Chapter III: Part I: The Investigation of Old Age

I

THE PROBLEMS OF SENILITY

Treatment of old people in uncivilised
countries.—Assassination of old people in civilised
countries.—Suicide of old people.—Public assistance in
old age.—Centenarians.—Mme. Robineau, a lady of 106
years of age.—Principal characters of old age.—Examples
of old mammals.—Old birds and tortoises.—Hypothesis of
senile degeneration in the lower animals 1

II

THEORIES OF THE CAUSATION OF SENILITY

Hypothesis of the causation of senility.—Senility
cannot be attributed to the cessation of the power of
reproduction of the cells of the body.—Growth of the
hair and the nails in old age.—Inner mechanism of
the senescence of the tissues.—Notwithstanding the
criticisms of M. Marinesco, the neuronophags are true
phagocytes.—The whitening of hair, and the destruction
of nerve cells as arguments against a theory of old age
based on the failure of the reproductive powers of the
cells 15

III

MECHANISM OF SENILITY

Action of the macrophags in destroying the higher
cells.—Senile degeneration of the muscular
fibres.—Atrophy of the skeleton.—Atheroma and arterial
sclerosis.—Theory that Old Age is due to alteration
in the vascular glands.—Organic tissues that resist
phagocytosis. 25