Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-10-22
CONSERVATION COMMISSION
TAKES UP QUESTION OF PRO.
LONGING HUMAN LIFE.
LENGTH OF LIFE EXTENDED
If MAN DID HIMSELF JUSTICE
Professor Fisher of Yale, Show. Span
Of Years Has Been Increasing Dur.
ing Past Two centuries-American
Human Beings Worth in Dollars
About 100000, ooo, 900.
Especial correspondence.l

Especial Correspondence
Washington, Oct. Pullman life is
increasing in length at a very rapid
rate, but the span will have to go on
increasing for long time before it be.
comes even normal; for the human be.
if he did himself justice.
Thus opines Prof. Irving Fisher of
Yale, in a remarkable study which has
just been issued by the national con-
servation commission. The conserva-
ton commission does not concede that
its business is confined to the salvation
of forests, the growing of more wheat
per acre. the prevention of monopoly In
water power and the outstanding of
coal resources. Rather. it finds that
the greatest asset of society is human
life. The conclusion seems plausible,
in view of the fact that society would
have no existence and no concern about
water power, coal. trees and the price
of wheat, if the people weren't here.
Professor Fishers little book of 129
pages is of the greatestNinterest From
d most careful study of vitality and
health statistics he concludes tina.
about $50 years ago the average span
of human life began to increase. and it
has been gaining ever since. There is
no more popular fallacy than the idea
that people don't live so long as they
used to do. The fact is that they live
much longer than they ever did before,
at least in any era of which there is
record. At the end of the seventeenth
century the average life was about four
years longer than at its beginning. At
the end of the eighteenth, another four
years had been added to the average
Then came the nineteenth, with its
great strides in science in all depart
ments. During the first quarters
of that century it is found that the
average length OF life increased at the
rate of about nine years TO the CEN
fury.
Increase in Longevity.
But that does not tell the most re-
nlarkable chapter of the story of in
creasing longevity. During the last
generation the increase has been faster
than ever before. Thus in Massachu-
sets the average length of human life
is now increasing at the rate of about
fourteen years per century. That is,
if the present progress continues,
century hence the average person in
Massachusetts will live fourteen years
longer than he does now. Yet Masse-
chusetts is not making SO good a record
as is presented for Europe as a whole.
where the present increase is at the
rate of seventeen years in a century.
Prussia, the land of greatest advance in
medical, surgical and hygienic science.
is increasing its average longevity at
the rate of twenty seven years per CEN
tury,
What such an increase of human life
would mean, may be judged from the
fact that the average life in India is
row only twenty-five years. and 1t is
stationary. India represents the stage
of civilization at which the benefits of
science. medicine. surgery, sanitation.
etc, are still denied 10 the people in
general. Thus Germany. in century
of continued lengthening of the span
of life at the present. rate, would actu-
ally add more TO the length of life,
than the average for all India.
Whether it will be possible to con-
tinue such a rate of progress indefi-
nitely may we'll be doubted, if Profess
| sor Fisher is correct in his analysis.
| He sets fifteen years as a minimum
| proba BILE addition: but he makes clear
| his belief that this is a very conser-
vative minimum, and that further dis
covering in medicine and surgery. the
prevention of violent death, the i'm
provement of conditions surrounding
marriage. and particularly the better
ment of sanitary conditions, may add
vastly more than this conservative
minimum to the average life.
Should Live $50 Years.
Indeed. Professor Fisher quotes the
result of Metchnisoffs Investigations
to sustain the contention that a nor
NAL age for men should be about 15(
years. MetchnilSoff found that man
mails generally lived about five times
the period devoted to growing. The one
exception is man. The growing period
for man is about thirty years: thera
fore if he should lengtfen his life ur
to the average of other mammals, +
would be about $50 years. Professor
Fisher does not esteem that $50 year!
is by any means an impossible attain.
ment, when the unexplored possibilities
of science, sanitation and social bet
terment are developed. The pres.n
average age at which people die of Ole
age, after having been fortunat,
enough to dodge automobiles. diph
liberia, hunger and other causes which
now take away most people at untime
~ periods. is stated at S3 years. Blu
Mechnikoff decided that this was no
even a normal period for old age
proper conditions of life should advanc
it greatly. and this conclI1sion' is I'm
hesitatingly accepted by Professo
Fisher. Two cases Of people who live,
to very great ages, Drakenberg. a, Nor
: wegian, who died at 146, and Mrs Mar,
L. Wood, of. Portland, Ore, are ac