122 HUMAN LONGEVITY. 



Q 



races of this species are all related by common conditions of 

 reproduction, of structure and functions of the skeleton and 

 internal organs, and of the aliment appropriate to growth 

 and maintenance. To these varieties thus far identified in 

 character and origin, our present question of comparative 

 longevity applies. Without referring to those several divi- 

 sions into races, which historians or ethnologists have adopted, 

 we may at once take the extreme instances of the Negro and 

 of the people of Northern and Central Europe, as including 

 all intermediate cases. And here again, as in the question 

 regarding the comparative longevity at different periods of 

 time, we are led to the conclusion of that general parity, 

 which the conditions just noted might lead us to expect. 

 We cannot, indeed, go for facts to parish registers of Bornou, 

 or to Statistical Societies of Soudan ; but from the registries 

 of our West Indian Islands, and from the decennial census 

 of the United States, we obtain information bearing closely 

 on the question before us. We must not say deciding it ; 

 since the results, if indeed certain, would show a very sin- 

 gular superiority in length of Negro life over that of Euro- 

 pean origin. In 1840, for instance, when the population of 

 the United States was about 17 millions, of which 2-J mil- 

 lions in round numbers were negroes, the Census gave 791 

 as the number of whites above 100; while of slaves the 

 number of those above 100 is registered as 1,333; of free 

 negroes as 647. In 1855, we find from the Census, that 43 

 persons died in the United States above 100 ; the oldest white 

 male at 110, the oldest white female 109; the oldest negro 

 man 130, the oldest negro woman 120, both slaves.* From 



* While correcting this sheet for the press, we see in an American paper the 

 statement of the death, at Kummerville, in Virginia, of Mr. Craft, a servant of 

 Washington in the war of 1756, at the age of 128 years; leaving two sons 

 living, the youngest 97 years old. Other instances of great longevity are noted 

 in the same family. 



