These parts being thus affected, the wise author adds, _the appetite shall be lost_; wherein he does not attend so much to the appetite for victuals, as for those other things, which are sought after in the vigor of life. For as the author of _the Art of Love_ has rightly said: _Turpe senilis amor_[82]. [82] _Ovid. Amorum, lib. i. Eclog. ix. ver. 4._ That old people are crushed to death by so great a heap of evils and infirmities, and _depart to their eternal habitation_, to the grief of their friends, can be no matter of wonder. But in the remaining part of the discourse we are admonished, that their miseries in this life are not confined within these bounds, but that sometimes there is still an accession of others. For loss of strength in old age does not terminate at the limbs, or extremities of the body; the spine of the back also loses considerably of its firmness, by the daily diminution of power in its muscles and ligaments: hence an old man can seldom stand upright, but stoops his body towards the earth, which is shortly to cover it. This part is likened to a _silver chain_, which is said to be _broken asunder_. For the _vertebræ_, of which it is composed, may be looked upon as the rings or links, and they give way outward by the bending of the body. Moreover the _medulla oblongata_, which passes through them, is of a _silver_ or whitish colour. These points, which we have hitherto handled, are very difficult of explanation. But the three inconveniencies, which close the discourse, are true ænigma’s, and require an Oedipus to solve them. And as such an one, in my opinion, has not appeared hitherto, I will use my endeavours to do it. _The golden ewer_, says he, _is dashed in pieces: the pitcher is broken at the fountain-head; and the chariot is dashed in pieces at the pit_. Old men are troubled with defluxions from the head to the nose, mouth and lungs; which are compared to water rushing out of a broken bottle or ewer. And the ewer is said to be _of gold_, to express the dignity of the head. Nor does phlegm flow from the head alone; but other parts also pour forth their juices too abundantly or irregularly. For the serosities, which are secreted by the kidneys (whose cavity is even at this day named pelvis by Anatomists) runs into the bladder; which, by reason of the relaxation of its sphincter, as if the pitcher were broken at the fountain head, is not able to retain its contents a sufficient time. Hence an incontinence or dribbling of urine is continually troublesome.