Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/426

322 sixteenth year of life, and children may be divided into three different classes, according as they are fed on milk, or on milk and boiled rice or on boiled rice alone. A child lives exclusively on milk up to the first year of its life, it is fed on milk and boiled rice (hard food) up to the second year, and is thenceforward nourished with boiled rice (hard food).

The middle age of a man extends from the sixteenth to the seventieth year of his life, and exhibits the traits of growth, youth, arrest of development and decay.

The process of growth or building goes on up to the twentieth year of life, when youth or the age of maturity sets in and holds sway over the body of a man up to the thirtieth year of his life,—the strength, semen, and all the organs and vital principles of the body attain (their full maturity at the age of forty. Thenceforth decay gradually sets in up to the seventieth year of life. After that the strength and energy of a man dwindle day by day. The organs and virility grow weak and suffer deterioration. The hair turns to a silvery white, the parched skin looks shrivelled and becomes impressed with marks of dotage (crow's feet-marks). The skin hangs down and becomes flabby, the hair begins to fall off, and symptoms of alopecia mark the smooth, sheen and balded pate. The respiration becomes laboured and painful. The body, worn out like an old and dilapidated building, shakes with fits of