Evening star., 1935-01-26

Suicides and homicides tend to ac-
company moving storm centers across
the United States.
| DR.. C. A. Mills Of the University
of Cincinnati has prepared curious
map for the American Journal Of
Psychiatry showing that deaths by
violence tend to concentrate along the
storm path, due to the depression and
emotional instability which appar-
emily are correlated with meteorologi-
cal conditions.
| These storm centers sweep down
from the north through the Midwest
ern States and then turn up the Mis-
sissippi and Ohio rivers to pass of
over the Gulf of st. Lawrence. In
the low population areas the effect is
not very notable, but as soon as the
| centers strike the thickly peopled re-
gions it reveals itself on DR.. Mills
map. Kansas City and Memphis,
both at points where Northern storms
and Southern heat come together, are
in especially unfortunate situations
in this respect.
In the path of the storm centers
are such cities as Cincinnati, Dayton,
Columbus, Louisville, st. Louis and
Indianapolis. The full effect, DR..
Mills claims, usually becomes appar-
ent within about "A hours after the
passage Of the storm. The suicide
peaks correspond closely to low pres
sure crises. With falling tempera-
ture they usually decline and a re-
/ fractory period almost always fol-
lows a peak.
DR.. Mills questions the hypothesis
that murder and suicide tend to ac-
company intensive industrialization
and density of population. The cities
of the Northeast and of the Atlantic
seaboard have exceptionally clean rec
ords, when the nature of the popula-
ton is taken into consideration.
"The facts indicate" DR.. Mills con-
cludes, that the wide shifts in tenn
perature and pressure that accompany
North American storms may play a
considerable part in the production
of mental instability in our popula-
ton and our rising rate OF break
down."
| r X X
The individuals life span depends
to a considerable extent on his or her
"tial."
This is a new word coined by DR..
Raymond Pearl Of Johns Hopkins
University to At the phrase total i'm
mediate ancestral longevity" It is
the sum of the ages at death Of the
two parents and four grandparents.
DR.. Pearl finds that this figure has
a real, although somewhat complex,
relationship to ones life expectancy.
He compared two groups. Each ad-
ditional 81 years in the mean tial of
the one group over that of the other,
he found, meant one more year of life
expectancy on the part Of the off,
spring.
This method of calculation, of
course, gives no way of predicting
how long any particular person will
live, but it does furnish means Of
predicting the average length of life of
members of q family, barring some
great catastrophe. It long has been
known to biologists that length Of
life is, in some complex manner, hered-
itary, but it has been very difficult to
formulate this in mathematical terms.
Naturally, it is impossible to pre-
dict who will be killed in an accident
or contract some fatal disease at any
time, but, by and large, those who
inherit longevity seem to be less likely
to be run over by automobiles or con-
tract angina pectoris. The complex
heritage perhaps includes both more
caution and more resistance. In cal
culating tials the cause Of death is not
taken into account-only the time.
| II y 4 y
After the war there was q great
squirt in marriages, as shown by the
/ United States census records. The
years 1921, 1922 and 1923 showed two
: or three more weddings per thousand