In all statistical work of an individual type the histories of
the lower classes are almost excluded; in the olden times only
the lives and movements of the most prominent are thought worthy
of record. The reliable parish register is too often monopolized
by the gentry, inferior births not being thought worth recording.
Many eminent scientists say that the natural term of the life of
an animal is five times the period needed for its development.
Taking twenty-one as the time of maturity in man, the natural
term of human life would be one hundred and five. Sir Richard
Owen fixes it at one hundred and three and a few months.
Censuses of Centenarians.--Dr. Farr, the celebrated English
Registrar-General, is credited with saying that out of every
1,000,000 people in England only 223 live to be one hundred years
old, making an average of one to 4484. French says that during a
period of ten years, from 1881 to 1890, in Massachusetts, there
were 203 deaths of persons past the age of one hundred, making an
average, with a population of 394,484, of one in 1928. Of
French's centenarians 165 were between one hundred and one
hundred and five; 35 were between one hundred and five and one
hundred and ten; five were between one hundred and ten and one
hundred and fifteen; and one was one hundred and eighteen.
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