ZOOLOGY. 319 



setts, well known for his researches on insanity. " Many believe 

 the tone of general health is lower now than formerly ; but I think it 

 is without sufficient reason. Has there been any decrease of the vital 

 force in the community for the last forty or one hundred years ? Do 

 civilization and progress and refinement reduce the vital power of 

 men? Some Tacts show to the contrary. In 1693, the British Gov- 

 ernment issued a Tontine, to borrow millions upon the basis of cer- 

 tain lives upon which they were to pay annuities. Mr. Pitt issued 

 another Tontine one hundred years afterwards in 1790, upon the 

 same basis, and it has been found that these lives were so much longer 

 than those a hundred years before, that the British Government were 

 obliged to give it up. It was ruinous, so great was the increase in the 

 duration of life in the course of a century. 



' I think there are a great many deteriorating causes in civiliza- 

 tion. A great deal of refinement refines only in the sense of attenu- 

 ating life. Still, civilization has given an increase of comforts, bet- 

 ter houses, and security against all the causes of suffering, cold and 

 storms, greater certainty of proper food, an increase of better cooks, 

 though these are yet bad enough. Still, cookery is better than it was 

 in the days of our fathers, and food is more convertible into blood, 

 and that more convertible into muscular fiber, and that fiber is more 

 enduring than in the earlier days. The general effect of all these is 

 to protract life, and give it greater force to resist the causes of phy- 

 sical and mental disease, and more power of endurance and make the 

 number greater who will live beyond threescore and ten. 



" The better health a man is in, the better arc his chances of sur- 

 viving the dangers of destruction. The more vital force and general 

 health is increased, the greater is the diminution of the insane, at 

 least from this cause. Nevertheless, it is easy to see, that whenever 

 sickness is averted and the average longevity is increased, by better 

 habits, more abundant and appropriate means of subsistence and pro- 

 tection, and wiser self-management, there may be also a larger pro- 

 portion of weak constitutions that are saved from destruction by the 

 same means. I found a proof of this a few years ago, in analyzing the 

 bills of mortality of many nations. 1. That of a thousand children 

 born in each country, more would survive the perils of infancy, child- 

 hood and youth, and enter on mature and responsible life, at twenty 

 in Massachusetts, than in England, Belgium, Sweden, and some 

 other nations. 2. That of a thousand who should survive the age of 

 twenty, and enter on working life, more would break down in this 

 period, and die before the age of sixty in Massachusetts, than in those 

 nations. 3. Lastly, that of a thousand that should survive the period 

 of labor and enter on old age at sixty, more would reach the age of 

 eighty here than elsewhere. The explanation is this. Man may be 

 considered as a living, working machine, which requires twenty years 

 of the greatest skill and care to build and prepare for use, otherwise 

 it may fall in the process of building ; but when well made and of 

 proper material, it may run forty years or longer. If the builders are 

 rough and careless, they destroy many of their machines before they 

 are finished, and none but those of the strongest materials can survive 

 rough handling. But in the hands of skillful workmen, machines 

 even of weak materials are made and finished though from their 



