El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-07-16

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FOR OURSELF
Census Figures Show That People Do Not Live So Long
rs Formerly Fewer Old People Nowadays The
"centenarian" Myth-Death Rate Increasing
After Thirty five Years.

I At so years you may expect to live 4
years and months.
At So years you may expect to live
years and months.
At 90 years you may expect to live
years and months.
At 50 years you may expect to live 1
year and months.
At 100 years you may expect to live
year and months.
OF 1000 persons living at 20 years of
age, 939 will reach 80; $50 will reach
40; 726 will reach so; $50 will reach so;
335 Will reach 20: 112 viii reach 80, and
10 will reach so.
OF 100000 persons born, about 100
will survive for a century. But the ex-
IRENE limit of human life is not far be-
yond this mark. DIR. c. L. Wilbur, in
charge of the section of Vital Statistics
at the census bureau, after a very care
full investigation of the subject, says
that 1t is more than doubtful whether
any man or woman lived to reach the
age Of ITO. 1t may be said that the the
oretical limit Of human life is 106 years
and months.
1T would be a fact of vast interest 10
humanity at large" said Rr. Wilbur,
If 1t were true that a human being
could live $50, or 100, or even Ito years,
as established by exact observation. But
the trouble with the testimony in all
is based entirely on the unsupported
statements of the individuals them
selves"
Aged Englishmen.
Thomas Parr, an Englishman, is said
to have died at the age of 1872 years and
months. Another case was that of
Henry Jenkins, an EngliShman, who is
alleged to have celebrated his 169th
birthday. And still another is that of
the Countess of Desmond, who is cred
fled with 40 years. These cases have
been commonly accepted as veritable,
yet not one of them is based upon sat
isfactory evidence.
An excellent illustration of the falla-
cy of such beliefs is furnished by the
case of Noah Raby, who lived in 1904,
died in the poorhouse at Piscataway
N J., of which institution he had been
an inmate for 40 years He was posi-
lively declared, and generally believed
to have reached 131 years and II
months. But an inquiring person look
ed him up in the records of the census
of 1870, and found in that year, accord
ing to his own account, he was only SO
years old, instead of 9S, as he claimed |
Thus he was not quite SO years old
when he died.
During the last half century the num-
Der of ''centenarians" in each 100000 |
of population in France has fallen from
Prussia from 10 to 20, and in Denmark
from 40 to 101. Bpt the real reason |
for the extraordinary drop lies in the
fact that the official records are more |
carefully kept.
WOmen's Longevity Greater.
There Is no question of the fact that
women in all countries have a great ad- !
vantage over men in respect TO longevi-
ty- Doubtless because of the quieter
and more regular lives they lead, fully
twice as many women reach or pass the |
century mark as men. In France the
proportion is twelve to five. in Den
mark sixteen TO five, in Austria four
teen to nine, and in Prussia eleven to
four.
Says the Rev. Dr.. Walker Gwynne:
There is a country into which flows an
immigration with which no other coun-
try in any age has had anything TO
compare. Every year thirty-five mil |
lions of people, or a number almost |
equal TO half the population of the Unit I!
ed States, enter its ports and crowd its |
fields as newcomers and colonists."
It is, of course, the Undiscovered |
Country to which DR.. Gwynne alludes- /
the bourne from which no traveller ere |
returns. We shall all be obliged to \
travel thither sooner or later But !
meanwhile it is interesting to know !
that the migration of young children |
in that direction has been greatly re-
duced within recent years. Among in !
fants under five years of age the NOR
tality has been cut down by one-third |
within the last fifty years, in cities. In
the rural districts it has not been re-
duced to an equal extent because of 1
the difficulty in enforcing sanitary reg
Death Rate Reduced.
There has been marked reduction in |
the death rate at all ages up to 55-this
being attributable TO a number of
causes. but chiA to the stoppage of
those wholesale epidemics which form
erly decimated communities; 20 i'm
proved methods Of treatment medical
and surgical; TO skilled nursing; and,
last but not least, to measures of sani-
tation based upon discoveries in regard
10 the responsibility of germs for most
diseases. FsiTgl
Even today, however, one infant out
OF every five in this country dies before
reaching the age of one year, and one
out of every three fails to pass the fifth
ho1c !