136 ERRORS REGARDING THE DURATION OF LIFE. 



Carlisle table, seven years ; according to the English 

 life-table, five years ; while what we call the American 

 life-table falls short twenty-two years. I am satisfied 

 that the Wigglesworth table is founded on the same prin- 

 ciple as the English tables, but the increase of population 

 is so much greater in Massachusetts than in England that 

 in Massachusetts, if we go back to the year 1800, we 

 have to multiply by four to get the population of 1880 ; 

 while in England if we go back to 1800, to get the pop- 

 ulation of 1880, we have to multiply by two only. In get- 

 ting the number who live to seventy and upwards we go 

 back from seventy to one hundred years. The popula- 

 tion of the state at that time was very small. Massachu- 

 setts was in her infancy. Massachusetts should have a 

 life-table based on the vital statistics of Massachusetts. 

 We spend money enough every year to have one. It is 

 a disgrace to the state to have such a table as Wiggles- 

 worth's which has the sanction of the Supreme Court of 

 Massachusetts, and is used by them and by other courts 

 of the country in ascertaining the value of life estates, 

 widows' dowers, annuities, etc. Of the 700,167 added 

 to the state from 1865 to 1875, eleven years, there were 

 315,286 deaths ; there were 113,424 under five years of 

 age, which was thirty-six per cent; 43,413 that lived to 

 be seventy and upwards. These deaths under five were 

 taken from a birth rate of thirty-nine thousand per year. 

 The number that lived to be seventy and upwards were 

 taken from a birth rate of ten thousand per year. To the 

 700,167 added to the state we stop adding any more 

 births; we take the years 1876, '77, '78, '79. After we 

 find the number of deaths under five years for the four 

 years, we add them to the 113,424, which makes 123,260 ; 

 this number is all the deaths under five of the 700,167, 

 which makes seventeen and two-thirds per cent. A num- 



