Part 49

In regard to the variety of races, it has been observed that those people who sooner attain pubescence are the shortest-lived. Precocious excitement must bring on premature old age. Negroes seldom attain an advanced period of life; and the progress of years is more rapidly descried in their features and their form than in Europeans who have migrated to their clime. The negroes of Congo, Mozambique, and Zanguebar, seldom reach their fiftieth year. In northern latitudes longevity is more frequent: this is observed in Sweden, Russia, Poland, Norway. Some writers have looked upon the established religion of a country as influencing the duration of life; and Toaldo asserted that Christians are shorter-lived than Jews. To this observation it may be remarked, that Jews are in general a very sober, industrious, and active race, circumstances that must materially tend to prolong their days. Moreover, by their legislation they are very careful in the choice of the meat they consume. In Catholic countries fasting may be taken into calculation, not from the effects of abstemiousness, which would be more favourable to health than injurious, but the sudden return to feasting and gormandizing, by way of revenge, when the fast is over. Shrove Tuesday and Easter Sunday are noted in red letters in the gastronomic almanac; and the suppers that follow the midnight masses of Christmas generally require the apothecary's aid on the following morning.[46]

In regard to conformation, very tall and spare subjects are seldom long-lived; and the same observation applies to the stunted and diminutive. A well-set body, with a broad and deep chest, a neck not over-long, with well-formed and firm muscles, generally hold forth a fair prospect of old age.

Children born before the regular period of gestation, those who have been weaned too early, or given to nurses whose milk was not of a proper quality, are seldom strong. Too rapid a growth will also shorten the space of existence.

Our avocations and pursuits materially affect health and the consequent duration of life; and the nature of the excitement man is submitted to produces a remarkable effect. It has been calculated in France that one hundred and fifty-two academicians, whose aggregate years were ten thousand five hundred and eleven, averaged sixty-nine years and two months. The following calculation of Madden will further illustrate this curious subject.

AGES OF GREAT MEN.

_Natural Philosophers._

Bacon 78 Buffon 81 Copernicus 70 Cuvier 64 Davy 51 Kepler 60 Laplace 77 Leibnitz 70 Newton 84 Whiston 95 Euler 76 Franklin 85 Galileo 78 Halley 86 Herschel 84 Lalande 75 Lewenhoeck 91 Linnæus 72 Tycho Brahe 75 Wollaston 62

_Poets._

Ariosto 59 Byron 37 Collins 56 Cowper 69 Dryden 70 Gray 57 Milton 66 Pope 56 Spenser 46 Thomson 48 Burns 38 Camoens 55 Cowley 49 Dante 56 Goldsmith 44 Metastasio 84 Petrarch 68 Shenstone 50 Tasso 52 Young 84

_Moral Philosophers._

Bacon 65 Berkeley 79 Condillac 65 Diderot 71 Fitche 52 Helvetius 57 Hume 65 Kaimes 86 Malebranche 77 Stewart 75 Bayle 59 Condorcet 51 Descartes 54 Ferguson 92 Hartley 52 Hobbes 91 Kant 80 Locke 72 Reid 86 St. Lambert 88

_Dramatists._

Alfieri 55 Goethe 82 Marlow 32 Racine 60 Shakspeare 52 Congreve 59 Crebillon 89 Farquhar 30 B. Jonson 63 Molière 53 Corneille 78 Massinger 55 Otway 34 Schiller 46 Voltaire 84 Colman 61 Cumberland 80 Goldoni 85 De Vega 73 Murphy 78

_Authors on Law and Jurisprudence._

Bentham 85 Butler 83 Erskine 73 Gifford 48 Hale 68 Littleton 75 Montesquieu 66 Romilly 61 Tenterden 78 Vatel 53 Blackstone 57 Coke 85 Filangieri 36 Grotius 63 Holt 68 Mansfield 88 Redesdale 82 Rolle 68 Thurlow 74 Wilmot 83

_Miscellaneous and Novel Writers._

Cervantes 70 Scott 62 Smollett 51 Defoe 70 Richardson 72 Johnson 75 Warton 78 Tickell 54 Bathurst 84 Hawkesworth 59 Le Sage 80 Fielding 47 Rabelais 70 Ratcliffe 60 Sterne 56 Addison 48 Steele 59 Montaigne 60 Thornton 44 Hazlitt 58

_Authors on Revealed Religion._

Baxter 76 J. Butler 60 Calvin 56 Doddridge 54 J. Knox 67 Luther 63 Melancthon 64 Porteus 77 Sherlock 67 Whitefield 56 Bellarmine 84 Bossuet 77 Chillingworth 43 G. Fox 67 Lowth 77 Massillon 79 Paley 63 Priestley 71 Wesley 88 Wycliffe 61

_Authors on Natural Religion._

Annet 55 Cardan 75 Sir W. Drummond 68 N. Freret 61 Lord Herbert 68 St. Pierre 77 Tindal 75 Vannini 34 Bolingbroke 79 Chubb 65 Dupuis 67 Gibbon 58 Spinosa 45 Shaftesbury 42 Toland 53 Volney 66

_Medical Authors._

J. Brown 54 Cullen 78 Fordyce 67 Gall 71 Harvey 81 J. Hoffman 83 W. Hunter 66 M. Good 64 Pinel 84 Tissot 70 Corvisart 66 Darwin 72 Fothergill 69 J. Gregory 48 Heberden 92 Hunter 65 Jenner 75 Paracelsus 43 Sydenham 66 T. Willis 54

_Philologists._

Bentley 81 Casaubon 55 Hartzheim 70 Heyne 84 Parr 80 Pighius 84 Raphelengius 59 J. J. Scaliger 69 H. Stephens 71 Vossius 73 Burton 64 Cheke 44 J. Harman 77 Lipsius 60 Pauw 61 Porson 50 Salmatius 66 Sigonius 60 Sylburgius 51 Wolfius 64

_Artists._

Bandinelle 72 Canova 65 Flaxman 71 Giotto 60 San Sovino 91 A. Caracci 49 David 76 Raphael 37 Salvator Rosa 58 P. Veronese 56 Bernini 82 Donatello 83 Ghiberti 64 M. Angelo 96 Verocchico 56 Claude 82 Guido 67 Reynolds 69 Titian 96 West 82

_Musical Composers._

Arne 68 Beethoven 57 Bull 41 Corelli 60 Greby 72 Haydn 77 Kerser 62 Mosart 36 Piccini 71 Scarlatti 78 Bach 66 Burney 88 Cimarosa 41 Gluck 75 Handel 75 Kalkbrenner 51 Martini 78 Paesiello 75 Porpore 78 Weber 40

To this list we may add the following instances of longevity from the late publication of Mr. Farren:

Adling 93 Alcock 91 Bernabel 89 Celdara 90 Canpra 84 Casipini 90 Cervetti 101 Child 90 Creighton 97 Eichole 80 Genimani 96 Gibbons 93 Hasse 90 Hempel 86 Hesse 91 Leveridge 90 Lopez 103 Pittoni 90 Reike 100 Sala 99 Schell 87 Schramm 82 Telleman 86 F. Turner 99 W. Turner 88 Wagennell 98

In regard to the mortality of musicians, we give with much pleasure the following extract from the same work:

"The ages of 468 persons at death, were all that could be obtained from a biography of musicians; of these, 109 born since the year 1740 are excluded, because some of their cotemporaries were yet living at the date of such biography, also 41 more are excluded as having died under 50 years of age. There remain then, the ages at death of 318 persons on which the present observation is made.

"From the ages of 50 years to the end of life, the _apparent_ rate of mortality among musicians, appears very nearly with the lowest known rate, or that which prevails in villages, and it is scarcely probable that such rate should so agree without being the true one. For a musician to belong to the last class of human life, is very credible, when it is considered that eminence can only be attained by close mental devotion to an exalted science, and unremitting application to its practical acquirement, which abstraction would interrupt and intemperance destroy.

"The mean age of musicians, born _since_ 1690, is 67-3/4 years, or two years greater than those born before 1690, from which it might be conveniently concluded, that the moderns were longer lived than the ancients. The case is precisely the reverse, at least for ages above 50, to which alone the materials are applicable. The expectation of life at the age of 60 of the ancients were nearly 15 years, of the modern musicians 13-1/2. The materials (limited as they are) from which these conclusions are drawn, support the doctrine, that the mortality of the moderns is less at middle, but greater at advanced age, than the mortality of the ancients."

Dr. Caspar, of Berlin, in his late very interesting work on the duration of human life, has given the following conclusions:

Medium longevity. Clergymen 65 Merchants 62 Clerks 61 Farmers 61 Military men 59 Lawyers 58 Artists 57 Medical men 56

The results of the other classes, with respect to their united ages, and the average of each, are--

Average. Moral philosophers united ages 1417 70 Sculptors and painters 1412 70 Authors on law and jurisprudence 1394 69 Medical authors united ages 1368 68 Authors on revealed religion 1350 67 Philologists 1323 66 Musical composers 1284 64 Novelists and miscellaneous authors 1257 62-1/2 Dramatists 1249 62 Authors on natural religion 1245 62 Poets 1144 57

This calculation was made most probably in Prussia.

Dr. Caspar's view of longevity are not only highly interesting but, if correct, may lead to many important conclusions. He maintains that--

1. The female sex enjoys, at every period or epoch of life, except at puberty, at which epoch the mortality is greater among young females--a greater longevity than the male sex.

2. Pregnancy and labour occasion, indeed, a considerable loss of life, but this loss disappears or is lost in the general mass.

3. The so-called climacteric periods of life do not seem to have any influence on the longevity of either sex.

4. The medium duration of life at this present time (1835), is in Russia, about 21 years; in Prussia, 29; in Switzerland, 34; in France, 35; in Belgium, 36; and in England, 38 years.

5. The medium duration of life has, in recent times, increased very greatly in most cities of Europe.

6. In reference to the influence of professional occupations in life, it seems that clergymen are on the whole, the longest, and medical men are the shortest livers. Military men are nearly between the two extremes, but yet, proportionably they more frequently than others reach very advanced years.

7. The mortality is very generally greater in manufacturing than in agricultural districts.

8. Marriage is decidedly favourable to longevity.

9. The mortality among the poor is always greater than among the wealthier classes.

10. The mortality in a population appears to be always proportionate to its fecundity--as the number of births increases, so does the number of deaths at the same time.

* * * * *

If this last assertion be correct, Malthus's doctrine must have been idle.

It appears that in general more males are born than females--this difference has been attributed to the age of the parents; when the mother is older than the father the female offspring are more numerous--the same is observed when both parents have attained an advanced age--but when the father's age exceeds that of the mother's, sons are chiefly the result of their union, it has been also observed that widowers are most frequently blessed with daughters.

Quetelet has very justly observed that the laws which preside over the development of man, and modify all his actions, are in general the result of his organization, of his years, his state of independence, the surrounding institutions, local influence, and an infinity of other causes, difficult to ascertain, and many of which, most probably, never can be known. Still if we admit the fact, our wellbeing, in a great measure, rests in our own hands, as the progress of our intellectual attainments may gradually enable us to improve our condition, in most of the points to which we have alluded; and Buffon has observed "that we know not to what extent man may perfect his nature, both in a moral and a physical point of view."

Still the laws of our organization, and which regulate life, appear to be beyond human speculation; and it has been observed that, under ordinary circumstances, we are ruled by a harmonizing system tending to equalize society despite its institutions. Thus, births, marriages, and deaths, appear regulated on a certain scale in proportions singularly similar. This circumstance is rendered obvious by the following tables of nativity at Amsterdam.

+-------+--------------------------------------------------+ | | Still-born. || Born alive. | | |-----------------------||-------------------------| | Years.| Boys. | Girls. |Total.|| Boys. | Girls. | Total. | |-------|-------|--------|------||-------|--------|--------| | 1821 | 288 | 246 | 534 || 3742 | 3600 | 7342 | | 1822 | 280 | 222 | 502 || 3887 | 3713 | 7600 | | 1823 | 268 | 198 | 466 || 3734 | 3448 | 7182 | | 1824 | 266 | 216 | 482 || 4011 | 3849 | 7860 | | 1825 | 207 | 173 | 404 || 3802 | 3559 | 7352 | | 1826 | 231 | 173 | 404 || 3803 | 3635 | 7438 | | 1827 | | | || 3524 | 3366 | 6890 | | 1828 | | | || 3699 | 3529 | 7208 | | 1829 | | | || 3785 | 3618 | 7403 | | 1830 | 241 | 169 | 410 || 3727 | 3579 | 7306 | | 1831 | 208 | 168 | 376 || 3843 | 3499 | 7342 | | 1832 | 210 | 151 | 361 || 3351 | 3101 | 6452 | +----------------------------------------------------------+

A statistical result much similar, was made also in Paris in the Bureau des Longitudes, as appears by the following return:

+------------------------------------------------------------+ | | Still-born. | Born alive. | | |-------------------------|-------------------------| | Years. | Boys. | Girls. | Total. | Boys. | Girls. | Total. | |--------|-------|--------|--------|-------|--------|--------| | 1823 | 847 | 662 | 1509 | 13752 | 13318 | 27070 | | 1824 | 810 | 677 | 1487 | 14647 | 14647 | 28812 | | 1825 | 846 | 675 | 1521 | 14989 | 14264 | 29253 | | 1826 | 810 | 737 | 1547 | 15187 | 14783 | 29970 | | 1827 | 904 | 727 | 1631 | 15074 | 14732 | 29860 | | 1828 | 883 | 743 | 1626 | 15117 | 14484 | 29601 | | 1829 | 925 | 788 | 1713 | 14760 | 13961 | 28721 | | 1830 | 943 | 784 | 1727 | 14488 | 14099 | 28587 | | 1831 | 954 | 755 | 1709 | 15116 | 14414 | 29530 | | 1832 | 994 | 726 | 1720 | 13494 | 12789 | 26283 | +------------------------------------------------------------+

In these statements, of which many to the same effect might be produced, it is singular that the number of still-born infants bears such a regular proportion with the nativity of living ones.

The proportion of deaths to births is also strangely regular, despite the difference of climate, and institutions, and the state of medical science in various countries, as will appear manifest by the following scales:

+----------------------------------------------------------------+ | Cities. |Proportion of inhabitants|Proportion of inhabitants| | | to one death. | to one birth. | |------------|-------------------------|-------------------------| | London | 46 0} | 40 8} | | Glasgow | 46 8} 46 4 | 29 5} 35 2 | | Madrid | 36 0} | 26 0} | | Leghorn | 35 0} | 25 5} | | Lyons | 32 2} | 28 5} | | Moscow | 33 0} | 27 5} | | Palermo | 32 0} 32 3 | 24 5} 27 0 | | Paris | 31 4} | 27 0} | | Lisbon | 31 1} | 28 3} | | Copenhagen | 30 3} | 30 0} | | Hamburg | 30 0} | 25 5} | | Barcelona | 29 5} | 27 0} | | Berlin | 29 0} | 21 0} | | Bordeaux | 29 0} | 24 0} | | Naples | 28 6} | 23 8} | | Dresden | 27 7} 26 6 | 23 0} | | Amsterdam | 27 5} | 26 0} | | Brussels | 25 8} | 21 0} 24 2 | | Stockholm | 24 6} | 27 0} | | Prague | 24 5} | 23 3} | | Rome | 24 4} | 30 6} | | | | 20 0} | | | | 26 5} | | | | 20 0} | | Vienna | 22 5 | 20 0 | | Venice | 19 4} | 26 5} | | Bergamo | 18 0} 18 7 | 20 0} 23 2 | +----------------------------------------------------------------+

While such a regular proportion prevails in births and deaths, a still more singular law seems to regulate the commission of crimes, of which the following registers of the cases brought to trial in France is a proof.

+------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | 1826 | 1827 | 1828 | 1829 | 1830 | 1831 | | |------|------|------|------|------|------+ |Murder in general | 241 | 234 | 227 | 231 | 205 | 266 | |With fire arms | 56 | 64 | 60 | 61 | 57 | 88 | |Swords, daggers, &c. | 15 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 12 | 30 | |Knives | 39 | 40 | 34 | 46 | 44 | 34 | |Sticks, bludgeons, &c. | 23 | 28 | 31 | 24 | 12 | 21 | |Stones, &c. | 20 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 11 | 9 | |Cutting and contusing | | | | | | | | instruments, tools, &c.| 35 | 40 | 42 | 45 | 46 | 49 | |Strangulation | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |Drowning | 6 | 16 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 3 | |Kicks, and blows with | | | | | | | | the fist | 28 | 12 | 21 | 23 | 17 | 26 | |Fire | ... | 1 | ... | 1 | ... | ... | |Unknown means | 17 | 1 | 2 | ... | 2 | 2 | +------------------------------------------------------------------+

The criminal statistics of France have produced the following calculation: From 7000 to 7300 criminals are tried every year, out of which number 61 out of 100 are found guilty; 170,000 offenders are charged with minor offences and misdemeanors, of whom 85 in the 100 are condemned to various punishments, and the greatest annual calculation which Quetelet remarks in an annual budget, paid much more regularly than taxes, is as follows:

Condemned to capital punishment 100 to 150 To hard labour for life 280 Hard labour for a period 1050 Imprisonment 1220

The following curious table has been drawn of the causes that excited to the commission of murder and the means resorted to:

+------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Apparent motives, | | |Assassi- | | | |from 1826 to 1829.|Poison.|Murder.| nation.|Incendiary.| Total. | | | | | | | | |------------------|-------|-------|---------|-----------|---------| |Cupidity | 20 | 39 | 237 | 66 | 362 | |Adultery | 48 | 9 | 76 | ... | 133 | |Domestic broils | 48 | 120 | 131 | 84 | 333 | |Jealousy and | | | | | | | debauchery | 10 | 58 | 115 | 37 | 220 | |Revenge, hatred, | | | | | | | and other motives| 23 | 903 | 460 | 229 | 1615 | |------------------|-------|-------|---------|-----------|---------| | Total | 149 | 1129 | 1019 | 366 | 2663[47]| +------------------------------------------------------------------+