2l6 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ton, the poet, at seventeen, to Bishop Morton, the scholar (bom in the 

 seventeenth oenlury), and Sir Edward Sabine, the man of science (born 

 in the eighteenth century), at ninety-five. They are distributed as 

 follows in five-year age-periods: 



Age at Death. .. 

 Men of Genius.. 

 Age at Death . 

 Men of Genius 



Under 20 

 1 



55-59 I 60-64 

 66 84 



20-24 

 2 



65-69 

 108 



25-29 

 5 



70-74 

 116 



30-34 

 13 



75-79 

 86 



35-39 

 13 



80-84 

 49 



40-44 

 29 



I 85-89 

 35 



45-49 

 48 



50-54 

 51 



90 and over 

 14 



If we consider the number for each year separately, certain points 

 emerge which are disguised by the five-year age-period, though the 

 irregularities become frequently marked and inexplicable. A certain 

 order, however, seems to be maintained. There is scarcely any rise 

 from twenty-seven to thirty-eight, and even at forty-five only three indi- 

 viduals died; but, on the whole, there is a slow rise after thirty-eight, 

 leading to the first climax at forty-nine, when sixteen individuals died; 

 this climax is maintained at a lower level to fifty-four, when there is a 

 marked fall to a level scarcely higher than that which prevailed be- 

 tween the ages of forty-one and forty-three. This lasts for three years; 

 then there is a sudden rise from seven deaths at fifty-six, to twenty-five 

 deaths at fifty-seven, and this second climax is again maintained at a 

 somewhat lower level to the age of sixty-seven, when the highest climax 

 is attained, with thirty-one deaths. Thereafter the decline is slow but 

 steady, with a final climax of twenty deaths at seventy-eight. It is 

 curious that each climax is sudden, and preceded by a fall. 



A noteworthy point here seems to be the very low mortality be- 

 tween the ages of fifty-three and fifty-seven. It seems to confirm 

 Galton's conclusion, based on somewhat similar data, that a group of 

 men of genius is in part made up of persons of unusually feeble con- 

 stitutions and in part of persons of unusually vigorous constitutions. 

 After the first climax at forty-nine the feeble have mostly died out. 

 The vigorous are then in possession of their best powers and working 

 at full pressure; fifty-seven appears to be a critical age at which ex- 

 haustion and collapse are specially liable to occur. The presence of 

 these two classes — the abnormally weak and the abnormally vigorous 

 — would be in harmony with the explanation I have already ventured 

 to offer of the deficiency of medium-sized families left by our men of 

 genius. 



The age of the women is ascertainable in thirty-nine cases. The 

 average is extremely high; four died before forty, but nine lived to 

 over eighty, and two of these were over ninety. 



