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longer lived than unmarried;1 and that the clergy, medical men, lawyers, and other classes of the community stand in the order given in § I. as to longevity.

18. Interpretation by the Law.

The interpretation of these facts in a general way, according to the law that high evolution and small expenditure favour longevity, is not difficult; but it is not possible, nor is the endeavour useful in the present state of knowledge, to explain in detail all the possible inferences.

The first two sets of facts tend to prove inductively, though the observational basis is slender, that the potential longevity of man is the same for the various races, if we exclude abnormally wretched and degraded tribes. Perhaps we should have to exclude thus the Homo paleolithicus of Mr. Dawkins. Keener scrutiny seems to indicate a small difference in favour of European civilization, but this is uncertain. Observations agree well with the deductive conclusions with which we started when speaking of the nature of races and varieties in the species man. The highest civilization, corresponding to the highest evolution, appears to give a somewhat increased potential longevity.

1 Dr. Farr placed in the writer's hands a paper by him on The Influence of Marriage on Mortality in France,' which does not, however, touch on longevity.

The generally high longevity of females as compared with males in civilized communities is well established, and is fully explained in agreement with the law of diminished expenditure favouring longevity, women having undeniably less personal expenditure, and but little more generative expenditure, though such as they do have is concentrated, than men. It is noteworthy that the generative expenditure is lessened in women when the personal expenditure is increased, as is distinctly observed in the United States of America, where the women are intellectually far more active than elsewhere, and suffer, so far, from the relatively enormous costliness of nervous outlay. Thus the material of generation serves as a store which is drawn upon before the general powers involving longevity are affected in women.

The females of the English peerage present a greater contrast with the males than is observable between the sexes of any other group recorded. This conforms to the law, for in them there is the greatest difference as to expenditure, the females leading the most carefully-guarded, well-considered, and easy lives, whilst the males, especially in young life, having money at disposal, may lead irregular lives, involving great expenditure both personal and generative, leading to disease and enfeeblement, which is a direct result of misdirected expenditure. The destructiveness of intemperate habits may be seen in the column given in the life-table T. Moreover,

though intemperateness is not a vera causa in the case of all peers, yet such men do not lead the quiet and refined lives which characterize those of the other sex in the same class, but are given to exertion of a violent and irregular character, possibly quite harmless morally, yet involving great expenditure from its irregularity.

The long life of the agricultural labourer belonging to a friendly society, exceeding what is termed the 'healthy English life,' is explained by the man's small personal expenditure, the absence of tax implied in the regularity of his daily labour, and the sobriety implied in his membership of such a society. Mr. Neison remarks ('Vital Statistics,' p. 45), 'A member of a friendly society may be regarded as a type of industry, frugality, regularity of habits, and simplicity of life.' Males of the English peerage have a higher longevity than the males of All England, but not so high as the healthy life of the insuring classes. Affluence involving less personal expenditure increases the longevity of those who enjoy it as compared to the average due to disease and intemperateness which embraces towns with all their misery and wretchedness; but it does not insure the absence of excessive and abnormal expenditure, to which indeed it directly leads, 'luxury being the parent of diseases.' It is evident from the facts given, that it is an error to quote our English peerage as the longest-lived class in Christendom, though it does not appear to

be so low in the scale as Dr. Guy's observations on partial data at one time led him to believe.

Men living in towns are likely to suffer expenditure through intemperance, in addition to which they are more liable to be taxed by diseases, favoured as these are by diminished oxygenation and the close contiguity of persons. Hence we understand the low longevity of bakers, and the still lower longevity of clerks, to whose sedentary habits the tax of anxiety and mental labour is added.

The expenditure of mental labour in its highest forms as antagonizing longevity is well illustrated in Dr. Guy's comparisons of the more and less distinguished members of professions.

The small longevity of males in Liverpool is due to increased expenditure dependent on crowding, as just observed, and in a measure on the greater struggle, not for existence, but 'to get on,' — a struggle in which existence is not considered, and is in many cases lost,-which naturally occurs in the great cities.

That sovereigns (dying natural deaths) are shortlived, is explicable partly by what has been said of luxury, and partly by anxiety, both involving expenditure. It is noticeable that those sovereigns who have won and not inherited their position have been longer lived than those who have been born from a stock bred in injurious luxury for generations. This is as we should expect, such men being the strong

and vigorous raised by natural selection from the

masses.

The apparently higher longevity of England, as contrasted with other western European states, may be due to a somewhat higher development. Hufeland states that Danes and Englishmen are the longestlived races, basing his opinion on the reputed cases of abnormal longevity in these countries, which are, however, of doubtful value as scientific evidence. He explained the supposed fact by the cold climate of these countries, and there may be possibly some truth in this notion, as we saw that a sluggishness of vital actions is induced by cold in the case of the American aloe; but this explanation is very doubtful. Sweden does not give a higher or as high a potential longevity (judging by the expectation of life at sixty) as England, though its climate is as cold or colder. The higher evolution or civilization of the Anglo-Saxons-or, better, Kelto-Teutons-into which not only are they born as members of a community, but which they inherit individually as a tendency, and which makes them alone able to colonize successfully, may not improbably be connected with their higher longevity. How is it, then, it may be asked, that the American branch of the race are reputed to be shorter-lived than Europeans? The subject here opened out is one of vast interest and practical importance, which we do not now propose to discuss in detail, connected as it is with that

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