I is table shews many interesting points, dis- 

 'ered by observation, as to the lives of persons 



born in England and Wales, supposing no emi- 

 gration, and no excess of births over deaths. Like 

 ratios apply to every intermediate year of life. Of 

 a certain number of children born alive, a vari- 

 able number live on to die at different ages, and 

 the survivors become fewer and fewer each suc- 

 cessive year, till all die. 104 males are born to 

 100 females, but 92 females of all ages die to 100 

 males ; thus, females live longest. To the num- 

 ber of persons living, the death-rate is highest in 

 infancy and old age. While I in 44 living at all 

 ages dies in the year on the average, i in 6 dies in 

 first year of age (i in 3 a century ago). Above 

 half the children of the working classes, but only 

 a fifth of those of the upper classes, die before the 

 age of 5. The higher ranks rear proportionally 

 more of their children than the lower ; and thus 

 the former include proportionally more feeble 

 youths and adults. I in 14 of all children under 

 the age of 5 dies yearly, and i in 7 died a century 

 ago. The death-rate declines from birth to the 

 age of 13, when it is only i in 204 of the living, 

 the least for any age, and little above a fifth of the 

 mean for all ages. It is much less for the quin- 

 quennial period 11-15 than for any other. It then 

 gradually increases to the age of 55, when i in 43 

 living dies. By this time the generation has 

 reared the next to replace it. After this, the 

 death-rate rapidly increases, and more than 

 doubles every ten years. At the ages 65 to 75, it 

 equals that in infancy, and after 75 it is greater. 

 The death-rate remains under the mean for all 

 ages between 5 and 55. Females of all ages have 

 a better chance of living, or have a longer after- 

 lifetime than males. Even the dangers of child- 

 bearing are less than those incident to males of 

 like ages in common life. 



The following table shews the mean annual 

 mortality in 100 living of males and females of all 

 ages, and of 12 different ages in England and 

 Wales, 1838-71 : 



SOCIAL STATISTICS. 



Ages. 

 All 



Males. 



a-33 



7-26 



87 



49 

 78 

 99 

 1-3 



Females. 



2-15 



6-27 



85 



50 



80 



I-OI 



1-33 



Ages. 

 45 

 55 

 65 



. 



95 &c. 



Males. 

 1-85 

 3-20 



6-71 

 14-71 

 30-55 



44-11 



Females. 



1-56 



2-80 



5-89 



13-43 



27-95 



43-04 



This table has been deduced from the registered 

 deaths during these years, compared with the 

 numbers and ages of the population at the censuses. 

 It shews that more males than females die before 

 the age of 1 5, and after that of 35, but the most 

 females die between these ages. 



The expectation of life, or mean after-lifetime 

 of males at birth in England, is 39-9 years, and 

 of females 41-8. It is highest at the age of 5 

 (49-7 years in males, and 50-3 in females) ; and at 

 this age, and for some years before and after, it is 

 higher than at birth. The expectation of life 

 varies in different counties and cities ; in London, 

 at birth, it is 27 years. The great majority of the 

 people have only two-fifths of the years attained 

 by those in good conditions of life. 



Longevity. Human beings in favourable con- 

 ditions live, in a few cases, even 100 years and 

 more. In England and Wales, in 1861-71, an 

 annual average of 21 males and 57 females were 



registered as having died at ages of 100 to 109 ; 

 but registrars have no authority nor time to in- 

 vestigate the truth or not of these great ages. 

 Mr W. J. Thorns found only 4 cases proved in 30 

 of alleged centenarianism. The greatest age at 

 death, on documentary evidence, of any life 

 insured in this country was 103. There is no 

 satisfactory proof of the alleged higher ages, 

 as 130 or 150, at death of individuals in recent 

 times. 



Mortality, Rank, and Occupation. Observation 

 shews that at the age of 30, the expectation of life 

 of a clergyman is 35 years ; of an agriculturist, 

 40 ; of a sovereign, 22 or 23. The average reign 

 of sovereigns is as the expectancy of life at their 

 succession. Their mean age at succession is 

 higher, and their reigns longer, if elective than if 

 hereditary. As a class, sovereigns are short-lived, 

 but they have lived longer and longer since the 1 3th 

 century. On the average, 38 German sovereigns 

 have reigned 19 years ; 41 Swedish, 18 ; 50 

 Russian, 15 ; and 35 English, 22 ; their mean age 

 at succession being 30 years. Of 156 popes, 800 

 -1823, each reigned on the average 6-5 years. 

 Of 675 English peers, the mean age at succession 

 was 30 years, and the mean duration of their 

 peerages 26 years. 



In the higher ranks, life is shortened by self- 

 indulgence and want of healthy mental and bodily 

 exertion. Of 53 English sovereigns, only 3 have 

 lived beyond the age of 70 ; they died at the 

 average age of 53, or n years under the present 

 expectancy of life of English adults at the age 

 of 30, the mean age at succession of English sover-' 

 eigns ; 20 of them died by violence, and only I of 

 old age. 



In England, 1839-41, out of 25,000 deaths in 

 certain towns and counties, among the gentry and 

 professional persons, i in 3-5 died under the age 

 of 20, i in 4 of the ages of 20 to 60, and i in 2-2 

 above the age of 60 ; among farmers, tradesmen, 

 &c. i in 2, i in 3-5, I in 5 at these ages ; and 

 among agricultural labourers, artisans, and ser- 

 vants, i in 1-5, i in 4, and I in 8. The deaths 

 were chiefly at the ages 34 to 52 among the gentry 

 and professional men ; at the ages 22 to 48 among 

 farmers and tradesmen ; and ages 15 to 34 

 among labourers, artisans, and servants. 



The comparative healthiness of occupations 

 among the lower ranks in London is given by 

 Dr Letheby for 1855-56, the mortality being in 

 the direct ratio of the confinement and roughness 

 of the work. At and above the age of 20, the 

 mortality of males of all ranks was I in 44 living ; 

 butchers, fishmongers, poulterers, shopkeepers, 

 merchants, I in 62 to I in 66 ; tailors, weavers, 

 shoemakers, printers, compositors, I in 43 to I in 

 50 ; wine-dealers, publicans, waiters, porters, 

 messengers, I in 38 to I in 41 ; blacksmiths, gas- 

 fitters, painters, glaziers, dyers, bargemen, water- 

 men, i in 33 to i in 36 ; cabmen, draymen, 

 hostlers, carmen, stable-keepers, I in 32 ; clerks, 

 needle-women, i in 28 to I in 29 ; hard-working 

 carpenters, masons, labourers, i in 22 to i in 23. 

 Again, in London, adult males in general die at 

 the mean age of 51 ; merchants, shopkeepers, 

 domestic servants, at 57; butchers, poulterers, fish- 

 mongers, at 53 ; painters, dyers, costermongers, 

 hawkers, bargemen, watermen, at 48 or 49 ; printers, 

 compositors, at 45 ; bakers, confectioners, at 42. 

 Most adults of other classes live to the ages of 50, 



533 



