4 THE TONER LEKJTL'RES. 



of cases could have been largely increased. Premature failure of 

 health, and especially sudden and severe collapse are quite as likely 

 to occur in business life as in any other sphere of action, owing to 

 the protracted labors, and great anxieties and excitements attendant 

 upon pursuits involving the getting and losing of wealth. Brain 

 work and brain strain of a peculiarly destructive kind attend upon 

 the devotees of the counting-house and the exchange; but our pres- 

 ent design is to deal only with those whose vocations are in major 

 part intellectual, in the higher meaning which is given to the word 

 intellectual — the men of affairs, of books, arid of the laboratory. 



The actual occupations embraced within my study were cabinet 

 officer, 1 ; senators, 8 ; representatives in Congress, 10 ; department 

 officials, 5 ; governors, 2 ; candidates for important offices, 2 ; phy- 

 sicians, 6 ; lawyers, 7; clergymen, 2; journalists, 4 ; scientists, 6 ; 

 teachers, 7. 



Twenty-eight of the sixty, therefore, were men in political and 

 official life, and eighteen of these were members of Congress. 



The average longevity of men in the higher walks of political 

 life in this country is, I am inclined to believe, considerably below 

 the average of those who occupy similar positions in England. 

 Comparing, so far as information was available, the ages at death 

 of United States Congressmen and members of the English Parlia- 

 ment, who have died since 1860, I obtained the following results ■} 



Fifty-nine United States Senators gave an average of 61 years ; 

 one hundred and forty-six United States Eepresentatives an aver- 

 age of 55 years ; the average for both being, therefore, 58 years. 

 One hundred and twenty-one members of Parliament gave the re- 

 markable average age at death of 68 years. 



Taking twenty-five of those that might be regarded as the most 

 eminent American statesmen of the last one hundred years and 



^ The sources of information for these statistics were chiefly, as follows : 

 Lanman's Biographical Annals of the United States Civil Government ; Ben 

 Perley Poore's Eegistry of the United States Government ; the Congres- 

 sional Directories ; Foster's Collectanea Genealogica : the British Almanac 

 and Companion ; and the Statesman's Year Book. 



