THE Harvard Lampoon died recently at its home, 44 Bow Street, Cambridge, Mass. Its age was 92 and it had been ill for some time.

Exact cause of death has not yet been determined. Heart specialists conjectured that death was caused by an inborn misconception of format: The Lampoon's rigid structure, dominated by the short story form, inhibited free circulation of wit and frustrated doctors' attempts to heal.

Characterized by acquaintances as sarcastic, facetious and sometimes brilliantly witty, The The Lampoon was recently acclaimed for its Time and Playboy parodies and for Alligator, a parody of the James Bond spy stories. The Harvard Lampoon, has always suffered from irregular health, even during the years it nurtured writers like John Updike and George Plimpton. But in the past year and a half it has shown a marked decline, and its recent extensive exploration of America taxed it irreperably.

Bedridden for the past two weeks, an overdose of "Lox & Chitlins" administered heavy-handedly by chiropractor Conn Nugent induced repeated vomiting. Doctors called in prescribed second-hand ridicule of institutions, elaborate diction, convoluted sentence structure, redundancy and random scoffing, but The Harvard Lampoon grew increasingly incoherent and seemed to lose touch with humanity. Specialists flew in from as far afield as Michigan and Rhode Island, and succeeded in alleviating the patient's suffering in its last hours. Observers sometimes found it difficult to follow osteopath David McClelland's complicated juxtaposition of photographs, clever cartoons, nonsense and witty social commentary, all woven into an adventure story. But McClelland's method, which he calls "The Great Goodison Toad Hunt" restored some of The Lampoon's lively humor.

Surgeon Thomas LaFarge also brought moments of wit to The Lampoon with his slogan "Forget Vietnam! See The Meat-Cleaver Man!" and his description and catalogue of mutilations that can spare American youth "the indignities of conscription." Similarly revivifying was the poem inspired by Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" which Dr. La Farge dedicated to the CRIMSON.

Leverett House obstetrician James Rivaldo stopped by and made one last desperate effort to save The Harvard Lampoon. He administered a cartoon featuring a gawky three-legged bird laboriously laying an Easter egg as large as itself. Out of the egg hatched a giraffe carrying a banner inscribed "Legalize Abortion." The Lampoon seemed instantly young and vital, and chuckles of observers could be heard in the Starr Book Shop. But suddenly The Harvard Lampoon convulsed into a ball, emitted a single gargantuan sob, and rolled, dead, into a wastepaper basket.