Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/643

Rh soon take the numerical lead, and they maintain it with almost steadily increasing ratio to the end. It is also to be learned from the analysis of the tables that the elasticity of the thorax, as evinced by the condition of the costal cartilages, and its capacity for dilatation during inspiration, is better preserved in women than in men. In the matter of the arcus senilis, also, the woman has the advantage; but in the condition of the arterial system, much difference is not shown.

Of the 36 women, 26 had been married, and 11 had large families; and it may be some consolation to young mothers and their friends to find that 8 of the 26 married before they were twenty—1 at sixteen and 2 at seventeen. The dangers, happily diminishing, which are incidental to child-bearing, must not be forgotten; but, irrespective of these, the process itself and the attendants thereon do not seem to militate against longevity. Indeed, the capacity for the full exercise of this, like that of the other normal functions, is one of the qualities in those who have the other requisites for attaining to great age. One only of the married women was childless; but neither the age at which she was married nor the duration of her married life are given.

It might be anticipated, indeed, from the matrimonial tendency, and the prolific quality evinced by the tables, the average number of children born to each, whether male or female, being 6, that there would be, through inheritance, a gradual increase in the centenarian breed; and it is probable that this is the case, and that the duration of life is, from this and other favoring causes, gradually being extended. The life-period of the children we have no means of determining with accuracy, the returns being, from various causes, imperfect; but we may safely accredit them with, at least, an average longevity. It is, moreover, a point of some interest that many of the centenarians were members of large families, averaging, indeed, 7 or 8; those designated as "only children" being limited to 2. Of the 52, 41 had been married, and 11, of whom 10 were women, had remained single; but we can not from this draw any inference as to influence of matrimony upon longevity. Possibly something may be gleaned from the analysis of the numerous reports I have received of persons between eighty and one hundred.

The fact that 12 of the centenarians were "first children" does not accord with the idea entertained by some persons that first children are at a physical disadvantage. The generally prevalent custom of inheritance by the first-born, and the Mosaic injunction (Exodus xii,2), "Sanctify unto me all the first-born; whatsoever opened the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast, it is mine," are also scarcely in harmony with such a view. Nevertheless, some confirmation of the view is furnished by the feeling on this matter, founded, it may be presumed, on experience in racing-stables, which, I have been informed, is not in favor of firstlings. In the case of one of our centenarians, the parents were first cousins.