THE LONG-LIVED FIRST-BORN 
Study of 802 Cases of Longevity Shows that Eldest Sons and Daughters are 
Unexpectedly Numerous—Possible Biological Explanations—Elder 
Children Regularly Live Longer than Younger Children 
THE EDITOR 
inferiority of the first-born, no direct 
investigation has been made, so far 
as I am aware, of the number of 
long-lived people in the community 
who are eldest sons or daughters. The 
Genealogical Record Office of Wash- 
ington, D. C., has been collecting in- 
stances of longevity for several years 
and its founder and director, Dr. 
Alexander Graham Bell, has generously 
permitted me to investigate the data 
in regard to the birth-rank of the old 
people represented in his collection. 
The individuals were, in general, 
over 90 years of age, some living and 
some dead. <A few were included whose 
age was less than 90 but more than 80; 
these, however, represent a very small 
proportion of the total. Information 
about them was supplied in nearly every 
case by a near relative; in the case of 
living individuals it was often from the 
long-lived person himself. There were 
802 cases in which the individual’s 
birth-rank was stated! in some such 
form as, for example, “third of a family 
of eight ;’’ and there seems no reason to 
doubt that the information given under 
this head is accurate. 
A tabulation of the size of families 
from which these long-lived individuals 
came showed the following results: 
EF THE controversy over the alleged 
dies lnill ee pet ae erates 3, cs 16 
AA CANEUGHNE aM ae, eee 21 
SUCHALGTEMa, oe ely om tie 60 
AyGhilaneniens cach aeie oo aS 
Hrehilanene ea frre 88 
Oichildren! = toe ee 2 
VeChildnenar wae e seis 81 
Sechtldreniaes, sees eee 98 
Orehitdreny. ss ven ah 90 
1Occhildrenen* Sess ee eo 
Likehsldrers gaa 44 
APA (lati Kolyesanepinn Soak! va * 30 
USVOrMmOne. ys, Se oer 28 
It is at once evident that long-lived 
people tend to come from large families 
—a fact that has already been pointed 
out in this JouURNAL.? It must be 
remembered, however, that the families 
here tabulated date back to the early 
part of the last century, when large 
families were the rule in the United 
States. All of the individuals repre- 
sented in this study are living or died 
in the United States; many of them, 
however, were born abroad and came 
here as immigrants. 
With the size of each family and the 
individual’s place in that family given, 
it was easy to count up the number of 
individuals in each birth-rank, and then 
to calculate how many there would have 
been, if the distribution had been 
governed solely by chance, with as 
many long-lived people in one birth- 
rank as another. The results, taking 
only the families of two or more children, 
and omitting decimals in the second 
column are: 
Found Expected 
11 ete eee 2 Se 201 132 
PAS ea Ape 118 132 
(6 ie we ie ied 104 121 
Hai ease’, Chee & 95 101 
St heen .ce eee 82 82 
Otley dae: 40 65 
Tiel aly ae ee A ae 53 50 
Silas wera Seok 30 38 
Ot lasharee. Ast 22 26 
Othe 45 era =, 20 16 
DiAths tee Soe: 4 9 
IAT epee Oat ta 8 5 
US hel lng el oe a 4 3 
TAC ee eet Z 1 
IU Aopen oe, potas a 
1 This information was extracted by Miss Louise E. Lacey, secretary of the G. R. O., and I did 
not refer to the original returns. 
Thanks are due to A. W. Clime for help in tabulating. 
2“TLong Life Means Many Children,”’ in the JoURNAL oF HeEreEpITy, Vol. VII, pp. 98-100, 
March, 1916. 
395 
