Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-30
INCREASE IN LONGEVITY.
Life Heightened - Due to Preventive
and Curative Medicine.
From American Medicine.

From American Medicine.
| It is admitted that many lives are now
prolonged which under the conditions of a
century ago-or even half that period
would have inevitably been lost. The in
PRODUCTION of vaccination and other forms
Of preventive and curative incubation, in
Guiding the various antitoXinS; the discov-
cry of the means and methods of anaesthe-
STA and antisepsis; and the recognition of
the Importance Of cleanliness personal and
circumferential. have in numberless in
stances accomplished what would formerly
have been regarded as scientific miracles in
the preservation and prolongatton of hui
man life. But in considering the broad
question of the actual increase of the length
of life. there are several aspects from
which it must be examined. Do we mean
by increased longevity that a larger pro-
portion of individuals attain centenarian
rank, or that the average OF age at the
time of death has become greater? Are we
to understand that each individual lives
longer than he would have lived under the
conditions of one or more centuries ago?
The death rate has Of recent years been
decreasing in all the civilized countries. In
this connection we must recollect that the
mortality in every community varies with
age In infancy it Is very high, in childhood
very low. from ten to fifteen years Of age
1t Is lower than at any other period OF life;
then 1t continues low. but with gradual in
crease, until middle age Is passed, after
decade. We find that, according to the COM
mon consensus of statisticians, the only
trustworthy means of conducting this in
quiry Is by examination of the life tables,
by which we come to ascertain the expecta-
ton of life at each year Of age. Such tables
form the basis Of all the calculations of
insurance companies, and are constructed
from the mean population for series of
annual number of deaths at the correspond
ing ages Now, it is known that the con-
tagious, infectious and gastrointestinal dis
eases, which furnish 50 large proportion
of fatal cases in infancy and childhood. do
not cause even per cent of the deaths
which occur after the age Of forty-fve.
On the other hand the deaths of persons
over forty-fve from alcoholism, cancer, tu-
berculosis, diabetes. old age. apoplexy, dis
eases of the heart and blood vessels, of the
| respiratory and digestive organs, of the
kidneys and bladder, and from violence,
constitute about 80 per cent Of all such
deaths. In fact, the deaths from some of
these causes, in spite of all our sanitation.
have increased at such a rate as to cause
serious misgiving for the future. In the
city of New York the death rate from cam
Ger and from diseases of the kidneys
| Bright's disease in Its various forms) has
doubled in thirty years; SO that in some re-
spects the saving Of life among the young,
by the partial suppression of contagious
and septic diseases, tends to be counter
balanced by an increased mortality after
middle life from diseases depending more
on personal habits than on external causes.
We find that during the past half century
| the expectation Of life for males at birth
has increased by nearly four years. But
| the lowering of the death rate and the in
crease of the expectation of life do not nee
essarily imply increased longevity Of the
race as whole. The saving of so many
| fragile young lives has the necessary effect
of throwing forward into the later periods
| of life large number of weakly persons.
and the average stamina of the population
| 10 " 40 yuh 40
decline of life begins and the physical pow
| ers decay, this undue proportion of weakly
lives tends to increase the mortality at adj
! vanced ages.