In America little attention and labour appear to have been bestowed in any of the rural districts on general land drainage. Yet nature inflicts terrible punishment for the neglect of the appointed and visible warnings and actual premonitory scourges, amongst which are the mosquitoes and the tribes of insects that only breed in stagnant water and live in its noxious exhalations. The cleansing and the general sanitary condition of the American towns appear to be lower than in England or Scotland, whilst the heat there at times is greater and decomposition more active; pestilence in the shape of yellow fever, ague, and influenza is there more rife, the deaths in proportion to the population more numerous, and the average age of death (so far as there is information) amongst the resident population much lower.
| Years. | Months. | |
|---|---|---|
| The average age of the whole of the living population in America, so far as it can be deduced from the returns at the periods given in the census, is only | 22 | 2 |
Notwithstanding the earlier marriages, and the extent of emigration, and the general increase of the population, the whole circumstances appear to me to prove this to be the case of a population depressed to this low age chiefly by the greater proportionate pressure of the causes of disease and premature mortality. The proportionate numbers at each interval of age in every 10,000 of the two populations are as follows:—
| United States of America. | England and Wales. | |
|---|---|---|
| Under 5 years | 1744 | 1324 |
| 5 and under 10 | 1417 | 1197 |
| 10 and under 15 | 1210 | 1089 |
| 15 and under 20 | 1091 | 997 |
| 20 and under 30 | 1816 | 1780 |
| 30 and under 40 | 1160 | 1289 |
| 40 and under 50 | 732 | 959 |
| 50 and under 60 | 436 | 645 |
| 60 and under 70 | 245 | 440 |
| 70 and under 80 | 113 | 216 |
| 80 and under 90 | 32 | 59 |
| 90 and upwards | 4 | 5 |
| 10,000 | 10,000 | |
| Average age of all the living | 22 years 2 months | 26 years 7 months. |
Here it may be observed, that whilst in England there are 5025 persons between 15 and 50 who have 3610 children or persons under 15; in America there are 4789 persons living between 15 and 50 years of age who have 4371 children dependent upon them. In England there are in every ten thousand persons 1365 who have obtained above 50 years’ experience; in America there are only 830.
The moral consequences of the predominance of the young and passionate in the American community are attested by observers to be such as have already been described in the General Sanitary Report as characteristic of those crowded, filthy, and badly administered districts in England where the average duration of life is short, the proportion of the very young great, and the adult generation transient.
The difference does not arise solely from the greater proportion of children arising from a greater increase of population, though that is to some extent consistent with what has been proved to be the effect of a severe general mortality; the effects of the common cause of depression is observable at each interval of age: the adult population in America is younger than in England, and if the causes of early death were to remain the same, it may be confidently predicted that the American population would remain young for centuries.
| Years. | Months. | |
|---|---|---|
| The average age of all alive above 15 in America is | 33 | 6 |
| The average age of all alive above 15 years in England and Wales is | 37 | 5 |
| The average age of all above 20 years in America is | 37 | 7 |
| In the whole of England the average of all above 20 years is | 41 | 1 |
The difference at the different stages of age appear also to prevail in proportion to the different pressure of the causes of disease and mortality in different districts in England: e. g. In the town parishes of Middlesex the average age of the living above 15 years is 35 years and 10 months; but in Hereford it is 39 years and 2 months. In Middlesex the average age of the adult population, that is of all above 20 years, is 38 years and 8 months; whilst in Hereford it is 42 years and 1 month.
The comparative amount of disease and death elsewhere it need scarcely be said, in no way affects the positive amount of evil in this country, or dispenses with the duty of adopting such practical measures as may be preventive of a single one of the cases of preventable deaths which abound in masses in the large districts having the least unfavourable averages.