1875.] Longevity of Brain-Workers. 439 
been questioned. In poetry and in science, the idea has 
been variously incorporated that early brilliancy is a sure 
indication of a feeble constitution and an early death. This 
view is apparently sustained by analogy, and by facts of 
observation. Plants that are soon to bloom are soon to 
fade ; those which grow slowly live long and decline slowly. 
Observing these facts, we naturally adhere to the opinion 
that the same principle should hold good as regards men, 
but in making the analogy we forget that it loses its force, 
unless the objects implicated start in life with the same 
potential force and are surrounded by the same external 
conditions. It is probable that, of two individuals with pre- 
cisely similar organisations and under similar circumstances, 
the one that develops earlier will be the first to die; but we 
are not born equally endowed and similarly circumstanced. 
Not only are men unlike in organisation, but they are very 
widely unlike; between the brain of Shakspeare and the 
brain of an idiot is a measureless gulf, and we may believe 
that difference of degrees may be found between the greatest 
and simply great men. We may believe that some are 
born with far more potential nervous force than others. 
They are millionaires in intelleét as well as in money, who 
can afford to expend enormous means without becoming 
impoverished. An outlay of one hundred dollars may ruin 
the mechanic working for his daily wages, while the royal 
merchant may spend a thousand, and barely knowit. There 
are those who can begin their life-work earlier, toil harder 
and longer, than the average, and yet attain a very great 
age. The average age of 500 illustrious men, including 
those who did not exhibit any special precocity, was about 
64°20. Of these 500 individuals, among whom there were 
25 women, 150 were decidedly precocious, and their average 
age was 66°50, or more than two years higher than that of 
the list of 500, that included the precocious and non-pre- 
cocious. So farasI could ascertain, the instances of extra- 
ordinary longevity were as great among the precocious as 
among those who were not.* My investigations in this 
department fully confirm the remark of Wieland, that “an 
almost irresistible impulse to the art in which they are 
* A contributor to the ‘‘ Galaxy” for August (G. W. Winterburn) thus dis- 
courses concerning musical prodigies. Investigating the*records of the past 
two centuries, he finds 213 recorded cases of acknowledged prodigies. None 
of them died before their 15th year, some attained the age of 103—and the 
average duration of life was 58—showing that with all their abnormal preco- 
city, they exceeded the ordinary longevity by about 6 per cent. Those who 
died before the age of 21 were, without exception, musicians of the very high- 
est order. 
VOL. VI. (N.S.) 3K 
