The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-01-16
WHERE PEOPLE LIVE LONG
Growth. Decay and Death Have
Each Their Allotted Times
and Seasons.
why Do People Live Longer In
Some Places Than
in Others
interesting statisttcs Prepared by DIR.
billings, of the Census bureau
Longevity In tho World.

Interesting statistics Prepared by DR..
billings, of the Census bureau
Longevity In tho World.
rwritt.n for TnE HELENA I~NDErENDRST.l
~ MoNG THE MANY DIFFERENCES
MI between not living and living things
7al is the fact that changes are constantly
80 going on in those parts OF the body
which are alive, occur at csrtain Definite
times. and the amount OF time allowed for
these changes depends largely on the prop
ertie. Of the living matter itself. The time
REQUIRED to hatch IN egg depends 5upon what
.ott Of an egg it is; it istho same IN the
chicken Matching oven Al u is under the
SITTING hen, Growth, decay and death have
..ch their allotted timea and seAsons--the
little mass OF living matter which producer
n hair can form Just SO mach length OF hair
ana no more. and when it has done its work
il shrive!s and dies; whom another little
mass of cells takes its place and begins TO
rnsb ont a now hair. This life, OF a single
mir in . grown man 10 from two to Blk
vears: every day he loses from thirty 70 nifty
nead hairs and begins to produce nearly %
many new ONES
a.. also. each animal has certain time
which it can live; it is like a machine con-
structed to run 80 long and no longer. For
most animals this time ia about hve times
that required fer the animal to obtain It's
full growth and. development, which IN man
occurs when he is from 20 to ~ years old,
SO that he ought to live from lOo TO llo
yeas. AS d matter Of fact the average ilfe
Of all the babies that come lnto tne worlo
= only about thirty-eiRht years.; very few
live to be over 80, and not more than one
ont Of 1000 sees his hundredth birthday.
IA this duo to original differences in the
babies themselves or in the way they are
brought up, in The places in which they
live. in the air they breathe and in their
mode of life after they become full-Rrown!
70 answer these questions one Of the first
things We want to know is whether people
die equally fast everywhere, ana II not,
where ia il that they die soonest o. live
longest. The answer to this il that peo-
Ma die much more rapidly i'll some
countries than in others; for instance. they
die twice as fast in Hungary AZ they do IN
sweden. In the year 1889 out of every 1,OO
persons living in the following countries
thers died. in England, eighteen; in Nor
way, seventeen; in sweden, sixteen; IN Aus
triS. twenty-seven; in Hungary, thirty-t 50;
- C3arnauy. twenty-three; in France.
twenty-one, and in Italy, twenty-five. How
manv died ia the United States we do not
know, because no account OF them was
kept in the greater part of the country; but
n vas probably seventeen or eighteen out
IL each 1000 living. We do know. however.
that they died faster IN some cities than in
Others. For example, out of each 1000 peo-
pie living there died during tbs year ending
NAV 81. 1880. in Now York City. twenty
seven; in Brooklyn. Twenty-Five; in Boston,
twenty-four: in Philadelphia, twenty-five;
IL Chicago. twenty-one; in Detroit. twenty;
ia ST. Louis, nineteen, and in Minneapolis.
6fteon. while in the country districts tbs
less was only eleven or twelve out OF each
1000.
some parts of the same city than they did
in others; thus, the death rate per thou
sand in Boston in the Eighth ward was
thirtv-three, while in the Ywenty-fourth
ward it was eighteen. In Brooklyn. In the
Fifth ward, it was thirty-two, and in the
Twenty fourth ward eighteen; and in Phil
adelphia it was thirty-four in ward Four
and fourteen in ward Yhirty-three. What
are the causes of these great differences?
In the first place they depend npon the
number of little children present in these
different places. The baby's grasp of OK
istence is at first feeble; the little fame ,f
life in it fickers and trembles, and it does
III hui 1hASAA w Nv ONs
The heavy death rates occur among the
children. Thus, in the Fourth ward in
Philadelphia, out OF each thousand white
children under five years old, lis died;
while in the Ihirty-third ward only fifty
three died, which accounts for a large part
Of the al fsrsncG in the denth rates of the
two wards. and at the same TINS shows
that there must be some great difference
between them in their Influence on child
life.
1t is not quite correct to say that in
those places where the fewest number pes
thousand die the people live the longest,
but it is true in most cases, and we may
b therefore say that people live longer in
small towns than in large cities, and in the
country than they do in towns. This is
true not only in the United States, but all
over the world.
Let as now see whers the greatest num-
Der of old people. in proportion to the total
population, ave to be found living in the
United States. An examination of the re-
cords of the tenth census shows that il
1880, this was in New England. OF eacl
lOO,O 600 white pc. sons there were then liv.
inp-and over 80 years old-in Connecticut
996; IN Maine, 1,147; in Massachusetts, 500
in New Hampshire, l,478; in Rhode lslant
1927 and in Vermont, 1922. These III
higher figures than arc shown for an
other state. In New York the correspond
in Maryland 47, and in Delawar
Indiana Ind PSI, in illinois 2l5, in low
21s. in Michigan 319, in Minnesot
1879, in Kentucky 1923, in Tennessee 81
in Virginia SOL, in North Carolina 5o7,
South Carolina AL, in Florida 2O4, i
Georgia 4o1, IN Alabama BAL, IN Miss
ssippi 245, in Louisiana l61, and in Texa
III. In Montana it was only twenty-seve1
in Nevada. thirty-si1; IN Wyoming, thirty
five: i'll Idaho. forty; in Dakota. ffty-seve1
in Arizona, ffty-two; and in Colorado
eighty-one.
From a study OF these figures it is ver
plain that the fact that there are more oil
people in ono state than in another depend
very much on how long the state has bee
settled.
In the movement from the eastern state
to take possession of the broad p~rairies, tt
fertile valleys, and the gold and the silver
threaded mountains of the great ives
F, those who went were the young, the enel
getic and the strong. leaving behind tho
the fathers and tho grandfathers in tt
old New England homes. And tho NOV
msnt has been 30 recent, it has been
comparatively short a time in the history
the nation since the states west of the Mi.
sissippi have bsen filled up and pierce
with the railroads now necessary to supp
large groups of people that there has n,
been time for any large number of grant
fathers and ~grandmothsrs to grow up ar
get their hairs properly whitened and the
backs bent to the curve which belongs
80 years of age.
When another hundred years have pol
-apnev ba mira that &hora xril MT ~. -.