known as sclerosis. It constitutes the charasteristic lesion of a certain number of chronic diseases; and these diseases are serious, for the stifling of the characteristic elements by the less important elements of the conjunctive or packed tissue results in the more or less complete reduction or suppression of the function.
The blood vessels also undergo this transformation, and what we may call universal trouble and danger ensue. This sclerosis of the arteries, this arterio-sclerosis, not only deprives the walls of the blood vessels of the suppleness and elasticity which are necessary for the proper irrigation of the organs, but it makes them more fragile. Thus it becomes a cause of hemorrhage, which is a very serious matter as far as the brain and lungs are concerned.
It is remarkable that the alteration of the tissues during old age should be exactly similar to this. This is inferred from the few researches that have been made on the subject—from those of Demange in 1886, of Merkel in 1891, and finally from the researches of Metchnikoff himself. It is a generalized sclerosis. As its consequence we have the lowering of the proper activity of the organs and the danger of cerebral hemorrhage created by arterio-sclerosis. The transformations of the tissues in old men are therefore summed up in the atrophy of the important and specific elements of the tissues, and their replacement by the hypertrophied conjunctive tissue. This sclerosis is comparable to that of chronic diseases; it is a pathological condition. Thus old age, as we understand it, is a chronic disease and not a normal phase of the vital cycle.
On the other hand, if we ask ourselves what is the
