Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 19.djvu/650

632 the year, and in 1876 the number had gradually risen to 17 per 1,000. So that, in spite of large cities and the greater difficulty of supporting families, the growing tendency to settled and more regular habits is exhibited in the larger number of marriages. The result is an increasing number of births in proportion to the population. In 1841, 512,158 children were born, being 32·2 per 1,000, while in 1870 the number was 887,464, or 36·6 per 1,000, which is an increase of about twenty-five per cent. The deaths, on the other hand, remained nearly stationary, being 21·6 per 1,000 in 1841 to 21·9 in 1876. The ratio of deaths to births, therefore, stood as 1 to 1·49 in 1841, while in 1876 it was as 1 to 1·74.

The preponderance of young families, however, ought to make the death-rate very much higher, as the mortality at the young ages is very large. Since it remained nearly unchanged, while the marriages and births increased, it would indicate that the average duration of life was being extended. For special localities like large cities, it is well known that sanitary measures and other causes are producing constant improvement; but there are many counteracting conditions to be considered. With an improved system of registration and more frequent enumerations of the people, data will be obtained for computing and comparing life tables at shorter intervals, and there can be no doubt that, in spite of increasing difficulties, the beneficial influences of higher civilization will be found to tend to a steady prolongation of human life.

Recurring after this digression to the experience of life-insurance companies, we will compare English Life Table No. 3 from twenty years upward with the two tables most in use, the Actuaries' Experience Table No. 1 and the American Experience Table. The percentages are given, in preference to the number of living and dying for each period: