Q. Why doth man, above all other creatures, wax hoary and gray? A.
Because man hath the hottest heart of all living creatures; and
therefore, nature being most wise, lest a man should be suffocated
through the heat of his heart, hath placed the heart, which is most hot,
under the brain, which is most cold; to the end that the heat of the
heart may be tempered by the coldness of the brain; and contrariwise,
that the coldness of the brain may be qualified by the heat of the
heart; and thereby there might be a temperature in both. A proof of this
is, that of all living creatures man hath the worst breath when he comes
to full age. Furthermore, man doth consume nearly half his time in
sleep, which doth proceed from the great excess of coldness and moisture
in the brain, and from his wanting natural heat to digest and consume
that moisture, which heat he hath in his youth, and therefore, in that
age is not gray, but in old age, when heat faileth; because then the
vapours ascending from the stomach remain undigested and unconsumed for
want of natural heat, and thus putrefy, on which putrefaction of humours
that the whiteness doth follow, which is called grayness or hoariness.
Whereby it doth appear, that hoariness is nothing but a whiteness of
hair, caused by a putrefaction of the humours about the roots of the
hair, through the want of natural heat in old age.
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