es become less
acute, one should remember that an old person may not notice the odor of
escaping gas, the light of a smouldering match, or the sound of an
approaching motor car, and that he must be specially guarded from such
dangers of every day life. On account of their dulled perceptions old
people are sometimes unjustly considered to be less intelligent than
they really are. Young people moreover should be told, if an aged person
is untidy and careless in personal habits, that the apparent negligence
is caused by dulled perceptions and diminished muscular control for
which old people are no more responsible than they are for failing
eyesight or for inability to hear.

Families should also realize that changes in mind and character are
beyond an aged person's control and that they should not be made the
cause for remonstrance or arguing. Just as the arteries harden with
advancing years, as the bones become brittle and as other tissues become
less flexible, so changes are likely to occur in the nervous system. It
is not surprising when the brain substance like other tissues is
becoming less flexible, that the powers of attention should weaken,
that memory for recent events should diminish, or that other mental
powers should fail. Changes in disposition are not uncommon: previously
controlled persons sometimes become querulous and exacting, while
excitable and irritable persons become more placid. With most old people
emotions become less intense; feeble old people hardly realize great joy
or great sorrow, and seldom look forward to death with apprehension.

Among the most important changes that occur in the nervous system is its
gradual loss in power to respond to new demands. New habits are
difficult or impossible to form, and old habits are hard to break.
Attempts to break the habits of a life time are therefore dangerous, and
radical changes in old people's ways of living are attended by risk as
well as by unhappiness. Such loss of adaptability in the nervous system
makes it increasingly difficult for old people to assimilate new ideas
and to understand new points of view. The feeling that the world is
strange and that the next generation has gone on without them accounts
for the tragic loneliness of many old people. Clearly it is for those
who are younger and more flexible to bridge the gulf between the
generations by their understanding and their sympathy.

Physical care to whatever extent it is needed should b