98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



considerable degree to amount of labor, to irregularity, or in any 

 degree whatever to care — supposed to be so deadly in its effect — 

 or to want of nourishing food, 



I doubt also if any well-informed person will claim that sani- 

 tary conditions have any influence, certainly not if he knows as 

 much as I do of the conditions under which the bulk of these peo- 

 ple whom we are considering live. 



Very few instances are given where occupations were changed 

 except in the cases of the mariners, who have mostly become 

 farmers in a small way. The life of nearly all these people has 

 been what is usually considered a monotonous one, with regular 

 hours of steady labor and moderately sure returns. Few appear 

 to have taken many risks in life, and while most of them have 

 carried more than the average New-Englander's share of mental 

 and physical burdens, these burdens have been so evenly distrib- 

 uted throughout life that the strain has not been jerky. Surely 

 the housewife has more cares than the woman who works in a 

 shop or as a house-servant, and yet her cares are so similar day 

 after day and year after year that they become easy to bear. So 

 also with the farmer compared with the clerk or mill-hand. Few 

 in all the list have been either more or less than moderately suc- 

 cessful — successful above the average, to be sure, but they have 

 achieved neither notoriety nor wealth. They have, in fact, been 

 placed above the wasting worry of want, and have, on the other 

 hand, escaped the softening of the tissues and aimlessness of 

 purpose that generally accompany wealth easily and rapidly 

 obtained. 



I have alluded to the fact that in the subjects of the census the 

 complexion in most instances is light. While this may be due to 

 the northern origin of the majority of New England people, and 

 have no special bearing upon the subject of longevity, it may pos- 

 sibly be very important as showing the effect of temperament 

 upon the length of life. That the sanguine temperament pre- 

 dominates in these people is undoubtedly a fact, and it appears 

 that the sanguine-nervous (judged from complexion, color of the 

 eyes, and general build) is most common. In theory, certainly, 

 this temperament is that which would most conduce to longevity. 

 Other facts, of the nature of these gathered in New England, from 

 some other locality, might offset these and disprove the theory ; 

 but, until these other facts are gathered, I think the theory that 

 people with nervous-sanguine temperaments, and the two nicely 

 blended, are liable to live longer than those who possess a nerv- 

 ous-bilious or a bilious-lymphatic temperament, with either pre- 

 dominating, is strong enough to work with ; and, while it does not 

 directly teach us how to live longer, it points to something in the 

 future that means a great deal to the human race. 



