Human Longevity. 51 



time of the computation, there were, in the part of Italy 

 comprised between the Apennines and the Po, 124 individuals 

 aged 100 years and upwards, viz. 54 of 100 years, 57 of 110, 

 2 of 125, 4 of 130, 4 of 135 to 137, and 3 of 140. At Parma, 

 a man was living aged 120, and 2 aged 130; at Faenza, a 

 female aged 132; and at a small town near Platentia, called 

 Velleiacium, lived 6 persons aged 110 years each, and 4 of 

 120. These estimates, however, do not accord with those of 

 Ulpian, who seems to have taken especial care to become 

 acquainted with the facts of the case. His researches prove 

 that the expectation of life in Rome, at that time, was much 

 less than it now is in London, or in any of our cities. Hufe- 

 land, indeed, in his Macrobiotics, asserts that the tables of 

 Ulpian agree perfectly with those afforded by the great cities 

 of Europe, and that they exhibit the probabilities of life in 

 ancient Rome to have been the same as those of modern Lon- 

 don. But Dr. F. Bisset Hawkins, in his Elements of Me- 

 dical Statistics (London 1829), says that the tables, kepi by 

 the censors for 1000 years, and constituting registers of pop- 

 ulation, sex, age, disease, &c., according to Ulpian, (who 

 was a lawyer, and a minister of Alexander Severus,) refer only 

 to free citizens, and that, to draw a just comparison between 

 Rome and London, it would be necessary to take, among the 

 inhabitants of the latter city, only those who were similarly 

 circumstanced, viz. those whose condition is easy ; in which 

 case, the balance would be greatly in favor of modern times. 

 Mr. Finlayson has ascertained, from very extensive observa- 

 tion on the decrement of life prevailing among the nominees 

 of the Tontines, and other life annuities, granted by the au- 

 thority of parliament, during the last 40 years, that the 

 expectation of life is above 50 years for persons thus situated, 

 which affords the easy classes of England a superiority of 20 

 years above even the easy classes among the Romans. The 

 mean term of life among the easy classes of Paris is, at 

 present, 42 years, which gives them an advantage of 12 years 

 above the Romans. In the third century of the Christian era, 

 the expectation of life in Rome was as follows : From birth 

 to 20, there was a probability of 30 years ; from 20 to 25, of 

 28 years; from 25 to 30, 25 years ; from 30 to 35, 22 years; 

 from 35 to 40, 20 years ; from 40 to 45, 18 years ; from 45 to 

 50, 13 years ; from 50 to 55, 9 years ; from 55 to 60, 7 years ; 

 from 60 to 65, 5 years. Farther than this the computation 

 did not extend. The census taken from time to time in Eng- 

 land affords us information of an unquestionable character. 

 The first actual enumeration of the inhabitants was made in 



