Nearly a thousand years before Christ, a great poet—probably Solomon himself—spoke of age as "the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened." But age is not always a question of years; for, as Sir Thomas Brown1 wrote in 1646 : "Many grow old before they arrive at age." Twenty years later, J. Smith2 voiced the earnest desire "that Physicians would study the Geroncomical part of Physick more than they do."
Age alone is not sufficient reason for diagnosing a condition as senile. I have seen people over 90 years of age whose eyes, in many respects, were youthful; and, conversely, persons under 40 with eye lesions similar to the changes of senescence. Therefore, it is not wise to diagnose an eye lesion