Note 246-6 — Chapter II

Higher civilization, indeed, instead of leading to higher vitality, may lead to immoderate toil and immoderate enjoyment. (Schäffle, in the D. Vierteljahrsschrift, April, 1862, 340.) Engel says that, in general, life is more intense in our day, and hence leads to a more rapid exhaustion of individual life-force. (Preuss. Statist. Ztschr., 1862, 53.) According to English experience of the well-fed classes, those have the greatest duration of life who otherwise live in modest circumstances. Thus, for instance, clergymen thirty years of age have still an average expectation of life of 39.49 years; members of the learned professions, 38.86; country gentlemen, 40.22; members of the aristocracy, 37.31; princes of the blood, only 34.04; sovereigns, only 27.16 (Statist. Journal, 1859, 356 ff.); while agricultural laborers, who have sufficient means and intelligence to participate in the so-called friendly societies, have an expectation of life of 40.6 years after their thirtieth year. (Neison, loc. cit.) On the whole, it seems to be in harmony with the democratic leveling tendencies of our own age, that the better care of children and of the sick has lengthened short lives, and that the unrest of the times has shortened the long lives, although the level of the general average continually rises, notwithstanding. Thus, in Geneva, the proportion of those who outlived their thirtieth year was: in the 16th century, after 1549, 29.87; in the 17th century, 37.29; in the 18th century, 49.39; in the 19th century, until 1833, 58.85 per cent. of the number of births. On the other hand, the expectation of life of those who had attained their 80th year, was in these four centuries respectively 6.22, 5.87, 4.40 and 3.84 years. (Mallet, l. c., and Statist. Journal, 1851, 316 ff.) In keeping with this is, that according to Guy's researches, the average duration of life of the English peerage and baronetage was, in 1500-1550, 71.27 years; 1550-1600, 68.25 years; 1600-1650, 63.95 years; 1650-1700, 62.40 years; 1700-1745, 64.13 years. (Statist. Journal, 1845, 74.) However, we may most directly infer a favorable condition of things from the diminished mortality of children, for the reason that this, far more directly than the mortality of adults, is conditioned by the quality of food. The younger a child is, the more exclusively is its life-force the product of these two factors: the physical constitution of its parents and the care bestowed upon it. Compare F. J. Neumann, Die Gestaltung der mittleren Lebensdauer in Preussen, 1865, 26 ff. In Prussia, in 1751-60, only 312 in 1,000 outlived their tenth year; in 1861-70, 633 in 1,000. Yet, since 1856, the mortality of children has again begun to increase. (Knapp, Mittheilungen des Statist. Bureaus, VIII, p. 8.)