THE PROLONGATION OF HUMAN LIFE. 



93 



to me that if accurate statistics could be collected about one 

 thousand men and women, over eighty years of age, living in 

 New England to-day, such information would form the basis of 

 some very interesting and very valuable conclusions. In my posi- 

 tion as associate editor of the " Boston Globe " I found this a com- 

 paratively easy task. I had five thousand blanks printed, asking 

 for the following information in relation to men and women over 

 eighty: 



Name, residence, age, nationality ; whether married or single ; 

 general description, including size, weight, complexion, etc. ; chil- 

 dren, how many, ages, state of health, etc. ; habits, hours of rising, 

 retiring, meals, exercise, etc. ; occupations, past and present ; food 

 and drink, quantity, kind, etc. ; attacks of sickness if any, and 

 at what ages, nature of disease, etc. ; condition of teeth, hair, 

 beard, skin, etc., at time when seen by the correspondent ; age at 

 which father and mother died, and of grandfather and grand- 

 mother, whenever possible. 



These blanks were sent to the representatives of the paper in 

 all parts of New England, accompanied by a letter of explanation 

 which cautioned them to be accurate rather than enterprising. 

 More than three thousand five hundred of these blanks were filled 

 out and returned in the course of two months, and the story that 

 they tell I will try to give in outline. 



Every county in Massachusetts, and nearly every county in 

 the whole of New England, is represented in these returned blanks. 

 Some of these old people live on the sea-coast, some on the low- 

 lands of the Connecticut and its tributaries, some among the 

 Berkshire Hills, White and Green Mountains, some upon the 

 sands of Cape Cod, some among the pine-woods of Maine, and oth- 

 ers in the manufacturing cities and towns. The canvass has not, 

 of course, been complete, but it has been as complete in the cities 

 as in the towns and on the farms, as complete in one section as in 

 another, as complete among one class as among another. If these 

 three thousand five hundred instances prove anything — and I 

 think no one will dispute that they do — many of the commonly 

 accepted theories would be overturned, and strange facts take 

 their places. 



In looking through these blanks, the first thing noticeable is 

 that few of New England's old people have remained unmarried 

 throughout life, the total being less than five per cent. The ratio of 

 immarried women to unmarried men is about three to one, and, tak- 

 ing married and single together, the women exceed the men by 251. 

 In Massachusetts the list shows that the women exceed the men 

 by 450 ; in the other States the men exceed the women. The 

 great majority of both men and women have been married only 

 once, usually in early life. The average number of children as a 



