230 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jail., 



among savages, and the rate of mortality is proportioned in some 

 measure to the degree of barbarism, while early deaths every- 

 where diminish as the science of sanitation advances. The 

 increase of knowledge, the influence of Christianity, and the ad- 

 vance of civilization have greatly lengthened human life. This 

 fact is abundantly established by statistics in all the most educated 

 countries of the world, and by the careful investigations of Life In- 

 surance Companies and PubHc Boards of Health. 



" In ancient Rome, in the period from two hundred to five hun- 

 dred years after the Christian era, the average duration of life, even 

 in the most favored classes, was thirty 3'^ears." In Geneva, Switzer- 

 land, the statistics show that the average length of hfe in that city 

 in the sixteenth century, was 21.21 years — in the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, 25.67. In the first half of the eighteenth century, 2'7.75 — in 

 the last half, 36.25, while today it is about 43 years. Many similar 

 statistics might be given, showing that there has been marked 

 progress in the length of life during the past few centuries. This 

 progress will surely continue as men study the causes of disease 

 and the means of preventing it. 



Our wisest sanitarians declare that at least one-third of the dis- 

 eases of modern life are preventable. Dr. Simon, chief medical 

 oflScer of the English Privy Council, says that "the deaths which 

 we in each year register in this country (now about five hundred 

 thousand), are fully a hundred and twenty-five thousand more 

 numerous than they would be if existing hioivledge of the chief 

 causes of disease as affecting masses of population, were reasonably 

 well applied throughout England." It is probable that with our 

 greater population, a still larger number of lives in America might 

 be prolonged by the more general study and observance of the 

 laws of health. 



In speaking of the causes of the wonderfully rapid accumula- 

 tion of wealth and capital in modern times, Professor W. H. 

 Brewer says: "The material wealth and working capital of the 

 civilized world has more than trebled within less than a life- time, 

 and now more than equals all that had been saved in all the 

 thousands of years that had gone before, and that too, while there has 

 been a more general enjoyment of the comforts of life and a much 

 greater indulgence in its luxuries. The causes usually assigned 

 for this rapid growth are the invention of modern machinery, the 

 use of steam as a motor, the modern means of transportation, the 

 application of the natural sciences to the arts and industries, the 



