July 6, 191 6] 



NATURE 



3«3 



great advantage would accrue from co-ordination 

 and centralisation, and that the founding of such 

 a society is only the just due of the importance of 

 Russian botany "in view of the eminent position 

 which Russia is destined to occupy after the war." 



But side by side with these special activities, 

 which are the direct outcome of the quickening 

 of the nation's pulse, there is, as in normal times, 

 a great amount of quiet, unobtrusive research in 

 the domains of biological and physical science. 

 Though there may be no epoch-making discovery 

 to record, there is scarcely a field of mental 

 activity left untilled. Many a peaceful backwater 

 is being navigated undisturbed by the clash of 

 arms, and it is pleasant to read of ethnographical 

 and philological investigations, or of an exp>edition 

 to the Jablonovy Range to study the local fauna, 

 with its picturesque account of explorations in 

 stepp>es, morasses, and virgin forests. It is inter- 

 esting to note, in this connection, that there is 

 scarcely a provincial town of any importance in 

 Russia without its medical society and association 

 of local naturalists, or, as the charming Russian 

 idiom has it, "lovers of nature lore," true 

 amateurs in the best sense of the word and all 

 contributing their quota to the common stock. 

 Worthy of mention also are the efforts made for 

 the preservation, as far as may be possible in the 

 circumstances, of valuable treasures of art, 

 science, and archaeology in the war-zone, such 

 efforts not to be confined to the limits of the 

 Empire, but to be extended to enemy territory 

 occupied by Russia. It is pointed out that price- 

 less products of human culture may be saved if 

 timely measures be taken, and to this end the 

 service of various scientific experts has been 

 secured and the sympathetic co-operation of the 

 military staff enlisted. 



Finally, mention must be made of the decision 

 of the Imperial Academy of Sciences on the ques- 

 tion of the exclusion of alien enemies from the 

 list of honorary members. As the result of a 

 conference held in March of last year to consider 

 the matter the Academy expresses itself as loth, 

 by such exclusion, to place any obstacles in the 

 way of the resumption after the war of that inter- 

 national co-operation for the progress of science 

 which will, it foresees, play a greater part than 

 ever in the development of European civilisation, 

 "when an end has been made of those hegemo- 

 nistic strivings which, not content with the sphere 

 of politics, have invaded that of science." Truly 

 a dignified attitude, worthy of an august institu- 

 tion which can look back with just pride on well- 

 nigh two centuries of enlightened effort and solid 

 achievement. 



MORTALITY TABLES AND PREVENTIVE 

 MEDICINE. 



THE presidential address of Dr. W. W. Camp- 

 bell to the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science at its San Francisco meet- 

 ing, which was reprinted in Nature of December 2, 

 191 5 (xcvi., pp. 381-386), raised a question of 

 much interest from both the scientific and practical 

 NO. 2436, VOL. 97] 



points of view. Starting from the principle of the 

 infallible and universal obedience to law, the strict 

 accountability of effect to cause, which is the 

 property of all matter, Dr. Campbell showed that 

 the recent discoveries in preventive and curative 

 medicine are among the most valued contributions 

 to civilisation in the entire range of scientific re- 

 search. He argued that they had increased the 

 average length of life by many years, and that, 

 while that increase had been greatest for children 

 and women and those not in robust health, it had 

 also been great for those healthy men whose lives 

 have been accepted as risks to be insured by the 

 life insurance companies. He suggested that 

 during the past thirty years the increase in the 

 duration of those lives has meant a money-saving 

 far surpassing all the sums that universities, 

 research institutes, and individuals have ever 

 spent in medical investigation. In the same spirit 

 of scientific enthusiasm, Sir William Ramsay 

 said at Havre, a few days before the European 

 war broke out, that "Pasteur and Lister had 

 saved more lives than the most sanguinary of wars 

 had destroyed." 



We need not question these authoritative state- 

 ments. There is a high probability that the dura- 

 tion of human life has increased ; there is also 

 a high probability that recent progress in preven- 

 tive and curative medicine has greatly contributed 

 to that increase. But there are also other causes 

 which may have contributed to it. The extent of 

 the improvement in longevity which had taken 

 place during the nineteenth century was discussed 

 by the fourth International Congress of Actuaries 

 at New York, and a paper was read by Mr. 

 Warner, actuary of the Law L'nion Insurance 

 Company in London, in which he estimated the 

 average age at death of males in England and 

 Wales at 27' 15 in 1840, 28'35 ^^ 1870, and 33*63 

 in 1900 ; and that of females at 29*38 in 1840, 

 3088 in 1870, and 3690 in 1900 — the increase 

 during the second thirty years having been in both 

 cases more than four times that of the previous 

 thirty years. Though the data upon which these 

 estimates were founded are admitted to be imper- 

 fect, their results tend to confirm the conclusions 

 to which we have referred as highly probable. 

 The contributory causes would seem to be greater 

 care of infant life, better sanitation, temperance, 

 general prosperity leading to more abundant and 

 wholesome nutrition, and perhaps also more atten- 

 tion to athletics and ablutions. 



Dr. Campbell, indeed, says that "life assurance 

 business has been based upon mortality tables 

 which represented the expectation of life under 

 the relatively unhealthy conditions which existed 

 a half-century ago. Those tables do not fit modem 

 conditions." We agree with him that the law of 

 uniformity is the foundation of actuarial science, 

 and that given a sufficient average the rate of 

 mortality now existing may be expected to con- 

 tinue to prevail as long as circumstances remain 

 the same; but in the practical conduct of life 

 insurance that is not the only thing to be con- 

 sidered. A short sketch in broad outline of its 

 past history may serve to explain what we mean. 



