Smyrna times., 1867-09-04
Marriage and Long Life.

Statistics mortalities and sentiment have all
been brought forward in discussing the ques
ton as to the comparative health, happiness
and duration of life of the married and un-
married. The verdict Must be considered as
given in favor of the married, but with re-
servatiOn that the advantages are not equally
enjoyed by the two sexes. As far as regards
the people of Scotland, the question seems to
be cOncluslvely answered in paper read some
months ago by DIR. James Stark, before the
Royal Society of Edinburg. He begins by the
remark that nine years average of the
deaths in Scotland shows a higher ratio of
deaths among males than among females at all
ages, except in the early period of life-from
ten to fifteen years.
A more important inquiry, however, is the
effect of marriage on male and female life. An
interesting answer to this question is brought
by table prepared by Dr. Stark. 1t shows
that at every age, from 20 to 50 years, the
death-rate of the married men is very much
smaller than that of the unmarried. After the
S5th year of lite the numbers are too small to
justify any comparison. 1t appears from this
table that out OF lO0 600 unmarried men be-
| tween 20 and % years of age, liza died dur
ing the year 1863 but that out of a like NUM-
| Der of married men, only 597 died-Or just
half the number. In other words, between
the age of 20 and % years the death-rate of
the bachelors was exactly double that OF the
married men.
As the age increases, the difference between
| the death-rates of the married and unmarried
decreases: but the decrease is slow and regular,
showing marked difference in favor of the
married men at every five year period OF life:
! Thus, at the age of from twenty five to thirty
| years, when the number OF married and un-
married men in Scotland is nearly equal, of
| lOO,OOO bachelors, l 1863 died during the year;
but in an equal number of married men only
500 died. A similar difference, though in less
degree, is found in favor Of married men
during every fve-year period, even to that be-
tween eighty and eighty-fve years of age.
Here, then, we have the remarkable fact,
proved from the statistics of whole country,
that the influence Of marriage on duration OF
! life of the male is Of the most potent kind ;
that, in fact the bachelor life is much more
destructive to the male sex than the most un-
wholesome of trades, or than a residence in a
crowded locality, where there is not the most
distant attempt at sanitary arrangements oil
any kind. Reckoning from the twentieth year
of life, the mean age at death of married men
was ffty-nine and a-half years, whereas the
mean age at death of bachelors was only forty
years, showing IA chance Of nineteen and a-hal
years longer life to the former over the latter
OF these two classes.
In comparing the mortality of the married
and the unmarried women, it was found tina
the difference is trifing, for while, durinl
the three periods of life, Is to 20, 20 to - an,
% to 30 years, the married died in a highe
proportion, it was the reverse during the mex
two periods of life, or from 80 to 80 aud iron
3j to 40 years, during period in which nearl.
half of their children are born. From tn
45th year of life to Old age, or IS years married
women die in smaller proportions than the uu
married
We leave it to the thoughtful reader to judg
how far an explanation of the longer life u
married men as class, may be explaine
by the growth of more regular habits, tn
practice of greater thrift aud economy and a
5 the influences Of homes Of their own.