34 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



have suffered less from sickness than they did. Though no statistics 

 are available on this point, we must assume that like causes produce 

 like effects ; and if the. weaker, who would otherwise have died, have 

 been able to survive, the strong must also have been better than they 

 would otherwise have been. From the nature of the figures, also, the 

 improvement must have been among the masses, and not among a 

 select class whose figures throw up the average. The figures to be 

 affected relate to such large masses of population, that so great a 

 change in the average could not have occurred if only a small per- 

 centage of the population had improved in health. 



I should like, also, to point out that the improvement in health 

 actually recorded obviously relates to a transition stage. Many of 

 the improvements in the condition of the working-classes have only 

 taken place quite recently. They have not, therefore, affected all 

 through their existence any but the youngest lives. When the im- 

 provements have been in existence for a longer period, so that the 

 lives of all who are living must have been affected from birth by the 

 changed conditions, we may infer that even a greater gain in the 

 mean duration of life will be shown. As it is, the gain is enormous. 

 Whether it is due to better and more abundant food and clothing, to 

 better sanitation, to better knowledge of medicine, or to these and 

 other causes combined, the improvement has beyond all question taken 

 place. 



The next figures I shall refer to are those well-known ones relating 

 to the consumption of the articles which the masses consume. I copy 

 merely the figures in the " Statistical Abstract " for the years 1840 

 and 1881 : 



Quantities of the Principal Imported and Excisable Articles retained 

 for Home Consumption, per Head of the Total Population of the 

 United Kingdom. 



*Year 1878. 



