forces. Accept from age peace, repose, and wisdom, in exchange for the transports and the flames of passion. Remember, moreover, that to quit before losing entirely is, in many respects, an essential article of the hygienic code of old men.[1] So may they say with Adam:
"Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty:
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood;
Nor did not, with unbashful forehead, woo
The means of weakness and debility;
Therefore my age is as lusty Winter,
Frosty, but kindly:"
(As You Like It, Act II, Scene III.)
rather than with Macbeth:
"My way of life
Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf:
And that which should accompany old age,
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but in their stead
Curses, not loud, but deep."
(Macbeth, Act V, Scene HI.)
The effect of these excesses on aged women is different, but not less serious. After the function of menstruation has at length entirely ceased, a remarkable change gradually develops in the organs of generation. The womb shrinks and hardens, the vagina loses its peculiar softness, and becomes harsh and dry — the vaginal secretions, in fact, are altered and abolished. Everything goes to prove the inaptness of these organs for the act of reproduction. Cancer of the womb or neighboring organs, so common in women of advanced age, is often the result of these unnatural connections. While infrequent and moderate indul-
- ↑ 6
