A Comparative View of the Mortality of the Human Species, at All Ages. Black William
years of age, than in the succeeding double interval from ten to twenty. Between eight and sixteen years of age, one of every seventy of the Christ School boys is computed to die. Davenant rates the decrement in these years at only one per cent. After reaching the tenth year, the torrent of mortality in city, town, and country, is subsided; and during the next eight or ten years of adolescence, very few die. From seven to ten, may be termed the highest pinnacle: having surmounted all the dangers and precipices of the early preceding journey, there is no stage wherein the future prospects of existence and longevity are so extensive. From birth to ten, the tide of life continues in annual gradation to increase; and from ten to the ultimate verge of existence, vitality continues gradually to ebb. Between twenty and thirty, more die in London than in the fifteen preceding years; and the burial list continues turgid to sixty; at which latter stage, the mortality is computed between four and five per cent.
One reason, but not the only one, as I shall hereafter prove, of the great surge in the London bills, from twenty up to forty, is, that within this interval of life, the majority of the new settlers or recruits, arrive; and consequently augment the burials, from twenty to forty, beyond their natural proportion. After passing the meridian, and in the evening of life, the seasoned inhabitants of cities are said by Dr. Price, to have the advantage of the country, in health and longevity: that is to say, although the number who have survived in the country to sixty, seventy, and eighty, are greater proportionally than in cities, yet the latter class arrived at those years in London, have, comparatively, surer expectations of life. I do not, however, find this assertion verified in fact; the balance, if any, vibrating alternately on each side. The proportion of inhabitants who reach eighty years of age are computed, in London and Vienna, at one of every forty: but in country parishes, at one of every twenty-two; and in some, even one of every eleven. In both city and country, the few survivors at ninety, out of each thousand cœtaneous births, will have lost almost all their fellow-travellers in the journey, long before reaching that goal; and about three or four only out of each thousand, on an average, will be then left alive.
There are a few instances of extraordinary Longevity, to 150 and 165; such are Jenkins and Par, in this island. In Bacon Lord Verulam’s History of Long Livers, male and female; their climate, diet, mode of life, appetites, exercises, studies, passions, dispositions, habits, and complexions, were exceedingly dissimilar. It is however probable, from observation and analogy, that the indigent and laborious class of mankind do not attain to longevity in the same proportion with the middling and more opulent ranks. The wandering Savages of America are notoriously short-lived. Throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, the rich, the poor, the inhabitants of city and country, with very different complexion, climate, soil, diet, and conveniences, all seldom exceed the usual term of life allotted to man: seventy and eighty is mentioned in holy writ, as the brink of our earthly duration. Since the days of Moses; that is, between three and four thousand years, human existence has been circumscribed within the same narrow bounds. In the London registers of mortality, during a period of thirty years, from 1728 to 1758, the total mortality is 750,332; and of all this number, 242 only reached beyond 100 years of age; one of whom arrived at 138. In some races and families of men, longevity seems to be hereditary; and his age, though little more than a dream, exceeds that of all other living creatures, a few only excepted. Amongst the quadruped creation, the elephant surpasses man in longevity: amongst the birds, the Swan, and a few others, have survived upwards of a century. The age of fishes is determined with more ingenuity than certainty: some seem to rival man in years. Among the numerous vegetable tribes, the Oak, Chestnut, and some other great trees, survive centuries.
On contrasting the mortality of Males and Females, it appears, that, notwithstanding the surplus of male births, the perils of childbearing, the many vexatious diseases peculiar to the fair sex, and that physicians and apothecaries have many more patients of the latter; yet the total aggregate number of living females exceeds that of males, in most European kingdoms. Upon a numerical inquest in Edinburgh, and some other great cities, it was found, that females were to males as 4 to 3: in London, as 13 to 10; and in some other cities and towns, as 9 to 8. But in country districts, Graunt and Susmilch agree, that the two sexes approach nearer to an equality. In the province of Jersey, in North America, the males were found the majority. From 1702 to 1752; that is, during a period of fifty years, I find the proportion of male and female mortality in London as follows: Male deaths, 618,076; Female deaths, 626,692. Whence, therefore, does it happen, that female deaths preponderate over the male, when more of the latter are born, and, as calculators assert, the mortality of males, at all ages, is greater than that of females? As a solution of this difficulty and partial exception, I should suggest a greater exportation and transportation of males to the sea and land service, to nautical commerce, and to unhealthy climates.
Even in the Marriage State, the chance of survivorship seems considerably in favour of the wife. In Breslaw, during eight years, five married men died to three married women. Susmilch, on a scrutiny through several kingdoms and principalities of Germany, found, that three married men died to two married women. Dr. Price estimates the chance in favour of the wife being the survivor in marriage, as 3 to 2: and this calculation is confirmed by the experience of the general Clerical Society in Scotland, who have long established funds to support their widows. From their records, it appears that twenty married clergymen have died to twelve wives; or, as 5 to 3. By an accurate survey of several principalities and cities in Germany, and collected by Susmilch, the widows were to the widowers as 3, and even 4 to 1. At marriage, it should be observed, there is generally a disparity of age; the bridegroom is from six to twelve years older than the bride; and therefore should, in the course of nature, die sooner: and perhaps also more widowers, comparatively with the other sex, enter into a second marriage; which tends to reduce their numbers. Besides, husbands are more exposed to the vicissitudes of the weather and seasons, to excessive labour and noxious trades, and to many other causes of diseases. Dr. Price finds, that the sexes respectively commence to be widowers and widows about 52 and 44; that is, men and women entering into matrimony, on a general average, at the age of 33 and 25, will become widowers and widows at 52 and 44: consequently, that each marriage will be dissolved by the death of one of them, in nineteen years; which is the ultimate term and probability of the husband and wife being both alive. For although some marriages may be protracted forty and fifty years, yet others may be dissolved in one year, or in a shorter time.
We have not yet sufficient information to determine the comparative chances of Female Longevity in the married and single state. At Berlin, indeed, calculators have remarked, that there were more married women alive at great ages, than of those who remained single. But such result might naturally be expected from a greater proportion in the decline of life of widows and wives, compared to antiquated virgins. From the ages of fifteen to twenty-five, married women likewise are said to have the advantage of the single, in whom the dictates of nature are frustrated and violated.
Comparing the mortality of the Seasons, Dr. Short found, from a variety of country-registers, that mortality generally begins its reign in December; that at March it is in its zenith; and at May in its declension. In twenty-five country towns and parishes, he found the winter to the summer mortality as 50 to 41. At Manchester, a country town of England, Dr. Percival found the winter to the summer mortality as 11 to 8. At Vevey, in Switzerland, during sixty years, Mr. Muret found the burials, during the four winter months, as 5 to 4 to those of the summer. Another proof of this is recorded in the Recherches sur la Population, par Messance: The total sick admitted into the Hotel Dieu hospital in Paris, from 1724 to 1763 (forty years) were, in the four winter months, December, January, February, and March, 314,824; and in the four summer months, June, July, August, September, 238,522; or as 4 to 3. In London too, the undertaker’s, harvest is in winter. There is one obvious reason why, in every metropolis, the winter mortality should exceed that of summer, from the greater concourse of inhabitants of all ranks: but, independent of additional population in winter, the same law seems to prevail in country places. In a subsequent part I shall attempt to throw some collateral illustration upon the subject.
Let us close this humiliating scene with a general abstract of human carnage. If we scan the dolorous mansions of disease, we find, on an average, 1 death, annually, out of every 5 families in cities: but in country towns, and open districts, 1 of 7, 8, 9; and in a few healthy places,