The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-07-31

There Is no mistake about IT, Figures 40
not lie unless there is an object for them to
commit that ethical improprety-which is
not the case in the present instance Human
life is certainly frightening. The number
Of ladies and gentlemen who live to see 50
wears, 80, 100, increases from century to CEN
Jury We are swinging around the circle of
longevity Who knows but we may bring
up presently to Gran'ther Methuselah?
The why and wherefore of this agreeable
state of things are not far to seek. Our rever-
ed ancestors were excellent people in their
way: in these centennial years, especially,
we are bound to think and speak OF them
with all tilial respect and tenderness. But
how little they knew OF their own bodies; of
the laws Of health; of the nature and man
agement of epidemic diseases; Of simple
sanitary precautions that are now rs familiar
as the alphabet, WHat doses they swallowed,
and-must We say it?-how seldom they
bathcd, Medical science has made notable
strides In the last 100 years. Diseases that
quite perpleXed and baiiied the doctors of the
last century are now well understood and
easily controlled. But this is only part of
the progress made. With it has come Il dit
fusion of hygicnc information among the
lalty, bearing fruit in improved habits of llv-
ing, in a constantly-increasing reliance upon
the ounce of prevention rs cheaper and more
effective than the pound of cure There Is
still plenty Of room for improvement, from
the sanitary point of view, IN the modern
dwelling and in the modern city. But com
pare them with the dwelling and the city OF
the last century.
We said something about figures Here
are few from Il French medical journal:
The mean length OF life at Rome in the high
err classes from 800 to 200 b. &. was 80 years I;
now in the corresponding classes in the same
city 1t is fifty years In the sixteenth century
tho mean at Geneva was between 20 and 81
years; from 1914 to 1893 it varied from 40 to
IS years; at present more Gene7ese arrive at
70 years than arrived three centuries ago at
43. In the year 1893 the English Govern
ment negotiated loan to be repaid in annu-
ities basing its calculations upon the average
duration Of life at that time, and made a
handsome thing of it. Pitt, in trying the same
method Of raising the wind, assumed that the
average duration OF life had remained the
same and burned his fingers. In the first of
these "tontines' if that IS the proper name
for thcm-about 10000 male subscribers and
as many female died at the aye OF -. In the
second only 5,112 men died at that age, and
only G,416 women. At the beginning OF the
las, century, as appears from a report to
Louis fouuecnth's Project OF the Seine, the
yearly death-rate in Paris WAS enc in 26; III
present it is / in Al. II the rate OF Louis
Fourteenth's time had been maintained, there
would now die in Paris 7l,42S persons. The
actual total is between $4,000 and 10000
The medical journal adds the interesting
statement that the average yearly number Of
deaths in France at the age OF 100 years and
upward Is at present 14S. The computation
covers the decade and half since the year
Of 1860.
There are several respects in which we
might proftably take lessons Of our grand
fathers and grandmothcrs But we seem to
have picked up Il few ncW wrinkles IN the
art of living-using Tie word, to be sure IN
its lowest seuse-which 'heE somehow missed
-SprtRlfeld (NaSS) RGgFJl(t@It