Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1909-05-21
The Problem OF Longevity Statistics.

John X. Cove. of Newark New Jer-
sey, president of the Actuaries' Society
of America, challenges the popular opin-
ion that the average age of long-liyed
people is longer than it used to be,
though he does not dispute the statistics
showing a decrease in the deathrate.
and he has hopes that time is APP
preaching when people said to be long
lived will be those who survive to the
age of $50, instead of those who pass
away at 80 or 100. Here are his words,
as reported by the New York Herald:
During the last half century the mean
duration of life in the United States in
creased perhaps ten or twelve years. Seven
or eight of these added years were for the
ages between birth and five years. With
all the increase in the total number OF
years lived there is no proof of any length
ening Of the extreme span of life. Improve
ment is due to very great decrease at the
other ages up to middle life. Above fifty
the decrease has been very small or there
has been an actual increase Records as to
the ages of very old persons have always
been unreliable, showing tendency to ex-
aggregation, and 1t may be that there has
been a gradual change toward accuracy.
Careful study of the combined effect of tu-
berculosis and other preventable diseases
would probably show that with these dis
eases eliminated the limiting age of man
could be extended to $50 years and higher.
1t is not unlikely that the limiting age or
man lies somewhere near $50, and that he
is now prevented from attaining that age
by the presence Of multitude of factors
which are coming to be recognized as pre-
yentable.
Undoubtedly a great deal that has
been written on the subject has repre-
scented hasty deduction from the sta
tistics, and of course the statistics are
not as nearly perfect as they might be.
But the ipse dixit of Mr. Gore is not
likely to convince the public that all
the frightening of life by reason of i'm
provements in medicine and surgery and
public sanitation has served only to add
TO the years of people who die young.
and that the average age of people who
die old is not greater than it was half
a century or q century or two centuries
ago. His admission that the elimina-
tiOn of tuberculosis and other prevent
able diseases might extend the span of
some lives to $50 years is against his
assertion that above 30 the increase of
longevity has been very small or alto
gether lacking In thirteen principal cit
les of the United States the deaths from
tuberculosis have fallen off from more
than 80 per annum to less than 20 in
each 10000 of the population since 1851,
while deaths from typhoid fever have de-
creased from 5 to in 10000. Small
box, which used to be a scourge,
has become much milder and is less fire.
ouently epidemic. The cholera, former
ly disastrous periodical visitor, has
been practically unknown of late in the
United States 1t is not reasonable to
believe that the marked decrease in NOR
tality from these diseases and the i'm
provements in medicine and surgery have
not added to the average duration of life
of people over so Neither is it reason
able to believe that the improvement in
dentistry has had no influence in that
direction. The statistics of mortality are
obviously imperfect, and conclusions on
either side of the question must be large
" matters of opinion while this condi-
ton obtains.