Compare Kopf, in the 3d edition of Kolb's Handbuch der Statistik, and the solid works of G. F. Knapp, Ueber die Ermittelung der Sterblichkeit (1868) and Die Sterblichkeit in Sachsen (1869). Price's mode of calculation of which Deparcieux is the real author, which divides the number of the living by the arithmetical mean of the number of births and deaths is not only inaccurate (Meyer, loc. cit., 43 ff.) but erroneous in principle, since it allows two countries of equal population to be the same, the one of which has 120,000 births and a mortality of 80,000, and the other, on the contrary, 80,000 births and a mortality of 120,000. Engel recommends as the measure of real vitality the ratio between the "living years" and the "dead years," meaning by the former the sum of the years which those still living have lived through, and by the latter the sum of the years lived through by those who have died within a given period. (Preuss. Statist. Zeitschr., 1861, 348 ff.) But the inference which may be drawn from a high or a low average of life is altogether ambiguous. A high average may as well be produced by a great mortality among children as by a favorable mortality among those of mature age; and a low average as well by a relatively small number of births as by a relatively short duration of life. (Meyer, loc. cit., 23, 24.)
[246-2] On the aborigines of America, see Lettres édifiantes, VII, 317 ff. Cook, Third Voyage, III, ch. 2. La Pérouse, Voyage, ch. 9. Robertson, Hist. of America B., IV. Raynal, Histoire des Indes L., XV. On the African negroes: M. Park, ch. 1. They are said to manifest the symptoms of old age at 40, and very seldom to live to be over 55 or 60 years of age.
[246-3] Necker, De l'Administration des Finances de la France, 1784, I, 205 ff., gives for 1771-80 the average number of births, per annum, 940,935; of deaths, 818,391; the population at 24,229,000. Legoyt, Statist. Comp., estimates the last, in 1784, at at least 26,748,843, probably even at 28,718,000. During the period, 1844-53, 35,000,000 to 36,000,000 Frenchmen had only about as many births (956,317) and deaths (815,723) as a much smaller population before the Revolution—the latter numbers, according to official estimation, omitting the still-born—which Necker also scarcely took into consideration. C'est la différence entre un peuple de prolétaires et une nation, dont les deux tiers jouissent des bienfaits de la propriété. (Moreau de Jonnès). In France, there was one death, in 1784, on every 30 living; in 1801, on every 35.8 living; in 1834-5, on every 38 living; in 1844, on every 39.9 living; in 1855-57 (average), on every 41.1 living; in 1860-65 (average), on every 43.7 living. It is also probable, that the average duration of life in France increased from the fact that, from 1800 to 1807, the number of persons subject to conscription was only 45 per cent. of the whole corresponding number of births; but that from 1822 to 1825 it was 61 per cent. (Bernoulli, Populationistik, 452.) On Paris alone, see Villermé, Mémoire lu à l'Académie des Sciences, 29 Nov., 1824. Compare supra, § 10.
[246-4] Wappäus, Allg. Bevölkerungsstatistik. In Prussia, in the less cultured provinces (the eastern), the mortality and number of births is greatest; but in the whole country the relative mortality seems to have remained stationary since 1748. (Engel, Preuss. Statist. Zeitschr., 1861, 336 seq.) And even the average age of the deceased decreased even between 1820 and 1860 (344 ff.) In Berlin alone, the arithmetical mean of the number of births and deaths shows no improvement, at least (loc. cit. 1862, 195).
[246-5] In Geneva, where there have been almost uninterrupted tables of mortality, giving the age at the time of death, the average duration of life during the 2d half of the 16th century is estimated at 21-1/6 years; during the 17th century, at 25¾ years; from 1701 to 1750, at 32-7/12 years; from 1750 to 1800, at 34½ years; from 1814 to 1833, at 40-2/3 years. Compare Mallet, Recherches historiques et statistiques sur la Population de Genève, 1837, 98 ff., 104 ff., and Bernouilli, Schweiz, Archiv., II, 77; per contra, d'Ivernois, sur la Mortalité proportionelle des peuples considérée comme Mesure de leur Aisance et Civilization, 1833, 12 ff. But little can be inferred from this, on account of the large immigration, of adults for the most part. Geneva is said to have had, in the 16th century, never much more than 13,000 inhabitants; at the end of the 17th century it had 17,000; in 1789, 26,000; between 1695 and 1795 there was an increase of 6,000 at least from abroad. (Bernouilli, Populationistik, 369 seq.) Compare Wappäus in the Götting. Gesellsch. der Wissensch. Bd., VIII, 1860, who, however, as well as Neison, Contributions to Vital Statistics, VI ff., is too skeptical as regards modern progress in vitality.
[246-6] Higher civilization, indeed, instead of leading to higher vitality, may lead to immoderate toil and immoderate enjoyment. (Schäffle, in the D. Vierteljahrsschrift, April, 1862, 340.) Engel says that, in general, life is more intense in our day, and hence leads to a more rapid exhaustion of individual life-force. (Preuss. Statist. Ztschr., 1862, 53.) According to English experience of the well-fed classes, those have the greatest duration of life who otherwise live in modest circumstances. Thus, for instance, clergymen thirty years of age have still an average expectation of life of 39.49 years; members of the learned professions, 38.86; country gentlemen, 40.22; members of the aristocracy, 37.31; princes of the blood, only 34.04; sovereigns, only 27.16 (Statist. Journal, 1859, 356 ff.); while agricultural laborers, who have sufficient means and intelligence to participate in the so-called friendly societies, have an expectation of life of 40.6 years after their thirtieth year. (Neison, loc. cit.) On the whole, it seems to be in harmony with the democratic leveling tendencies of our own age, that the better care of children and of the sick has lengthened short lives, and that the unrest of the times has shortened the long lives, although the level of the general average continually rises, notwithstanding. Thus, in Geneva, the proportion of those who outlived their thirtieth year was: in the 16th century, after 1549, 29.87; in the 17th century, 37.29; in the 18th century, 49.39; in the 19th century, until 1833, 58.85 per cent. of the number of births. On the other hand, the expectation of life of those who had attained their 80th year, was in these four centuries respectively 6.22, 5.87, 4.40 and 3.84 years. (Mallet, l. c., and Statist. Journal, 1851, 316 ff.) In keeping with this is, that according to Guy's researches, the average duration of life of the English peerage and baronetage was, in 1500-1550, 71.27 years; 1550-1600, 68.25 years; 1600-1650, 63.95 years; 1650-1700, 62.40 years; 1700-1745, 64.13 years. (Statist. Journal, 1845, 74.) However, we may most directly infer a favorable condition of things from the diminished mortality of children, for the reason that this, far more directly than the mortality of adults, is conditioned by the quality of food. The younger a child is, the more exclusively is its life-force the product of these two factors: the physical constitution of its parents and the care bestowed upon it. Compare F. J. Neumann, Die Gestaltung der mittleren Lebensdauer in Preussen, 1865, 26 ff. In Prussia, in 1751-60, only 312 in 1,000 outlived their tenth year; in 1861-70, 633 in 1,000. Yet, since 1856, the mortality of children has again begun to increase. (Knapp, Mittheilungen des Statist. Bureaus, VIII, p. 8.)
[246-7] Duvillard, Analyse ou Tableau de l'Influence da la petite Vérole, 1806, is of opinion that before vaccination only 4 per cent. of those over 30 years of age were spared by the small-pox; that two-thirds of all new-born children were attacked by the disease sooner or later, and that from one-eighth to one-seventh of those attacked died; and of small children even one-third. Hence, in many countries, the average duration of life was increased 3½ years by reason of vaccination. In London, between 1770 and 1779, of 1,000 deaths, 102 were caused by the small-pox; in from 1830 to 1836, only 25 in 1,000. (Porter, Progress of the Nation, I, 1, 39.) In Berlin, between 1792 and 1801, 4,999 persons died of the small-pox; between 1812 and 1822, only 555. (Casper.) That this is really a consequence of vaccination is proved by the facts of the Chemnitz small-pox epidemic of 1870-71, during which, in four of the streets principally visited by it, 9 per cent. were taken ill. Of 4,375 persons who had been vaccinated, 2.12 per cent. were attacked; of 644 who were not vaccinated, 54.38 per cent. Of those attacked, 2.1 per cent. of the former and 11.3 per cent. of the latter died. (Leipzig Tageblatt, 5 Mai, 1871.)
[246-8] Among the earliest institutions of medical police are the following: the Swedish Collegium medicum under Charles XI; the Prussian, 1724; the Danish, 1740; the quarantine law of Louis XIV., of 1683; the Parisian bureau of nurses, 1715; lying-in establishments since 1728; French institutions for the saving of drowned persons, 1740; English institutions for the saving of persons in cases of apparent death, 1744; bathing largely promoted by government since the eighteenth century; prohibition by Maria Theresa of burial in churches and of locating cemeteries too near dwelling houses, in 1778. Even Thomasius, De Jure Principum circa Sepultur., § 8, had advised this; and, in Italy, Fr. Patricius, De Inst. Republ. V, 10. On ancient medical police, see Pyls Repertorium für öffentliche und gerichtliche Arzneiwissenschaft, II 167, ff. III, 1 ff.
[246-9] In France, the number of deaths in the cheap years, 1816 and 1819, amounted to an average of 755,877; of the dear years, 1817 and 1818, to an average of 750,065. (Ann. d'Economie politique, 1847, 333.) Thus, the same scarcity in Pomerania increased its otherwise smaller mortality relatively less than in Posen. (Hildebrand's Jahrbb. 1872, I, 292.) It is a good sign that in Altenburg, between 1835 and 1864, the variation in the price of corn had no influence on its mortality, although the number of marriages and of births was conditioned by it. (v. Scheel in Hildebrand's Jahrbb., 1866, I, 161 ff.)
[246-10] Sir W. Petty, Several Essays, 31 seq. Great regularity of epidemics in the tropical world: Humboldt, N. Espagne, II, 5. The great plague in the middle of the 14th century is said to have destroyed 2/3 of the population of Norway, of Upland, 5/6; in the mountain districts of Wermeland only 1 boy and 2 girls were left. (Geijer, Schwed. Gesch., I, 186.) According to Sismondi, Gesch. der Italien. Republiken, VI, 27, 3/5 of the whole population of Europe died at that time. How the cholera would have raged among our forefathers in the middle ages! Certainly, as it does now in the East Indies; since, when of those really attacked by the disease among ourselves so many die, we cannot attribute our small number of deaths from cholera to the smaller intensity of the disease or to the greater skill of our doctors, but chiefly to the better nourishment of our people, to their better dwellings and greater cleanliness. Compare Heberden, On the Increase and Decrease of Disease, 1801.