124 EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS. 



Strange question of the permanence and domination 

 of races in various regions of the earth which the 

 facts of colonization are bringing into view at the 

 present day. We have before given reasons for 

 not looking for permanency of peculiarities in such 

 characters as longevity in the races of mankind. Sir 

 Charles Dilke, in his admirable sketch 'Greater 

 Britain,' notes the disappearance of the Anglo-Saxon 

 element and character in the Eastern United States, 

 not only by the influx of Irish and German ele- 

 ments (both of which races are reputed shorter - 

 lived than the Anglo - Saxon), but by a direct 

 influence of the locality — an unfitness of the soil 

 to the plant — which involves either the death or 

 the modification of the latter. Moreover, the im- 

 migration of short-lived and unhealthy classes, and 

 the extraordinary intensity of life, implying rapid 

 expenditure — which has become a thoroughly Ame- 

 rican characteristic, whether from climatic or social 

 influences, or both — must greatly diminish Ame- 

 rican longevity. To use their own expressive phrase, 

 they are a ' go-a-head ' people, and the early ageing 

 of both male and female inhabitants of the States 

 is an example of an individual tendency to travel 

 fast as regards age, which is strictly dependent on, 

 or correlated with, their activity. It is not unlikely 

 that the small longevity of Americans — if it be a 

 real phenomenon — is a transient attribute of the 

 population, which, with other characteristics, will be 



