26 BIOLOGY OF DEATH 



United States there were recorded in the year 1916, out 

 of a total of 1,001,921 deaths at all ages the following as 

 of ages 100 or over: 



White males 137 



Colored males 116 



White females 180 



Colored females 216 



Total 649 



In this large total 4 persons were recorded as having 

 died at the age of 120, and one, a colored female, at the 

 preposterous age of 134! 



B. There is no generally valid, orderly relationship 

 betiveen the average duration of life of the individuals 

 composing a species and any other broad fact now known 

 in their life history, or their structure, or their physiology. 

 Many attempts have been made to set up generalizations 

 establishing connections of this sort. Weismann particu- 

 larly, has endeavored to establish such relations only to 

 have them overthrown, sometimes by facts which he him- 

 self presents. It has, for example, been contended that the 

 larger an animal the longer its life. This is obviously 

 no general law. Again it has been held that no animal 

 lives after reproducing, except such as care for their 

 young, but almost numberless instances can be adduced 

 where no such relationship holds. It will not pay to ex- 

 amine all the hypotheses of this general type which have, 

 at one time or another, been put forward. With one excep- 

 tion, to which we shall advert immediately, they all suffer 

 from too many important exceptions to be considered 

 valid generalizations. 



C. Natural death as distinguished from accidental 

 death is preceded by definite structural and functional 



