years, are found, however, at those of twenty-five, or thirty, to
be downright block-heads, or men of very inferior abilities. _I_ am
convinced, therefore, that education is the best, which does not compel
Nature, and which is proportioned to the strength and capacity of the
child.
CHAPTER III.
OF PUBERTY.
Puberty immediately succeeds childhood and attends us to the end of
our days. Till this period arrives the sole object of Nature seems to
have been the growth and preservation of her work. She supplies the
infant with nothing but what is necessary for its bodily increase.
Wrapped up, as it were, within itself, its existence, in some respects,
resembles that of a vegetable, and which it has not the power to
communicate. Presently, however, the principles of life multiply;
and it not only possesses what is necessary for its own being but
sufficient to give existence to others. This superabundance of
life, this source of strength and vigour, impatient of its internal
restraint, vents itself abroad, and the age of puberty is announced
by a number of external and internal marks; it is the spring of life
and the season of pleasure. Of that age may we be enabled to write the
history with such circumspection as to excite in the imagination none
but philosophical ideas! Puberty, however, and the circumstances that
accompany it, as circumcision, castration, virginity, and impotency,
are of too essential consequence in the History of Man to allow a
suppression of facts to which they relate. In giving a detail of them
we shall endeavour to maintain that modest reserve which constitutes
the true decorum of style, that philosophical apathy which may destroy
loose ideas, and give it in words confined to their literal import and
original signification.
Circumcision is a custom very ancient, and which still subsists in the
greatest part of Asia. Among the Hebrews this operation was performed
within eight days after the birth. In Turkey they never perform it
before the age of seven or eight years, and often not even till that
of eleven or twelve. In Persia, the practice is general at the age
of five or six. The wound thus occasioned is healed with caustic or
astringent powders, or with burned paper, which, according to Chardin,
is the most effectual remedy; he adds, that circumcision is attended
with infinite pain when performed on grown persons; that they cannot
stir abroad after it for three weeks or a month, and that sometimes it
proves fatal to them.
In the Maldivia islands they circumcise their children at the age
of seven; and previous to this operation they bathe them in the sea
for six or seven hours, in order to render their skin more soft. The
Israelites made use of a sharpened flint, a custom which the Jews still
continue in most of their synagogues. The Mahometans, however, use a
common knife, or a razor.
Were it not for their precaution in cutting it in childhood, the
Turks, it is alledged, and the inhabitants of many other countries in
which circumcision is practised, would naturally have their prepuces
too long. Boulaye tells us, that in the deserts of Mesopotamia and
Arabia, on the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates, he saw a number
of Arabian boys, whose prepuces were so long, that, without the aid of
circumcision, he imagined they would be unfit for procreation.
The skin of the eye-lids is also longer in the Oriental than in other
nations. The skin is a substance similar to that of the prepuce; but
what relation, in point of growth, can subsist between two so distant
parts?
Girls in several parts of Arabia, towards the Gulph of Persia and the
Red Sea, are equally subjected to this operation as boys. But in these
countries, as there is no previous overgrowth of the _nymphæ_, they
are not circumcised till they have passed the age of puberty. In other
climates this exuberance is indeed far more early; and it is so general
among the inhabitants of certain countries, as those near the river
Benin, that they circumcise girls as well as boys within eight, or at
most fifteen days after their birth. The circumcision of females is of
great antiquity in Africa; and even Herodotus mentions it as being a
custom of the Ethiopians.
Circumcision may have been founded on necessity, yet infibulation and
castration could never have taken place but from jealousy, or from some
gloomy and superstitious frenzy, some wretched antipathy to the human
race, or from some envious tyrant who enacted laws to make privation a
virtue, and mutilation a merit.
Infibulation is performed upon boys by drawing the prepuce forward,
making an incision, and putting a coarse thread through it, till the
cicatrice is healed; and then, in the room of that, is substituted a
kind of ring, which remains as long as the person pleases who gave
orders for the operation, and sometimes for life. The Oriental monks,
who have made a vow of chastity, wear rings of a large size, in order
that they may be compelled to observe this vow inviolate. We shall
hereafter speak on the infibulation of girls; on this head nothing can
be supposed too fantastic or absurd, which men, borne away by passion,
or immersed in superstition, have scrupled to put in practice.
Though in infancy there is sometimes but one testicle in the scrotum,
and sometimes not any, yet we must not suppose in either case that this
is a real defect. It often happens, that the testicles are retained
in the abdomen, from whence they at length extricate themselves, and
descend to the natural place. This generally happens at the age of
eight or ten years, though sometimes not till that of puberty. They
are scarcely ever concealed after this age, when Nature makes violent
efforts to bring them forward: the same effect is sometimes produced
by some violent motion, as a leap, a fall, &c. Even when the testicles
do not manifest themselves, the procreative powers are not the less
perfect; and it has been observed, that persons in that situation are
often the most vigorous.
There are men who have but one testicle, but this defect is of little
consequence, and in that case is much larger than the usual size.
Others have three, and such are said to possess a vast superiority
of bodily force and vigour. From a view of the animal, creation, we
perceive how much these parts contribute to strength and courage; how
great, for example, is the difference between a bull and an ox, a
wether and a ram, a capon and a cock.
The custom of castrating the human species is of great antiquity. Among
the Egyptians it was the established punishment of adultery. Among
the Romans eunuchs were very numerous; and to this day in Asia, and a
part of Africa, men thus mutilated are employed to attend and act as
guards to the chastity of the women. In Italy, the sole object of this
infamous and cruel operation is to perfect the voice. The Hottentots
cut out one testicle, by the privation of which they imagine they will
become more nimble racers. In other countries, the poor people adopt
the practice in order to prevent their children from being able to
generate, and by that means save them from that distress and anguish
which they themselves experience when they cannot procure food for
their support.
The different kinds of castration are numerous; those intended for
vocal perfection only suffer the extraction of the two testicles; but
those who are instigated by the gloomy distrust of jealousy think their
females far from being safe if guarded by such eunuchs, nor will they
countenance any but what have had the external parts of generation
utterly exterminated.
Amputation is not the only method used for this purpose. Formerly some
people prevented the growth of the testicles, and rendered them useless
by bathing their children in warm water, or in decoctions of plants,
and then pressing and rubbing the testicles till the organization
was destroyed. Others compressed them with an instrument, and it is
pretended, that from this mode of castration the life is not exposed
to the smallest danger.
The amputation of the testicles is not very hazardous; it may be
performed at any age, yet that of infancy is esteemed the most
favourable. The amputation of the whole external parts of generation,
however, is more often mortal than otherwise, especially if performed
after the age of fifteen; and even at the most favourable age, which is
from, seven to ten, it is still attended with danger. The difficulty
of preserving them renders the eunuchs of this species by far the most
valuable. Tavernier says, that in Turkey and Persia they cost five
of six times more than any others. Chardin observes, that the entire
amputation is always accompanied with the most agonizing pain; that it
is performed with tolerable safety on children, but with great danger
after the age of fifteen; that more than a fourth fall victims to it;
and that it takes at least six weeks to heal the wound. Pietro della
Valle, on the other hand, asserts that those who undergo this operation
in Persia, as a punishment for rapes, or other crimes of that nature,
recover from it with ease, even when they are advanced in years, and
that they apply to the wound nothing but a few ashes. Whether those who
suffered the same punishment formerly in Egypt, as related by Diodorus
Siculus, found the consequences of it equally mild, we know not; but,
according to Thevenot, numbers of the children of negroes perish, whom
the Turks force to undergo this operation, although performed at the
early age of between eight to ten.
Besides negro eunuchs, there are others in Turkey, Persia, &c. who
chiefly come from the kingdom of Golconda, the Peninsula on this side
the Ganges, the kingdoms of Assan, Pegu, and Malabar, where their
complexion is grey, and from the Gulph of Bengal, where it is of an
olive colour. There are also white eunuchs from Georgia and Circassia,
tho' not in great numbers. Tavernier says, that during his residence
in Golconda, in 1657, there were not less than 22,000 eunuchs made.
The black ones come from Africa, and chiefly from Ethiopia. Those are
the most prized whose appearance is the most ugly and horrible; a flat
nose, a countenance ghastly, thick large lips and protuberant, and
black straggling teeth are the esteemed qualities. These people have
commonly very fine teeth; but such would be a very great defect in a
black eunuch, who must be a hideous monster.
Eunuchs who have been deprived of only their testicles, still feel
an irritation in the parts that are left, and have the external mark
of desire even more frequently than other men. Those parts, however,
remain, as to size, nearly in the same state as before the operation;
and if this is performed at the age of seven years, an eunuch of
twenty is, in this respect, as a child of seven. If it is not, on the
contrary, performed till the time of puberty, or a little after, the
size is nearly the same as that in other men.
Between the parts of generation and the throat there are particular
connections, altho' we know not the cause. Eunuchs have no beard,
their voice, though shrill and powerful, is never of a deep tone; and
not unoften does the throat become the seat of the secret distemper.
The correspondence which certain parts of the body have with others,
widely remote and of a different nature, ought to be more generally
observed; but we pay too little attention to effects, when we do not
surmise their causes. Thus it is, that though in effect the action
of the animal machine in a great measure depends upon them, these
different affinities remain unexamined with that care they deserve.
In women, there is a great correspondence between the matrix, the
breasts and the head: and how many beneficial facts of this kind might,
be found if a few able physicians would direct their studies to such
discoveries! These muscles, veins, arteries,, and nerves, which they
describe with so much accuracy, and with so much fidelity, are not the
springs which give life to our organization. There resides in organized
bodies certain internal powers, which are by no means guided by the
laws of gross mechanism; instead of attempting to know the nature
of those powers by their effects, the very ideas of them have been
treated as ideal, and endeavours have been made to discard and banish
them from philosophical researches. These very powers, nevertheless,
have maintained their importance in gravitation, in the phenomena of
electricity, &c. But, however evident and universal they may be, as
their action is wholly internal, and they are solely objects of reason,
it is with a kind of unwillingness that they are admitted; inclination
still leads us to judge from external appearances; we form a notion,
that in those appearances every thing consists, and that we are not
allowed to penetrate farther; and thus we effectually turn our hacks
upon that which might lead to refined information.
The ancients, whose genius was less limited, and whose philosophy was
more extended, were not embarrassed at meeting with things they were at
a loss to explain. More intimately acquainted with Nature; with them,
a sympathy, a particular correspondence, was only a phenomenon; but
with us, if we cannot reduce it to our pretended laws of motion, it is
a paradox. They knew that most of the effects of Nature were produced
by means beyond human foresight, they knew it was impossible to reduce
them to any particular principles of action, and modes of operation;
and therefore with them it was sufficient to have remarked a certain
number of relative effects, in order to constitute a cause.
Whether, with the ancients, we call sympathy this peculiar
correspondence of the different parts of the body, or, with the
moderns, we consider it as an unknown relation in the action of the
nerves, it exists through the whole animal economy; and, were the
perfection of the theory of physic our object, too much attention
could not be paid to its effects. But this is not a place to enlarge
on a subject of so much importance. I shall only observe, that this
correspondence between the voice and the organs of generation is
discovered not only in eunuchs but in other men, and even in women. In
men, the voice changes at the age of puberty; and in women, a strong
voice is suspected to indicate a superior propensity to love.
The first sign of puberty is a kind of stiffness in the groin, which
becomes more sensible in walking, or in bending the body forward. This
stiffness is frequently accompanied with pungent pains in the joints,
and also with a new sensation in the parts which characterize the
sexes. The voice is, for some time, harsh and unequal, and afterwards
it becomes more full, strong, and articulate. This change is very
perceptible in boys, but less so in girls, because the sound of their
voices is naturally more acute.
These signs of puberty are common to both the sexes, but there are
others peculiar to each; as in females, the menstrual discharge and
the expansion of the breasts; and in males, the beard, and power of
generating. These signs, it is true, are not alike certain. The beard,
for example, does not always appear precisely at the age of puberty;
and there even exist whole nations where the men have hardly any beard.
There is no nation, however, in which the puberty of the female sex is
not indicated by the enlargement of the breasts.
Universally through the human species women arrive at puberty sooner
than men. But that age is different in different countries, and seems
to depend on the temperature of the climate and the quality of the
food. Among people who live at their ease, and feed plentifully,
children arrive at this state two or three years sooner than those in
the country, and among the poorer classes of people, whose food is
less nourishing and more scanty. In the southern parts of Europe, and
in cities, the majority of girls attain puberty at about twelve years,
and boys at fourteen; but in the regions of the north, and in country
places, the former are hardly so at fourteen, or the latter at sixteen.
Should it be asked why females in every climate are capable of
engendering more early than men? It might be satisfactorily replied,
that men are much larger and stronger, their bones more hard, their
muscles more firm and compact, and therefore a longer time is required
for their growth. And as it is not till after the growth is completed
that the superfluity of the organic particles is dispersed into the
parts of generation, females must of course arrive at maturity sooner
than the males.
In the hot climates of Asia, Africa, and America, girls are generally
mature at ten years of age, and often at nine; and though the menstrual
discharge is less copious in warm countries it is yet more early. The
intervals between are nearly the same in every country, and in this
respect there seems to be a greater difference between individuals than
between nations. In the same climate and nation some women are subject
to the menstrua at the end of every fifteenth day, while others are
free from them for six weeks; but a month, however, two or three days
over or under, is the usual period.
The quantity of the discharge seems to depend on the quantity of
nourishment, and of insensible perspiration. Women who eat much, and
exercise little, have the most copious discharge? in warm countries
it is always least, because the perspiration is great. As to its
duration, it is generally from three to four or five days, though
sometimes to six, seven, and even eight days.
The _material_ causes of it are supposed to be a superfluity of blood
and nutritive particles. The symptoms which precede are certain
indications of repletion; as heat, tension, swelling, and the pains
which women feel, not only in the parts themselves, and the adjoining
ones, but also in the breasts, which swell and discover a surplus of
blood by the _areolæ_, or the circle about the nipple, becoming of a
deeper colour. The eyes are oppressed, and underneath their orbits the
skin assumes a blue or violet tint; the cheeks are flushed; the head is
heavy and full of pain; and the whole body in general is in a state of
oppression from the surcharge of blood.
At the age of puberty the body usually attains its full growth in
length. Just before, young people sometimes increase several inches,
but the quickness of growth is most sudden and perceptible in the
genitals of both sexes. This growth in males is an expansion merely,
but in females it is often attended with a contraction, to which
different appellations have been given in explaining the signs of
virginity.
Mankind, jealous of every kind of pre-eminence, have always put a
superior value on what they could first possess, and that to the
exclusion of others. This species of folly has given a positive entity
to the virginity of women. Virginity, which is nothing but a _moral_,
being a virtue that solely consists in the purity of the heart, men
have, as with one consent, converted into a _physical_ object, and
in which they also fancy themselves much interested. From these
absurd opinions, usages, ceremonies, superstitions, and even awards
and punishments, have been established: abuses the most illicit, and
customs the most shocking and disgraceful, have been authorized. To
ignorant matrons, and to prejudiced physicians, have young women been
obliged to submit the most secret parts of Nature for examination,
without their reflecting that such acts of indecency is a downright
attack upon chastity, and that every immodest, every indelicate
situation, which caused an internal blush, was little less than
prostitution.
The prejudices that have been formed on this head I despair of
removing. Things which mankind take a pleasure in believing, however
nugatory and unreasonable they may be, they will always believe; yet,
as it is the province of history to relate not only the accession
of events, and the circumstances of facts, but also the origin of
predominant opinions and errors, I think it my indispensable duty,
in the History of Man, to examine this favourite idol to which he
sacrifices; to consider what the reasons are by which he is prompted to
pay that adoration, and to enquire whether virginity, as he understands
it, is a real or merely a fabulous divinity.
Fallopius, Vesalus, Bartholin, Heister, Ruysch and many other
anatomists, pretend, that the membrane of the hymen is a substance
which actually exists, and which ought to be numbered among the parts
of generation peculiar to women. They maintain further, that this
membrane is fleshy, very thin in children, but more thick in grown
girls; that it is situated under the orifice of the urethra, and that
it partly closes the passage of the vagina; that there is a hole
pierced through it, sometimes round, sometimes long, so small that a
pea can hardly be passed through in infancy, or a bean at puberty. The
hymen, according to Winflow, is a membranous kind of wrinkle, more or
less circular, and sometimes semi-lunar, with an aperture, in some very
small, and in others more large. Dulaurent, Graaf, Pineus, Mauricea,
and other anatomists, of at least equal reputation and authority with
those first quoted, insist, on the other hand, that the membrane of the
hymen is nothing but a chimera, a part by no means natural to girls,
and express their astonishment that it should have ever been mentioned
as a thing which has an actual and real existence. In confirmation of
this doctrine they adduce a multitude of observations made on girls of
different ages, whom they had dissected, in none of whom this membrane
was to be found. They confess that they have seen, though very rarely,
a membrane that united certain fleshy protuberances, which they call
_carunculæ myrtiformes_; but this membrane they insist is by no means
consonant to the natural state of the parts. Anatomists are not more
united as to the quality and number of these _carunculæ_. Are they
merely wrinkles of the vagina? Are they distinct and separate parts? Do
they belong to the membrane of the hymen? Is their number certain? Is
there only one, or are there many, in the state of virginity? Each of
these questions has been asked, and to each a different answer has been
given.
This contrariety of opinion, as to a fact which depends upon a simple
inspection, is a proof of the eagerness of mankind to discover in
Nature things which alone exist in their own imaginations. Several
anatomists frankly declare they never found either the hymen or
_carunculæ_, even before the age of puberty, while others, in
maintaining that this membrane, and these _carunculæ_ do exist,
confess, that they are substances which vary in form, size, and
consistency, in different subjects; that sometimes in the place of the
hymen there is only a single _caruncula_; that at other times there are
two or more united by a membrane, and that the shape of the aperture
is of different forms. From all these observations what conclusions
are to be drawn, but that the causes of the pretended contraction in
the passage of the vagina are not certain, and that when they do exist
their effect is transient and susceptible of different modifications?
Anatomy leaves no entire certainty as to the existence of this
membrane of the hymen and these _carunculæ_, of course it authorizes
us to reject such tokens of virginity, not only as uncertain but as
imaginary. The effusion of blood, though a more common sign, is not
less equivocal. In every age this has been deemed a certain proof of
virginity; and yet all such proof is nothing, where the entrance of
the vagina is naturally relaxed or dilated. Neither is it confined to
virgins, as many women who pretend not to that denomination, frequently
experience an effusion off blood. From some it flows copiously, and
repeatedly; from others in a very small quantity, and only once; and
from some it never flows at all. This diversity depends on the age,
the health, the conformation of the parts, and a number of other
circumstances. A few of these we shall enumerate, and at the same time
endeavour to investigate the causes of those physical tokens which have
been laid down as certain proofs of virginity.
At the age of puberty, the parts of both sexes undergo a considerable
change. Those of man advance so quickly, that in two or three years
they attain their full growth, those of women also increase at
this period, especially the _nymphæ_, which though before almost
imperceptible, become now large and evident. The menstrual discharge
happens at the same time; and all the parts being still in a state
of growth, swell by an increase of blood, and mutually compress each
other. The orifice of the vagina contracts, though the vagina itself
has considerably increased. The form of this contraction must be
very different in different subjects, for from the information of
anatomists, it appears, there are sometimes four, at others only three
or two _carunculæ_, and that sometimes there is found a circular, or
semi-lunar series of folds and wrinkles. But one thing anatomists have
never told us; namely, that whatever form this contraction may assume,
it never appears before the age of puberty.
In the young girls whom I have had occasion to see dissected, nothing
of that kind was to be found; and having collected several facts on
this subject, I can with confidence maintain, that when a girl has
conversed with a man before puberty, there is no effusion of blood,
provided the disproportion of the parts had not been too great, or the
efforts had not been too violent. At full puberty, on the other hand,
that effusion often happens, even from trifling causes; especially if
she is of a full habit, and regular. This sign of virginity is rarely
observed in such as are meagre or subject to the _fluor albus_; and,
what evidently proves it to be fallacious, is the frequency of its
repetition. In some women four, and even five times, has this pretended
virginity been renewed in the space of two or three years; and often
been successfully practised by some on their deluded husbands upon
being suspected of incontinency, and that purely by abstinence. This
renovation, however, only happens from the fourteenth to about the
eighteenth year. When the growth of the body is finished the parts
remain in the state they then are; and when they assume a different
appearance, it is only by such expedients and artifices as, to mention
here, would be alike unnecessary and improper.
As nothing, therefore, can be more chimerical than the prejudices of
men, with respect to virginity, so nothing can be more uncertain than
the pretended signs of it. A young woman may have commerce with a man,
before the years of puberty, and yet discover no signs of virginity;
yet afterwards, the period of puberty being arrived, this same woman
shall exhibit all these pretended signs, while a real virgin may not
have the smallest effusion whatever. Men, therefore, ought to make
themselves very easy as to this point, and not give a loose, as they
often do, to unjust and idle suspicions.
Were we desirous to obtain an evident and undoubted sign of virginity,
we should search for it among those barbarous nations who, incapable
of instilling, by education, the sentiments of virtue and honour
into their children, secure the chastity of their daughters by
expedient which nothing could have suggested but the rudeness of their
manners. The people of Ethiopia, and other parts of Africa, of Pegu,
Arabia Petræa and other nations of Asia, draw together by a kind of
needle-work, the part which Nature has separated, leaving only a space
sufficient for the necessary evacuations. As the child grows, the parts
gradually adhere; insomuch that, when the time of marriage arrives,
they must unavoidably be disunited by incision. For this infibulation
of girls, as it is a substance not subject to corruption, they use
the fibres of the asbestos. Some tribes only use a kind of ring; to
this practice, wives as well as girls are subjected, with this single
difference, that the ring alloted to the latter cannot be removed, and
in that alloted to the former there is a lock of which the husband
alone possesses the key. But why quote barbarous nations, when we have
similar examples so much nearer home? What is the delicacy on which
some of our neighbours pique themselves, with respect to the chastity
of their wives, but a jealousy, equally barbarous and criminal?
How various are the dispositions, manners, and opinions of different
nations? After what has been here related of the high estimation in
which virginity is held by the bulk of mankind, and of the precautions
and ignomious methods they employ, in order to secure it, could it be
imagined there were other nations who despise it, and who consider the
trouble of removing it as a servile office?
Prompted by superstition, the inhabitants of certain countries resign
the first fruits of virginity to their priests, and sometimes to
their very idols. This privilege is enjoyed by the priests of Cochin
and Calicut; and in Goa, virgins are prostituted, either voluntarily
or forcibly, by their nearest relations to an idol of iron. Of these
vile excesses, gross superstition and a blind sense of the duties
of religion, have been the sources, while motives more earthly have
induced people of other countries eagerly to devote their daughters to
their chiefs. In this manner, without any dishonour, do they prostitute
their daughters in the kingdom of Congo. Nearly the same is the custom
in Turkey, in Persia, and in several other countries, both of Asia and
Africa, where the most eminent nobles deem themselves, in the highest
degree, honoured by receiving from their sovereign, women with whom he
is himself already disgusted.
In the kingdom of Arracan, and in the Philippine islands, a man would
think himself much disgraced were he to espouse a female who had not
been defloured; and it is only by dint of money that a person can be
prevailed with to precede the husband. In the province of Thibet, a
mother will search for a stranger, and earnestly beg of him to put
her daughter in a situation for obtaining a husband. The Laplanders
also prefer such women as have already had a commerce with strangers,
from an idea that they must be possessed of more merit than others,
otherwise they could not have pleased men whom they consider as better
judges of beauty than themselves. In Madagascar, and in several other
countries, women the most dissolute and debauched are those who are
married the soonest. Many more instances might be produced of this
peculiar fancy, which could never have subsisted but from a gross and
utter depravation of manners.
Marriage is the natural state of man after puberty. A man ought to
have but one wife, and a woman but one husband; This is the law of
Nature, the number of females being nearly equal with that of males,
and ignorance and tyranny must have been the leading features where
men have established laws in opposition to it. Reason, humanity, and
justice, complain aloud of those odious seraglios, in which the liberty
and the affections of many women are sacrificed to the brutal passion
of one individual. Are these tyrants of mankind the more happy by this
pre-eminence?--No; surrounded with eunuchs, and with women, useless to
themselves and to other men, the misery they have created is a constant
source of torment and perplexity.
Marriage, therefore, as it is established among us, and among every
other people who are guided by the light of reason and revelation,
is a state which is suited to man, and in which he ought to employ
the additional faculties he has acquired by puberty: by obstinately
persisting in celibacy they will become troublesome, and even fatal.
From a too long continence in either sex diseases may arise, or at
least create irritations so violent, that reason and religion would
not be sufficient to counteract the impetuosity of the passions which
they excite, and thus man may be reduced to a level with the brutes,
which, under the impression of such sensations, become furious and
ungovernable.
The most violent effect of this irritation in women is the _furor
uterinus_, a kind of mania, which disorders their reason and bereaves
them of all sense of shame. With words the most lascivious, and with
actions the most indecent, is this melancholy distemper accompanied and
its origin revealed. I have seen a girl at the age of twelve years, of
a brown but lively and florid complexion, small in size, yet strong
and plump, commit the most indecent actions at the very sight of a
man, from which nothing could divert her, neither the presence of her
mother, expostulation, nor punishment. Her reason, however, forsook
her not, and the paroxysms, which were so violent as to excite horror,
ceased the minute she was left with her own sex. Aristotle says, it
is at this age the irritation is greatest, and girls ought then to be
most attentively watched. The remark may be applicable to the climate
in which he lived, but in countries more cold, the female constitution
does not become warm so early.
When the _furor uterinus_ increases to a certain degree marriage is
no remedy for it and instances there are of its being fatal. Happily
the force of Nature is rarely of itself the cause of such dreadful
passions, even when the temperament inclines to them; and before
they arrive at this extremity many causes must concur, of which the
principal is, an imagination inflamed by licentious conversation and
obscene representations. The contrary temperament is infinitely more
common among women, the generality of whom are, with respect to this
passion, exceedingly cool or indifferent. Of men too, there are many
in whose chastity there is little merit; and some I have known, who,
at the age of twenty-five and thirty, enjoyed a good state of health
without having ever experienced this passion so urgent as to render a
gratification necessary.
From continence there is less to be feared than from excess, as is
strikingly evinced in a number of men, some of whom, by the effects of
the latter, lose their memory; some are deprived of sight; some become
bald, and many have dwindled into a consumption and died.
Of the irreparable injury done to their health by venereal indulgences,
young persons can never be sufficiently warned. How many cease to be
men, or who at least cease to enjoy the faculty of manhood, before the
age of thirty? And how many at fifteen, or eighteen, have received the
infection of a disease, which is not only in itself disgraceful, but
often incurable.
It has already been observed, that at the age of puberty, the growth
usually ceases. It often happens, however, that in the course of
a tedious illness, the body increases more in length, than would
have been the case in a state of perfect health. This is probably
occasioned by the external organs of generation remaining without
action during that period. The organic nutriment, having no irritation
to determine it to those parts, does not reach them; and the want of
this irritation is owing to an imbecility and lassitude of the parts,
which prevent the secretion of the seminal fluid. As the organic
particles, therefore, remain in the mass of blood, the extremities of
the bones are necessarily enlarged, nearly in the same manner as those
of eunuchs. Thus young people, on their recovery from along course
of sickness, are frequently taller, but worst shaped, than formerly.
Some, for instance, become crooked-backed, others crook-legged; and
this, because the still ductile extremities of the bones have been
necessarily extended by the superfluity of the organic particles, whose
only office, in a state of health, would have been the formation of the
seminal fluid.
To produce children is the object of marriage, though this object
is sometimes frustrated. Among the different causes of sterility
there are some alike common to men and women; but as in men they are
more apparent, to men they are more commonly attributed. In both
sexes, sterility is occasioned either by an inherent defect in the
conformation of the organs, or by accidental injuries to the organs
themselves. Among men, the most essential imperfections in the
conformation are those which affect the testicles, or those parts
called the _erectores penis_. The false direction of the urethra,
which is sometimes not only oblique, but badly perforated, is another
obstacle to generation; as is the adherence of the prepuce to the
bridle, which may, however, be corrected. In women, the conformation
of the matrix may likewise be imperfect; and the perpetual closure or
expansion of the orifice of the matrix, are defects which are alike
repugnant to generation. But the most frequent cause of sterility,
both in men and women, is the corruption of the seminal liquid in
the _testes_; for if the secretion, by which the semen be formed, is
vitiated, the fluid must be incapable of impregnation; in which case,
though the organs may have every appearance of being properly qualified
for it, there will be no procreation; but these causes have no external
appearance.
In cases of sterility, different means have been employed to discover
whether the defect was to be imputed to the man or the woman. Of these,
inspection is the chief; and indeed, if the sterility be occasioned by
an external fault in the conformation, this is sufficient. But if the
defect is in the internal organs, it is almost impossible to discover
or remove it. There are men, to all appearance well formed, who want
the genuine sign of a proper conformation; and others who have it in so
slight a degree as to make the mark of virility extremely equivocal.
This is the most animal part of the human frame, and is constantly
under the influence of instinct, and not governed by that of the
mind. Many young persons of the purest ideas have been subjected to
the liveliest sensations, though ignorant of pleasure, or the cause,
and others remain cold and languid notwithstanding the efforts of
imagination.
When sterility does not arise from any defect in external conformation,
it more frequently proceeds from the women than the men; for, besides
the injurious effects of the fluor albus, I conceive there is another
material cause. In the course of my experiments, as related in the
preceding volume, I observed there were small protuberances in the
female testicles which I called glandular bodies; they originate under
the membrane of the testicle, in a short time begin to swell, and then
opening, a fluid issues therefrom; from this time they begin to decay,
and having disappeared, they are immediately succeeded by others, from
which the testicles are constantly undergoing a kind of alteration;
and I am inclined to think, that if any circumstance takes place to
interrupt the necessary exercise of the vessels, the seminal liquor
will become corrupt, and sterility also will follow.
Sometimes conception precedes puberty. Numbers of women have become
mothers before the smallest appearance of the menstrua: and some to
whom this evacuation was never known have brought forth children.
Instances of this occur in our own climate, without travelling for them
to Brazil; where whole nations, we are told, are perpetuated without
any woman being subject to the menstrual discharge; an evident proof,
that it is not the substance of this discharge, but the seminal liquid
of male and female which are essentially necessary to generation. It is
also known that the cessation of the menses, which generally happens
about the age of forty or fifty, does not always disqualify women
from conceiving, and that some women have really become pregnant at
the age of sixty or seventy. These examples, however frequent, may be
considered as exceptions to the general rule; but they are sufficient
to convince us that the menstrual blood is by no means the constituent
principle of generation.
In the ordinary course of Nature women do not conceive before the
menses appear, nor after they have ceased. The age at which men first
acquire the powers of procreation is less distinctly marked. His body
must obtain a certain degree of growth, before the seminal fluid can
be produced; and before it can be formed and perfected, that growth
must become still greater. This usually happens between the age of
twelve and eighteen; but the period at which the procreative faculty
of man ceases, Nature seems to have left undetermined. At sixty or
seventy, when age begins to enfeeble the body, the seminal fluid is
less copious, and often unprolific; yet there are many instances of men
still continuing to procreate at the age of eighty or ninety.
There also are examples of boys who have propagated at eight, nine,
and ten years; and of girls who have conceived at seven, eight, and
nine. But such facts are exceedingly rare, and ought to be classed
as singular phenomena. The external sign of virility appears in
infancy, but that is not sufficient; in order to accomplish the act of
generation, there must be a previous production of semen; and this is
never effected till the growth of the body is nearly finished. At first
the quantity is very small, and for the most part unfruitful.
Some authors have mentioned two signs of conception. The one is,
a kind of tremor which they say begins at the time of conception,
and continues for several days after; the other is taken from the
orifice of the matrix, which they assure us is entirely closed after
conception. These signs are, however, in my opinion, very equivocal, if
not altogether imaginary.
This tremor is mentioned by Hippocrates, and, according to him, it is
so violent as to make the teeth chatter. Galen, on the authority of
some women, imputes this symptom to a contraction of the matrix; others
explain it by a vague sensation of cold over the whole body, and almost
all establish the fact, like Galen, from the testimony of different
women.
Opinions, however, vary as to the changes which happen in the matrix
after conception, some maintaining, that the edges of the orifice are
drawn together so closely that there is not the smallest vacancy left
between them; and others, that these edges are not exactly close till
after the two first months of pregnancy. They nevertheless agree, that
immediately after conception the orifice is closed by a glutinous
humour; that the matrix, which, but for the pregnancy, might receive
through its orifice a substance of the size of a pea, has no longer
any perceptible aperture, and that the difference is so evident that a
skilful midwife may distinguish it. If these assertions were true, even
in the first days of pregnancy, its certainty or uncertainty might be
ascertained.
The advocates on the other side urge, that if after conception the
orifice of the matrix were closed, there could be no superfoetation.
To this it may be replied, that the seminal liquor may penetrate
through the membranes of the matrix; that even the matrix itself
may open to admit the superfoetation; and that at any rate
superfoetations happen so rarely, that they make a very trifling
exception to the general rule. Other authors have maintained, that
this change never appears but in women who have conceived before,
and borne children. In first conceptions, indeed, the difference
must be less sensible; but be it as conspicuous as it may, ought we
thence to conclude that it is a certain and positive sign? No; it is
unaccompanied with sufficient evidence.
Neither from the study of anatomy, nor from experiments, can we, as
to this point, acquire more than general conclusions, which on a
particular examination are often found to be highly erroneous. It is
the same also with respect to the tremor or convulsive cold, which some
women have said they felt at the time of conception. As most women do
not experience this sensation; as others assure us, on the contrary,
that they have felt a burning heat; and, as others still confess, that
they are utter strangers to all such feelings; the natural conclusion
is, that such signs are highly dubious, and that when they do happen,
it is less perhaps in consequence of conception, than of other
consequences.
On this subject I shall add but one fact, from "Parson's Lectures on
Muscular Motion," which proves that the orifice of the matrix does
not close immediately after conception; or that at least the seminal
fluid may even then find a passage into it. A woman of Charles-Town,
in South-Carolina, was delivered, in 1714, of two children, one
immediately after the other. To the utter astonishment of all present,
one child was black and the other white. From this evident testimony
of her infidelity to her husband, the woman acknowledged that a negro
had one day entered her chamber, where her husband had just left her
in bed, and by threats of immediate death compelled her to gratify his
desires. This fact proves that the conception of two or more children
does not always happen at one time, and gives great weight to my
opinion, that the semen penetrates through the texture of the matrix.
Many other equivocal symptoms of pregnancy are said to distinguish
it in the first months; as a slight pain in the region of the matrix
and loins; a numbness over the whole body; a continual drowsiness; a
melancholy and capricious disposition; the tooth-ach, head-ach, and
vertigo; yellow eyes, with the pupils contracted, and lids oppressed;
paleness of countenance, with spots upon it; a depraved appetite, with
loathing, vomiting, and spitting; hysteric symptoms; the fluor albus;
stoppage of the menstrual discharge, or instead of it hæmorrhage; the
secretion of milk in the breasts, &c. Many other symptoms might be
adduced, which are supposed to be the signs of pregnancy, but which are
frequently nothing more than the effects of particular maladies.
Of these we shall leave the discussion to physicians. Were we to
consider each of them in particular, we should deviate too far from
our subject; nor could we do it with advantage, without entering into
a lengthened series of profound investigation. It is with this as
with a number of other subjects that relate to physiology and animal
economy, the authors, very few excepted, who have written on these
subjects, have treated them in a manner so vague, and explained them
by affinities so remote, and hypotheses so false, that it is not
surprising their remarks should have been attended with as little
information as utility.
CHAPTER IV.
A DESCRIPTION OF MAN.
The body attains its full height at the age of puberty, or at least
a few years after. Some young people cease growing at fourteen or
fifteen; while others continue their growth till two or three and
twenty. During this period most men are of slender make; their thighs
and legs small, and the muscular parts are as yet unfilled; but by
degrees the fleshy fibres augment, the muscles swell, the limbs assume
their figure, and become more proportioned, and before the age of
thirty the body, in men, has acquired its most perfect symmetry.
In women, the body sooner attains this symmetry; their muscles and
other parts being less strong, compact, and solid than those of men;
and being also less in size, they require less time in coming to
maturity. Hence it is that a woman is as completely formed at twenty,
as a man at thirty.
The body of a well-shaped man ought to be square, the muscles expressed
with boldness, and the lines in the face distinctly marked. In woman
superior elegance prevails; her form is more soft, and her features
more delicate. Strength and majesty belong to the former, grace and
softness are the peculiar embellishments of the latter.
In both, their external forms declare their sovereignty over every
living creature. Man supports his body erect; his attitude is that of
command; and his face, which is turned towards the heavens, displays a
superior dignity. The image of his soul is painted in his countenance;
the excellence of his nature penetrates through the material form in
which it is enclosed, and gives to his features a lively animation. His
majestic port, his firm and resolute step, announce the superiority of
his rank. He touches the earth only with his extremity, and beholds
it as if at a disdainful distance. His arms are not given to him for
pillars of support; nor does he render his hands callous by their
treading on the ground, and losing that delicacy of feeling for which
they were originally designed. His arms and hands are formed for very
different purposes; they are formed to second every intention of his
will; to defend himself, and to enable him to seize and enjoy the gifts
of Nature.
When the mind is at rest, all the features of the visage are in a state
of profound tranquillity. Their proportion, their union, their harmony,
seem to mark the sweet serenity, and to give a true information of
what passes within. When the soul, however, is agitated, the human
visage becomes a living picture, where the passions are expressed with
as much delicacy as energy; where every motion is expressed by some
corresponding feature; where every impression anticipates the will, and
betrays those hidden agitations, that he would often wish to conceal.
It is particularly in the eyes that the passions are painted, and most
readily discovered. The eye seems to belong to the soul more than any
other organ; it seems to participate of all its emotions; the softest
and most tender as well as the most violent and tumultous. These if not
only receives, but transmits by sympathy into the soul of the observer
all that secret fire with which its mind is agitated; and thus does
passion often become general. In short the eye is the lively index of
the mind, and forcibly speaks the language of intelligence.
Those who are short-sighted labour under a particular disadvantage in
this respect, being in a manner deprived of the intelligent expression
of the eye; and which frequently gives an air of stupidity to the
finest face. It is strong and violent passions alone that we ever see
marked on such countenances, and which often produce very unfavourable
prepossessions. However intelligent we may afterwards find such
persons, it is with difficulty we renounce our former prejudices. We
are so habituated to judge by external appearances that we too often
decide on men's talents by their physiognomy; and having perhaps at
first, caught up our judgments prematurely, they mechanically influence
us all our lives after; nay the colour, or cut of the clothes will
sometimes influence conclusions as to their abilities; and that not
always without reason: therefore since strangers may decide upon
understanding by so trifling an article as dress, we ought not to be
totally inattentive to it, trifling as it may appear.
The vivacity, or the languid motion of the eyes, gives the strongest
marks to the countenance; and their colour contributes still more
to enforce the expression. The different colours of the eyes are
dark-hazle, light-hazle, green, blue, grey, and whitish grey. These
different colours arise from the different colours of the little
muscles, that serve to contract the pupil, and they very often change
colour with disorder, and with age.
Those most frequent are, the hazle and the blue, and very often
both these colours are found in the same eye. Those eyes which are
called black are only dark-hazle, which may be easily seen upon close
inspection, and only appear black from the contrast with the white of
the eye; in all those which have a blue shade that colour becomes the
most predominant. Those eyes are reckoned the most beautiful where the
shade is the deepest; and either in the black or the blue, the fire,
which gives to the eye its finest expression, is most distinguishable.
For this reason, the black eyes, as they are called, have the greatest
force and vivacity; but the blue are the most delicate, and have the
most powerful effect in beauty, as they reflect a greater variety of
rays from the tints of which they are composed.
This variety in the colour of the eyes, is peculiar to man, and one
or two of the brute-creation; in other animals, the colour in any one
individual is the same in all the rest. The eyes of the ox are brown;
those of sheep of a watery colour; those of goats are grey, &c. and it
may also be remarked, that the eyes of most white animals are red; as
the rabbit, ferret, &c. "According to Aristotle, in the human species
grey eyes are the strongest; blues eyes are weak; full eyes are near
sighted, and brown ones require a good light."
Though the eye, when put in motion, seems to be drawn towards either
side, yet it only moves round its centre; by which its coloured part
moves nearer, or farther from the angle of the eye-lids, and is thus
elevated or depressed. The distance between the eye is less in man
than in any other animal; in some it is so great that it is almost
impossible that they should ever view the same object with both eyes at
once.
Next to the eyes, that which gives most character to the face are
the eye-brows, which being, in some measure, totally different from
the other features, their effect is most readily distinguished. The
eye-lashes have an effect in giving expression to the eye, particularly
when long and close, they soften its glances, and improve its
sweetness. Man and apes are the only animals that have eye-lashes both
upon the upper and lower lids, all other animals want them on the lid
below, and even man has less on the under than on the upper.
The eye-lids serve to guard the ball of the eye, and to furnish it with
a proper moisture. The upper lid rises and falls; the lower has scarce
any motion; and though their being moved depends on the will, yet the
will is unable to keep them open when sleep, or fatigue, oppresses
the mind. In birds and amphibious quadrupeds the lower lid alone has
motion; and fishes and insects have no eye-lids whatsoever.
The forehead makes a large part of the face, and chiefly contributes to
its beauty. It ought to be justly proportioned, neither too round nor
too flat, neither too narrow nor too low, and it should be regularly
surrounded with the hair. The hair tends greatly to improve the face,
and baldness takes away from beauty. Borrowed locks, however, do not
justly supply the place of real ones, as the true character cannot be
so well traced in the countenance when the one is substituted for the
other. The highest part of the head, and that immediately above the
temples, first becomes bald; the hair under the temples, and at the
back of the head, is seldom known to fail.
It has been observed by some authors that baldness was peculiar to
man, and that it never happens to women in the most advanced periods
of life. The hair is, in general, thickest where the constitution is
strongest, and more glossy and beautiful where the health is most
permanent. The ancients supposed the hair to be produced like the
nails, the part next the root pushing out that immediately contiguous.
But the moderns have found that every hair may be truly said to live
and to receive nutriment like other parts of the body. The roots do
not turn grey sooner than the extremities, but the whole hair changes
colour nearly at the same time, and we have many instances of persons
who have grown grey in one night's time. When turned white it gradually
loses its strength and falls off. Aristotle asserts, that no man ever
became bald previous to his intercourse with women.
The nose is the most prominent feature in the face, but as it has
scarce any motion, even in the strongest passions, it rather adds to
the beauty, than to the expression of the countenance. The form of this
feature, and its advanced position, are peculiar to the human visage
alone. Other animals, for the most part, have nostrils with a partition
between them, but none of them have an elevated nose. Apes themselves
have scarce any thing else of this feature but the nostrils, the rest
of the feature lying flat upon the visage, and scarce higher than the
cheek-bones. This organ serves man and most animals not only to breathe
but to enjoy odoriferous scents. Birds have merely two holes for these
purposes.
The mouth and lips, next to the eyes, are found to have the greatest
expression. The passions have great power over this part of the face,
and the mouth marks its different degrees by its different forms. The
organ of speech still more animates this part, and gives it more life
than any other feature in the face. The ruby colour of the lips, and
the white enamel of the teeth, have such a superiority over every other
feature that they seem to form the principal object of our regard.
In fact, the whole attention is fixed upon the lips of the speaker;
however rapid his discourse, and however various the subject, the mouth
takes correspondent situations, and deaf men have been often found to
_see_ the force of those reasonings, which they could not _hear_, by
attending to the motions of the lips.
Notwithstanding the opinion of Aristotle, with regard to the crocodile,
I am convinced, that in that, as well as in man, and other animals,
the under jaw alone has the power of motion. In the human embrio, and
in monkeys, the under jaw is very much advanced before the upper. In
instances of the most violent passion this jaw has often an involuntary
quivering motion; and often also pain and pleasure, as well, as languor
produces another, which is that of yawning.
When the mind is affected with ardent desire, or reflects with regret
upon some good unattained or lost, it feels an internal emotion, which
acting upon the diaphragm, elevates the lungs, and produces a sigh;
when the mind perceives no prospect of relief the sighs are repeated,
sorrow succeeds, and tears often follow; the air rushes into the
lungs, and gives rise to an inspiration stronger than sighs, termed
sobbing, in which the voice becomes more evident; from this it proceeds
to groans, which are a species of sobs continued to some length, and
are longer or shorter according to the degree of anxiety the mind is
labouring under. The plaintive shriek is a groan expressed with a sharp
tone of voice; which when violently excited, generally continues the
same tone throughout, but when moderate, usually falls at the end.
Laughter is a sound of the voice, interrupted and pursued for some
continuance. The muscles of the belly, and the diaphragm, are employed
in its weaker exertions; but those of the ribs are violently agitated
in the stronger; the head and breast are sometimes thrown forward,
in order to raise them with the greater ease. The chest remains
undisturbed, the cheeks swell, the mouth naturally opens, and the
belly becoming depressed, the air issues out with a noise, and which
in violent fits continues for some time, and is often repeated; but
in more tranquil emotions, although the cheeks swell, the lips remain
close, and in some persons dimples are formed near the corners of the
mouth. This smile is often an indication of kindness and good-will; it
is also often used as a mark of contempt and ridicule.
The cheeks are features without any particular motion, and rather
seem as an ornament to the face than for the purpose of expression,
as may also be said of the chin and temples. The former indeed may be
considered in some measure a picture of the mind, from the involuntary
paleness and redness with which they are at limes overspread. Blushing
proceeds from different passions; being produced from shame, anger,
pride, Or joy, while paleness is ever an attendant on fright, fear, and
sorrow. These alterations in the colour are entirely involuntary; all
the other expressions of the passions are, in some small degree, under
control; but blushing and paleness betray our secret thoughts, and we
might as well attempt to stop the circulation of our blood, by which
they are caused, as to prevent their appearance.
The whole head, as well as the features of the face, takes peculiar
attitudes from different passions; it bends forward to express
humility, shame, or sorrow; it is turned to one side, in languor, or in
pity; it is thrown with the chin forward, in arrogance and pride; erect
in self-conceit and obstinacy; it is thrown backwards in surprize or
astonishment; and combines its motions to the one side and the other,
to express contempt, ridicule, anger, and resentment.
The parts of the head which give least expression to the face are the
ears. These which are immoveable, and make so small an appearance in
man, are very distinguishing features in quadrupeds: they serve in
them as the principal marks of the passions, and discover their joys
or their terrors with tolerable precision. The smallest ears in men
are said to be most beautiful; but the largest are found the best for
hearing. Some savage nations bore their ears, and so draw down the tips
to rest upon their shoulders.
The different customs of men appear still more extravagant in their
manner of wearing their beards. Some, and among others the Turks, cut
the hair off their heads, and let their beards grow. The Europeans,
on the contrary, shave their beards and wear their hair. The American
savages pluck the hairs off their beards, but are proud of those on
the head; the Negroes shave their heads in figures at one time, in
stars at another, and still more commonly in alternate stripes. The
Talapoins of Siam shave the heads and the eye-brows of such children
as are committed to their care. Every nation seems to have entertained
different prejudices, at different times, in favour of one part or
another of the beard. Some have preferred the hair upon the upper lip
to that on the chin; some like the hair hanging down; some chuse it
curled; and others like it straight.
Though fashions have arisen in different countries from fancy and
caprice, yet when they have become general they deserve examination.
Mankind have always considered it as a matter of moment, and they
will ever continue desirous of drawing the attention of each other,
by such ornaments as mark the riches, the power, or the courage of
the wearer. The value of shining stones is entirely founded upon their
scarceness or their brilliancy. It is the same with respect to shining
metals, of which the weight is so little regarded when spread over our
cloaths. These ornaments are designed to draw the attention of others,
and to excite the idea of wealth and grandeur; and few there are who,
undazzled by the glitter of an outside, can coolly distinguish between
the metal and the man.
All things rare and brilliant will, therefore, continue to be
fashionable, while men derive greater advantage from riches than
virtue, and while the means of appearing considerable are more easily
acquired than the title to merit. The first impression we make on
strangers arises from our dress; and this varies in conformity to
the character we are ambitious to obtain. The modest man, or he who
would wish to be thought so, endeavours to shew the simplicity of his
mind by the plainness of his dress; the vain man, on the contrary,
takes a pleasure in displaying his superiority in finery and external
appearance.
Another object of dress is, to encrease the size of our figure, and to
take up more room in the world than Nature seems to have allotted us.
We desire to enlarge our dimensions by swelling out our cloaths and
raising our heels; but how bulky soever our dress may be, our vanities
still exceed them. The largeness of the doctor's wig arises from the
same pride as the smallness of the beau's queue. Both want to have the
size of their understanding measured by the external dimensions of
their heads.
There are some fashions that seem to have a more reasonable origin,
which is to hide or to lessen the defects of Nature. To take men
altogether, there are many more ordinary faces and deformed bodies,
than beautiful countenances and handsome figures. The former, as being
the most numerous, give laws to fashion, and their laws are generally
such as are made in their favour. Women begin to colour their checks
with red when the natural roses are faded, and the younger are obliged
to follow the example, though not compelled by the same necessity. In
all parts of the world this custom prevails more or less, and powdering
and frizzing the hair, though not so general, seems to have arisen from
a similar desire of displaying the features to most advantage.
But, leaving the draperies of the human picture, let us return to the
figure unadorned by art.
The head of man, whether considered externally or internally, is
differently formed from that of all other animals. The head of the
monkey has some similitude, but in that there are differences, which
we shall take notice of in another place. The bodies of almost all
quadrupeds are covered with hair, but the head of man alone has this
ornament before puberty, and that more abundantly than any other animal.
There is a great variety in the teeth of all animals, some have them
above and below, others have them in the under jaw only: in some they
stand separate from each other, while in others they are close and
united. The palate of some fishes is nothing but a bony substance
studded with points, which perform the office of teeth. All these
substances, that is, the teeth of men, quadrupeds, and fishes, the
saws, &c. of insects, like the nails, horns, and hoofs, derive their
origin from the nerves. We before remarked that the nerves harden by
being exposed to the air; and as the mouth gives free access to it, the
nerves that terminate therein, being thus exposed, acquire a solidity.
In this manner the teeth and nails are formed in man, and the beaks,
hoofs, horns, and talons of other animals are produced.
The neck supports the head, and unites it to the body. This part is
more considerable in the generality of quadrupeds, than in man. Fishes
and other animals that have not lungs similar to ours, have no neck.
Birds in general have the neck longer than any other kind of animal;
those of them which have short claws have also short necks, and so on
the contrary.
The human breast is larger in proportion than that of other animals;
and none but man, and those animals which make use of their fore feet
as hands, such as monkeys, squirrels, &c. have collar-bones. The
breasts, in women are larger than in men; they however seem formed
in the same, manner; and sometimes milk is found in the breasts of
the latter. Of this there have been many instances about the age of
puberty, and I have seen a young man press a considerable quantity
out of one of his breasts. Among animals there, is a great variety in
this part of the body. Some, as the ape and the elephant, have but two
teats, which are placed on each side of the breast, Bears have four.
Sheep have but two, placed between the hinder legs. Other animals,
such as the bitch and sow, have them all along the belly. Birds and
other oviparous animals have no teats; but viviparous fishes, as the
whale and the dolphin, have both teats and milk. The form also of the
teats varies in different animals, and in the same animal at different
ages. Those women whose breasts are shaped like a pear, are said to
make the best nurses. In the belly of the human race the naval makes a
conspicuous figure, but which is scarcely perceptible in other animals.
The arms of men but very little resemble the fore legs of quadrupeds,
and much less the wings of birds. The ape is the only animal that is
possessed of hands and arms; and they are fashioned more rudely, and
with less exact proportion, than in men. The shoulders are also much
larger in man than in any other animal, and of a form widely distinct.
The form of the back differs not much from that of many quadrupeds,
only that the reins are more muscular and strong. The buttock, however,
in man is different from that of all animals whatsoever. What goes by
that name in other creatures is only the upper part of the thigh, and
by no means similar: man being the only animal that can support himself
perfectly erect, the peculiar hardness of this part enables him to
sustain that position.
The human feet are also different from those of all animals, even apes
not excepted. The foot of the ape is rather a kind of aukward hand;
its toes, or rather fingers, are long, and that in the middle longest
of all; the foot also wants the heel. In man the sole of the foot is
broader and more adapted to maintain the equilibrium of the body in
walking, dancing, or running.
The nails are smaller in man than those of any animal. If they were
much longer than the extremities of the fingers, they would obstruct
the management of the hand. Such savages as suffer them to grow long,
make use of them in flaying and tearing animals, but though their nails
are considerably larger than ours, they are yet by no means to be
compared to the hoofs or the claws of other animals.
There is little known exactly with regard to the proportion of the
human figure, for the same parts do not bear similar proportions in any
two individuals; nor even in the same, for seldom is it that the right
leg or arm is of equal dimensions with the left. It is not by taking
an exact _resemblance_ that we can determine on the best proportion of
the human figure; we must seek for it in taste and sentiment, which
have exceeded the laws of mechanism in the imitation of Nature; and in
which imitation we recognize her perfections more conspicuously than
in her own productions; and by the same rule the beauty of the best
statues is much better conceived by observation than by measurement.
The ancients executed statues in so high a degree of perfection, that
they have ever been considered as exact representations of the most
perfect human figures. These statues, which were at first copied after
the human form, are now considered as the most perfect models of it;
and for this plain reason, that they were not formed after any one
individual, but from a diligent observation of the perfect symmetry
that was to be collected, as it were, from the whole species. In doing
this, these artists also considered each part of the human frame should
be of certain dimensions to become the standard of perfection; for
instance, that the body should be ten times the length of the face;
and that the face should also be divisible into three equal parts, the
first form the hair on the forehead to the nose, the second the nose,
and the third from the nose to the end of the chin. In measuring the
body they use the term nose as the third of the face, one of which they
reckon in height, from the top of the forehead to the crown of the
head, therefore from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin is a
face and one third, and from the chin to the upper part of the breasts
two thirds more, which of course makes two tenths of the whole body; to
the bottom of the paps another, to the navel a fourth, and from thence
to the division of the lower extremities a fifth, or half the body;
two more faces are assigned to the thighs, half a one to the knee, two
from the knee to the top of the foot, and the other half from thence to
the sole, which completes the ten. This division does not hold good in
men of a more than ordinary size, in whom about half a face is allowed
between the paps and the commencement of the thighs, which in them is
not the middle of the body. The arms being stretched out, measure from
the ends of the middle fingers ten faces, or exactly the length of the
body. The hand is the length of the face, the thumb that of the nose,
as is also the longest toe, and the bottom of the foot, is one sixth
part of the length of the body. The space between the eyes is the
breadth of the eye: the breadth of the thickest part of the thigh is
double that of the thickest part of the leg, and treble the smallest.
Were any individual measured by these rules, those we consider as the
most perfect would be found highly deficient.
These correspondences are, however, extremely arbitrary. In infants
the upper parts of the body are larger than the lower; the legs and
thighs do not constitute any thing like half the length of the body;
as the child increases in age the inferior parts increase more than
in proportion, so that the body is not equally divided till it has
acquired its full growth. In women the anterior part of the chest is
more prominent than in men; but as in the former the chest is more
thick, so in the latter it is more broad. In women too the hips are
considerably more bulky, and so different is the conformation of those
two parts, that it is sufficient to distinguish the skeleton of a woman
from that of a man.
The total height of the human figure varies considerably. Men are said
to be tall who are from five feet eight or nine inches to six feet.
The middle stature is from five feet two to five feet seven inches;
and such as fall under these measures are said to be of small stature.
Women in general are two or three inches shorter than men. As for
giants and dwarfs, of them we shall have occasion to speak in another
place.
Though the body of a man is more externally delicate than that of any
animal, it is exceedingly muscular, and for its size perhaps more
strong. Were we to compare the strength of a lion with that of a man,
we ought to consider that the former is armed with teeth and talons,
which give a false idea of its power. The arms which man has received
from Nature are not offensive; and happy were it if Art had never
furnished him with weapons more terrible than those which arm the paws
of the lion.
But there is another, and perhaps a more just manner of comparing the
strength of man with that of animals, namely by the weights which
either can carry. We are assured that the porters of Constantinople
carry burthens 900 pounds weight; and M. Desaguliers tells us of a
man in an upright posture, who, by distributing a certain number of
weights, in such a manner that every part of his body bore its share,
was able to support a weight of 2000 pounds. By the same expedient
a horse, which is at least six or seven times our bulk, ought to be
enabled to carry a load, of 12 or 14,000 pounds; an enormous weight in
comparison of what that animal can support, even when the weight is
distributed with every possible advantage.
The strength of a man may be still further estimated by agility and
the continuance of his labour. Men accustomed to running outstrip
horses, or at least continue their speed for a greater length of time.
A man will walk down a horse if they continue together, and perform a
long journey much sooner, and with less fatigue. The royal messengers
of Ispahan, who are runners by profession, go 36 leagues in 14 or 15
hours. Travellers assure us, that the Hottentots out-run lions in the
chace, and that the savages, who live by hunting, pursue the elk and
other animals with such speed as to take them. Many other surprising
things are told of the nimbleness of savages, and of the long journeys
they accomplish on foot, over the most craggy mountains, and the
most unfavourable roads, where there is no path to direct, and every
obstacle to oppose. A thousand leagues are these people said to travel
in less than six weeks, or two months. Birds excepted, whose muscles
are indeed stronger in proportion than those of any other animal,
no other creature could support such a continuance of fatigue. The
civilized man is ignorant of his own strength; nor is he sensible how
much he loses of it by effeminacy, and how he might add to it by the
habit of vigorous exercise.
Sometimes we find men of extraordinary strength; but this gift of
Nature, which would be valuable to them in a primitive state, is of
very trifling service with the polished part of mankind, among whom
mental perfections are held in higher estimation than bodily, and
manual exertions are confined to persons of the lowest classes.
Men are much stronger than women; and this superiority they have too
often employed, by tyrannically enslaving a sex, which was formed to
partake with them the pleasures as well as the pains of life. Savage
nations subject their women to a continued series of labour. On them
is imposed every office of drudgery, while the husband indolently
reclines in his hammock. From this inactive situation he is seldom
roused but by the calls of hunger, when he is obliged to seek food
by fishing or hunting. A savage has no idea of taking pleasure in
exercise; and nothing surprises him more than to see an European walk
backwards and forward, merely for his amusement or recreation. All
men have a tendency to laziness; but the savages of hot countries are
not only lazy to an extreme, but tyrannical to their women, beyond
any other classes of men. In civilized countries men dictate laws
to women, which are the more severe, as their manners are rough and
untaught, and it is only among nations highly polished that women are
raised to that equality of condition which is naturally their due, and
so necessary to the true enjoyment of society. These refinements flow
from themselves; and to strength they oppose arms more sure to conquer,
when by modesty they teach us to pay homage to the empire of beauty; a
natural advantage, superior to strength. But much skill is requisite
to manage and increase its influence, as is evident from the different
ideas which different nations entertain of beauty. These indeed are
so widely opposite, so palpably contradictory, that there is every
reason to suppose the sex have gained more by rendering themselves
amiable, than even by this gift of Nature, about which men are so
much divided. As from the difficulty of obtaining it, the value of a
thing still increases, so beauty has always had its admirers, and its
votaries, respect necessarily increased as soon as the possessors of it
maintained a becoming dignity, and turned a deaf ear to every address
of which virtue was not the positive basis; this naturally introduced a
delicacy of sentiment, and polished manners followed of course.
So widely did the ancients disagree with us in respect of beauty, that,
with them, a small forehead, and eye-brows joined, were accounted
ornaments in the female countenance; and even to this day, in Persia,
the union of the eye-brows is held in high estimation. In several
parts of the Indies, it is necessary that the teeth should be black,
and the hair white, to form a beauty; and, in the Marian islands, it
is a principal occupation of the women, to blacken the teeth with
herbs, and to whiten the hair by certain lotions. In China and Japan,
the essential ingredients of beauty are, a large visage, small eyes,
and almost concealed, a nose flat and bulky, little feet, and a belly
enormously big. Some of the Indians of America and Asia, in order to
enlarge the countenance, compress the heads of their children between
two planks, others flatten them from the crown only, and others exert
every effort to render them round. Every nation, and every individual,
has a peculiar prejudice, or taste, with respect to beauty, which
probably originates from some pleasing impression received in infancy,
and therefore depends more, perhaps, on habit and chance than on the
disposition of our organs.
When we come to treat of the different senses, we shall perhaps be able
to determine what stress is to be laid on the ideas of beauty which
we receive from the eyes. In the mean time let us examine the human
countenance as it appears when agitated by the passions. In grief,
joy, love, shame, and compassion, the eyes swell, and overflow with
tears. The effusion of these is always accompanied with a tension of
the muscles of the face, which opens the month. The natural moisture in
the nose becomes increased by the tears flowing through the lachrymal
ducts; they do not, however, flow uniformly, but burst out by intervals.
In sorrow the corners of the mouth are lowered, the under lip raised,
the eye-lids nearly closed, the pupil elevated, and almost covered
with the eye-lid; the other muscles of the face are relaxed, so that
the space between the mouth and the eyes is larger than ordinary, and
of consequence the countenance appears lengthened. [See _fig._ 13.]
In fear, terror, or horror, the forehead is wrinkled, the eye-brow
raised, the eye-lids are extended as much as possible, and discover
a part of the white over the pupil, which is lowered, and somewhat
concealed by the lower eye-lid: the mouth, at the same time, is widely
opened, and the lips separating, both the upper and under teeth are
seen. [See _fig._ 14.]
In contempt and derision the upper lip is raised on one side, and on
the other there is a little motion, resembling a supercilious smile;
the nose is shrivelled on the same side that the lip is raised, and the
corner, of the mouth is extended; the eye on the same side is almost
shut, while the other is open as usual, but the pupils of both are
lowered as when looking from a height. [See _fig._ 15.]
In jealousy, envy, and malice, the eye-brows fall down, and are
wrinkled; the eye-lid is raised and the pupil lowered; the upper lip
is raised on each side, while the corners of the mouth are rather
lowered; and the middle of the under lip is raised, in order to join
the middle of the upper lip. [See _fig._ 16.]
In laughter the two corners of the mouth are drawn back and somewhat
raised; the upper part of the cheeks is raised; and the eyes are
more or less closed; the upper lip is raised, while the under one is
lowered; and in immoderate laughter the mouth is opened, and the skin
of the nose is shrivelled. [See _fig._ 17.]
The arms, the hands, and the body in general, likewise assist the
countenance by different gestures, in the expression of the emotions
of the soul. In joy, for example, the eyes, the head, the arms, and
the whole body, are agitated by quick and varied movements. In languor
and melancholy the eyes are sunk, the head is reclined, and the whole
body is motionless. In admiration, surprize, and astonishment, all
motion is suspended, and we remain in one and the same attitude. These
expressions of the passions are independent on the will; but there is
another sort of expression, which seems to be produced by a reflection
of the mind, by a command of the will, and by which the eyes, the head,
the arms, and the whole body, are put in action. They appear to be
so many efforts of the mind to defend the body, or at least so many
secondary signs sufficient to express particular passions. In love,
desire, and hope, we raise the head and eyes towards heaven, as if
to implore the good we wish for; we bend the head forward, as if to
hasten, by this approach, the possession of the desired object; and
we extend the arms, and open the hands, in order to embrace and seize
it. On the contrary, in fear, hatred, and horror, we advance the arms
with precipitation, as if to repel the object of our aversion; and in
order to shun it we turn aside the eyes and head, and shrink back.
These movements are so quick that they appear involuntary: but it is by
habit we are deceived, for they are motions which depend on reflection,
and which mark the perfection of the springs of the human body, by the
readiness with which each member obeys the dictates of the will.
As the passions are agitations of the mind, and as most of them have an
affinity to the impressions of the senses, they may be expressed by the
movements of the body, and especially by those of the visage. Of what
passes within we may form a judgment from the external motions of the
body, and can know the actual situation of the soul by inspecting the
changes of the countenance. But as the soul has no form which can have
any relation to that of matter we cannot judge of it by the figure of
the body, or by the features of the countenance. An ill-formed body may
contain an amiable mind; nor is the good or bad disposition of a person
to be determined by the features of the face, these features having no
analogy with the nature of the soul on which any reasonable conjectures
may be founded.
To this kind of prejudice, nevertheless, the ancients were strongly
attached; and in all ages there have been men who have attempted to
form into a science of divination their pretended skill in physiognomy;
but it is evident that this divination can only extend to the situation
of the mind when expressed by the motion of the eyes, visage, and other
parts of the body, and that the form of the nose, the mouth, and other
features, are no more connected with the natural disposition of the
person, than is the largeness or the thickness of the limbs to that of
thought. Shall a man have more genius because he has a better-shaped
nose? Shall he have less wisdom because his eyes are little, and
his mouth is large? It must be acknowledged, therefore, that the
divination of physiognomists is without foundation, and that nothing
can be more chimerical than their pretended observations.
[Illustration:
FIG. 14 FIG. 13
FIG. 15
FIG. 17 FIG. 16]
CHAPTER V.
OF OLD AGE AND DEATH.
Every object in Nature has its improvement and its decay. No sooner
does the human form arrive at its limited perfection, than it begins to
decline. The alteration is at first insensible, and even several years
elapse before it becomes perceptible. Yet we ought to feel the weight
of our years better than other people can estimate the number of them;
and, as those are rarely deceived who judge of our age from external
appearances, we would be still less so, as to the internal effect, if
we did but observe ourselves more, and flatter ourselves less with
false and idle hopes.
When the body has attained its full length, by the final expansion of
all its parts, it begins to receive an additional bulk, which rather
incommodes than assists it, and may be considered as the first step
towards decay. This is formed from a superfluous substance termed fat,
and generally appears about the age of thirty-five, or forty, and by
which, in proportion to its encrease, the body becomes less nimble,
active, and unconstrained in its motions.
The bones also, and the other solid parts of the body, encrease
in solidity. The membranes become cartilaginous, or gristly, the
cartilages become bony, the fibres become more hard, the skin dries up,
wrinkles are gradually formed in it, the hair grows grey, the teeth
fall out, the visage becomes haggard, and the body stoops. The first
approach of these alterations is perceived before the age of forty; by
slow degrees they advance till that of sixty, and by rapid ones till
that of seventy: after which period, decrepitude soon follows, and
continues to augment to the age of ninety, or a hundred, when the life
of man is generally terminated.
Having already traced the causes of the formation, growth, and
expansion of the human frame, we shall now proceed to consider those
of its decay.
At first the bones of the foetus are only small threads, of a ductile
matter, and of little more substance than the flesh; by degrees they
acquire solidity, and may be considered as a kind of small tubes, lined
both within and without by a thin membrane which supplies the osseous
matter. A pretty exact idea might be formed of the growth of bones,
by comparing them with the manner in which the wood and solid parts
of vegetables are produced. These bones, or, as we have said, tubes,
are covered at both ends by a soft substance, and in proportion as
they receive nutritious juices, the extremities extend from the middle
point which always preserves its original station. The ossification
begins at the middle and gradually follows the extension until the
whole is converted into bone. Having acquired their full growth, and
the nutritious juices no longer being necessary for their augmentation,
they serve the purpose of increasing their solidity; in time the bones
become so solid as not to admit the circulation of these juices which
are highly essential to their nourishment; and this being stopped, they
undergo a change like that perceived in old trees; and this change is
the first cause that renders the decay of the human body inevitable.
The cartilages, which may be considered as soft and imperfect bones,
grow also more rigid as we increase in years; and as they are generally
placed near the joints, the motion of these must of consequence become
more difficult. Thus, in old age, every action of the body is performed
with labour; and the cartilages, which in youth were elastic, and in
manhood pliant, will now sooner break than bend, and may be considered
as the second cause of our dissolution.
The membranes become likewise as we grow old more dense and more dry.
Those, for example, which surround the bones cease to be ductile, and
are incapable of extension so early as the age of 18 or 20. It is also
the same with the muscular fibres, and though to the external touch the
body seems, as we advance in years, to grow more soft, yet in reality
it is increasing in hardness. On such occasions it is the skin, and not
the flesh, that communicates this perception. The fat which increases
when the body is arrived at maturity, being interspersed between the
skin and muscles, gives an appearance of softness which the flesh is
far from possessing in reality; an undeniable proof of which is to be
found in comparing the flesh of young and old animals; the former is
tender and delicate; the latter hard, dry, and unfit for eating.
While the body increases, the skin will stretch to any degree of
tension; but when the former diminishes, the latter never contracts;
and hence the source of wrinkles, which cannot be prevented. Those
of the face proceed from this cause, though as to shape they depend
in a greater measure on its form, features, and habitual movements.
By examining the countenance of a man at the age of 25 or 30, we may
discover in it the origin of all the wrinkles it will have in old age;
particularly when the features are in a state of agitation by laughing,
weepings or any strong grimace. All the little furrows formed by these
agitations will one day become wrinkles, which no art shall be able to
remove.
In proportion then as we advance in years, the bones, the cartilages,
the membranes, the flesh, the skin, and all the fibres of the body
grow more solid, hard, and dry. Every part shrinks, and every motion
becomes more slow; the circulation of the fluids is performed with
less freedom, the perspiration diminishes, the secretions alter, the
digestion becomes slow and laborious, the nutritive juices become
less plentiful, and no longer serving to convey their accustomed
nourishment, are wholly useless, as if they did not exist. Thus the
body dies by little and little, all its functions diminish by degrees,
and death only at last seizes upon that little which is left.
As the bones, the cartilages, the muscles, and all the other parts
of the body, are naturally softer in women than in men, they do not
acquire so soon that hardness which hastens death. Women, therefore,
ought to live longer than men. This is actually the case; for by
consulting the tables which have been formed respecting the duration
of human life, we shall find that, after a certain age, women have a
greater chance for long life than men of the same number of years.
From this it may also be inferred, that such men as are weak in
appearance, and whose constitution rather resembles that of women, have
a probability of living longer than those who seem to be more strong
and robust; as likewise, that in either sex such persons as have been
slow in their advances to maturity, will be slow in their advances
to the infirmities of old age, because in both cases, the bones, the
cartilages, and all the fibres, require a longer time to arrive at that
degree of solidity, which must be the foundation of their destruction.
This natural cause of death is common to all animals, and even to
vegetables. An oak only perishes because its more ancient parts, which
are in the centre, become so hard and so compact, that they can no
longer receive any nourishment; and the moisture they contain, being
deprived of circulation, becomes corrupted, and gradually alters the
fibres of the wood, which become red, and at length crumble into dust.
The duration of life may be determined, in some measure, by the time
that was employed in the attainment of maturity. A tree, or an animal,
which takes but a short time to finish its growth, perishes much
sooner than those which are longer in coming to maturity. Neither
animals nor plants begin to spread in bulk till they have acquired
their summit of height. Man grows in stature till the age of 17 or 18;
but his body is not completely unfolded in all its parts till that of
30; while a dog is at its full length in one year, and at its full
thickness in another. The man whose growth is so tedious, lives for
90 or an 100 years; whereas the dog seldom survives its 10 or 12th
year. To the generality of other animals this observation is equally
applicable. Fishes, whose growth continues for a number of years, live
for centuries; and this from no other known certain cause, but the
particular constitution of their bones, which do not admit of the same
solidity as the bones of terrestrial animals.
Whether there are any exceptions to this kind of rule, which Nature
seems to have adopted in proportioning the duration of life to that
of the bodily growth, we shall enquire when we come to the particular
history of animals, as also whether crows and stags live for such a
number of years as is commonly pretended. In the mean while, as a
general truth, let it be remarked, that large animals live longer than
small ones, and this because they require a longer time to come to
maturity.
The causes of our decay then are inevitable; nor can we avoid the fatal
arrow of death, or even avert it, without changing the laws of Nature.
The ideas which a few visionaries have formed of perpetuating life
by some particular panacea, as that of the transfusion of the blood
of one living creature into the body of another, must have died with
themselves, did not self-love constantly cherish our credulity, even
to the persuasion of some things which are in themselves impossible,
and to the doubt of others, of which every day there are demonstrative
proofs.
When the constitution of the body is sound, it is perhaps possible,
by moderation in the passions, by temperance and sobriety, to
lengthen life for a few years. But even of this there seems to be an
uncertainty, for if it is necessary that the body should employ its
whole strength, that it should consume all its powers by labour and
exercise, whence could any benefit accrue from regimen and abstinence?
Men no doubt there are who have surpassed the usual period of human
existence, and not to mention Par, who lived to the age of 144, and
Jenkins to that of 165, as recorded in the Philosophical Transactions,
we have many instances of the prolongation of life to 110, and even
to 120 years; yet this longevity was occasioned by no peculiar art or
management; on the contrary, it appears that the generality of them
were peasants, huntsmen, or labourers, men who had employed their
whole bodily strength, and even abused it, if to abuse it is possible,
otherwise than by continual idleness and debauchery.
Besides, if we reflect that the European, the Negro, the Chinese, and
the American, the civilized man and the savage, the rich and the poor,
the inhabitant of the city, and the inhabitant of the country, however
different in other respects, are yet entirely similar as to the period
allotted for their existence; if we reflect that the difference of
race, of climate, of nourishment of accommodation, makes no difference
in the term of life; that men who feed on raw flesh, or on dried fish,
on sago, or on rice, on cassava, or on roots, live as long as those
who feed on bread and prepared meats, we must be still more strongly
convinced that the duration of life depends not either on habits,
customs, or on the qualities of particular food, and that nothing can
change the laws of that mechanism, by which the number of our years are
regulated, but excesses of luxury or intemperance.
If in the duration of life there is any difference, it ought seemingly
to be ascribed to the quality of the air. In elevated countries there
are commonly found more old people than in low. The mountains in
Scotland and Wales, of Auvergne and Switzerland, have furnished more
instances of extreme longevity than the plains of Holland, Flanders,
Germany, or Poland. In general, however, the period of human existence
may be said to be the same in every country. If not cut off by
accidental diseases man is found to live to the years of 90 or an 100.
Beyond that date our ancestors did not live, nor has it, in any degree
varied since the time of David.
Should it be asked, why, in the early ages, men lived to 900, 930, and
even 960 years? it may, with great probability of reason, be answered,
that the productions of the earth might then be of a different nature;
as, at the creation, the surface of the globe must have been far less
solid and compact than it afterwards became, so it is possible that
the productions of Nature, and even the human body itself, being
more ductile and more susceptible of extension, their growth was not
so soon accomplished as at present. Every kind of nourishment being
in itself more soft and more ductile, the bones, the muscles, &c.
necessarily retained their primitive softness and ductility longer. As
the body, therefore, did not attain its complete expansion, nor its
generative powers, for 120 or 130 years, the duration of life would
be proportioned to that time, required for the growth, as it is to
this day. In the supposition, for example, that the age of puberty
was originally at the years of 130, as it is now at the age of 14,
it will appear, that the period of human existence has always been
proportionally the same as it is at present, since by multiplying those
two numbers by seven, for instance, we shall find that the age of the
present race will be 98 years, as those in the first age 910. It is
probable, then, that the duration of human life decreased in proportion
as the solidity of the surface of the earth increased, and that the
ages from the creation, to the time of David, having been sufficient to
communicate to terrestrial substances all the consistency which they
are capable of acquiring by the pression of gravity, the surface of the
earth has ever since remained in the same condition, and the limits of
the growth of its different productions have been fixed, as well as
those of the duration of life.
Independent of accidental maladies which happen at every age, but
become more dangerous and more frequent at the latter periods of life,
all men are subject to natural infirmities, that originate solely from
a decay of the different parts of the body. The muscular powers lose
their firmness, the head shakes, the hands tremble, the legs totter,
and the sensibility of the nerves decreasing, every sense becomes
blunted. But the most striking infirmity is, that men very aged, are
unequal to the office of generation. Of this inability two causes may
be assigned, a defect of tension in the external organs, and a decay of
the seminal fluid.[B] The latter defect, however, may be supplied by a
young woman; and thus it is that we sometimes see men at an advanced
period of life become fathers, but then they have a much less share
in their children than young ones; and thence it happens, that young
persons, when married to old men, decrepid and deformed, often bring
forth monsters, and children more defective still than their fathers.
[B] Our author here enters into a repetition of the nature of the
organic animalcules, and to account for the defect of tension in the
external organs, but which we have passed over, not doubting our
readers would feel the propriety of his concluding remark, that this
was an improper place for such discussions.
The scurvy, dropsy, and such diseases as proceed from a vitiated state
of the blood and other fluids, are the most fatal to mankind; but
these fluids depend upon the solids, which are the real organic parts.
As we become advanced in life the vessels contract, the muscles lose
their strength, and the secretory organs are obstructed; from which
causes the blood, and other fluids, become viscid, and occasion those
diseases which are generally supposed to arise from vitiated humours.
The natural decay of the solids are, therefore, the original causes of
those disorders; nevertheless, if the fluids become stagnated, or are
obstructed in their circulation, by a contraction of the vessels, they
produce alarming symptoms, and soon corrupt and corrode the weakest
parts of the solids. Thus do the causes of dissolution continually
multiply until they put a period to our existence.
All these causes of decay act continually upon our material existence,
and contribute to its dissolution. Nature, however, approaches to
this much-dreaded period by slow and imperceptible degrees. Day
after day is life consuming, and every hour is some one or other
of our faculties, or vital principles, perishing before the rest.
Death, therefore, is only the last shade in the picture; and it is
probable that man suffers a greater change in passing from youth to
age, than from age into the grave. In the instant of the formation of
the foetus life is as yet nothing, or next to nothing. It extends
and acquires consistence and force as the body increases, and as soon
as the latter begins to decrease the former decreases also, till its
final extinction. As our life begins by degrees, so by degrees it is
terminated.
Why, then, be afraid of death, if our lives have been such as not to
make us apprehend the consequences of futurity? Why be afraid of that
moment which is preceded by an infinity of others of the same kind?
Death is as natural as life, and both happen to us in the same manner,
without our having the smallest sense or perception of them. If we
enquire of those whose office it is to attend the sick and the dying,
we shall find, that, except in a very few acute cases, attended with
convulsions, people expire quietly, and without the smallest indication
of pain. Even when dreadful agonies seem so attend the afflicted,
the spectators are rather terrified than the patients tormented; who,
having recovered, after the most violent convulsions, possess not the
smallest idea of what had passed, or even what they had suffered.
The greatest number of mankind die, therefore, without feeling the
fatal stroke; and of the few who retain their senses to the last,
there is hardly one, perhaps, who does not entertain the hope of
recovery. Nature, for the happiness of man, has rendered this principle
more powerful than reason. A person dying of a disorder which he
already knows to be incurable, by repeated instances in others, and
is now assured that it is so by the tears of his friends, and by the
countenance or departure of the physician, is still buoyed up with
the idea of getting over it; the opinion of others he considers as a
groundless alarm; the hour of dissolution comes; and while every thing
else is, as it were dead, hope is still alive and vigorous.
A sick man will say that he feels himself dying; that he is convinced
he cannot recover; but if any person, from zeal, or indiscretion, shall
tell him that his end is actually at hand, his countenance instantly
changes, and betrays all the marks of surprize and uneasiness. He now
seems not to believe, what he had been endeavouring to impress upon
others; he had only some doubt, some uneasiness, about his situation;
but his hopes were far greater than his fears; and but for the gloomy
assiduity, the parade of woe, which generally surrounds a death-bed,
and too often embitters the last moments, he would be insensible of his
approaching dissolution.
By no means is death so dreadful, therefore, as we suppose it to be.
It is a spectre which terrifies us at a distance, but disappears
when we approach it more closely. Our conceptions of it are formed
by prejudice, and dressed up by fancy. We consider it not only as a
misfortune greater than any other, but as one accompanied by the most
excruciating anguish. Death, it is said, must be terrible, since it
is sufficient to separate the soul from the body; the pain must also
be of considerable duration, since time is measured by the succession
of our ideas; one minute of pain, in which these ideas succeed each
other with a rapidity proportioned to the agony we suffer, must appear
longer than a whole age, in which they flow in their usual gentleness
and tranquillity. In such philosophy, what an abuse of reason! But for
the consequences of it, hardly would it deserve to have its futility
exposed. As by such arguments, however, weak minds are deceived,
and the aspect of death rendered a thousand times more hideous than
it possibly can be; to point out the erroneous principles may be of
advantage.
When the soul is originally united to our body, do we experience any
extraordinary joy, which delights and transports us? Most certainly
not. What reason then can we have to suppose that the separation of the
soul from that body may not be effected without pain? From what cause
should such pain arise? Shall we fix its residence in the soul, or in
the body? Pain of the mind can only be produced by thought, and that of
the body is proportioned to its strength or weakness. In the instant of
death, the body must be in its weakest state, and therefore if it does
experience pain, it must be in a very trifling degree.
Let us now suppose a violent death; that for example, of a man whose
head is carried off by a cannon-ball. Can the pain he suffers last
longer than a moment? Has he, in the interval of that moment, a
succession of ideas so rapid, that he can imagine the pangs he feels
are equal to an hour, a day, an age? These points we shall endeavour to
discuss.
I own the succession of our ideas is, in reality, the only natural
measure of time; and that, in proportion as they flow with more or less
uniformity, they appear of longer or shorter duration. But in this
measure there is an unit, or fixed point, which is neither arbitrary
nor indefinite, but determined by Nature, and correspondent to our
organization. Between two ideas which succeed each other, there must
be an interval that separates them; however quick one thought may
be, a little time is required before it can be followed by another,
no succession being possible in an indivisible instant. The same
observation holds with respect to the sensations of the body. A
transition from pain to pleasure, or even from one pain to another,
requires a certain interval. This interval, by which our thoughts and
sensations are necessarily separated, is the unit I mention; and it can
neither be extremely long, nor extremely short; it must even be nearly
upon an equality in its duration, as it depends upon the nature of the
mind, and the organization of the body, whose movements can have but
one certain degree of celerity. In the same individual, therefore,
there can be no succession of ideas so rapid, or so slow, as to produce
that enormous difference of duration, by which the pain of a minute is
converted into that of an hour, a day, or a century.
A very acute pain, of however short continuance, tends to produce
either a swoon, or death. As our organs have only a certain degree of
strength, they cannot resist above a certain degree of pain. If that
becomes excessive, it ceases, because the body being incapable of
supporting it, is still less capable to transmit it to the mind, with
which it can hold no correspondence, but by the action of these organs.
Here this action ceases, and therefore, all internal sensation must
necessarily cease also.
What has already been advanced, is perhaps amply sufficient to evince,
that, at the instant of death, the pain is neither excessive nor of
long duration; but in order to dispel all fear from the bosom of
timidity itself, we shall add a few words more upon the subject. Though
excessive pains admit of no reflection, yet signs, at least, of it have
been observed in the very moment of a violent death. When Charles XII.
received, at Frederickshall, the blow which terminated his exploits and
existence, he clapped his hand upon his sword. Since it excluded not
reflection, this mortal pang could not, therefore, be excessive. The
brave warrior found himself attacked; he reflected that he ought to
defend himself; and thence, it is evident, he felt no more than what he
might have suffered from an ordinary blow. That this action was nothing
more than the result of a mechanical impulse it would be absurd to
assert, as it has been evidently shewn, in our description of man, that
the most precipitate movements of the passions depend upon reflection,
and are nothing more than effects of an habitual exertion of the mind.
If I have rather enlarged on this topic it is only that I might
destroy a prejudice so repugnant to the happiness of man. To this
prejudice many have fallen victims; and I have myself known several,
of the female sex in particular, who, from the very dread of death,
have died in reality. Such terrible alarms seem, indeed, to be
particular to those whom Nature or education have endowed with superior
sensibility, as the gross of mankind look forward to death, if not
with indifference at least without terror.
In viewing things as they are consists the spirit of true philosophy.
With this philosophy our internal sensations would always correspond,
were they not perverted by the illusions of imagination, and by the
unfortunate habit of fabricating phantoms of excessive pains and
of pleasure. Nothing appears terrible nor charming but what is at
distance. To obtain a certain knowledge of either we must have the
resolution, or the wisdom, to take a close and particular view of them,
and all their extraordinary circumstances will disappear.
If there be any thing necessary to confirm what has been said
concerning the gradual cessation of life, we might find it in the
uncertainty of the signs of death. By consulting the writers on this
subject, and particularly Winslow and Bruhier, we shall be convinced,
that between life and death the shade is often so undistinguishable
that all the powers of medical art are insufficient to determine upon
it. According to them, "the colour of the face, the warmth of the
body, the suppleness of the joints, are but equivocal signs of life;
and that the paleness of the complexion, the coldness of the body,
the stiffness of the extremities, the cessation of all motion, and the
total insensibility of the parts, are signs to the full as equivocal of
death." It is also the same with regard to the cessation of the pulse,
and of respiration, which are sometimes so effectually kept under,
that it is impossible to obtain the smallest perception of either. By
carrying a mirror, or candle, to the mouth of a person supposed to be
dead, people expect to find whether he breathes or not; but in this
experiment there is little certainty; the mirror is often sullied after
death has taken place, and remains unclouded while the person is still
alive. Neither do burning nor scarifying, noises in the ears, nor
pungent spirits applied to the nostrils, give indubitable proofs of
the discontinuance of life; many are the instances of persons who have
undergone all such trials without shewing any signs of life, and yet,
to the astonishment of the spectators, recovered afterwards, without
the smallest assistance.
Nothing can be more evident than that life, in some cases, has a near
resemblance to death, and therefore that we ought to be extremely
cautious of renouncing, and committing too hastily to the grave, the
bodies of our fellow-creatures. Neither ten, twenty, nor twenty-four
hours are sufficient to distinguish real from apparent death; and there
are instances of persons who have been alive in the grave at the end
of the second, and even the third day. Why suffer to be interred with
precipitation those persons whose lives we ardently wished to prolong?
Why, though all men are equally interested in the abolition of it,
does the practice still subsist? On the authority of the most able
physicians, it incontestably appears, "that the body, though living,
is sometimes so far deprived of all vital function, as to have every
external appearance of death; that, if in the space of three days, or
seventy two hours, no sign of life appears, and on the contrary the
body exhales a cadaverous smell, there is an infallible proof of actual
death; and that then, though on no account till then, the interment can
with safety take place."
Hereafter we shall have occasion to speak of the usages of different
nations with respect to obsequies, interments, and embalments. The
greatest part, even of the most savage people, pay more attention
than we to their deceased friends. What with us is nothing more than
a ceremony, they consider as an essential duty. Far superior is the
respect which they pay to their dead: they clothe them, they speak to
them, they recite their exploits, they extol their virtues; while we,
who pique ourselves on our sensibility, with hardly an appearance of
humanity, forsake and fly from them, we neither desire to see, nor have
courage nor inclination to speak to them, and even avoid every place
which may recall their idea to our minds. Than savages themselves,
then, do we, in this respect, discover either more indifference or more
weakness.
Having thus given a history of life, and of death, as they relate to
the individual, let us now consider them both, as they affect the whole
species. Man dies at every age; and though in general the duration of
his life is longer than that of most animals, yet it is more uncertain
and more variable.
Of late years attempts have been made to ascertain the degrees of such
variations, and to establish, by different observations, some certainty
as to the mortality of men at different ages. Were such observations
sufficiently exact and numerous they would be admirably calculated
to give a knowledge of the number of people, their increase, the
consumption of provisions, and of a number of other important objects.
Many writers of distinguished abilities, and, among others, Halley and
Simpson, have given tables of the mortality of the human species; but
as their labours have been confined to an examination of the bills of
mortality in a few parishes of London, and other large cities, their
researches, however accurate, seem, in my opinion, to give a very
imperfect idea of the mortality of mankind in general.
In order to give a complete table of this nature it is necessary to
scrutinise not only the parish-registers of such towns as London and
Paris, where there is a perpetual ingress of strangers and egress of
natives, but also those of different country places; that, by comparing
the deaths which happen in the one with the deaths which happen in
the other, a general conclusion may be formed. M. Dupré, of St. Maur,
a member of the French academy, executed this project upon twelve
different parishes in the country of France, and, three in Paris.
Having obtained his permission to publish the tables he has drawn up on
this occasion, I do it with the greater pleasure, as they are the only
ones from which the probabilities of human life in general can with any
certainty be established.
YEARS OF LIFE.
_PARISHES._ _deaths._| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
| | | |
Clemont 1391| 578| 73| 36| 29
Brinon 1141| 441| 75| 31| 27
Jouy 588| 231| 43| 11| 13
Lestiou 223| 89| 16| 9| 7
Vandeuvre 672| 156| 58| 18| 19
St. Agil 954| 359| 64| 30| 21
Thury 262| 103| 31| 8| 4
St. Amant 748| 170| 61| 24| 11
Montigny 833| 346| 57| 19| 25
Vieleneuve 131| 14| 3| 5| 1
Goussainville 1615| 565| 184| 63| 38
Ivry 2247| 686| 298| 96| 61
----------------------------------+------+------+------+------
Total Deaths 10805| | | |
----------------------------------+------+------+------+------
Division of 10805 deaths into }| 3738| 963| 350| 256
the years they happened }| | | |
| | | |
Deaths before the end of the 1st,}| 3738| 4701| 5051| 5307
2d, 3d, &c. years. }| | | |
| | | |
Number of persons entered into }| 10805| 7067| 6104| 5754
their 1st, 2d, 3d, &c. years. }| | | |
==================================+======+======+======+======
St. Andre, Paris, 1728| 201| 122| 94| 82
St. Hippolytus, 2516| 754| 361| 127| 64
St. Nicolas, 8945| 1761| 932| 414| 298
----------------------------------+------+------+------+------
Total Deaths 13189| | | |
----------------------------------+------+------+------+------
Division of the 13189 deaths into}| 2716| 1415| 635| 444
the years they happened. }| | | |
| | | |
Deaths before the end of the 1st,}| 2716| 4131| 4766| 5210
2d, 3d, &c. years. }| | | |
| | | |
Number of persons who entered }| 13189| 10473| 9058| 8423
into the 1st, 2d, &c. years. }| | | |
==================================+======+======+======+======
Division of the 23994 deaths in }| | | |
the 3 parishes of Paris and the}| 6454| 2378| 985| 700
12 villages. }| | | |
| | | |
Deaths before the end of the 1st,}| 6454| 8832| 9817| 10517
2d, years, &c. out of the 23994}| | | |
| | | |
Number of persons entered into }| 23994| 17540| 15162| 14177
their 1st and 2d years, &c. }| | | |
YEARS OF LIFE.
5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
| | | | | | |
16| 16| 14| 10| 8| 4| 6| 5
10| 16| 9| 9| 8| 5| 2| 12
5| 8| 4| 6| 1| 0| 3| 0
1| 4| 3| 1| 1| 1| 0| 1
10| 11| 8| 10| 3| 2| 1| 3
20| 11| 4| 7| 2| 7| 3| 3
3| 2| 2| 2| 1| 2| 0| 0
12| 15| 3| 6| 8| 6| 4| 4
16| 21| 9| 7| 5| 5| 2| 4
1| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 1
34| 21| 17| 15| 12| 8| 5| 5
50| 29| 34| 26| 13| 19| 9| 6
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
178| 154| 107| 99| 62| 59| 35| 44
| | | | | | |
5485| 5639| 5746| 5845| 5907| 5966| 6001| 6045
| | | | | | |
5498| 5320| 5166| 5059| 4960| 4898| 4839| 4804
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
50| 35| 28| 14| 8| 7| 3| 9
60| 55| 25| 16| 20| 8| 9| 9
221| 162| 147| 111| 64| 40| 34| 38
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
331| 252| 200| 141| 92| 55| 46| 56
| | | | | | |
5541| 5793| 5993| 6134| 6226| 6281| 6327| 6383
| | | | | | |
7979| 7648| 7396| 7196| 7055| 6963| 6908| 6862
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
509| 406| 307| 240| 154| 114| 8| 100
| | | | | | |
11026| 11432| 11639| 11979| 12133| 12247| 12328| 12428
| | | | | | |
12477| 12968| 12562| 12255| 12015| 11861| 11747| 11666
YEARS OF LIFE.
13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20
| | | | | | |
6| 5| 5| 6| 6| 10| 3| 13
2| 6| 4| 5| 9| 4| 5| 14
3| 3| 1| 6| 4| 4| 3| 5
0| 1| 1| 1| 1| 0| 0| 0
3| 4| 5| 9| 3| 3| 4| 7
3| 3| 5| 2| 7| 8| 5| 6
0| 0| 1| 0| 1| 1| 1| 1
2| 5| 1| 5| 3| 6| 1| 4
4| 2| 4| 2| 2| 3| 3| 5
0| 0| 1| 0| 2| 4| 0| 1
9| 5| 5| 2| 5| 10| 9| 10
4| 4| 8| 7| 4| 14| 10| 12
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
36| 38| 41| 42| 47| 67| 44| 78
| | | | | | |
6081| 6119| 6160| 6202| 6249| 6316| 6360| 6438
| | | | | | |
4760| 4724| 4686| 4645| 4603| 4556| 4480| 4445
====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
6| 7| 10| 13| 13| 11| 10| 7
6| 7| 6| 5| 7| 9| 7| 3
25| 21| 33| 37| 37| 28| 44| 53
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
37| 35| 49| 55| 57| 487| 61| 63
| | | | | | |
6420| 6455| 6504| 6559| 6616| 6664| 6725| 6788
| | | | | | |
6806| 6769| 6734| 6685| 6630| 6573| 6525| 6464
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
73| 73| 90| 97| 104| 115| 105| 141
| | | | | | |
12501| 12574| 12664| 12761| 12865| 12980| 13085| 13226
| | | | | | |
11566| 11493| 11420| 11330| 11233| 11129| 11014| 19009
YEARS OF LIFE.
21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28
| | | | | | |
8| 9| 10| 7| 22| 9| 13| 10
8| 14| 7| 11| 24| 9| 7| 13
2| 4| 4| 4| 5| 2| 2| 3
0| 0| 3| 0| 1| 1| 1| 3
4| 6| 8| 6| 22| 3| 5| 10
6| 4| 6| 3| 11| 10| 4| 9
1| 3| 1| 1| 2| 2| 0| 5
7| 6| 6| 4| 5| 4| 4| 3
4| 3| 10| 8| 7| 3| 3| 3
1| 4| 1| 0| 1| 0| 2| 1
6| 10| 5| 6| 11| 9| 9| 8
6| 15| 10| 9| 10| 14| 5| 9
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
51| 80| 68| 62| 121| 66| 55| 77
| | | | | | |
6480| 6569| 6637| 6699| 6820| 6886| 6941| 7018
| | | | | | |
4367| 4316| 4236| 4168| 4106| 3985| 3919| 3864
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
9| 17| 11| 9| 9| 8| 17| 13
2| 8| 7| 9| 10| 13| 10| 10
31| 56| 48| 41| 59| 47| 53| 51
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
42| 81| 66| 59| 78| 68| 80| 74
| | | | | | |
6830| 6911| 6977| 7036| 7114| 7182| 7262| 7336
| | | | | | |
6401| 6359| 6278| 6212| 6153| 6075| 6007| 5927
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
93| 161| 134| 121| 199| 134| 135| 151
| | | | | | |
13319| 13480| 13614| 13735| 13934| 14068| 14203| 14354
| | | | | | |
10768| 10675| 10514| 10380| 10259| 10060| 9926| 9793
YEARS OF LIFE.
29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36
| | | | | | |
7| 24| 4| 13| 14| 8| 17| 12
6| 28| 6| 15| 3| 4| 20| 8
4| 8| 2| 5| 4| 3| 13| 6
1| 1| 4| 4| 3| 1| 6| 4
1| 28| 2| 9| 1| 3| 17| 5
2| 16| 8| 7| 2| 5| 18| 9
2| 2| 0| 3| 1| 0| 7| 0
3| 8| 2| 8| 6| 5| 7| 4
0| 6| 1| 10| 3| 4| 8| 4
1| 2| 1| 2| 1| 0| 6| 5
10| 10| 4| 14| 6| 7| 8| 8
5| 13| 8| 11| 18| 10| 19| 12
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
42| 146| 42| 101| 62| 50| 146| 77
| | | | | | |
7060| 7206| 7248| 7349| 7411| 7461| 7607| 7684
| | | | | | |
3787| 3745| 3599| 3557| 3456| 3394| 3344| 3198
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
11| 21| 6| 10| 17| 15| 21| 14
9| 7| 9| 12| 13| 13| 16| 21
34| 63| 25| 57| 41| 54| 82| 75
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
54| 91| 40| 79| 71| 82| 119| 110
| | | | | | |
7390| 7481| 7521| 7600| 7671| 7753| 7872| 7982
| | | | | | |
5853| 5799| 5708| 5668| 5589| 5518| 5436| 5317
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
96| 237| 82| 180| 153| 132| 205| 187
| | | | | | |
14450| 14687| 14769| 14949| 15082| 15214| 15479| 15666
| | | | | | |
9640| 9544| 9307| 9245| 9045| 8912| 8770| 8515
YEARS OF LIFE.
37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44
| | | | | | |
16| 15| 3| 41| 4| 10| 10| 6
8| 8| 6| 37| 6| 8| 3| 6
7| 4| 1| 20| 0| 3| 0| 4
4| 1| 1| 4| 0| 2| 2| 0
5| 4| 0| 41| 1| 3| 2| 2
4| 5| 1| 22| 2| 8| 7| 3
1| 2| 2| 4| 1| 3| 1| 4
5| 5| 3| 20| 1| 6| 2| 4
1| 2| 0| 8| 3| 6| 5| 4
0| 5| 0| 7| 0| 3| 1| 0
5| 2| 7| 14| 10| 11| 4| 5
13| 23| 3| 27| 7| 19| 7| 14
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
71| 76| 27| 245| 35| 82| 44| 52
| | | | | | |
7755| 7831| 7858| 8103| 8138| 8220| 8264| 8316
| | | | | | |
3121| 3050| 2974| 2947| 2702| 2667| 2585| 2541
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
8| 12| 4| 26| 5| 19| 12| 10
15| 13| 10| 24| 4| 18| 14| 9
58| 59| 46| 109| 37| 73| 58| 45
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
81| 84| 60| 159| 46| 110| 84| 64
| | | | | | |
8063| 8147| 8207| 8366| 8412| 8522| 8606| 8670
| | | | | | |
5207| 5126| 5042| 4982| 4823| 4777| 4667| 4583
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
158| 160| 87| 404| 81| 192| 128| 116
| | | | | | |
15818| 15978| 16065| 16469| 16550| 16742| 16870| 16986
| | | | | | |
8328| 8176| 8016| 7929| 7525| 7444| 7252| 7124
YEARS OF LIFE.
45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52
| | | | | | |
20| 5| 8| 5| 6| 31| 0| 5
11| 5| 6| 9| 0| 23| 1| 3
13| 3| 4| 2| 0| 20| 2| 3
3| 3| 0| 3| 3| 5| 1| 1
14| 5| 3| 1| 0| 31| 0| 2
14| 1| 3| 3| 0| 24| 3| 9
3| 0| 0| 0| 0| 3| 0| 0
13| 3| 4| 6| 0| 23| 1| 4
13| 6| 1| 6| 1| 10| 2| 5
2| 1| 2| 3| 0| 7| 2| 1
11| 9| 5| 12| 6| 15| 4| 9
22| 10| 7| 12| 6| 24| 6| 14
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
139| 51| 43| 62| 22| 216| 22| 56
| | | | | | |
8455| 8506| 8549| 8611| 8633| 8849| 8871| 8927
| | | | | | |
2489| 2350| 2299| 2256| 2194| 2172| 1956| 1934
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
24| 21| 9| 13| 10| 24| 7| 18
33| 14| 13| 15| 21| 20| 10| 19
111| 54| 47| 68| 50| 120| 40| 59
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
168| 89| 69| 96| 72| 164| 57| 96
| | | | | | |
8838| 8927| 8996| 9092| 9164| 9328| 9385| 9481
| | | | | | |
4519| 4351| 4262| 4193| 4097| 4025| 3861| 3804
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
307| 140| 112| 158| 94| 380| 79| 152
| | | | | | |
17293| 17433| 17545| 17703| 17797| 18177| 18256| 18408
| | | | | | |
7008| 6701| 6561| 6449| 6291| 6197| 5817| 5738
YEARS OF LIFE.
53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60
| | | | | | |
5| 5| 14| 5| 5| 4| 4| 52
3| 2| 10| 6| 2| 3| 0| 24
2| 5| 7| 4| 5| 2| 0| 20
0| 0| 2| 2| 0| 3| 0| 2
1| 1| 13| 1| 1| 2| 0| 35
2| 2| 14| 3| 5| 3| 3| 22
1| 1| 4| 0| 1| 3| 1| 6
4| 4| 6| 5| 4| 7| 2| 27
2| 5| 10| 3| 4| 9| 2| 13
0| 1| 0| 3| 3| 2| 1| 4
5| 9| 6| 10| 10| 10| 3| 24
13| 9| 29| 12| 13| 13| 3| 40
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
38| 41| 111| 54| 51| 61| 19| 269
| | | | | | |
8365| 9009| 9120| 9174| 9225| 9286| 9305| 9574
| | | | | | |
1878| 1840| 1796| 1685| 1631| 1580| 1519| 1500
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
8| 10| 19| 11| 15| 17| 11| 46
6| 10| 25| 9| 15| 18| 12| 35
49| 46| 125| 56| 48| 86| 48| 184
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
63| 66| 169| 76| 78| 121| 71| 265
| | | | | | |
9544| 9610| 9779| 9855| 9933| 10054| 10125| 10390
| | | | | | |
3708| 3645| 3579| 3410| 3334| 3256| 3135| 3064
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
101| 110| 280| 130| 129| 182| 90| 534
| | | | | | |
18509| 18619| 18899| 19029| 19158| 19340| 19430| 19964
| | | | | | |
5586| 5485| 5375| 5095| 4965| 4836| 4654| 4564
YEARS OF LIFE.
61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68
| | | | | | |
2| 6| 5| 2| 5| 5| 3| 4
1| 3| 4| 7| 7| 6| 3| 6
0| 5| 2| 4| 5| 2| 1| 1
0| 0| 1| 0| 3| 1| 1| 0
0| 0| 1| 1| 5| 3| 0| 2
3| 2| 7| 5| 7| 3| 6| 5
0| 3| 2| 2| 2| 1| 3| 1
0| 4| 3| 4| 12| 7| 5| 6
3| 7| 5| 5| 7| 6| 2| 5
3| 0| 1| 1| 2| 3| 0| 1
6| 9| 7| 6| 13| 17| 13| 15
3| 12| 12| 11| 14| 21| 5| 23
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
21| 51| 50| 48| 82| 75| 42| 69
| | | | | | |
9595| 9646| 9696| 9744| 9826| 9401| 9943| 10012
| | | | | | |
1231| 1210| 1159| 1109| 1061| 979| 904| 862
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
11| 21| 19| 17| 20| 27| 21| 25
7| 28| 21| 23| 25| 19| 12| 20
42| 77| 71| 73| 95| 95| 67| 115
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
60| 126| 111| 113| 140| 141| 100| 160
| | | | | | |
20450| 10576| 10687| 10800| 10940| 11081| 11181| 11341
| | | | | | |
2799| 2739| 2613| 2501| 4389| 2249| 2108| 2008
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
81| 177| 161| 161| 122| 216| 142| 229
| | | | | | |
20045| 20222| 20383| 20544| 20766| 20982| 21124| 21353
| | | | | | |
4030| 3949| 3772| 3611| 3450| 3228| 3012| 2870
YEARS OF LIFE.
69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76
| | | | | | |
1| 11| 1| 3| 1| 3| 5| 1
0| 6| 2| 12| 2| 0| 4| 2
1| 3| 1| 2| 0| 1| 1| 0
1| 0| 0| 2| 0| 0| 0| 0
1| 9| 1| 4| 0| 0| 3| 0
2| 19| 1| 11| 5| 5| 8| 0
0| 7| 0| 2| 1| 0| 0| 0
6| 18| 3| 10| 2| 2| 18| 2
1| 9| 2| 8| 3| 2| 9| 1
0| 4| 0| 3| 0| 0| 0| 0
5| 16| 8| 22| 12| 12| 16| 6
7| 31| 6| 21| 11| 19| 24| 12
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
25| 133| 25| 100| 37| 44| 88| 24
| | | | | | |
10037| 10170| 10195| 10295| 10332| 10376| 10464| 10488
| | | | | | |
793| 768| 935| 610| 510| 473| 429| 341
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
9| 36| 9| 25| 14| 19| 20| 16
15| 35| 10| 28| 5| 15| 23| 11
50| 177| 64| 118| 53| 90| 127| 63
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
72| 248| 83| 171| 72| 124| 170| 90
| | | | | | |
11413| 11661| 11744| 11915| 11987| 12111| 12281| 12371
| | | | | | |
1848| 1776| 1528| 1445| 1274| 1202| 1078| 908
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
97| 381| 108| 271| 109| 168| 258| 114
| | | | | | |
21450| 21831| 21939| 22210| 22319| 22487| 22745| 22059
| | | | | | |
2641| 2544| 2160| 2155| 1784| 1675| 1507| 1249
YEARS OF LIFE.
77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84
| | | | | | |
1| 2| 2| 6| 0| 0| 0| 3
0| 3| 0| 3| 1| 0| 0| 0
0| 0| 0| 2| 0| 0| 0| 0
0| 0| 0| 1| 0| 0| 0| 0
1| 0| 0| 7| 0| 0| 0| 0
3| 4| 0| 6| 0| 0| 0| 0
1| 0| 0| 3| 0| 0| 0| 0
4| 4| 2| 17| 1| 3| 1| 3
4| 2| 0| 5| 1| 4| 1| 1
2| 1| 1| 1| 3| 0| 0| 0
6| 8| 1| 17| 6| 9| 5| 7
11| 14| 9| 19| 7| 14| 4| 7
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
33| 38| 15| 89| 16| 30| 11| 21
| | | | | | |
10521| 10559| 10574| 10663| 10679| 10709| 10720| 10741
| | | | | | |
317| 284| 246| 231| 142| 126| 96| 85
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
10| 25| 8| 17| 4| 10| 8| 7
| | | | | | |
18| 15| 8| 18| 4| 5| 16| 4
| | | | | | |
59| 69| 80| 121| 32| 41| 37| 25
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
87| 109| 46| 156| 40| 56| 61| 36
| | | | | | |
12458| 12567| 12613| 12769| 12809| 12865| 12962| 12962
| | | | | | |
818| 731| 622| 576| 420| 380| 324| 263
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
120| 147| 61| 245| 50| 86| 72| 57
| | | | | | |
22979| 23126| 23187| 23432| 23488| 23574| 23646| 23703
| | | | | | |
1835| 1015| 868| 807| 562| 506| 426| 348
YEARS OF LIFE.
85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92
| | | | | | |
0| 1| 0| 0| 1| 0| 0| 0
0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0
0| 0| 0| 1| 0| 0| 0| 0
1| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0
0| 0| 1| 1| 0| 0| 0| 0
0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 2| 0| 0
0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0
4| 0| 1| 2| 0| 4| 1| 1
0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 1| 0| 0
0| 0| 0| 0| 1| 0| 0| 0
2| 4| 4| 2| 2| 0| 0| 0
5| 4| 4| 3| 1| 2| 0| 2
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
12| 9| 8| 9| 5| 9| 1| 3
| | | | | | |
10753| 10762| 10770| 10779| 10784| 10793| 10794| 10797
| | | | | | |
64| 52| 43| 35| 26| 21| 12| 11
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
3| 7| 4| 5| 2| 4| 0| 2
| | | | | | |
10| 4| 1| 4| 2| 2| 2| 2
| | | | | | |
35| 19| 20| 25| 24| 17| 5| 9
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
48| 30| 25| 34| 8| 23| 7| 13
| | | | | | |
13010| 15040| 13065| 13099| 16017| 13130| 13137| 13150
| | | | | | |
227| 179| 149| 124| 90| 82| 59| 52
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
50| 39| 33| 43| 13| 32| 8| 16
| | | | | | |
23763| 23802| 22835| 22878| 23891| 23923| 23931| 23947
| | | | | | |
291| 231| 192| 159| 116| 103| 71| 63
YEARS OF LIFE.
93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100
| | | | | | |
0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0
0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0
0| 8| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0
0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0
0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0
0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 1
0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0
0| 0| 2| 1| 0| 3| 0| 0
0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0
0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0
0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0
0| 0| 1| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
0| 0| 3| 1| 0| 3| 0| 1
| | | | | | |
10797| 10797| 10800| 10801| 10801| 10804| 10804| 10805
| | | | | | |
8| 8| 8| 4| 4| 4| 1| 1
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
1| 2| 0| 1| 1| 0| 0| 0
1| 1| 2| 1| 0| 1| 0| 0
5| 4| 5| 2| 1| 4| 1| 4
----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----| -----
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
7| 7| 7| 4| 2| 5| 1| 4
| | | | | | |
13157| 13164| 13171| 13175| 13177| 13182| 13183| 13187
| | | | | | |
39| 32| 25| 18| 14| 12| 7| 6
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
7| 7| 10| 5| 2| 8| 1| 5
| | | | | | |
23954| 23961| 23971| 23976| 23978| 23986| 23987| 23992
| | | | | | |
47| 40| 33| 23| 18| 16| 8| 7
From these tables many useful conclusions might be drawn. But I shall
only consider those which respect the probabilities of the duration of
life. It is observable, that in the columns opposite the years 10, 20,
30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and other round numbers as 25, 35, &c. the deaths
in the country parishes are more numerous than in in the preceding or
subsequent columns. The cause of this seeming inconsistency arises from
the generality of country people being ignorant of their exact age,
and therefore if they die at 58 or 59 in the parish register it is
entered 60; and so of other round numbers. From this irregularity the
inconvenience is not great, as it may easily be corrected by the manner
in which the numbers succeed each other in the Tables.
By the tables in the country parishes it appears, that almost one half
of the children die before the age of four years, and by the Paris
table not before 16; which great difference; certainly arises from
the children being sent into the country to nurse, and consequently
increases the number of deaths there in infancy. As likely to come at
the truth, I have blended the two tables, and from thence calculated
the probabilities of the duration of life as follows:
TABLE _of the_ PROBABILITIES _of the_ DURATION _of_ HUMAN LIFE.
Age.| Duration |Age.| Duration | Age.| Duration
| of Life. | | of Life. | | of Life.
----|-----------|----|------------|-----|------------
Yrs. Yrs. Mths. Yrs. Yrs. Mths. Yrs. Yrs. Mths.
----|-----------|----|------------|-----|------------
0 | 8 0 | 29 | 28 6 | 58 | 12 3
1 | 33 0 | 30 | 28 0 | 59 | 11 8
2 | 38 0 | 31 | 27 6 | 60 | 11 1
3 | 40 0 | 32 | 26 11 | 61 | 10 6
4 | 41 0 | 33 | 26 3 | 62 | 10 0
5 | 41 6 | 34 | 25 7 | 63 | 9 6
6 | 42 0 | 35 | 25 0 | 64 | 9 0
7 | 42 3 | 36 | 24 5 | 65 | 8 6
8 | 41 6 | 37 | 23 10 | 66 | 8 0
9 | 40 10 | 38 | 23 3 | 67 | 7 6
10 | 40 2 | 39 | 22 8 | 68 | 7 0
11 | 39 6 | 40 | 22 1 | 69 | 6 7
12 | 38 9 | 41 | 21 6 | 70 | 6 2
13 | 38 1 | 42 | 20 11 | 71 | 5 3
14 | 37 5 | 43 | 20 4 | 72 | 5 4
15 | 36 9 | 44 | 19 9 | 73 | 5 0
16 | 36 0 | 45 | 19 3 | 74 | 4 9
17 | 35 4 | 46 | 18 9 | 75 | 4 6
18 | 34 8 | 47 | 18 2 | 76 | 4 3
19 | 34 0 | 48 | 17 8 | 77 | 4 1
20 | 33 5 | 49 | 17 2 | 73 | 3 11
21 | 32 11 | 50 | 16 7 | 79 | 3 9
22 | 32 4 | 51 | 16 0 | 80 | 3 7
23 | 31 10 | 52 | 15 6 | 81 | 3 5
24 | 31 3 | 53 | 15 0 | 82 | 3 3
25 | 30 9 | 54 | 14 6 | 83 | 3 2
26 | 30 2 | 55 | 14 0 | 84 | 3 1
27 | 29 7 | 56 | 13 5 | 85 | 3 0
28 | 29 0 | 57 | 12 10 | |
By this table it appears, that an infant newly born has an equal chance
of living eight years; that an infant of one will live 33 years longer;
that a child of two will live 38 years longer; that a man of 20 will
live 33 years and five months longer; that a man of 30 will live 28
years longer; and so proportionally of every other age.
It is also to be observed, first, that seven years is the age at which
the longest duration of life is to be expected, since there is then an
equal chance of living 42 years and three months longer; secondly that
at the age of 12 one fourth of our existence is gone, as we cannot in
reason expect above 38 or 39 years more; thirdly, that we have enjoyed
one half of our existence at the age of 28, as we can reckon upon only
28 years more; and lastly, that by the age of 50 three fourths of life
are passed, the remaining probability being only for 16 or 17 years.
But these physical truths, however mortifying, may be compensated by
moral considerations. A man ought to consider as nothing the first
fifteen years of his life. Every thing that happens in that long
interval of time is effaced from the memory, or has at least so
little connection with the views and objects Which afterwards occupy
our thoughts that it gives us no concern. Neither, indeed, have we the
game succession of ideas, nor, it maybe said, the same existence. In a
moral sense we do not begin to live till we have begun to regulate our
thoughts, to direct them towards futurity, and to assume to ourselves
a kind of consistency of character conformable to that state which has
some relation to what we shall afterwards become. By considering the
duration of life in this, the only real point of view, we shall find,
that at the age of 25 we have passed but one fourth part of our life;
at the age of 38 one half; and that, at the age of 56, there is one
fourth of life still remains.
CHAPTER VI.
OF THE SENSE OF SEEING.
Having described the parts of which the human body consists, let us
now proceed to examine its principal organs; the expansion of the
senses, and their several functions; and at the same time, point out
the errors to which, through them, we are in some measure subjected by
Nature.
The eyes seem to be formed very early in the human embryo. In the
chicken also, of all the double organs they are the soonest produced.
I have observed in the eggs of several sorts of birds, and in those of
lizards, that the eyes were more large, and early in their expansion,
than any other parts of a two-fold growth. Though, in viviparous
animals, and particularly in man, they are, at first, by no means so
large in proportion as in the oviparous, yet they obtain their due
formation sooner than any other parts of the body. It is the same with
the organ of hearing; the small bones of the ear are entirely formed
before any of the other bones have acquired any part of their growth or
solidity. Hence it is evident, that the parts of the body, which are
furnished with the greatest quantity of nerves, as the ears and eyes,
are those which first appear, and which are the soonest brought to
perfection.
If we examine the eyes of an infant, a few hours after its birth, we
shall discern that it cannot make the smallest use of them; the organ
not having acquired a sufficient consistency, the rays of light strike
but confusedly upon the retina. Before the sixth week, children turn
their eyes indiscriminately upon every object, without appearing to be
affected by any, but at about this time they begin to fix them upon
the most brilliant colours, and seem peculiarly desirous of turning
them towards the light; this exercise does not give any exact notion of
objects, but strengthens the eye, and qualifies it for future vision.
The first great error in the sense of seeing, is the inverted
representation of objects upon the retina, and, till the sense of
feeling has served to undeceive it, the child actually beholds every
thing upside down. The second error in early vision is, that every
object appears double; from the same object being formed distinctly
upon each eye. This illusion like the other, can only be corrected
by children from their being in the practice of handling different
objects, and from which practice alone it is that they learn things are
neither inverted nor double, and custom induces them to believe they
see objects in the position the touch represents them to the mind; and
therefore, were we denied the sense of feeling, that of seeing would
not only deceive us as to the situation, but as to the number of every
object around us.
We may easily be convinced that objects appear inverted, (which arises
from the structure of the eye) by admitting the light to pass into a
darkened room through a small aperture, when the images of the objects
without will be represented upon the wall in an inverted position; for,
as all the rays which issue from their different points cannot enter
the hole in the same extent and position which they had in leaving the
object, unless the aperture was as large as the object itself; as every
part of the object sends forth its image on all sides; as the rays
which from those images flow from all points of the object, as from so
many centres, those only can pass through the small aperture which come
in opposite directions. Thus the hole becomes a centre for the entire
object, through which the rays from the upper, as well as from the
lower parts of it, pass in converging directions; and, of consequence,
they must cross each other at this centre, and thus represent the
objects upon the wall, in an inverted position.
That we, in reality, see all objects double, is also evident; for
example, if we hold up a finger, and look with the right eye at an
object, it will appear against one particular part of the room,
shutting that and looking with the left, it will seem to be on a
different part, and if we open both eyes, the object will appear to
be placed between the two extremes. But the truth is, the image of
the object is formed in both eyes, one of which appears to the right,
and the other to the left; and it is from the habit of touching that
we suppose we see but one image placed between them both. From which
it is clear that we see all objects double, although our imagination
forms them single; and that, in fact, we see things where they are not,
notwithstanding we have a pretty exact idea of their situation and
position; and thus it is that till the sense of feeling has corrected
the errors of sight, if instead of two eyes, we had an hundred, we
should still fancy the objects single, although they were multiplied an
hundred times.
In each eye, therefore, is formed a separate image of every object;
and when the two images strike the correspondent parts of the retina,
that is, the parts which are always affected at the same time, the
object appears single: but, when the images strike the parts of the
retina, which are not usually affected together, then it appears
double, because we are not habitual to this unusual sensation, and are
then somewhat in the situation of infants just beginning to exert the
faculty of vision.
M. Chesselden relates the case of a man, who, in consequence of a blow
on the head, became squint-eyed, and saw objects double for a long
time: but who was at length enabled, by slow and gradual steps, to see
them singly as he had formerly done, notwithstanding the squinting
remained. Is not this a proof, still more evident, that in reality
we see things double, and that it is by habit alone we conceive them
to be single? Should it be asked why children require less time, in
order to see things single, than persons more advanced in years,
whose eyes may have been affected by accident? it might be answered,
that the sensations of children, being unopposed by any contradictory
habit, these errors are rectified with ease; but that persons who have
for many years seen objects single, because they affected the two
correspondent parts of the retina, and who now see them double, labour
under the disadvantage of having a contrary habit to oppose, and must
therefore be a considerable time before it is entirely obliterated.
By the sense of seeing we can form no idea of distances; without aided
by the touch, every object would appear to be within our eyes; and
an infant, that is as yet a stranger to the sense of feeling, must
conceive that every thing it sees exists within itself. The objects
only appear to be more or less bulky as they approach to, or recede
from the eye; insomuch, that a a fly near the eye will appear larger
than an ox at a distance. It is experience alone that can rectify this
mistake; and it is by constantly measuring with the hand, and removing
from one place to another, that children obtain ideas of distance and
magnitude. They have no conception of size but from the extreme rays
reflected from the object, of course every thing near appears large,
and those at a distance small. The last man in a file of soldiers
appears much more diminutive than the one who is nearest to us. We do
not, however, perceive this difference, but continue to think him of
equal stature; for the number of objects we have seen thus lessened by
distance, and found by repeated experience to be of the natural size
when we come closer, instantly correct the sense, and therefore we
perceive every object nearly in its natural proportion, unless when
we observe them in such situations as have not allowed us sufficient
experience to correct the illusions of the eye. If, for example,
we view men upon the ground, from a lofty tower, or look up to any
object upon the top of a steeple, as we have not been in the habit of
correcting the sense in that position, they appear to us exceedingly
diminished, much more so than if we saw them at the same distance in an
horizontal direction.
Though a small degree of reflection may serve to convince us of the
truth of these positions, yet it may not be amiss to corroborate them
by facts which cannot be disputed. M. Chesselden, having couched for a
cataract a lad of thirteen years of age, who had from his birth been
blind, and thus communicated to him the sense of seeing, was at great
pains to mark the progress of his visual powers; his observations were
afterwards published in the Philosophical Transactions. This youth
was not absolutely and entirely blind: Like every other person, whose
vision is obstructed by a cataract, he could distinguish day from
night and even black from white, but of the figure of bodies he had
no idea. At first the operation was performed only upon one of his
eyes, and when he saw for the first time, so far was he from judging
of distances, that he supposed (as he himself expressed it) every
thing he saw touched his eyes, in the same manner as every thing he
felt touched his skin. The objects that pleased him most were those
whose surfaces were plain and the figures regular, though he could in
no degree judge of their different forms, or assign why some were more
agreeable to him than others. His ideas of colours during his former
dark state were so imperfect, that when he saw them in reality he could
hardly be persuaded they were the same. When such objects were shewn
him as he had been formerly familiar with by the touch, he beheld them
with earnestness, in order to know them again, but as he had too many
to retain at once the greatest number were forgotten, and for one
thing which he knew, after seeing it, there were a thousand, according
to his own declaration, of which he no longer possessed the smallest
remembrance. He was very much surprised to find that those persons, and
those things, which he had loved best, were not the most pleasing to
his sight; nor could he help testifying his disappointment in finding
his parents less handsome than he had conceived them to be. Before he
could distinguish that pictures resembled solid bodies above two months
elapsed; till then he only considered them as surfaces diversified by a
variety of colours; but when he began to perceive that these shadings
actually represented human beings, he expected also to find their
inequalities; and great was his surprise to find smooth and even what
he had supposed a very unequal surface; and he inquired whether the
deception existed in feeling or seeing. He was then shewn a miniature
portrait of his father, which was contained in his mother's watch-case,
and though he readily perceived the resemblance, yet he expressed his
amazement how so large a face could be comprised in so small a compass;
to him it appeared as strange as that a pint vessel should contain a
bushel. At first he could bear but a very small quantity of light, and
every object appeared larger than the life; but in proportion as he
observed objects that were in reality large, he conceived the others
to be equally diminished. Beyond the limits of what he saw he had no
conception of any thing. He knew that the apartment he occupied was
only a part of the house, and yet he could not imagine how the latter
should be larger than the former. Before the operation he formed no
great expectations of the pleasure he should receive from the new sense
he was promised, excepting that thereby he might be enabled to read
and write. He said among other things, that he could enjoy no greater
delight from walking in the garden, because there he already walked at
his ease, and was acquainted with every part of it. He also remarked
that his blindness gave him one advantage over the rest of mankind,
namely, that of being able to walk in the night with more confidence
and security. No sooner, however, had he began to enjoy his new sense
than he was transported beyond measure; he declared that every new
object was a new source of delight, and that his pleasure was so great
he had not language to express it. About a year after, he was carried
to Epsom, where there is a beautiful and extensive prospect; with this
he seemed greatly charmed; and the landscape before him he called a
new method of seeing. He was couched in the other eye a year after
the former, and the success was equally great. Every object appeared
larger when he looked at it with the second eye to what it did with the
other; and when he looked at any thing with both eyes it appeared twice
as large as when he saw but with one, though he did not see double, or
at least he shewed no marks from which any such conclusion might be
drawn.
Mr. Chesselden instances several other persons who were in the same
situation with this lad, and on whom he performed the same operation;
and he assures us, that on first obtaining the use of their eyes they
expressed their perceptions in the same manner, though less minutely;
and that he particularly observed of them all, that as they had never
had any occasion to move their eyes while deprived of sight, they were
exceedingly embarrassed in learning how to direct them to the objects
they wished to observe.
As from particular circumstances we cannot from a just idea of
distance, and as we cannot judge of the magnitude of objects but by the
largeness of the angle, or rather the image, which they form in our
eyes, we are necessarily deceived as to the size of such objects. Every
man knows how liable we are, in travelling by night, to mistake a bush
which is at hand for a tree at a distance, or a tree at a distance
for a bush which is at hand. In like manner, if we cannot distinguish
objects by their figure we cannot judge of distance or size. In this
case a fly, passing with rapidity before our eyes, will appear to be a
bird at a considerable distance; and an horse standing in the middle of
a plain will appear no bigger than a sheep till we have discovered that
it is a horse, and then we shall recognize it to be as large as life.
Whenever, therefore, we find ourselves benighted in an unknown place,
where upon account of the darkness no judgment is to be formed of
distance, or figures of the objects that may present themselves, we
are every moment in danger of being misled with respect to our ideas
of such objects. Hence proceeds that internal fear and dread which
most men experience from the obscurity of night, and of those strange
and hideous spectres and gigantic figures which so many persons tell
us they have seen. Though such figures, it is commonly asserted, exist
solely in the imagination, yet they may appear literally to the eye,
and be in every respect seen as described to us; for when we reflect
that whenever we cannot judge of an unknown object but by the angle
which it forms in the eye, this object is magnified in proportion to
its propinquity; and that if it appears at the distance of twenty or
thirty paces to be only a few feet high, when advanced within a short
space of it, it will seem to be of considerable magnitude. At this
the spectator must naturally be astonished and terrified, till he
approaches and knows it by feeling; for in the very instant that he
has an actual perception of what it is, the tremendous form it assumed
to the eye will diminish, and it will appear in no other than its real
and absolute form. If, on the other hand, he is afraid to approach it,
and flies from the spot with precipitation, the only idea he can have
of it will be that of the image which had been formed in his eye; the
image of a figure he had seen, gigantic in its size, and horrible in
its form. The prejudice with respect to spectres, therefore, originates
from Nature, and depend not, as some philosophers have supposed, solely
upon the imagination.
When we cannot form an idea of distance, by the knowledge of the
intermediate space between us and any particular object, we endeavour
to distinguish the form of that object, in order to judge of its
size; but when we cannot perfectly distinguish the figures, and at the
same time behold a number of objects, whose forms are correspondent,
we conceive those which are most brilliant are most proximate, and
those most obscure are most remote; a notion which is not unoften the
source of very singular mistakes. In a multitude of objects disposed
in a right line, as the lamps upon the road from Versailles to Paris,
of which, as we cannot judge of the proximity or remoteness but by the
quantity of light they transmit to the eye, it often happens that when
examined at the distance of the eighth of a league, we see all the
lamps situated on the right hand instead of the left, on which they
are in reality situated. This fallacious appearance is produced from
the above-mentioned cause, for as the spectator has no evidence of the
distance he is from the lamps, but by the quantity of light they emit,
so he conceives that the most brilliant lamps are those which are the
first and the nearest to him. Now if some of the first lamps happen to
be dull and obscure, and any one of the others particularly bright,
that one would appear to be first and the rest behind, whatever was
their real situation; and this seeming transposition would be solely
owing to the supposed change of their situation from the left hand to
the right; for to conceive to be before what is actually behind in a
long file, is to see on the right what is situated on the left, or on
the left what is situated on the right.
We may fairly consider sight as a species of touching, though very
different from what we commonly understand by that sense; for in order
to exercise the latter we must be near the object, whereas we can
touch with the eye as far as the light the object contains will make
an impression, or its figure form an angle therein. This angle, when
the object is viewed at the greatest distance, is about the 3436th
part of its diameter, therefore an object of a foot square is not
visible beyond 3436 feet, or a man of five feet high at a greater
distance than 17180 feet. But the extent of vision is in some measure
influenced by the light which surrounds us, and we should be enabled to
see any object in the night at 100 times greater distance than in the
day, provided it was equally illuminated; thus, for instance, we can
perceive a lighted candle at full two leagues in the night, supposing
the diameter of the luminary to be one inch, whereas in the day we
should not be able to discern it beyond the proportion of the above
ratio; and as this is a circumstance which attends all objects when
viewed at those different periods, we may conclude that one principal
reason for our not being able to discern things at a greater distance,
is the brilliancy of the light which fills up the intermediate space,
and so destroys the reflected rays from those still more distant
objects. When we are surrounded with strength of light the objects near
make a forcible impression on the retina of the eye, and obliterate
those far off, which are weak and faint; and, on the contrary, if we
view a luminous body in the night, even at a considerable distance,
that becomes perfectly visible, while those which are near are scarcely
discernible. From these reasons it is, that a man at the bottom of a
deep pit can see the stars, or, by employing a long tube in a dark
room, may obtain some effects from the telescope in the middle of the
day. From this it is evident, that if bodies were furnished with more
strength of light they would be visible at greater distances, although
the angle was not increased, for a small candle, which burns bright,
is seen much farther off than a flambeau that is dim. Of these facts,
relative to the influence of light, we have a still stronger proof
in the variation between a microscope and telescope, both of them
instruments of the same kind, increasing the visible angles of objects,
whether they be really minute or rendered so by distance, and yet the
latter does not magnify beyond a thousand times, whereas the former
will exceed a million, and this difference plainly arises solely from
the degree of light, for could the distant object be additionally
illuminated, telescopes would have the same effect upon distant objects
as microscopes have upon small bodies. But it is only by comparing
the size of the angle formed in the retina of the eye, the degree of
light which illuminates the adjacent and intermediate objects, and the
strength of light which proceeds from, or is reflected by the object
itself, that we can conclude upon the distance at which any particular
body will be visible.
The power of seeing objects at a distance is very rarely equal in
both eyes. When this inequality is great, the person so circumstanced
generally shuts that eye with which he sees the least, and employs the
other with all its power, and which is one cause of squinting. The
object does not appear doubly distinct, by both eyes being placed upon
it although they are equally strong, but has frequently been proved
not to exceed a 13th part more than if beheld with one; and this is
supposed to arise from the two optic nerves uniting near the place
they came out of the skull and then separating by an obtuse angle
before they enter the eyes; but as the motion made by the impression
of objects cannot pass to the brain without passing this united part,
the two motions must therefore be combined, and, consequently, cannot
act with that force as though they were distinct; but from repeated
experiments seem to bear the proportion above stated.
There are many reasons to suppose that short-sighted persons see
objects larger than others; and it is a certain truth that they see
them less. I am myself short-sighted, and my left-eye is stronger than
my right. A thousand times have I experienced, upon looking at any
object, as the letters of a book, that they appear least to the weakest
eye; and that, when I place the book so that the letters appear double,
the images of the left-eye, are greater than those of the right.
Several others, I have examined, who were in similar circumstances,
and I have always found, that the eye which saw every object best,
saw it also largest. This may be ascribed to particular habits; for
near-sighted people being accustomed to approach close to the object,
and to view but a small part of it at a time, they acquire a small
standard for magnitude, and when the
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