Age x. T. TABLES BASED ON LIMITED DATA AND RELATING TO SECTIONS OF THE COMMUNITY. Probable after-lifetime at Age x for VARIOUS CLASSES in the Community, compiled from Neison's Vital Statistics, from Bailey and Day, from Hendriks, and Guy. 20 47'90 43°48 43'89 4345 42 21 4146 40'02 31.83 37.95 40'67 34'3 15'55 30 40'59 3682 37°22 36.64 35'96 35'51 32'35 27'57 30'14 33'15 273 13.80 60 40 32976 29'93 30'09 50 25.07 23.08 22.79 22.44 17.82 29'64 28.86 28.33 24'47 21.85 23.15 24'92 20'9 11.62 II.28 10.81 9.61 9.61 8.77 876 8.76 8.61 8.70 7.4 6.95 6'92 6.69 5'51 5'45 4'58 4.81 4.80 4'80 4.80 5° 3.80 4'10 3.80 3'05 3'54 1.64 2'35 2'34 2.35 2'34 3'9 '5 '5 '5 '5 *5 *5 *9 U. Calculations on a smaller Basis of Facts, by Dr. 17. General Conclusions from the foregoing Statements and Tables. The following is a summary of the facts set forth in the pages immediately preceding and elsewhere. 1. The most degraded races have life shortened by starvation in old age, or even by suffering death at the hands of their fellows. The more civilized races protect the aged, and contribute to their longevity by care and respect. 2. Most nations speak of the ages from sixty to a hundred in language which indicates the same opinion with regard to the duration of life, e. g. Chinese, Jews, Greeks, Romans, modern Europeans. Many nations give equally traditions and accounts of excessive longevity. 3. There is an impression amongst interested observers (i. e. medical men and actuaries) that European lives, and especially English lives, are the best, that is, have the greatest probable duration. 4. Statistics shew clearly, more clearly than perhaps any other fact, that females have at all ages, especially in advanced periods of age, a better expectation of life than males; also that English lives are considerably better in advanced years (for a difference of one year of expectation is considerable when the whole average expectation is less than thirteen) than Dutch, French, Swedish, Belgian, or American lives. 5. English statistics tend to prove that, taking the expectation of life at sixty years of age as the criterion, the relative longevity in different classes of the community stands as follows:-Agricultural labourers in rural districts, belonging to friendly societies, with an expectation of 178 years of life; females of the aristocracy (peerage), with 16'42; males and females. of the rural districts of Scotland, with 1601; healthy English lives (so considered by assurance societies), with 15.37; males of the peerage, with 14:56; bakers, town and country, with 1406; clerks, town and country, with 12:42; males in Liverpool, with 1196; miners, with 1185; sovereigns of all countries, with 109; persons of intemperate habits, with 894; all England (Farr), males, with 13'53 years expectation, and females with 14'34 years at the age compared, namely, sixty.1 6. To these may be added the observations of Dr. Guy, tending to prove that the more distinguished are less long-lived than the less distinguished members of professions, contrary to a general opinion prevalent as to the bar; that married persons are 1 Too great reliance must not be placed on these statistics, as they are from various authorities and very variable data. Some corrections are due to circumstances, which are not stated to have been considered by the authorities who gave them: thus the males in Liverpool may appear to have a great mortality in old age, when their diminution in numbers is really due to their leaving the city. Dr. Farr informed the writer that no thoroughly reliable statistics of this kind could be obtained until the registration of births has been efficiently carried out in the localities examined for many years. |