Theory of Life - Professor Faraday

Michael Faraday (1791-1867)

THEORY OF LIFE. – The late Professor Faraday adopted the theory that the natural age of man is one hundred years. The duration of life he believed to be measured by the time of growth. In the camel this takes eight, in the horse five, in the lion four, in the dog two, in the rabbit one year. The natural termination is five removes from these several points. Man being twenty years in growing, lives five times twenty years – that is one hundred; the camel is eight years in growing, and lives forty years; and so with the other animals. The man who does not die of sickness lives everywhere from eighty to one hundred years. The Professor divided life into equal halves – growth and decline – and these into infancy, youth, virility and age. Infancy extends to the twentieth year, youth to the fiftieth, because it is in this period the tissues become firm, virility from fifty to seventy-five, during which the organism remains complete, and at seventy-five old age commences, to last as the diminution of reserved forces is hastened or retarded.