That the life of a Chelsea pensioner, who is presumed to worn out soldier, should be better than that of the most provident class of labourers, may seem startling at first ; but it must be observed that this is only after the age of 40 ; and the explanation of this circum stance hangs upon another which it is essential to notice.
Let us compare the relative lives of the young and old in the different tables; that [is, for instance, dividing the life of a person aged 20 into 1000 parts, we ask how many such parts there are found in the life of GO. Ranging the results in order of magnitude, we find that, the life of 20 being 1000 in every table, the life of 60 is as follows:— To show that this distribution does not arise from the method of forming the tables, we have put the comma after all symbols of tables formed from buriabres,isters (except the Carlisle, which has been in every point too carefully corrected to allow it to rank in method of formation with the rest) and subject to errors of population, and the colon after those tables which have been formed in such a manner that no errors of the preceding kind can appear. It will then readily be seen, as a general result, that old life is relatively longest in those tables in which life in general is absolutely shortest, and that tablea, formed from female life exclusively hold a mean rank. We have observed the same thing in many other tables, and we think a general explanation can be given. It is well known that the admirers of nature (many of them, at least) formerly included savage life in their panfieqrics, and contrasted the uniform good shape and activity of many will tribes with the frequent deformity and debility of the civilised man : this opinion however has declined since it was remarked that such uniformity of strength was probably a consequence of its being impossible for a disabled or weakened individual to subsist where the highest strength and activity are required to procure common necessaries. Something of the same sort seems to take place with regard to mortality: where the predisposing causes of death are strong and inadequately met, the weaker constitutions swell the tables of mortality at the younger ages, leaving a relatively stronger class to face the chances of more advanced life. Thus in the case of a disabled soldier, lie who can last to 60 is half as good, in point of duration, as he was at 20; while the insurer in the Equitable ie only one-third as good relatively, and absolutely not nearly so good as the former.
It is sufficiently obvious that female life is better than male,from every comparison of the preceding tables, and almost at every age. To compare these durations, let us suppose ten individuals at every ago in r and t, n and r, a and g. if we then take the united amounts of their average lives from 15 to 85, we find that, one age with another, and for equal numbers of males and females similarly distributed, For 1000 years of( William's Tontine a of female male life there Chester Tables . 1112 e.
are in the Government Tables 1163 There appears then to have been a slight increase in the comparative goodness of female life : from which those who admit it must conclude that improved medical science and greater accessibility of comforts lengthen the life of females more than that of males. At any rate the other extreme is tolerably well prOved by foreign tables, Belgian and Swedish (we have none in this country to settle the point), namely, that when the lives of women are employed in laborious occupations in the open air, they are materially shortened iu duration. In Belgium the lives of women living in the country aro, on the whole population in the country (mostly labourers, of course), shorter than those of men ; while in the towns they are longer, the proportion above-mentiontal being that of 1000 to 1071.
On the mortality of the infant periods of life there is but little information. All tables, except the Government Annuitants, unite in showing that the value of life improves up to a period which differs in different tables ; being six years of age in the Northampton Table, and five in the Carlisle. With respect to the Government Table it must be observed, that the numbers in the first years of life are small, and also that all the lives are selected. If then it be more easy to select the best lives from among infants than from among grown people, the anomaly of these tables is explained ; and the explanation is not difficult to admit, if we remember that the selection is made in most cases by the relations of the party selected, who are perfectly aware lash of the state of health of the infant (generally more marked that that of a grown person) and the longevity of its ancestors.