The morning news., 1889-05-30
LIFE GROWING LONGER.
Tie Average Age of Man is Steadily
Increasing
Fron the PatladeEphia Record


From the Philadelphia Record.
Life grows longer as the world grows
stronger paraphrased a physician yester-
day. I'm the degenerate days of the
C7eSars, when the Roman Empire was get
ting ready to totter and fall, the duration of
| heaverage Romans life was IS years. Now,
despite the unsavory reputation of the
holy City as fever breeding center the
| average age at death is 40 wears The United
states torges ahead of every other nation
en- esrtn IN respect to the longevity of their
cilzens, % years beng the average here
" an the European nations Russia is
sald- 10 be most frequently visited by the
grim reaper, In some of its remote corners
Icrty-nlne deaths in every thousand in
habltantS is the annual rate And thereby
hangs tale Russian weather is not of
necessity more destructive than what Gen
Greely serves up to Americans, nor our
sanitary regulations SO far i'll advance of
Inc czar's; but when you note that there is
IN the empire but one regular physician to
every $500 inhabitants, while in this coun-
Try one out of every 800 affixes a bona fide
M II. TO his name, you can form some idea
or the cause Of Americas greater health
fulneSs.
LET THEM EMIGRATE TO RUSSIA.
These facts furnish food for reflection to
the green graduate and impecunous prac-
tltloner. The medical profession is over
crowded in the new world, and the thronps
OF physicians are so massed together that it
Is mp ssible for an underling ever to
ble up to seat in the room that is
said always to remain az the top. Bu5
there is great need of practitioners in far
away Russia, and if several shiploads Of
emlgrantS from this country should go
thllner armed with phials of quinine and
bellaoonna, they would doubtless be cor
oia!ly received in the land of CossackS and
dynamlterS. Knights Of the scalpel would
be doubly welcome, as there is but one sur
geon to every l00,0 900 inhabitants.
BR1TAIN'S INCREASING YEARS.
"The average Englshman is not so long
lived Of his American brother, but with
that single exception he approaches more
nearly 10 the Psalmist'S threescore and ten
than any other inhabitant of the earth
Ellzabetn's subjects had score of years
laid to t Q credit of each, while Victoria's
millions reach an average age of SO years,
which shows remarkable development in
three centuries. The average Londoner of
to-day dies at 47, and the hardy Lancashire
yeoman lives to be "a. Frances statistics
are truly remarkable, and to the theorist
might furnish reasonable proof of the sue
cess of republican government In the
past half century her average has gone
booming up from 2S to 4519 years, which is
the measure Of modern Frenchman's life.
GRIM DEATH Is GETTING LEFT.
at is estimated that the life of humanity
has gained % per cent. all the world over
in the last fifty years. The lowest average
that has been calculated is 23 years, which
represents the life expectancy of the Sou
danese; but even this is high when it is re-
membered that in Geneva in the thirteenth
century IA years were all that were allotted
TO man The United States census of 1850
shows that z. Al per cent. Of the persons
who died in the previous decade we're over
20 years Of age; in 1860 the percentage was
7.54, and in 1880 it wat 35. The deaths
of adults have diminished in a continuous
ratio, so-that the propo tion- of infant vic
Tins to the whole number Of deaths is con-
stantlV on the increase. In 1850 l6 80 per
cent of the whole number OF deaths were
of children less than l year old in 1860 the
percentage was 2014; in 1880 it was %3 "a
These figures in themselves show the in-
creaslng triumph of medicine over health.
since they evidence that it is the new born,
semi-Afeless infant and not the adult inva-
lid that fails to respond to the physicians
curative touch"
COOKS AND PLUMBERS AS LIFE PREsERV-
ERS.
There Is no doubt that the graduates Of
our nineteenth century medical colleges,
with their notable discoveries, are materi-
ally lengthening humanity's life," COM
nented another physician. Plumbers and
cooks and housekeepers all have their share
in the general advance. We have less foul
air and more wholesome food and a greater
cleanliness about hearths and homes than
our forefathers fell heir to. The use of
an@sthetics has saved many a life in these
latter days. Men have learned more about
be their own doctors, and the introductiol
into almost daily use of drugs that once
were ranked as poisons has tended greatly
to the strengthening of mankind's fbres A
Georgia doctor said the other day that he
believed quinine alone mad added two years
to the average life OF civilized man, and l
don't doubt that he was pretty near the
truth"