Chapter V: The Malay (19)

The ingenuity of this hypothesis must be admitted, but it does not militate against the pre-existence of germs. Germs are visible in the ovum before fecundation; in these germs the very primordia of future organization can be distinguished. It is by no means necessary to allow these germs an exciting power, or a formative power, as has been objected: they are more or less profuse, and under the influence, as I have already said, of accidental circumstances. It has been maintained that monsters are more common in domesticated animals than in wild ones. This is by no means evident, since we have little opportunity of ascertaining the case in forests and in wildernesses; but, admitting the fact, it only tends to corroborate my opinion regarding the influence of accidental causes in physical development, since domestication must expose animals to many emotions unknown in their natural condition. It has been said that monsters are especially observed among sows. There perhaps is no animal under the subjection of man, excepting, perhaps, the unfortunate donkey, more exposed to physical injuries during gestation; and as the Portuguese maintain that a _cajado_ (a stick) springs from the earth whenever an ass is born, so our bumkins and malicious urchins fancy that every one owes a kick to a gravid sow. Howbeit, I doubt much whether the swinish multitude are more subject to bear monstruosities than other animals; and preternatural conformations are, I believe, as frequent in lambs, and calves, and chickens; and double-headed and double-legged specimens of these animals are more frequently exhibited than monstrous pigs.

Monstruosities are of two kinds, and exhibit either an excess of parts or a defect. Thus, some children are born with more limbs than usual, whilst others are deprived of their natural proportions. It is not unlikely that in the former case twins were being developed; whereas, in the other, the proper nourishment of the parts that are either wanting or stunted in their growth had somehow or other been impeded in its assimilation. This opinion seems to be warranted by the facts observed in the artificial incubation of eggs, the different parts of the chick being more or less perfect where the heat had been more or less steadily applied; the produce of those eggs that had enjoyed more warmth being invariably the stronger. The same remark applies to plants. Eggs and seeds are in most respects ruled by similar laws in the phenomena of their germination: the arms and legs grow from the animal foetus, as the branches originate from the trunk of the tree. These ramifications are frequently as symmetrical as human limbs. When there are preternatural excesses in formation, it is probable that twins were intended: thus we see foetuses with double heads, or with two bodies. The same irregularity is observed in double and triple cherries, and other fruits. It is probable that this union took place when these bodies were in a soft state, and the vessels inosculated in their intricate ramifications with greater facility, until further development had consolidated the junction.

If a proof were wanting that monstruosities do not arise in the original organization of the embryo, but from subsequent accidents during gestation, it might be sought in those preternatural appearances that arise from frights or longings, and constitute what are called _naevi materni_. Thus are infants born bearing the marks of some fruit the mother had desired, or some animal that had terrified her. This phenomenon plainly shows that there does exist a wonderful sympathy between external objects and the uterine system; yet this sympathy is not as surprising as that which is subsequently observed between these marks and the fruit they represent. It is a well-authenticated fact that they will assume a tinge of maturity when the fruit is ripening, and become gradually more pale as it is going out of season. The same observation has been made in regard to animal marks; for instance, these marks have displayed a deeper colour when the mouse or the rat that had occasioned them was mentioned. I know a lady who, during her pregnancy, was struck with the unpleasant view of leeches applied to a relative's foot. Her child was born with the mark of a leech coiled up in the act of suction on the identical spot. Mr. Bennett has published a remarkable instance of this uterine sympathy. A woman gave birth to a child with a large cluster of globular tumours growing from the tongue, and preventing the closure of the mouth, in colour, shape, and size exactly resembling our common grapes, and with a red excrescence from the chest, as exactly resembling in figure and appearance a turkey's wattles. On being questioned before the child was shown her, she answered that, while pregnant, she had seen some grapes, longed intensely for them, and constantly thought of them; and that she was also once attacked and much alarmed by a turkey-cock.

Various writers have positively denied these facts. Gerard tells us that he had known three pregnant women whose minds had been constantly occupied with the unpleasant recollections of a cripple, of a dancing-dog fantastically dressed, and a basket of beautiful peaches; yet their offspring bore no marks of these objects. This is no argument. No rational person could imagine for a single moment that every impression thus received is to be transmitted. Buffon, who also doubts this influence, thus expresses himself: "We must not expect that we shall be able to convince women that the marks their children may bear have no analogy with ungratified longings. I have frequently asked them, before the birth of their infants, what had been their wishes, and consequently what would be the marks that they might expect? By this question I frequently gave unintentional offence."

Now, with all due respect to this celebrated naturalist, this argument is by no means conclusive. We perfectly well know that pregnant women are frequently alarmed without such consequences, and the most fantastic phantasies may cross their idle brains, without any such result. It has been observed on this subject, "that when a circumstance may proceed from many causes, we do not universally reject any one because it is frequently alleged without reason." We have too many well-authenticated cases before us to doubt this strange effect of maternal impressions, so clearly observed and recorded in Holy Writ in the following passage of Genesis: "And Jacob took him rods of Green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree, and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs, when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ring-straked, speckled, and spotted."

The sympathy that evidently exists between bodies separated from each other, but previously connected, has given rise to many absurd stories. It is told of Taliocotius, that having made a nose for a patient, cut out of a pig, the poor man's snout fell off the moment the hog was slaughtered. A similar belief prevails among horticulturists, who assert that the graft perishes when the parent tree decays. A very singular phenomenon is observed in wine countries, where the wine in wood enters into a state of slight effervescence, and even efflorescence, when the vines begin to throw out their blossoms.

It therefore appears to me more than probable that monstruosities are by no means original mal-conformations, but arise, during gestation, from physical or moral influences that affect the mother, however unconscious she may be of their action. We have frequent instances of violence occasioning preternatural developements. Mr. Giron Buzareingues mentions that a violent blow was given to a gravid bitch, who produced eight pups, all of which excepting one, had the hind-legs wanting, malconformed, or weak.

A further disquisition would lead me beyond the limits of a sketch. I shall therefore relate some curious cases of monstruosities, that would seem to set at nought our ideas regarding the _indispensability_ of certain organs to the functions of life.

Various instances are recorded of the union of two or more foetuses. We have lately seen the Siamese twins, and such a preternatural formation is by no means uncommon. In the Journal de Verdun, 1709, a case is related of two twin female children who were united at the loins, with only one intestinal canal. They were seven years old, could walk about, embrace each other in the fondest manner, and both were proficient in several languages. Buffon gives the history of two Hungarian girls, who were also joined together in the lumbar region. Helena, who was the first-born, became tall and straight; Judith, her sister, was of a diminutive size, and slightly arched. At six years of age she was attacked with hemiplegia, and never recovered perfect health. Helena was sprightly and intelligent. With the exception of the smallpox and measles, under which they laboured at the same time, their ailments were always distinct. They lived until the age of twenty-two, when Judith was attacked with a fever, that shortly terminated her existence. The horror expressed by Helena in beholding her dead companion, with whom she had been identified in sisterly love for so many years, cannot be described; but her agonies were of short duration, for in three minutes she also had ceased to live. On their _post mortem_ examination each was found to have possessed distinct viscera. The aorta and vena cava were united above the origin of the iliac arteries, so that no severing operation could have been performed without destroying them both.

Duverney relates the case of twins united at the lower part of the abdomen. They only lived six days; the strongest of the two died first, and was followed by his companion three hours after. Haller records upwards of thirty cases of a similar nature; and various skeletons of this description are to be seen in our museums. Munster saw two girls united by the forehead. They had then attained their tenth year, when one of them died. It therefore became indispensable to separate them, but the unfortunate creature did not survive the operation. Daubenton describes two children united at the back of the head.

Such miserable junctions naturally suggested the idea of effecting a separation by surgical means; but I believe this operation was only once performed with a successful result. Two little girls were united from the xiphoid cartilage to the umbilicus. The uniting substance was an inch in thickness, six lines in breadth, and five inches in circumference. In the centre of the junction was the umbilical ring common to both. The umbilical vessels were separated and tied; the ligature fell at the expiration of nine days; and then Zwingler, the operator, proceeded to divide the remaining bonds.

Various monsters have been seen with four arms and three legs, or four legs and two or three arms. The history of the double-headed infant of Oxford is curious. This creature had two heads diametrically opposite, four arms, one body and two lower extremities. These heads were doubly baptized; one by the name of Martha, and the other Mary. The features were different; Mary's was smiling, Martha's dejected. The latter died two days after her birth, and Mary expired a quarter of an hour after.

A curious monster of a similar description is recorded to have lived at the court of James IV. of Scotland. It had been taught several languages, and music. One head was intelligent, the other remarkably stupid. This creature lived twenty-eight years, when one of the individuals died. The other survived several days, but gradually drooped as the body of his late companion was decomposing. In olden writers we have many curious cases. How far they may be entitled to credit I cannot say; although we have no reason to deny the fact, when we daily witness the most singular malconformations. Liceti relates the case of a child with two legs, but seven heads and seven arms. Bartholinus mentions one with three heads, each of which uttered the most horrible cries, and then expired.

While these unfortunates were visited with several heads, instances have been known of heads that had attained a most enormous volume. In Tunis, there was a Moor of thirty years of age, whose head was so large, that crowds followed him in the streets; and his mouth was of such a capacity, that he could devour a large melon as easily as an apple. This man was an idiot. At Lucca, Benvenuti saw a lad, otherwise well-proportioned, whose head at the age of seven began to increase so rapidly, that when he was twenty-seven it measured thirty-seven inches eight lines in circumference, and his face was fifteen inches long.

Singular monstruosities have been seen, where heads and bodies seemed actually to be growing from or hanging to individuals. Winslow knew an Italian child, of eight years of age, who carried a little head under the third left rib, and peeping out as if the body of the one had been concealed in that of the other. Both heads had been christened; the one James, the other Matthew. When the ear of little Matthew was pinched, his host James forthwith began to roar. The Bengal child, whose case is related by Valentin and Horne, is equally singular. Here one head was placed above the other, the superior one nearly as well conformed as the lower; both adhered intimately. The upper face assumed somewhat of an oblique direction. Each head had its distinct brain: sometimes one head was fast asleep while his neighbour was wide awake, and one head would cry most piteously if you pulled the hair of the other; but, what was still more singular, when the one was fed, its companion expressed its gratification, and water flowed from its mouth. This monster lived four years, and probably would have lived much longer, but for the bite of a venomous reptile.

In a former article I alluded to encephalous and anencephalous cases, where there were either no heads or heads without brains. Of the first variety Beclard relates the following: A woman at Angers was delivered of twins, one of which not only was without a head, but only showed the inferior part of the body; without arms, a small stump-like excrescence growing from the upper part of the chest; the feet were turned inwards, and without toes. The creature was of the male sex. The body presented one cavity without any diaphragm; nor could any trace of liver, spleen, oesophagus, or stomach be detected: the intestinal tube commenced at the upper part of the body, but was impervious; the pancreas and kidneys were as usual; the umbilical vein arose from the cava, and the umbilical arteries from the hypogastric. There were ten ribs on each side, and the spinal marrow threw out its regular nerves.

Brunel has recorded the case of a male infant born without brains. The frontal bone was thrown back, and flattened on the sphenoid in such a manner that the eyes appeared above his head. The parietal and the squamous portion of the temporal were wanting, although the organ of hearing was well conformed. Not a vestige of brain could be discovered; yet the carotid and vertebral arteries crossed the basis of the cranium. The spinal marrow arose from the fourth cervical vertebra. The organs of sight were perfect. Saviard describes an infant in which all the bones of the cranium were wanting, and, instead of a brain, the skin merely covered a cyst, containing a red pulpy substance resembling brain, whence arose several nerves.

It is, no doubt, to these malconformations that we are to attribute the various stories of children with heads of monkeys, goats, pigs, &c., or of that child whose face represented the devil, and who was described as "Cacodaemonis picturae quam humanae figurae similius," &c. The idle tales of Cyclopes are also to be sought in such accidental preternatural appearances, and several instances are recorded of children born with a single eye in the forehead. It would be useless to dwell longer on this painful subject. Those who wish for more information may gratify their curiosity by consulting the works of Haller, Soemmering, and other writers, who have treated this matter _ex professo_.

In conclusion, it appears to me that monstruosities are purely accidental, subject to no laws of nature, but deviations from them. We leave to theologasters the question of their being visitations of divine wrath. The only theories that can admit of discussion are the following: 1st, The imagination of the mother; 2nd, Accidental causes; and 3rd, An original monstrous germ. Maternal marks arising from longings and terror, as I have already observed, seemed to warrant the first conclusion; yet it is not tenable. What has imagination to do with the vegetable kingdom, which also presents monstrous conformations? Are we to attribute the same power of imagination to the brute creation? and, although we may fully admit the sympathy that exists between the uterine system and external objects, yet we cannot refer headless and double and triple embryos to this influence. The last hypothesis is also fraught with objections. We have every reason to believe that all germs or seed are perfect in themselves. Were there monstrous germs, there would ensue monstrous races. That germs may be accidentally vitiated and impaired there can be no doubt; but such an adventitious occurrence does not constitute an original monstruosity. Duverney and Winslow maintained that, in the case of a double monster, the monstruosity arose in the primitive germ. Lemery and other physiologists, on the contrary, insisted that double foetuses arise, as I have already stated, from a junction or fusion between two separate bodies, or, in short, the union of twins or triple conceptions, &c. Anatomical investigations confirmed this opinion, since in double-headed foetuses two distinct sets of organs are generally found.

This subject has occupied the most ingenious philosophers for centuries; and the result of their experiments and debates seems to warrant the probability of these melancholy deviations from nature, foolishly denominated _lusi naturae_, being purely accidental. The experiments of Jacobi seem to confirm this opinion, since he was able to produce preternatural fecundation in the eggs of fishes.

This investigation may appear idle; yet, in a physiological point of view, it is fraught with interest as regarding the generation of animals and plants. Its study affords a lively illustration of those laws of attraction and repulsion that regulate the universe, and which seem to admit that every particle of matter should be endowed with a specific vitality, a specific individuality. This attraction is daily seen in the fecundation of the spawn of fish. Myriads of these eggs are accumulated in ponds and rivers; yet in this mass the fecundating principle solely selects and impregnates those that naturally claim its vivifying powers. Wonderful harmony, that man alone endeavours to destroy!--harmony so perfect, that Aristoxenus and Alcmaeon maintained that it was an emanation of the diapason of celestial music between the planets, our globe, and our five senses, forming a diatonic series of seven tones; while Hippocrates justly denominated these organic laws the CONFLUXUS UNUS, CONSPIRATIO UNICA, CONSENTIENTIA OMNIA.

LONGEVITY.

The greater the complexity of a piece of machinery, and the more labour it is called upon to perform, the more rapid will be its wear and tear. This applies to human life as well as to mechanism. The derangement of its component parts--its springs and wheels, will also be in the ratio of their complication. Thus do we find that the brute creation are less subject to those affections that abridge their days than mankind. Their life is natural, except when under the sway of domestication: ours is artificial; and high civilization tends to render it still more unnatural than it would most probably have been in a simple and patriarchal existence. Endowed with more acuteness of sensibility than animals, we are rendered more susceptible of the extremes of pleasure and of pain; and our voluptuous enjoyments are perhaps more prejudicial than our sufferings. Had not the Creator wisely granted us the faculty of reasoning, we should have been the most wretched of all organized beings.

The tenure of life depends upon the sum of vitality originally deposited, and the extent of our drafts upon this capital, which we too frequently exhaust by untimely expenses. Experience has proved that under ordinary circumstances, man can live six or seven times longer than the years required to attain puberty. This epoch is placed at our fourteenth year. This calculation would therefore yield from 84 to 98 years of age. Our own imprudences, and the disorders resulting from them, are more hostile in abridging this period than nature, all-wise and all-bountiful. Indeed, when we reflect on all the excesses to which we expose our frail and complicated being, as if we were resolved to try by every possible experiment how far it possesses the power of resisting destructive agents, we can only marvel in beholding so many instances of longevity. In this wasteful existence how many valuable hours do we not lose? how many real enjoyments have we not deprived ourselves of? When compared to the immensity of time, life is but an idle span. Let us deduct even from old age the years of infancy, the years of caducity, and the years of sleep,--alas! what remaineth of our many and our energetic days? Maupertuis calculated that in an ordinary life man could scarcely enjoy more than three years of happiness, mixed up with sixty or eighty years of misery or insipidity; and yet how miserable are we at the thought of quitting this short-leased tenement, though every wretchedness renders our abode a constant scene of uneasiness. It has been computed that out of about nine hundred millions of human beings that are scattered over the globe, it is more than probable that we could not find nine thousand individuals blessed with happiness, even taking happiness in its most limited sense--content. Were it not for the terrors of futurity, it is more than probable that our existence would lose much of its value. Socrates termed philosophy "the preparation for death;" the same may be said of our existence.

Happily for man, life is a dream, all is illusion; sufferings alone are positive; Pandora's box is its best illustration. Could we have slept away our existence in constant visions, we should have lived as long as in a waking state. When we contemplate the flocks of human beings scattered like cattle on the face of the universe, with scarcely more intellect than the beasts of the same field, we might ask for what were they created? doomed to all the horrors of sickness or of war, victims of their own follies or the ambitious projects of others! As far as regards this life, it is worse than idle to seek a solution of the problem. In these inquiries we too often seek to guess that which we can never know, and to know that which we can never guess! We all complain and murmur like the woodman in the fable, yet are loath to accept the relief we loudly call for.

The longevity of the first races, and the patriarchs, are records foreign to the investigations of natural history; we must seek for more recent examples. Haller had collected the cases of many centenaries, amounting to sixty-two who had reached from 100 to 120; twenty-nine from 120 to 130; and fifteen from 130 to 140. Few instances are authenticated beyond this period: yet we find one Eccleston, who lived 143 years; John Effingham, who attained his 144th; a Norwegian, who counted a century and a half; and our Thomas Parr would most probably have passed his 152nd year but for an excess. Henry Jenkins lived to 169; and we have on record the case of a Negress, aged 175. The Hungarian family of John Rovin were remarkable for their longevity: the father lived to 172, the wife to 164; they had been married 142 years, and their youngest child was 115; and such was the influence of habit and filial affection, that this _child_ was treated with all the severity of paternal rigidity, and did not dare to act without his _papa's_ and _mamma's_ permission.

By the calculations of Sussmilch, out of one thousand individuals, only one attained 97; and not more than one lived to the age of 100, out of one hundred and fourteen thousand. In the census of Italy, taken under Vespasian, there were found fifty-four of 100, fifty-seven of 110, two of 125, four of 130, and three of 140. In China, under Kien Long, in 1784, there were only four individuals who had attained their 100th year. According to Larrey, there were at Cairo thirty-five persons who had exceeded their century. In Russia, in 1814, out of eight hundred and ninety-one thousand six hundred and fifty deaths, were three thousand five hundred and thirty-one from 100 to 132. In a register of deaths in Paris, taken in 1817, there were found in twenty-one thousand three hundred and ninety-two, nine from 95 to 100, and the general proportion of centenaries in that city is one to three thousand.

What are the circumstances most favourable to longevity? This question is not easily answered; for we find in instances of advanced age that some individuals have led a most regular and abstemious life, while others have indulged in various excesses. These observations, however, are by no means calculated to form a conclusive opinion, as the constitutional vigour and peculiar idiosyncrasies of individuals differ widely. It is probable that a regular mode of living is the most likely to prolong our years, whatever may be that regularity in a comparative point of view. A sober man, who commits occasional excesses, is more likely to suffer than another man who gets drunk every night, provided that these excesses do not differ in regard to the quantity or quality of stimulus. In these melancholy instances the excitement is constant, and the indirect debility which it may produce has scarcely time to break down the system ere it is again wound up to its usual pitch, to use the vulgar expression, "by a hair of the same hound." The principal attribute of life that renovates for a while its moral and its physical exhaustion is _excitability_, and a constant _excitement_ is therefore indispensable, to serve as fuel to the consuming fire. This was to a certain degree the basis on which Brown founded his doctrine. He traced a scale of life like that of a thermometer,--health in the centre, death at each extremity: one scale ascending from health was graduated according to stimulating agency, the other to debilitating causes; and therefore the system was to be stimulated or lowered according to this gradation. It would be foreign to this work to point out the absurdity of this theory, although we must admit its ingenuity, and to a certain extent its correctness. The chief practical objection to it was the diversity of constitutions and idiosyncrasies, and the different action of stimulating or depressing agents in health and in disease; the effects of alimentary and medicinal substances being totally different in these several conditions.

According to habit, a certain sum of stimulus is requisite to keep up the necessary excitement; and this sum cannot be immediately and suddenly withdrawn in weak subjects without some risk; in health, perhaps, the experiment may be safely made at all times, and under any circumstances, although it might be wiser to operate the change by degrees; and it must moreover be recollected, that an habitual drunkard is in a morbid condition, and must be treated accordingly.

Six causes chiefly exert their influence upon life:

1. Climate and soil.

2. Difference of races.

3. Complexion and stature.

4. Period of development during gestation, and of subsequent growth.

5. Mode of living.

6. Moral emotions, occupations.

Climates that are moderately cold are more favourable to long life. This observation equally applies to the vegetable kingdom; and trees that have scarcely attained their full growth in northern regions are drooping in the south. There also we find beasts and birds resisting the inclemency of the weather by the thickness of their coats and plumage, or a layer of grease; while many animals burrow in the earth to seek a state of torpor and insensibility, until restored to active life by a more genial temperature. Dryness of soil is another source of health and life; and the hardy mountaineer's existence is seldom abridged by the diseases that visit the inhabitants of damp and swampy regions. Steril plains are more salubrious than regions covered with a rank and exuberant vegetation, or highly cultivated grounds, from many obvious reasons. The humid earth is not turned up, and decayed vegetable substances are not acted upon in a deleterious manner by the solar heat. When we consider the various causes of disease that must abound in crowded and corrupt cities, we might imagine that mortality would be much greater than in the country; yet observation has not proved this difference to be as material as one might expect, at least as regards disease, the sad effects of poverty and starvation not being taken into account. Various reasons may be assigned for this apparent anomaly. In cities a more regular state of excitement prevails, and man's constant occupations scarcely give him time to attend to slight ailments, that, under other circumstances, might be aggravated. Moreover, intermittent fevers and visceral affections are more frequent in the country; and cottagers are exposed to more constant damp and severer revolutions in the atmospheric constitution than citizens. The mortality amongst men is greater in cities than in women; the latter do not enjoy so long a life in the country. March and April have been found the most fatal months. They are periods of atmospheric transition from cold to a higher temperature, and must therefore prove trying to the weak and the aged. The end of autumn is also deemed a sickly period; and the equinoxes have ever been considered critical, the solstices much less injurious. In Great Britain and the north-westerly regions of Europe, northerly and easterly winds are more prevalent in March, April, and May, owing, it is supposed, to the currents established to replace the warmer air, as it rises from the surface of the Atlantic and more southerly countries. These winds are generally dry and cold, followed by fogs, and give rise to catarrhs, bronchial and pulmonary affections. It is calculated that in our climes pulmonary affections carry off one-fifth of the population, or 191 in 1000.

In regard to the variety of races, it has been observed that those people who sooner attain pubescence are the shortest-lived. Precocious excitement must bring on premature old age. Negroes seldom attain an advanced period of life; and the progress of years is more rapidly descried in their features and their form than in Europeans who have migrated to their clime. The negroes of Congo, Mozambique, and Zanguebar, seldom reach their fiftieth year. In northern latitudes longevity is more frequent: this is observed in Sweden, Russia, Poland, Norway. Some writers have looked upon the established religion of a country as influencing the duration of life; and Toaldo asserted that Christians are shorter-lived than Jews. To this observation it may be remarked, that Jews are in general a very sober, industrious, and active race, circumstances that must materially tend to prolong their days. Moreover, by their legislation they are very careful in the choice of the meat they consume. In Catholic countries fasting may be taken into calculation, not from the effects of abstemiousness, which would be more favourable to health than injurious, but the sudden return to feasting and gormandizing, by way of revenge, when the fast is over. Shrove Tuesday and Easter Sunday are noted in red letters in the gastronomic almanac; and the suppers that follow the midnight masses of Christmas generally require the apothecary's aid on the following morning.[46]

In regard to conformation, very tall and spare subjects are seldom long-lived; and the same observation applies to the stunted and diminutive. A well-set body, with a broad and deep chest, a neck not over-long, with well-formed and firm muscles, generally hold forth a fair prospect of old age.

Children born before the regular period of gestation, those who have been weaned too early, or given to nurses whose milk was not of a proper quality, are seldom strong. Too rapid a growth will also shorten the space of existence.

Our avocations and pursuits materially affect health and the consequent duration of life; and the nature of the excitement man is submitted to produces a remarkable effect. It has been calculated in France that one hundred and fifty-two academicians, whose aggregate years were ten thousand five hundred and eleven, averaged sixty-nine years and two months. The following calculation of Madden will further illustrate this curious subject.

AGES OF GREAT MEN.

_Natural Philosophers._

Bacon 78
Buffon 81
Copernicus 70
Cuvier 64
Davy 51
Kepler 60
Laplace 77
Leibnitz 70
Newton 84
Whiston 95
Euler 76
Franklin 85
Galileo 78
Halley 86
Herschel 84
Lalande 75
Lewenhoeck 91
Linnaeus 72
Tycho Brahe 75
Wollaston 62

_Poets._

Ariosto 59
Byron 37
Collins 56
Cowper 69
Dryden 70
Gray 57
Milton 66
Pope 56
Spenser 46
Thomson 48
Burns 38
Camoens 55
Cowley 49
Dante 56
Goldsmith 44
Metastasio 84
Petrarch 68
Shenstone 50
Tasso 52
Young 84

_Moral Philosophers._

Bacon 65
Berkeley 79
Condillac 65
Diderot 71
Fitche 52
Helvetius 57
Hume 65
Kaimes 86
Malebranche 77
Stewart 75
Bayle 59
Condorcet 51
Descartes 54
Ferguson 92
Hartley 52
Hobbes 91
Kant 80
Locke 72
Reid 86
St. Lambert 88

_Dramatists._

Alfieri 55
Goethe 82
Marlow 32
Racine 60
Shakspeare 52
Congreve 59
Crebillon 89
Farquhar 30
B. Jonson 63
Moliere 53
Corneille 78
Massinger 55
Otway 34
Schiller 46
Voltaire 84
Colman 61
Cumberland 80
Goldoni 85
De Vega 73
Murphy 78

_Authors on Law and Jurisprudence._

Bentham 85
Butler 83
Erskine 73
Gifford 48
Hale 68
Littleton 75
Montesquieu 66
Romilly 61
Tenterden 78
Vatel 53
Blackstone 57
Coke 85
Filangieri 36
Grotius 63
Holt 68
Mansfield 88
Redesdale 82
Rolle 68
Thurlow 74
Wilmot 83

_Miscellaneous and Novel Writers._

Cervantes 70
Scott 62
Smollett 51
Defoe 70
Richardson 72
Johnson 75
Warton 78
Tickell 54
Bathurst 84
Hawkesworth 59
Le Sage 80
Fielding 47
Rabelais 70
Ratcliffe 60
Sterne 56
Addison 48
Steele 59
Montaigne 60
Thornton 44
Hazlitt 58

_Authors on Revealed Religion._

Baxter 76
J. Butler 60
Calvin 56
Doddridge 54
J. Knox 67
Luther 63
Melancthon 64
Porteus 77
Sherlock 67
Whitefield 56
Bellarmine 84
Bossuet 77
Chillingworth 43
G. Fox 67
Lowth 77
Massillon 79
Paley 63
Priestley 71
Wesley 88
Wycliffe 61

_Authors on Natural Religion._

Annet 55
Cardan 75
Sir W. Drummond 68
N. Freret 61
Lord Herbert 68
St. Pierre 77
Tindal 75
Vannini 34
Bolingbroke 79
Chubb 65
Dupuis 67
Gibbon 58
Spinosa 45
Shaftesbury 42
Toland 53
Volney 66

_Medical Authors._

J. Brown 54
Cullen 78
Fordyce 67
Gall 71
Harvey 81
J. Hoffman 83
W. Hunter 66
M. Good 64
Pinel 84
Tissot 70
Corvisart 66
Darwin 72
Fothergill 69
J. Gregory 48
Heberden 92
Hunter 65
Jenner 75
Paracelsus 43
Sydenham 66
T. Willis 54

_Philologists._

Bentley 81
Casaubon 55
Hartzheim 70
Heyne 84
Parr 80
Pighius 84
Raphelengius 59
J. J. Scaliger 69
H. Stephens 71
Vossius 73
Burton 64
Cheke 44
J. Harman 77
Lipsius 60
Pauw 61
Porson 50
Salmatius 66
Sigonius 60
Sylburgius 51
Wolfius 64

_Artists._

Bandinelle 72
Canova 65
Flaxman 71
Giotto 60
San Sovino 91
A. Caracci 49
David 76
Raphael 37
Salvator Rosa 58
P. Veronese 56
Bernini 82
Donatello 83
Ghiberti 64
M. Angelo 96
Verocchico 56
Claude 82
Guido 67
Reynolds 69
Titian 96
West 82

_Musical Composers._

Arne 68
Beethoven 57
Bull 41
Corelli 60
Greby 72
Haydn 77
Kerser 62
Mosart 36
Piccini 71
Scarlatti 78
Bach 66
Burney 88
Cimarosa 41
Gluck 75
Handel 75
Kalkbrenner 51
Martini 78
Paesiello 75
Porpore 78
Weber 40

To this list we may add the following instances of longevity from the late publication of Mr. Farren:

Adling 93
Alcock 91
Bernabel 89
Celdara 90
Canpra 84
Casipini 90
Cervetti 101
Child 90
Creighton 97
Eichole 80
Genimani 96
Gibbons 93
Hasse 90
Hempel 86
Hesse 91
Leveridge 90
Lopez 103
Pittoni 90
Reike 100
Sala 99
Schell 87
Schramm 82
Telleman 86
F. Turner 99
W. Turner 88
Wagennell 98

In regard to the mortality of musicians, we give with much pleasure the following extract from the same work:

"The ages of 468 persons at death, were all that could be obtained from a biography of musicians; of these, 109 born since the year 1740 are excluded, because some of their cotemporaries were yet living at the date of such biography, also 41 more are excluded as having died under 50 years of age. There remain then, the ages at death of 318 persons on which the present observation is made.

"From the ages of 50 years to the end of life, the _apparent_ rate of mortality among musicians, appears very nearly with the lowest known rate, or that which prevails in villages, and it is scarcely probable that such rate should so agree without being the true one. For a musician to belong to the last class of human life, is very credible, when it is considered that eminence can only be attained by close mental devotion to an exalted science, and unremitting application to its practical acquirement, which abstraction would interrupt and intemperance destroy.

"The mean age of musicians, born _since_ 1690, is 67-3/4 years, or two years greater than those born before 1690, from which it might be conveniently concluded, that the moderns were longer lived than the ancients. The case is precisely the reverse, at least for ages above 50, to which alone the materials are applicable. The expectation of life at the age of 60 of the ancients were nearly 15 years, of the modern musicians 13-1/2. The materials (limited as they are) from which these conclusions are drawn, support the doctrine, that the mortality of the moderns is less at middle, but greater at advanced age, than the mortality of the ancients."

Dr. Caspar, of Berlin, in his late very interesting work on the duration of human life, has given the following conclusions:

Medium longevity.
Clergymen 65
Merchants 62
Clerks 61
Farmers 61
Military men 59
Lawyers 58
Artists 57
Medical men 56

The results of the other classes, with respect to their united ages, and the average of each, are--

Average.
Moral philosophers united ages 1417 70
Sculptors and painters 1412 70
Authors on law and jurisprudence 1394 69
Medical authors united ages 1368 68
Authors on revealed religion 1350 67
Philologists 1323 66
Musical composers 1284 64
Novelists and miscellaneous authors 1257 62-1/2
Dramatists 1249 62
Authors on natural religion 1245 62
Poets 1144 57

This calculation was made most probably in Prussia.

Dr. Caspar's view of longevity are not only highly interesting but, if correct, may lead to many important conclusions. He maintains that--

1. The female sex enjoys, at every period or epoch of life, except at puberty, at which epoch the mortality is greater among young females--a greater longevity than the male sex.

2. Pregnancy and labour occasion, indeed, a considerable loss of life, but this loss disappears or is lost in the general mass.

3. The so-called climacteric periods of life do not seem to have any influence on the longevity of either sex.

4. The medium duration of life at this present time (1835), is in Russia, about 21 years; in Prussia, 29; in Switzerland, 34; in France, 35; in Belgium, 36; and in England, 38 years.

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."

Still the laws of our organization, and which regulate life, appear to be beyond human speculation; and it has been observed that, under ordinary circumstances, we are ruled by a harmonizing system tending to equalize society despite its institutions. Thus, births, marriages, and deaths, appear regulated on a certain scale in proportions singularly similar. This circumstance is rendered obvious by the following tables of nativity at Amsterdam.

+-------+--------------------------------------------------+
| | Still-born. || Born alive. |
| |-----------------------||-------------------------|
| Years.| Boys. | Girls. |Total.|| Boys. | Girls. | Total. |
|-------|-------|--------|------||-------|--------|--------|
| 1821 | 288 | 246 | 534 || 3742 | 3600 | 7342 |
| 1822 | 280 | 222 | 502 || 3887 | 3713 | 7600 |
| 1823 | 268 | 198 | 466 || 3734 | 3448 | 7182 |
| 1824 | 266 | 216 | 482 || 4011 | 3849 | 7860 |
| 1825 | 207 | 173 | 404 || 3802 | 3559 | 7352 |
| 1826 | 231 | 173 | 404 || 3803 | 3635 | 7438 |
| 1827 | | | || 3524 | 3366 | 6890 |
| 1828 | | | || 3699 | 3529 | 7208 |
| 1829 | | | || 3785 | 3618 | 7403 |
| 1830 | 241 | 169 | 410 || 3727 | 3579 | 7306 |
| 1831 | 208 | 168 | 376 || 3843 | 3499 | 7342 |
| 1832 | 210 | 151 | 361 || 3351 | 3101 | 6452 |
+----------------------------------------------------------+

A statistical result much similar, was made also in Paris in the Bureau des Longitudes, as appears by the following return:

+------------------------------------------------------------+
| | Still-born. | Born alive. |
| |-------------------------|-------------------------|
| Years. | Boys. | Girls. | Total. | Boys. | Girls. | Total. |
|--------|-------|--------|--------|-------|--------|--------|
| 1823 | 847 | 662 | 1509 | 13752 | 13318 | 27070 |
| 1824 | 810 | 677 | 1487 | 14647 | 14647 | 28812 |
| 1825 | 846 | 675 | 1521 | 14989 | 14264 | 29253 |
| 1826 | 810 | 737 | 1547 | 15187 | 14783 | 29970 |
| 1827 | 904 | 727 | 1631 | 15074 | 14732 | 29860 |
| 1828 | 883 | 743 | 1626 | 15117 | 14484 | 29601 |
| 1829 | 925 | 788 | 1713 | 14760 | 13961 | 28721 |
| 1830 | 943 | 784 | 1727 | 14488 | 14099 | 28587 |
| 1831 | 954 | 755 | 1709 | 15116 | 14414 | 29530 |
| 1832 | 994 | 726 | 1720 | 13494 | 12789 | 26283 |
+------------------------------------------------------------+

In these statements, of which many to the same effect might be produced, it is singular that the number of still-born infants bears such a regular proportion with the nativity of living ones.

The proportion of deaths to births is also strangely regular, despite the difference of climate, and institutions, and the state of medical science in various countries, as will appear manifest by the following scales:

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Cities. |Proportion of inhabitants|Proportion of inhabitants|
| | to one death. | to one birth. |
|------------|-------------------------|-------------------------|
| London | 46 0} | 40 8} |
| Glasgow | 46 8} 46 4 | 29 5} 35 2 |
| Madrid | 36 0} | 26 0} |
| Leghorn | 35 0} | 25 5} |
| Lyons | 32 2} | 28 5} |
| Moscow | 33 0} | 27 5} |
| Palermo | 32 0} 32 3 | 24 5} 27 0 |
| Paris | 31 4} | 27 0} |
| Lisbon | 31 1} | 28 3} |
| Copenhagen | 30 3} | 30 0} |
| Hamburg | 30 0} | 25 5} |
| Barcelona | 29 5} | 27 0} |
| Berlin | 29 0} | 21 0} |
| Bordeaux | 29 0} | 24 0} |
| Naples | 28 6} | 23 8} |
| Dresden | 27 7} 26 6 | 23 0} |
| Amsterdam | 27 5} | 26 0} |
| Brussels | 25 8} | 21 0} 24 2 |
| Stockholm | 24 6} | 27 0} |
| Prague | 24 5} | 23 3} |
| Rome | 24 4} | 30 6} |
| | | 20 0} |
| | | 26 5} |
| | | 20 0} |
| Vienna | 22 5 | 20 0 |
| Venice | 19 4} | 26 5} |
| Bergamo | 18 0} 18 7 | 20 0} 23 2 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

While such a regular proportion prevails in births and deaths, a still more singular law seems to regulate the commission of crimes, of which the following registers of the cases brought to trial in France is a proof.

+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | 1826 | 1827 | 1828 | 1829 | 1830 | 1831 |
| |------|------|------|------|------|------+
|Murder in general | 241 | 234 | 227 | 231 | 205 | 266 |
|With fire arms | 56 | 64 | 60 | 61 | 57 | 88 |
|Swords, daggers, &c. | 15 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 12 | 30 |
|Knives | 39 | 40 | 34 | 46 | 44 | 34 |
|Sticks, bludgeons, &c. | 23 | 28 | 31 | 24 | 12 | 21 |
|Stones, &c. | 20 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 11 | 9 |
|Cutting and contusing | | | | | | |
| instruments, tools, &c.| 35 | 40 | 42 | 45 | 46 | 49 |
|Strangulation | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
|Drowning | 6 | 16 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
|Kicks, and blows with | | | | | | |
| the fist | 28 | 12 | 21 | 23 | 17 | 26 |
|Fire | ... | 1 | ... | 1 | ... | ... |
|Unknown means | 17 | 1 | 2 | ... | 2 | 2 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+

The criminal statistics of France have produced the following calculation: From 7000 to 7300 criminals are tried every year, out of which number 61 out of 100 are found guilty; 170,000 offenders are charged with minor offences and misdemeanors, of whom 85 in the 100 are condemned to various punishments, and the greatest annual calculation which Quetelet remarks in an annual budget, paid much more regularly than taxes, is as follows:

Condemned to capital punishment 100 to 150
To hard labour for life 280
Hard labour for a period 1050
Imprisonment 1220

The following curious table has been drawn of the causes that excited to the commission of murder and the means resorted to:

+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Apparent motives, | | |Assassi- | | |
|from 1826 to 1829.|Poison.|Murder.| nation.|Incendiary.| Total. |
| | | | | | |
|------------------|-------|-------|---------|-----------|---------|
|Cupidity | 20 | 39 | 237 | 66 | 362 |
|Adultery | 48 | 9 | 76 | ... | 133 |
|Domestic broils | 48 | 120 | 131 | 84 | 333 |
|Jealousy and | | | | | |
| debauchery | 10 | 58 | 115 | 37 | 220 |
|Revenge, hatred, | | | | | |
| and other motives| 23 | 903 | 460 | 229 | 1615 |
|------------------|-------|-------|---------|-----------|---------|
| Total | 149 | 1129 | 1019 | 366 | 2663[47]|
+------------------------------------------------------------------+

To what are we to attribute this apparent regularity in the scale of births, deaths, and the commission of crimes? Are we ruled by _certain_ laws that are only changed in the manifestations of Providence, by peculiar visitations, such as war, famine, and pestilential maladies? What a vast and curious field of research and reflection! what an argument for the fatalist! Man no doubt possesses a moral power that to a certain extent subjugates the creation to his influence and his will. Plants and animals seem to obey certain natural laws, that are only disturbed by perturbative agents; and it is difficult to point out what are the human actions that arise from natural impulses, or from accidental circumstances, although experience would tend to show that they bear a singular proportion in the similarity of their results; and one must come although reluctantly to the conclusion, that this perturbative power exercises but a slender influence on the laws of nature, which seem to set at defiance the destructive efforts of man. Thus have we seen of late years, that the most fearful and long-protracted wars, which one might have imagined would have devastated the fairest parts of Europe, have not checked a surprising increase in its population, and the destructive effects of the most fatal pestilence have vanished with a promptness that seemed to keep pace with the preceding havoc. Bigotry and fanaticism are the only scourges which appear to dare the benevolent views of Providence, and when we traverse the desolate fields of most Roman Catholic countries, one would imagine that Heaven has abandoned their inhabitants to their own blind wills and evil ways. Spain at this period and at many epochs of her bloody history, seems to corroborate the fable of the Titans who sought refuge in that ill-fated land from the anger of the gods.[48]