Evening star., 1941-05-26
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
Bu Thomas r. Henry.


some inexplicable lifeline. $40
They tend to live about the same num-
Der OF years and die of the same causes
to a far greater extent than would be
the case in any chance selection of cou-
piles from the population at large.
For reasons not understood, men with
constitutions fitted for greater or less
degrees of longevity and with inherent
susceptibilities and resistances to Ger
tain diseases tend to marry women with
the same sort of constitutions and de-
grees of susceptibility and resistance.
These may be woven into the total
personality patterns and constitute an
Intangible part Of the attraction Of
couples for each other.
Such are the findings of DR.. Antonio
Ciocco Of the United States Public
Health Service. just reported to the
National Academy OF Sciences here.
They are based on q survey Of death
County, Md.
The strange life-bond phenomenon,
DR.. Ciocco reports is very apparent when
deaths from infections and possibly in
fectious diseases are eliminated from
the statistics. For example, when either
a husband or wife gets influenza or
diphtheria the other is likely to catch it
from close association, and both will die
within few days Of each other. But
there is no particular reason why
wife should die of heart disease or can
Ger shortly after her husband dies of
the same disease. Her chances of such
fate, it would seem, would be about the
same as those Of any other woman In
the community Of similar age. Actually,
the statistics show, her chances are very
much greater, and there is no known
infective process in either Of these dis
eases.
The prospect that husband and wife
will die at about the same age is more
than 80 per cent better than chance,
the Public Health Service statistics show
This is entirely independent of the cause
OF death. The prospect that they will
die OF the same cause is more than go
per cent better than chance.
The statistics do not mean. it is
stressed, that when couple marries the
length Of life Of the man is automatically
shortened to that of the woman, or vice
versa. Each would probably live as long
whether married or not. 1t does mean
that there may be something about a
woman fated to live so years that at
tracts a man fated to live the same
period more than there is about a woman
lated to live so years. The same holds
true for the woman-and it operates
entirely apart from any reasonable dif-
1erences OF ages when the marriage takes
place.
Ihe findings must be considered in
TWO categories, DR.. Ciocco SAYS. First is
the high correlation between the length
OF life OF husbands and wives regardless
OF the cause of death This. he saws.
is found to be positive and high and it,
value is only slightly increased when
the cause of death is the same for both
wife and husband. 1t is very little de-
creased when the cause is different.
since the same specific causation or dis
ease entity is not apparently responsible
lot the correlated length of life in hus-
oands and wives it would seem appro-
pirate to have recourse to those yapue
terms such as resistance or vitality and
gay that the phenomenon indicates
the segregation and pairing through
marriage of individuals having a similar
vitality or resistance to fatal pathological
processes
The second series of findings brings
out that besides the high correlation in
the length of life there is a tendency for
marital partners to die from the same
cause when either of the mates dies
from tuberculosis, influenza, cancer.
pneumonia or heart disease. In the
case OF influenza and pneumonia the
transmission OF the pathological agents
from one spouse to another could be as
sumeo to be the responsible factor. The
transmission, however, must be indirect.
Que TO the intervals between the deaths
OF the two partners, unless it is assumed
that one partner becomes a carrier On
the other hand, the common environ.
ment and the general economic Ieve,
play role in the incidence Of these dis
eases, as does also the constitution. With
regard to heart disease marital con-
taglon might be an element II it could
De shown to be infectious. None of the
factors mentioned explain the assocja-
tlon between husbands and wives rela-
tive to death from cancer"
Recalls an Ancient Fable
Still Worth Remembering.