The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-06-27
certainly is increasing the average length
of mans years.

u Lu6a YEARS.
! Another prominent p hysioian said:
1.-THE advancement of medical science
has slightly increased the average of
mans life, particularly by reducing
infant mortality, and that's the place
where the science of medicine has told
most. The tissues of an infant are not
only most susceptible to unwholesome
external conditions, but also to unwhole-
some foods. Again, the average duration
of case of consumption is much longer
than 1t used to be. Formerly the life
of consumptive was two years; now it
is eight. These aru merely two instances
showing what medical science has done
| in this dire ction.
New ailments do arise, but they
are minor troubles that do not increase
mortality. For instance, there is the
telephone ear. and one or two diseases
developed by excessive use of the bicycle.
On the other hand, new devices are con-
stantly Tightening labor. particularly
child labor. The littlo cash girl lives in
an atmosphere that stunts her physical
and mental development and favors in
feotion, particularly with tuberculous
diseases. New devices help to prevent
this. And SO itis in the factories, where
labor-saving machines are replacing
child labor. see good deal to make
one optimistic. Everything that man
some are sacrificed. So it is with the
sport of wheeling. A great many are
killed and injured, bat they are nothing
in the aggregate compared with the
masses who are benefltsd. When we have
any good thing we abuse it in proportion
to the pleasure we derive from it,"
The actuaries say that the average of
human life has been heightened fully
three years within the last century. I"
said one of the medical directors of the
New York Life Insurance Company.
"This is due to a great many things,
principally to better living. People have
better houses, better food, and better
clothing, and more attention is given to
sanitation than ever before. I think
that drinking pure water has done
more to lengthen the average of mans
years than any thing else. People do not
drink from wells and springs now, but
get their water from a pure source. Ty-
phoid fever and diarrhoeaI troubles are
often carried into the system by oontami-
mated water. Then medical science has
almost swept small pox off the face Of
the earth. In New York there are never
more than very few cases, and some
years not one is reported. Medical men
have done much. but living according tor
hygienio laws 10 also largely responsible
for this increase. We have first GLASS
system of drainage in our city and ex-
oellent plumbing and ventilation in our
houses; they are we'll and evenly heated,
and we eat nourishing food well pre-
pared. Perhaps above and beyond any
of these things stands pure drinking
water.''
IF You want to keep well, keep clean, ;
said one of the medical directors of the
Equitable Life Insurace Society. 4
should think that the average Of human
left bad been increased by medical men
and also by the people at large. l can't
say that the treatment of ordinary dis
eases has been much improved or changed
within my knowledge, but new discove
ries, such as vaccination and anti-toxine,
and the advance that surgery has made,
have worked wonders. And the people
of new countries, such as this and Atis-
tralia, are learning how to live. They
bou ,fr rfp 10 nd no
ginning not to eat too much. They re-
gard the laws of health and take proper
care of themselves. Take the matter of
heating. When I was boy such a thing
as furnace was unknown. We had open
fires, and our backs had cold chills run
were blistersd. One had to be always
turning ones self around, like piece of
meat on hook, to get an equality of
heat on all sides. The temperature in
one part of the room was about s degrees,
and in another 40 degrees. Perhaps
There is tendency to carry this too fur,
but even that is better than the con-
ditions that prevailed in my boyhood.
Why, actually the beds were SO cold that
the had to be warmed with bed stoves
before the youngsters could crawl tn;
this helped us ont some.
Statistics show that up to five years
the Irishman has double the number of
children that the American has. Our
greatest mortality is among the children
of the tenements, and they generally die
UNI der the age of five years. The only
wonder is that they live so long when
one outsiders how they are huddled to-
gether in poorly ventilated, poorly heat
ed rooms and that they live on unwhole-
so me food and are exceedingly dirty.
Physicians have done much to reduce
infant mortality, but they are working
aaginst great odds. Undoubtedly, though,
the avera ge of human life has increased
from three to four years in the last hun
d red.'' gW
Gsug
EofE yof,