The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1923-02-10
SPEEDCU7 TING
DOWN. LIFE SPAN
Average Age of Mankind Fell
From 81 to 81 in Last Nine
Years, Says Scientist.
FINDS lAvAIORs DIE YOUNG
Predicts IL Ever Airplanes Become
General Means Of Iocomotion
Span Of Life Will Be
49, Cut to 20 or IS. s:E

Paris.-In the nearly nine years
since the war was declared in 1914
the average age of mankind has fallen
from fifty-seven to fifty-one, accord
ing to statistics compiled by the Dan
ish professor, Carl Fischer, and read
before the French Academy Of
Sciences. ---- .
Not the war directly, but the fact
that the war speeded up life is the
cause for this, asserts Fischer
Before the automobile became gen.
eral the average age in Europe at
which men died was sixty" he said.
Gwen in 1914 the automobile, while
universal, was still not vehicle for
the common people. But now the man
who rides on or behind a horse is a
rarity, while legs are becoming In
creasingly obsolete as means Of loco
motion.
"The human constitution demands
certain degree Of exercise which is
best obtained by activity in the ordi-
nary round Of existence. The man
who walks to his Office every morning
has better chance to live to three
score and ten than the man who goes
in his limousine or who takes the
subway or autobus.
-, Aviators Die Young.
Few men who devote their lives to
the fascination Of speed live long. I
recently investigated the average ago
of aviators, past and present, and
found it to be only thirty-six.
There are, Of course, other causes
for the reduction in the normal life
span. They include the growing ten
dency to degeneracy and looseness Of
morals to be remarked through tho
world. This, however, regard as q
consequence Of the reign Of speed. A
man who travels fast lives fast In
other ways. He overworks his blood
without compromising it by wholesome
exercise.
1T Is deplorable to find this con-
Trajectory tendency in the human
makeup which will permit him by his
own negligence to counteract the La!
bors Of doctors and scientists who ara
giving their lives to his welfare!
While savants in their laboratories
are striving to discover cures and
ways of prevention for diseases now
largely responsible for the high death
rate, the man in the street defeats
their object by living at such an alb
normal rate that his constitution, fear
fully. overworked, eventually gives ups
The Age Of Man., ~
1T is question whether our con-
situations will adapt themselves IN
time to this new era Of speed, but the
result of my Investigations leads me
to believe that this Is unlikely.
"A study Of the age Of man will re-
veal that the average life span has
fallen with each increase in the speed
Of universal locomotion. When men
Travelled in OK carts and afoot q Gen.
fury was an ordinary lifetime. When
the horse became universal the normal
age dropped to eighty and then to
seventy. At the time of Jesus Christ
the average age of man wos seventy
the 'threescore-yearsand ten Of le-
gend. -.
"Then came the locomotive and
within fifty years as many years were
Topped Off the average lifetime as had
previously been taken Off In more than
100 centuries This was because the
locomotive came into general use be-
fore the human constitution had had
time to effect even partial readjust-
ment..
Before the body machine had re-
covered there came the automobile,
and then the airplane. Should the
latter ever become general means
Of locomotion do not hesitate to pre-
dict that within twenty years there
| after the average span Of human ex-
istence will have been reduced to for
| ty or forty-fve." .>. = :.-.