Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1859-08-13
MISCELLANY.
The Duration of Human Life.

The Duration of Human Life.
The members of the Royal Statistical
Society of Great Britain have paid great
attention to the subject of the duration of
human life, and have Just concluded thor
ough investigation, which has occupied the
last fourteen years. An eminent English
physician has taken all the facts presented
before the society .siucc 1915, and reports
to the Fellows, that ho has drawn there
from the following iufercnccs: J. That
the valnc of human life was lower in the
seventeenth century than IN the sixteenth :
but tlat it experienced marked recovery
in the eighteenth J, and that this rcmarka-
bio feature was.incidcntal to each class of
the community. with the exception Of SOW
crcigns. medical nlcn, artists (who show n
progressive Improvement and lawyers
(who show progressive deterioration. y
= That the duration of life of married men
is greater than that of unmarried men
the difference being 52 yearsrin favor of
: the torncr. y. That, rs regards the COM
parative duration Of life of the two sexes
females have the advantage over males, and
better expectation of life at every age
from 20 to rs.
One of the most interesting and valuablc
of the papers presented before the society
was rend by DIR. Guy, Son the. Duration
of Life as Infected by the Pursuits of, Lit
cratre, Science, and Art" Most writer's
on the subject have always treated of dis
tinct and wcll-defncd classes of society
such as laborGrs, the three learned profcs-
sions, sovcicgns, etc.; but Dr Guy con-
siderel the less defined classes of society
known as artists, literary, and scientific
mon. Hc treated this theme under four
divisions, viz: |, The duration of life Of
literary men; 2n The duration of life of
scientific men; 3. The duration of life of
the professors of the fine arts; and, 4. n
comparison of these three classes
In regard to the first of these divisions,
the duration of life among literary men,
the author, had been able to collect, from
Chalmers Biographical Dictionary and the
Annual Register, 042 ages at death of men
more or less devoted to literary pursuits.
DIR. Guy observed at the outset that this
class was not so sharply defined as other
classes of society British writer's, both
in prose and verse, were of every rank and
profession. With some it was only an oc-
cnsional and exceptional r. suit but with
others it Was as much a profession as di-
vinity, law, or physic. His paper referred
to all those who made literature one of
their pursuits, and the duration of whose
life was consequently affected in various
degrees by the habits of composition These
were subdivided into antiquarcs, histori,
rians, poets, miscellaneous writers, and
writers professionally engaged rs school
nigstcrs. OF these agcsat death the lowest
were those of tive poets who died ut the
age of 2l, the highest that of H. O'Sulli-
van, celebrated Irish bard and author,
who died at the recorded age of 1l5.
According to tho tables exhibited by
l'r. Guy, poets appear, OH an avorac to
live the shortest lives, and next to them
come sclioolniastcrs. This may be ox-
planned, as regards poets, by the circum-
stance Of theircommcncing their distinctive
pursuit earlier than any other class of lite
rary men; as regards schoolmasters, by the
immense amount of confinement in un-
healthy rooms which they are compelled to
undergo That POI had been o short
lived race appeared evident from some sta
tistics of tho ages pt death of Roman poets,
produced by Dir. Coy. Thus, Tibullus
died at 81, i'crsius at SO, 1.pcilius and Ca.
tullds at 46, Virgil at ST., Horace at 57,,
Ovid at so, and Martial at T5A-the eight
names giving the low ~ age Of 4Sl years.
Against those may be placed Kirkc White,
who died at 2l, Collins at 80, 'Parnell and
K5bcrt Burns at 81, Goldsmith at 46,
Thompson at 49,, Cowlcy at 40, Shakespeare.
st 81, md Pope at yielding an aver
age Of 4S years. The average duration of
life of British. poets who attained the uae
of 2f was $50 years Z while the cofrcs-
ponding duration Of life for tile antiqdarics
the highest in the list was 67.56 years.
Historians ranked next TO antiquaries a.
a long-lived, class, The average Duration
OF life for eight Roman writer's Who treated
OF history and kindred subjects; was 60,63, !,
or more 'bntwenty years in excess OF that
OF the Roman poets. The results Of the