THE CHANCES OF DEATH 87 



New England population, is: "that during the last half- 

 century longevity* in Massachusetts, and probably in 

 New England, has increased, that from 1793 to 1850 the 

 increase is less certain and from the seventeenth to the 

 eighteenth century what data we have point rather to 

 a decrease than to anything else." This result may 

 mean any one of a number of things. It may mean merely 

 inadequate and inaccurate data on which the seventeenth 

 century tables were calculated. It may mean a result of 

 less stringent selection in the makeup of the population 

 with the passage of time. In any case it applies only to 

 a small and rather homogeneous group of people. 



The changes in expectation of life from the middle 

 of the seventeenth century to the present time where the 

 records are most extensive and reliable appear to fur- 

 nish a record of a real evolutionary progression. In this 

 respect at least man has definitely and distinctively 

 changed, as a race, in a period of three and a half cen- 

 turies. This is, of course, -a matter of extraordinary 

 interest, and at once stimulates the desire to go still 

 farther back in history and see what the expectation of 

 life then was. Fortunately, through the labors of Karl 

 Pearson, and his associate, W. R. Macdonell, it is pos- 

 sible to do this, if not with precise accuracy, at least 

 to a rough first approximation. Pearson has analyzed 

 the records as to age at death which were found 

 upon mummy cases studied by Professor W. Spiegelberg. 

 These mummies belonged to a period between 1,900 

 and 2,000 years ago, when Egypt was under Roman 

 dominion. The data were extremely meagre, but from 

 Pearson'si analysis of them it has been possible to 



* Bichards somewhat loosely uses this term when he means "expectation 

 of life." 



