8. Deaths.—The number of deaths registered in England in 1871 was 514,879, of which 265,563, or 51.6 per cent. were males, and 249,316, or 48.4 per cent. were females. From the census returns of 1871. the male mortality rate in the first five years of life is shown to have been 71.7 per 1000, the female 62.4; at ages five and under ten, these rates were respectively 8.3 and 7.5; at ten to fifteen, when the rates are at their lowest, the male is 4.4, the female 4.5 per 1000; at 15 to 25, the rates are nearly equal, being 7.7 and 7.4; from 25 years of age, both male and female rates increase to the end of life, male being invariably the highest. With regard to cases of reputed centenarianism, the registrar-general points out that while many are recorded, he has as a general rule " no alternative but to tell the tale as it is told to him;" but he notices a case, that of Jacob William Luning, whose death in 1870, at the age of 103, was proved to his, the reg istrar-general's satisfaction, by documentary evidence. He adds that it is noteworthy that the experience of life assurance societies in this country gives hut one example of an insured life completing its hundredth year, and that is the one of Luning. Nearly 13 millions of the population of England live in what are called the town diStriets, and the death-rate among these in 1871 was 25. per 1000. somewhat above the annual aver-' age; among the remaining ten millions inhabiting the villages and rural districts, the rate was 19.5, being somewhat below the average. "For general purposes," says the report, "this comparison may be taken as giving a fair idea of the relative advantagef, as regards the duration of life, which a residence in the country confers over one in town; bearing in mind, of course, that there are special causes of unhealthiness •in sonic country-places, and that the towns themselves have a wide range of death-rate." When any year is especially healthful, the fact tells most in favor of female life. The highest mortality rate during the 25 years 1838-62, both male' and feniale, occurs in the cholera year 1849, 'the second highest in the famide year 1847, and the third highest in the cholera year 1854. For the three years 1854-56, it will be found that the mean male mortality is almost exactly that of the 25 years given, while the female rate is actually slightly (.006 per cent) less. With regard, then, to the cholera visitation of 1854 at least, it may be held that the victims must have been generally those of diseased or de bilitated constitution, who, had there been no cholera, would in course of the next year or so have died from some other cause. It is a curious fact in the experience of assur ance offices, that while female annuitants are longer lived than male, female assured lives are no better. This fact doubtless arises from the critical periods incident to female life, and to the selection exercised by the public against the offices.
In 1871, the Scotch married-rate was 14.2 per 1000, the birth-rate 34.5, and the death rate 22.2; the marriage-rate was nearly 2.5 per 1000 below that of England, the birth rates were almost identical, and the death-rate was .4 per 1000 lower in Scotland. The registered rates of persons married, of birth, and of death in Ireland in 1871, were 10.7, 28.1, and 16.5 per 1000 respectively—" these rates," says the report, "differ so widely from those of England and Scotland as to show either that registration in Ireland is extremely defective, or that the constitution or the circumstances of the population is altogether different from that of Great Britain." In vol. viii. (fdr 1860) of the Assurance Magazine will be found an interesting paper, by Mr. Samuel Brown, F.S.S., Mortality amongst American Assured Lives." We extract the following table, showing the See also, on the subject of American mortality, the Report of the Mittual Life Assurance Company of New York, for fifteen years ending Feb. 1, 1858 (New York, Nov.1859).
Influence of Occupatton.—Tlie interesting question of the influence of different trades,
occupations and habits of life on health and mortality, will be found ably treated in Mr. A. G. Finlaison's Report on Friendly Societies, with accompanying tables and returns, printed by order of the house of commons, Aug. 16, 1853; in Mr. Neison's work on Vital Statistics (Lund. 1853); and in Mr. H. Ratcliffe's Observation of Rate of Mortality and Sickness existing among Friendly Societies (Manchester, 1850). From Mr. Finlaison, we give the following table, showing the • Among the mariners, a strong contrast is found to prevail between the sickness and mortality rates, the former being low while the latter is high. The same fact is found among painters. •"The practical difference in the distribution of sickness," says Mr. Finlaison, "seems to turn upon the amount of the expenditure of physical force. This is no new thing, for in all ages the enervation and decrepitude of the bodily frame has been observed to follow a prodigal waste of the mental or corporeal energies. But it has been nowhere previously established upon recorded experience that the quantum of sickness annually falling to the lot of man is in direct proportion to the demands upon his muscular power. So it would seem to be, however."—Report, p. 211.
The following is from Mr. Finlaison's Digest of Returns: It thus appears that at the early period of life, age 20, the following trades, placed according to their expectation, show an inferior expectation in comparicon with the general results of rural, town, and city districts combined: clerks, potters. letterpress printers, bricklayers, blacksmiths, mill operatives, plumbers, stone-masons, miners, wool-combers,coopers, hatters, spinners,tailors, dyers. sawyers, millwrights, town and city laborers, and shoemakers. The following trades show a superior expectation: wheel wrights, butchers, bakers, weavers, domestic servants, carpenters, and rural laborers.
At the last period given in the table, bricklayers, tailors, mill operatives. printers, clerks, spinners, miners, plumbers, hatters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, wool-combers, coopers, and sawyers show an inferior expectation; and dyers, town laborers, mill wrights, potters, wheelwrights, bakers, stone-masons, domestic servants, butchers, wea vers, rural laborers, and carpenters show a superior expectation in comparison with the general results.
The comparative healthiness of various occupations among the lower ranks in London is given by Dr. Letheby for the years 1855-56; and another view of the healthi ness or unhealthiness of industrial occupations as regards England generally, is given by Dr. Parr from the mortality of males at and above the age of 20 following different industrial occupations, in 1851, as compared with the number of persons enumerated in them at the census of that year. While the general annual rate of mortality in Eng land, in 1851, of 1000 males at and above the age of 20, was 20, that of farmers was 28; shoemakers, 18; weavers, 17; grocers, 11; blacksmiths, 18; carpenters, 19; tailors, 19; laborers, 21; miners, 15; bakers, 17; butchers, 21; innkeepers, 30. Taking into account the ages at death, the farmers were the longest livers. Laborers, who form nearly a fourth of the males of England, had a general mortality almost the same as that of the general population, but a very high mortality at great ages. At any one decade of life, the mortality of inn and beer-shop keepers exceeds that of all the other classes, except the butchers, at age 55-65. The mortality of butchers was much heavier than that of any other class, except that of innkeepers, under the age of 65; this fact is supposed to be owing to intemperance, slaughter-house effluvia, and the use of too much animal and too little vegetable food. All occupations have their peculiar dangers which counter balauce each other ; thus the tailor is not exposed to the explosions so fatal to the miner, and the laborer has exercise denied to the tailor.