VIEWPOINTS

19-1 |Science in the Service of Human Longevity
FRANCIS BACON, From The Great Restoration: History of Life and Death (1623)

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) was a champion of the empirical method. Instead of beginning with core assumptions and then using those assumptions to interpret observed phenomena, Bacon argued that scholars should begin by collecting data through observation and experimentation and then use those data to form generalizations. He lived in England, where his career as a politician ended in disgrace. He turned seriously to writing and produced a great number of works on philosophical, social, and natural topics. He died of pneumonia, which he may have contracted in the process of an experiment in preserving meat through freezing. The work excerpted here is an excellent example of both Bacon’s keen interest in the social value of knowledge and his careful approach to inquiry and the creation of knowledge.

TO THE PRESENT AND FUTURE AGES, GREETING.

Although in my six monthly designations I placed the History of Life and Death last in order;1 yet the extreme profit and importance of the subject, wherein even the slightest loss of time should be accounted precious, has decided me to make an anticipation, and advance it into the second place. For it is my hope and desire that it will contribute to the common good; that through it the higher physicians will somewhat raise their thoughts, and not devote all their time to common cures, nor be honored for necessity only; but that they will become the instruments and dispensers of God’s power and mercy in prolonging and renewing the life of man, the rather because it is effected by safe, convenient, and civil, though hitherto unattempted methods. For although we Christians ever aspire and pant after the land of promise,2 yet meanwhile it will be a mark of God’s favor if in our pilgrimage through the wilderness of this world, these our shoes and garments (I mean our frail bodies) are as little worn out as possible. . . .

There are . . . two subjects of inquiry; the one, the consumption or depredation of the human body; the other, the repair or refreshment thereof; with a view to the restraining of the one (as far as may be), and the strengthening and comforting the other. The first of these pertains principally to the spirits and external air, which cause the depredation; the second to the whole process of alimentation [eating and digesting], which supplies the renovation. With regard to the first part of the inquiry, touching consumption, it has many things in common with bodies inanimate. For whatever the native spirit (which exists in all tangible bodies whether with or without life) and the ambient or external air do to bodies inanimate, the same they try to do to bodies animate, though the presence of the vital spirit in part disturbs and restrains these operations, and in part intensifies and increases them exceedingly. For it is very evident that many inanimate bodies can last a very long time without repair, but animate bodies without aliment and repair at once collapse and die out like fire. The inquiry therefore should be twofold; regarding first the body of man as a thing inanimate and unrepaired by nourishment; and secondly as a thing animate and nourished. And with these prefatory remarks I now pass on to the Topics of Inquiry.

Particular Topics

Or, Articles of Inquiry Concerning Life and Death

  1. Inquire into the Nature of Durable and Non-Durable inanimate bodies, and likewise in Vegetables; not in a full and regular inquiry, but briefly, summarily, and as it were only by the way.
  2. Inquire more carefully touching the desiccation, arefaction [drying], and consumption of bodies inanimate and vegetable; of the ways and processes whereby they are effected, and withal the methods whereby they are prevented and retarded, and bodies are preserved in their own state. Also inquire touching the inteneration, softening, and renewal of bodies, after they have once commenced to become dry.

    Neither however need this inquiry be perfect or exact; as these things should be drawn from the proper title of Nature Durable; and as they are not the principal questions in the present inquiry, but only shed a light on the prolongation and restoration of life in animals; wherein, as has been observed before, the same things generally happen, though in their own manner. From the inquiry concerning inanimate and vegetable bodies pass on to the inquiry of animals, not including man.

  3. Inquire into the length and shortness of life in animals, with the proper circumstances which seem to contribute to either of them.
  4. Since the duration of bodies is of two kinds, the one in their simple identity, the other by repair; whereof the former takes place only in bodies inanimate, the latter in vegetables and living creatures, and is performed by alimentation; inquire likewise touching alimentation, with its ways and process; yet this not accurately (for it belongs to the titles of Assimilation and Alimentation) but as before, in passing only.

    From the inquiry concerning animals and things supported by nourishment pass on to that concerning man. And having now come to the principal subject of inquiry, that inquiry should be more accurate and complete on all points.

  5. Inquire into the length and shortness of men’s lives, according to the times, countries, climates, and places in which they were born and lived.
  6. Inquire into the length and shortness of men’s lives, according to their parentage and family (as if it were a thing hereditary); and likewise according to their complexion, constitution, habit of body, stature, manners and time of growth, and the make and structure of their limbs.
  7. Inquire into the length and shortness of men’s lives according to the times of their nativity; but so as to omit for the present all astrological and horoscopical observations. Admit only the common and manifest observations (if there be any); as, whether the birth took place in the 7th, 8th, 9th, or 10th month, whether by night or by day, and in what month of the year.
  8. Inquire into the length and shortness of men’s lives according to their food, diet, manner of living, exercise, and the like. With regard to the air in which they live and dwell, I consider that ought to be inquired under the former article concerning their places of abode.
  9. Inquire into the length and shortness of men’s lives according to their studies, kinds of life, affections of the mind, and various accidents.
  10. Inquire separately into the medicines which are supposed to prolong life.
  11. Inquire into the signs and prognostics of a long and short life; not into those which betoken that death is close at hand (for they belong to the history of medicine); but into those which appear and are observed even in health, whether taken from physiognomy or otherwise.

    So far the inquiry touching the length and shortness of life is instituted in an unscientific and confused manner; but I have thought it right to add a systematic inquiry, bearing on practice by means of Intentions; which are of three kinds. Their more particular distributions I will set forth when I come to the inquiry itself. The three general intentions are: the prevention of consumption; the perfection of repair, and the renovation of that which is old.

  12. Inquire into the things which preserve and exempt the body of man from arefaction and consumption, or at least which check and retard the tendency thereto.
  13. Inquire into the things which belong to the general process of alimentation (whereby the body of man is repaired), that it may be good and with as little loss as possible.
  14. Inquire into the things which clear away the old matter and supply new; and likewise those which soften and moisten the parts that have become hard and dry.

    But since it will be difficult to know the ways to death, unless the seat and house (or rather cave) of death be first examined and discovered; of this too should inquiry be made; not however of every kind of death, but of such only as are caused, not by violence, but by privation and want. For these alone relate to the decay of the body from age.

  15. Inquire into the point of death and the porches3 which on all sides lead to it; provided it be caused by want and not by violence.

    Lastly, since it is convenient to know the character and form of old age; which will be done best by making a careful collection of all the differences in the state and functions of the body between youth and old age, that by them you may see what it is that branches out into so many effects; do not omit this inquiry.

  16. Inquire carefully into the differences of the state and faculties of the body in youth and old age; and see whether there be anything that remains unimpaired in old age.

The Works of Francis Bacon, ed. James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1864), 5:215–222.

READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. How does Bacon justify his investigation of life and death?
  2. How does Bacon’s scientific approach to life and death incorporate ideas of religion and church doctrine?
  3. Bacon lays out a number of basic inquiries here. What is the relationship between them? Why does he proceed from inanimate objects through animals to people?