Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/613

Rh ages have no special relation to eminent women, but they seem to show that the advancement of civilization with the increased knowledge of hygiene and the art of living, together with the modern development of medicine and surgery, have cooperated to make it more probable that the days of woman will be prolonged to three score years and ten.

It is of interest to note that the women who have been engaged in social service, the reformers and philanthropists, were the longest lived. The average age of the artists is 66.7 years, and of the actresses 64.5 years. In addition to these, the writers, scholars, politicians and mothers all lived to an average age exceeding that for the entire group. The musicians average 58.4 years; those famous by birth, as sovereigns, mistresses, in religion and by marriage all average less than the group average.

American women of ability are noticeably longer lived than those of any other nation. While this average results in part from the fact that we are a young nation and hence our figures are not affected by early deaths in remoter centuries, it also speaks well for the physical vigor of American women, for our respect for sanitation, and for the skill of American physicians and surgeons. In addition to the American women of eminence, those of Scotland, Germany, Austria and England have lived to more than 60.8 years, the average for the entire group. The women of the Byzantine Empire, of France, Sweden, Holland, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Russia and Borne have failed to attain this average.

Sixty-two, or 7 per cent., of the eminent women of history are known to have suffered violent or unnatural deaths. This bloody chapter began with the tragic death of the Roman girl, Lucretia, in the sixth century before Christ and nineteen centuries are represented in the record. Nineteen of these sixty-two women were Romans; France contributed eight, leading the modern nations in this respect. Sovereigns, or the wives of sovereigns, have been the most frequent victims.

Seventy-two, or 33.1 per cent., of the 217 fathers of the eminent women regarding whom we have been able to collect information, belonged to the so-called learned professions—medicine, teaching, law and the ministry. Our figures tend to show that an eminent daughter has been more apt than not to become distinguished in a line of work similar to that of her father. For example, in the case of sixteen fathers who were musicians, nine of their daughters who achieved fame were also musicians, and two were in the closely related field of acting. Of fifteen fathers who were literary men, fourteen of their eminent daughters were also writers. In considering the similarity of occupation between eminent daughter and father, women of aristocratic extraction have been excluded.

Regarding the cases of relationship that were found to exist