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]
To return: we find in the preceding _resumes_ of longevity that poets are
the shortest-lived; next to them, authors on natural religion, dramatists,
and novelists. May not this circumstance be attributed to the fervour of
their imagination and to their unequal mode of living? A species of
madness is the attribute of genius. Many authors on natural religion may
come under the denomination of monomaniacs. The jealous irritability of
poets and dramatists,--and next to them in the scale of vanity we find
musicians,--may also contribute to wear them out, and bring on various
chronic diseases, by digestive derangements; more especially as their
habits of living are seldom regular, fits of sobriety alternating with
bouts of merry-making. Moral philosophers, painters, and sculptors, whose
average life appears the longest, follow more sedentary pursuits; and,
although artists in general cannot boast of remarkable discretion in their
mode of living, the nature of their profession requires much steadiness.
It is moreover to be observed that, in the preceding calculation,
historical painters have chiefly been noticed. Would the same calculation
apply to the lighter branches of the art? It has been remarked that actors
generally attain old age, notwithstanding the fatiguing and harassing
nature of their profession. This may be attributed to the constant
excitement of a similar nature to which they are subject, as well as to
their continued exposure to the sudden transitions from heat to cold,
which renders them less susceptible of the variations of temperature that
affect those who can avoid these vicissitudes. Any person who would expose
himself to the constant checked perspirations to which dancers are liable,
would infallibly pay dear for the experiment; and those who have had
occasion to witness the fatigues of their exercises, marvel at their not
being constantly attacked with pulmonary inflammation, and the many
maladies that result from similar exposures. On the very same principle,
troops when engaged upon active service do not suffer from the inclemency
of the weather, although saturated with wet by day, and sleeping under
torrents of rain by night. So long as they are marching with an object in
view, this excitement supports them, even against hunger; but the moment
this excitement ceases, let them halt, in tranquil cantonments, or
commence a retreat under unfavourable circumstances, that moment the
invasion of disease is observed. The chief source of health and long life
is an equilibrious state of the circulation. This condition a moderate
mental excitement tends to maintain. Depression, on the contrary, will
produce a languid flow of the vital stream, congestion, and chronic
diseases.
On the same principle, good temper and hilarity are also necessary to
prolong life. Violent passions must tend to occasion dangerous
determinations, while the inward gnawings of offended vanity and pride
corrode every viscus, and lay the seeds of future mental and bodily
sufferings. Apathy and insensibility are, unfortunately, the best sources
of peace of mind, and as Fontenelle observed, a good stomach and a bad
heart are essential to happiness. Perhaps the best maxim to prolong our
days, and render them as tolerable as possible, is the "_Bene vivere et
laetari_."
I have just observed that conformation materially affects our existence;
and this circumstance may in a great measure be referred to temper, and
the wear and tear that it occasions in ill-conditioned individuals. Little
people seldom attain the longevity of stronger individuals; and it is also
a well-known fact that diminutive persons are generally spiteful and
malicious. As Providence has bestowed destructive venoms on reptiles, so
has it gifted these insignificant members of society with obnoxious
qualities, to make amends for their want of physical power in the
strategies of attack and defence. The same observation holds good with the
deformed; but here we have a moral cause for this sourness of disposition.
They too frequently are objects of ridicule, contempt, or pity, sentiments
the most humiliating to mankind. In childhood they are not able to partake
of the boisterous and active sports of their companions; they have not the
power to resent an injury, and the more powerless we are, the greater is
our thirst of revenge. Hence does tyranny degrade, and renders its victims
cruel and vindictive. The deformed, moreover, find it necessary to improve
their intellectual faculties, which in aftertimes fill their quivers with
keen shafts of retaliation. In this study they also have more leisure, and
they apply to their books while their comrades are at play. This very
study adds to their sense of inferiority; they can never hope to share the
warrior's laurels, or, what is perhaps still more painful, the myrtle of
successful love. Their only chance of success in either of these careers
is by kindling wars by their intrigues, or winning a woman's heart by
intellectual superiority,--two very improbable events. Thus they gradually
envy men who are looked upon by the world as their superiors, and hate
women for the preference they show to those privileged individuals. In
general we find these ill-shaped beings bitterly sarcastic whenever
woman's name is mentioned. Pope, perhaps from these very reasons, was
inexhaustible in his abuse of the sex: and Boileau abhorred them, since he
had been emasculated by a turkey-cock.
The intellectual superiority of hunchbacks has also been attributed to
their physical condition; and it is generally believed that with them the
circulation of blood in the brain is more rapid than in well-conformed
subjects, and this increased action is supposed to contribute materially
to the vivacity of the imagination, and the quickness of apprehension.
Another circumstance is said to increase their mental powers, and that is,
their continence, considered both by the ancients and the moderns as a
source of intellectual energies. Minerva and the Muses were virgins; and
in this and other fabulous traditions, we find the ancients illustrating
in their mythologic allegories many physical facts and observations. Our
Bacon had made the same remark; and Newton, and many other great men,
considered the passion of love beneath the dignity of science. Continence
and abstinence were deemed by Horace as indispensable privations in the
cultivation of genius. In the deformed both are to a certain degree
natural, or at least cannot be lost sight of without endangering life. The
digestive powers of the deformed are generally weak; and this debility has
ever been looked upon as a concomitant of superior intellects. Thus in
Celsus, "_Imbecilli stomacho pene omnes cupidi litterarum sunt_;" while on
the contrary, "_Obesus venter non parit subtilem intellectum_."
The common expression of a child being too clever to live, is
unfortunately founded on observation. Scrofulous and sickly children are
in general remarkable for the quickness of their intellects; and Rousseau
maintained that a man who could meditate was a depraved animal. It is a
fact that the perfection of one faculty can seldom be attained but at the
expense of others. The more our faculties are generally called into
action, the less perfect will they be individually;--"_Pluribus intentus,
minor est ad singula_." Thus, the singing of birds is improved by
depriving them of sight.
The influence of the mind upon our health is as evident as the influence
of our health in the duration of existence. This corollary explains the
shortness of life of the diminutive and the deformed, unconnected with
such physical defects of organization as might impede the due exercise of
their organs.
The fable of Prometheus is a strong illustration of the pernicious effects
of intemperance; and by Darwin, and other physiologists, has been
considered as comparing the celestial fire that he purloined, to the
artificial inspirations of excitement that ultimately preys upon the liver
and the other viscera like a voracious vulture. A much deeper philosophy
is concealed in this theogenic allegory. Prometheus was the son of
Japetus; brother to Atlas, Menoetius, and Epimetheus, who all surpassed
mankind in fraud and in guilt. Prometheus himself scoffed the gods, and
violated their shrine. Heaven and Earth had formed his father, who had
united his destinies with Clymene, one of the Oceanides. Thus Prometheus
and Epimetheus arose from the very cradle of the universe; and their very
names, [Greek: Promandanein] and [Greek: Epimandanein], signify foresight
and improvidence,--_praediscere et postea discere_,--the prevalent
characteristics of all mortals, that either tend to promote or retard the
progress of human reason and human happiness. Prometheus strove impiously
to possess himself of Divine knowledge, and created man with a base
amalgam of earth and the bones of animals, vivified by the celestial fire
he had obtained. Jupiter, indignant at his audacity, commanded Vulcan to
create a beauteous tempter in the form of woman, on whom every attractive
gift might be conferred; and Pandora was sent upon earth with the fatal
present of the father of the gods, the box that contained all the evils
and distempers that were destined for mankind. The foresight of Prometheus
resisted her charms; his improvident brother opened the dreaded casket.
Have we not here an illustration of the vanity of science, that aims even
at Divine attributes, and whose votaries, like Prometheus, would
endeavour, if possible, to deprive wisdom of her power, and break down the
boundaries of human intellects? His punishment describes in energetic
language the endless and consuming studies of the learned, whose very
viscera are corroded in lucubrations too often fruitless, and not
unfrequently injurious to themselves and others. Hercules alone could
relieve him from his torments:--and does not Hercules in this allegory
typify the power of reason, that enables us to release the mind from the
trammels both of ignorance and vanity, separated from each other by a
gossamer partition? Prometheus, who could resist the most powerful of
temptations,--beauty and talent combined,--dared Olympus to seek for that
wisdom which would have doomed him to everlasting sufferings, had not
strength of mind and the powers of reflection destroyed his merciless
tormentor. Can we be surprised that the ancients consecrated games to this
beautiful allegory?--games that are still carried on in our days; but,
alas! where every vain competitor pretends that he has reached the goal
with an unextinguished torch!