WHO SHALL INHERIT LONG LIFE? 



509 



might have had more 

 children had they 

 lived longer. 



Mothers who died 

 between forty and 

 sixty had 6.2 children 

 apiece, and we would 

 naturally expect that 

 no further increase in 

 the size of the family 

 would be found in the 

 case of mothers who 

 died at later ages. 

 But, as a matter of 

 fact, the mothers who 

 died between sixty 

 and eighty averaged 

 6.6 children apiece, 

 and the mothers who 

 lived beyond eighty 

 had average families 

 of 7.2 children. 1 



When we remember 

 that in all these cases 

 the children were born 

 before the mothers 

 had passed middle life, 

 it becomes obvious 

 that the mothers who 

 reached old age were 

 inherently more fer- 

 tile than the others. 

 There is thus some 

 correlation between 

 longevity and fecun- 

 dity. The parents who 

 lived the longest had 

 on 



the most children, 

 the average. 



But how about the 

 children? Did they, 

 too, live longer than 

 the others ? Yes, upon the average, they 

 did. 



The average duration of life of the 

 1,594 persons referred to above was 40.6 

 years. Their fathers, on the average, 

 lived 70.9 years, and their mothers 66.0 

 years. Thus the fathers and mothers, on 

 the average, lived longer than their chil- 

 dren. This is always found to be the case 



1 See "The Duration of Life," etc., by Alex- 

 ander Graham Bell. Table 17, relating to 671 

 fertile marriages of females resulting in the 

 production of 4,022 children, or 6.0 children per 

 marriage. 



THE OLDEST HUMAN BEING OE WHOSE BIRTH WE HAVE 

 AUTHENTIC RECORD 



Mrs. Ann Pouder, of Baltimore, Md., photographed on her 110th 

 birthday, in the summer of 1917. She died a few months later. 



when we deal with large numbers ; and 

 the reason is very obvious ; for, of course, 

 no fathers or mothers died in infancy or 

 childhood, whereas many of the children 

 died young. 



LONGEVITY IS AN INHERITABLE 

 CHARACTERISTIC 



Investigation shows that a larger pro- 

 portion of the children of long-lived par- 

 ents lived to be old and a smaller propor- 

 tion died young than in the case of the 

 others. 



The Hyde statistics afford conclusive 



