OUR GRANDFATHERS DIED TOO YOUNG. 169 



already experiencing the good effects of greater cleanliness, better 

 food, and other reforms, introduced through the efforts of Howard 

 and his coadjutors, the health of the prisoners was so much bene- 

 fited and their lives so much prolonged that, as Mr. Beecher said 

 " people might sigh for a location in some good salubrious prison." 

 So great were the advances on all sides, that Sir Edwin Chadwick, 

 the father of sanitation, so far as it can be defined (Steps to abol- 

 ish Disease and to defer Death), became persuaded that there is a 

 potential longevity in men of one hundred years, and that death 

 at a period less than that should be counted premature. He was 

 born in 1800 and died July 5, 1890 ; and if it is true, as many statis- 

 ticians assert, that the period of human life has lengthened nine 

 years since this century began, we can see that his belief was not 

 altogether the dream of an enthusiast ; for, in spite of the great 

 advances made in the science of sanitation, and in the art of liv- 

 ing so as to insure the highest health, he felt that only a begin- 

 ning had been made, and that the coming century is to be the one 

 in which the seeds planted in this are to attain their growth and 

 bear their full fruitage. 



In seeking the reasons for this advance, they all might be 

 summed up in the one great sweeping fact of the mastery of man 

 over the forces of Nature, through the grand scientific triumphs 

 that began with the discovery of oxygen in 1774, and the control 

 of steam and electricity obtained a little later. When we come to 

 details, we find the first great universal factor is the better sup- 

 plies of food, produced in greater quantities and with less labor 

 than formerly through the intelligent application of agricultural 

 chemistry, and the use of the marvelous myriads of agricultural 

 machines, which stand for armies of laborers, who don't get tired 

 and don't eat. When a Montana farmer can grow on one prize 

 acre nine hundred and seventy-four bushels of good potatoes, the 

 disciples of Malthus even can take heart, for Mr. Edward Atkin- 

 son has conclusively demonstrated that the food-producing areas 

 of this country have as yet only been scratched over and worked 

 at one corner. In Queen Elizabeth's time a statistical writer says 

 that in London the deaths from starvation were not more than 

 one in a thousand. At that rate the deaths in London now would 

 be twelve hundred and fifty annually, while the fact is that the 

 few deaths from that cause now are from suicidal mania and ob- 

 stinate refusal to make application for the relief provided for 

 the destitute. Linked with the foregoing is the rapid inter- 

 communication of nations and the speedy transportation which 

 has practically put an end to the great famines which formerly 

 destroyed millions in Europe and Asia, and paved the way for 

 " plagues " in reducing the vitality of the inhabitants. A well- 

 to-do American laborer can to-day command a more whole- 



