5. The medium duration of life has, in recent times, increased very greatly in most cities of Europe.
6. In reference to the influence of professional occupations in life, it seems that clergymen are on the whole, the longest, and medical men are the shortest livers. Military men are nearly between the two extremes, but yet, proportionably they more frequently than others reach very advanced years.
7. The mortality is very generally greater in manufacturing than in agricultural districts.
8. Marriage is decidedly favourable to longevity.
9. The mortality among the poor is always greater than among the wealthier classes.
10. The mortality in a population appears to be always proportionate to its fecundity—as the number of births increases, so does the number of deaths at the same time.
If this last assertion be correct, Malthus’s doctrine must have been idle.
It appears that in general more males are born than females—this difference has been attributed to the age of the parents; when the mother is older than the father the female offspring are more numerous—the same is observed when both parents have attained an advanced age—but when the father’s age exceeds that of the mother’s, sons are chiefly the result of their union, it has been also observed that widowers are most frequently blessed with daughters.
Quetelet has very justly observed that the laws which preside over the development of man, and modify all his actions, are in general the result of his organization, of his years, his state of independence, the surrounding institutions, local influence, and an infinity of other causes, difficult to ascertain, and many of which, most probably, never can be known. Still if we admit the fact, our wellbeing, in a great measure, rests in our own hands, as the progress of our intellectual attainments may gradually enable us to improve our condition, in most of the points to which we have alluded; and Buffon has observed “that we know not to what extent man may perfect his nature, both in a moral and a physical point of view.”