The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1883-07-07
Longevity Increasing.

II
t on the decrease OF mortality, read befor
the statistical society, has done cor
! siderable service TO the public. Wit
:: infinite care and painstaking, he ba
/ brought mass of Floating and 7agu
Q opinions upon the subject OF Englis
' health to the test of accurate statistics
and has told Us exactly what moderl
? hygiene has and has not done to English
. | men. Mr. Humphreys, who has ever
: drawn up new life table to compar,
| with DR.. Fairs, shows thai ever sine.
1872, when the first public health &C
was passed, the longevity of the EnglisE
people has sensibly increased. Whethel
from the operation Of that act, or from
> the general attention to health which
produced the act, or from an unobserved
, change in the ways of the people akin
to the development of temperance now
going on, or from one of those altera-
tions in the virulenee of disease which
. have repeatedly occurred in history. the
mortality from epidemic diseases sud-
denly declined till the mean morality in
England, which, between 1893 and 1854
had been 22.5 per thousand, dropped in
1876-SO to 20.5, and is dropping still.
the mean death rate of 1881. being I9 s.
a total improvement of very nearly one
seventh. This increased longevity is
cot. it is true, quite equally divided be-
tween the sexes. Owing to causes which
are still only partially ascertained, but
which probably have some relation to
the extra liability of women during the
child bearing period of life, females
benefit most by improved sanitary con-
ditions, and the total progress effected
may be broadly stated thus: Men live
two years longer than they did 80 years
ago, and women three years and four
months longer, difference, we need not
say, quito large enough to be
perceptible in human life. It is
equivalent, if with Mr.. Humphreys we
take 40 years to be, roughly speaking.
the usual term of life, to an improve
ment of per cent, and would in q gen.
GRAFTON leave country of 30, 600, 900 with
1900, 600 more people in it than it other
wise would have had. A population
greater than that of Denmark would have
been saved from perishing. Whether
that addition to numbers is good must
OF course depend upon multiplicity of
conditions. OF the fact, however, as re-
CARDS England there can be DO reasona-
BILE doubt, and it is well that the fact,
whatever it is worth, should be univer-
sally recognized. Our people tend more
strongly year by year to keep alive
This is the broad fact, but Mr.. Hum
phreys adds details of the highest inter-
est. Our suggestions, derived not from
figures, but from observation, were, it
appears, correct. The very old live
longer-that 10, of course, they are, as
We suggested, stronger, less liable to
that senile feebleness and degeneraoy
which struck our ancestors as their nat
ural condition. They decay, of course.
and lose powers of all kinds, but they no
longer sink into second childhood. but.
except when overworked, die, so to
speak, standing, as only heroes used to
do. We see men and women nowadays
over 80, with all their faculties intact.
able to converse, to eat well and to walk,
and with decided and admitted infiu.
eDce on the affairs amid which they live,
This is the more striking because the in
creased longevity of the very aged is not
shared by the old. Both in men and
women the chance of survival
between SIS and 70 has not
increased, but has rather, if any
thing, declined. People of that age do
rot benefit SO much by the reduced DOW
er of epid emics; they feel, unless ex-
ceptionally strong, the influences. such
as sudden falls of temperature, over
which science has little power, and they
decidedly suffer from the increase OF
worry and anxiety which, among men
and women with grown families, so mark
edly characterizes modern life. 1t is.
however, in youth and early maturity
that the Improvement is most marked.
The mans chance of life is increased
most decidedly between Sand 35, and the
between 5 and 55; and as. of
course, great numbers, though not in
creased numbers, who reach those ages
survive, Mr. Humphreys condenses ex-
tenslve calculations into the following
sentences: Although a large proper
ton OF young people cease to be de-
pendent before 20. and large proper
tion OF elderly persons do not become
dependent at SO, we shall not be far
wrong In chasing the 40 years from 90
to go as the useful period of mans life.
Table No. 8 shows rs that of the 1000
years added to the lives of 1000 males by
the reduction of the death.rate in 1875
30, no less than 1407, or 10 per cent.
are lived at the useful ages between 90
and 60. OF the remainder of the in
crease. 445 or % per cent. are lived un-
der 90 years, and 157, or s per cent.
above so years. Thus, of the total in
crease, 10 per.cent is ad led to the useful
and 30 per cent to what may be called
the dependent age periods. The in
creased number of years lived by 1000
females, according to the rates of NOR
;ality that prevailed in 1860, is 3405.
Of these, 2196, or So per cent, are lived
It the useful ages between 20 and so:
III, or % per cent. under 90 years of
sge, and 692, or 20 per cent, over go
Tears."
Ii, therefore, Mr.. Humphreys figures
ire correct-and there is every reason to
believe them-the question we put in
Loo! IS finally answered. and answered
n the Affirmative. Hygenic progress. so
ar as It extinguishes or diminishes dis
sase, does not merely lengthen life.
which would be no boon if the extension
we're confined to the Psalmist's period of
labor and sorrow" but it increases eff
clency. More youths live and more men
md women in their prime, and youth
and early maturity are less suddenly and
frequently cut short. The reservoir Of
[orce in the nation is deepened as well as
The reservoir of vitality, and generation
of English people, taken as q whole.
gains more time 10 do its work, Whatever
It may be. Three minutes for men and
i've minutes for women is added to every
hour of their time on earth. That is
even to us, who see with
|clearness to what extent crowd.
ing dininishes the happiness of life and
IA - - f.