The Appeal., 1902-02-22
The High !
Pressure american 1
In Spite of His Feuensh Activity He
Lives Longer Than His Fathers.

y
TVHERE is hardly asweek that we do
not see in some journal or news
paper an allusion to the high pres
sure of American life 1t is taken
for granted that the only pace that
kills is our own, that we are shortening
our lives and bringing on early death
by the strain. In a recent number Of the
Nineteenth Century and After, for in
stance, "a writer, plainly one of those
self destroy Ing "a ericans writes as fol
lows: # JEzsf z 81 Sssf - 2 A +"
"The average American in every branch
of business wears out his physical
powers before his time; and only too
Often under the self-imposed strain, his
mental powers break down also; but the
high pressure at which he works in the
maturity of his strength, intellectual and
physical, however bad for himself in the
end, is very good for the community in
| which he lives. Thousands and tens and
hundreds of thousands fall in their tracks,
like soldiers in the fire and smoke of bat
tle,a victims of their own overestimated
energies; but their places are promptly
taken by younger men, animated by the
same 1ndefatigable and unfaltering spirit
The community practically made up of
men working at a white heat, and its
progress is hastened by the very fact
that this heat is SO consuming that be-
fore it dies out In the average individual
it Injuries, if 1T does not destroy him.
We have often been minded to den,
the allegation, but upon second thought
have not done so, because of the great
difficulty that exists in getting at scien-
tific 4disproof. 1t is a huge task to colIate
and analyze the statistics necessary to
make the correction of the error any
thing more than the error itself-mere
assertion without basic. facts. We are
as little inclined as another to Justify
oVerstrain and feyerish commercialism.
but we believe that these are unwise..
chiefly because of other seasons than
those pertaining toSvital statistics The
fallacy of the .scoffer at American high
pressure lies doubtless in the fact that
every one has the virtues of his defects,
l. e. that we have other qualities which
more than compensate in a life-lengthen-
ing way for the waste or shortening of
our strain. Z The insurance statistican.
Frank +. Hoffman, makes a statement,
which, II true in all it's details, should be
! laid before the echoers of the old charge
against the fast-living American:
1t Is then matter of great Importance
to note that there has been material
Increase in the number Of those who sur
vtve to the ages of 30, 40 and 80 in the
United States andrthe number will prob
ably continue to grow, as the conditions
of city life are improved.
At present In Massa chusetts there are
expected 70 survive at the age Of fifty
5,275 persons out of every 10000 born,
against 4,4O9 survivors out Of the same
number in 1855. At the age of eighty the
number OF survivors is 1896 at present,
against 1,059 half century ago. There
fore, most valuable lives valuable because
jof enhanced intelligence and comprehen-
sion, have been saved to the state because
lof the sanitary and other social progress
made during the last fifty years. This
country is more healthy with the excep-
..tion Of Norway and Sweden than any part
:of Europe, and the effect of the intense
struggle for success on the part Of our
business men and women is more than
balanced by our higher standards OF liv-
ling, which tend to make our people con-
ltlnue along the path Of Improvement
While is is impossible to arrive at final
.conclusions on the basis Of our Industrial
!. or ordinary experience, because of the
careful medical selection exercised in In
surance practice, the facts established by
other investigations indicate that the
adult foreign born citizen is subject to a
lower mortality in the United States thsn
in his own country, and it may he safely
assumed that any inherited tendency 20
early decay will be more than balanced
q by the healthier conditions of life in our
country. A comparative mortality table
shows that close behind Norway, and
ahead of Great Britain, France, Germany
aJM ahead of other states of our country
New Jersey has the lowest death rats.
The chance Of attaining the age Of 100 in
Massachusetts is to-day ten times what IL.
was half a century ago.
certainly the facts are abundant, tend
ing to prove that old age is being At
tanned by men and women in this country
with an increasing degree of frequency.
and, what is better, to quote the words
of an authority IT is certain that our
American men at sixty are not broken
up as badly as our fathers were at forty.
American Medicine. 81