AN ESSA Y ON LONGEVITY. 77 



bered, and we can comprehend that by the removal 

 of generative glands no advantage as to longevity- 

 would accrue to the organism, but perhaps great 

 injury, whilst the abeyance of normal functions will 

 equally not prevent that nutrition of the organs and 

 their growth, which is a great part of the tax of 

 generative expenditure. At the same time, both cas- 

 trated organisms, and those restrained from the sexual 

 act, gain in the possible absence of nervous excite- 

 ment, which has ' a relatively enormous costliness,' ^ 

 and by not losing the simple weight of the emitted 

 generative product. It does not appear from facts, 

 that castrated animals are longer-lived than those 

 normal, neither amongst men nor lower animals, 

 nor that celibates, male or female, among either men ^ 

 ' or lower animals, have a large if any advantage. 



Passing on to personal expenditure, we find more 

 numerous facts in the list to support our deductions. 

 Aquatic animals, generally, have less personal expen- 

 diture than terrestrial animals ; they are supported 

 in the water, the temperature fluctuates little, their 



' Spencer. 



' It is exceedingly difficult to make estimation as to male celibates ; 

 the unmnrried have a considerably higher death-rate at ages below fifty 

 among males than the married, but there are not statistics to shew that 

 of the numbers surviving there is a less expectation of life than among 

 the married, or widowers. It is impossible to be assured of the strict 

 abstinence of any group of men. Amongst women the oldest are widows, 

 but the relative ages of marriage of males and females, and the numbers 

 of married and unmarried affect these numbers vastly, and their influence 

 cannot yet be eliminated. 



