The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1883-07-19
Longevity Increasing.

Oh Lie utCtSEsc VI TSdu uclOEC
the statistical society, has done a con.
siderable service to the public. With
infinite care and painstaking, he bas
brought mass of Floating and vague
opinions upon the subject of English
health to the test of accurate statistics.
and has told US exactly what modern
hygiene has and has not done to English
men. Mr.. Humphreys, who has even
drawn up new life table to compare
with DR.. Farr's, shows tina; ever since
1872, when the first public health act
was passed, the longevity Of the English
people has senslbly increased. Whether
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 viruence of disease which
have re peatedly occurred In history, the
mortality from epidemic diseases sud
denly declined till the mean morality IN
England, which, between 10 - and 1854
had been % 5 per thousand, dropped IN
1S76-S0 to 20.5, and is dropping still,
the mean death rate of 1881 2 being 10
total Improvement of very neatly one
seventh. This increased longevity Is
cot, it is trne, 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 COP
ditions, and the tvtal 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, quite large enough to he
perceptlb BILE in human life. 1t 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 gen
GRAFTON leave country of 30, 0OO. 900 with
2.OO0, 900 more people in it than it other
wise would have had. A population
greater than that of Denmark would have
been saved from pe,ishing. Whether
that addition to bers il good must
of course depend upon n multiplicity of
conditions. OF the fact, however, AS re-
CARDS England there can be no reasona-
BILE doubt, and it is we'll 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 M. Hum
phreys adds details of the highest inter
est. Our suggestions, derived not from
figures, but from observation, were, it
appears, correct. Tho very old live
longer-shat is, OF course, they are. as
We suggested, stronger, less liable to
that senile feetleness and degeneracy
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 u second childhood, but,
except when overworked, die, 80 to
speak. standing, as only heroes used to
do. We see men and women nowadays
over so, with all their faculties intact,
able to converse, to eat we'll and to walk,
and with decided aud admitted infu
ence on the affairs ami id 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 So and 20 has not
increased, but has rather, if any
thing, declined. People of that age do
rot benefit so much by the reduced pow
er of epidemics; 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, 80 mar &
eddy characterizes modern life. 1t is,
however, in youth and early maturity
that the improvement is most marked.
The maps chance of life ia Increased
most decidedly between 5 and 35, and the
womsn's between 5 and 55; aud IA, of
course, great numbers, though not in
creased mum bers. who resc those ages
survive, Mr.. Humphreys condeuses ex-
tensive calculations into the following
sentences: Although . large proper
tiop of young people cease &c be de
pendent before 20. aud . large proper
tion OF elderly persons do not become
dependent at Gu, we shall not be fer
wrong in chasing the 40 years from %
to GO rs the useful period OF mans hfe.
Table No. 9 shows as that OF the 1000
years added to the lives of 1000 males hy
the reduction OF the death rate in 1876
so, no less han 1407, or 10 per cent. +.
are lived at the useful ages between %
and GO. OF the remainder OF the in-
crease. AS or % per cent. are lived I'M
der % years, and 157, or 8 per cent.
above go years. Thus, Of the total 10
crease, 20 per cent is ad ed to the useful
and 80 per cent TO what may be called
the dependent age periods. The in
creased number of years lived BY 1910