COMPARATIV
LONGEVITY
ERAY
LANKESTER
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Dr. Haven Emerson

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Lappers.
lyrafte
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429 Lankester (E Ray) On Comparative
Longevity in Man and the Lower Animals
London, Macmillan and Co, 1870
8vo
12s 6d
Orig. cloth, soiled. The author was awarded
a prize offered in the University of Oxford for this, one
of his earliest, if not his first, separate work
$
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COMPARATIVE LONGEVITY.
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M
ON
1
COMPARATIVE LONGEVITY
1
IN MAN
AND THE LOWER ANIMALS
BY
E. RAY LANKESTER, B. A.
-
Junior Student of Christ Church, Oxford
London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1870
Public Health
QP
85
'L244
OXFORD.
By T. Combe, MA, E B Gardner, E P Hall, and H Latham, MA,
PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.
Public Health
esigt
Dr Haven Emerson
12-4-54
PREFACE.
A PRIZE was recently offered in the University of Oxford
for an Essay on Longevity, and was awarded to the
little treatise now published. In the following pages the
scope proposed in the subject given for the essay, viz. The
Comparative Longevity of different species of lower Animals
and the Longevity of Man in different states of Civilization,'
has been adhered to. The subject does not admit of very
satisfactory treatment from a scientific point of view, and is
accordingly one which probably few persons would have
selected to write upon, unless under special circumstances,
such as were present in this case. At the same time,
Longevity is a subject of great popularity, and hence the
facts and arguments herein set forth may, it is hoped,
interest the public. One result which I hope to attain, by
the favour of those who may read my pages, is the accu-
mulation of an increased number of really trustworthy facts
bearing on the questions raised. I venture to beg all those
who have it in their power to communicate such facts to
me, to do so.
MELTON HOUSE, HAMPSTEAD,
December 18, 1869.
b
E. R. L.
CONTENTS.
1 Introductory
2. Writers on Longevity, and geneial Sources of Information
A. Longevity in Organisms generally.
3. Longevity defined
PAGE
I
3
15
4. The various kinds of Longevity
·
19
5. Inherent Death
6. Elements of the Life Period
30
45
7. High Individuation favours Longevity .
46
8. Small Expenditure favours Longevity
47
9. Why Longevity is thus influenced
50
10. Inductive
54
Statements as to Duration of the Individual in Organisms :
Animals
•
Vegetals
•
Lord Bacon's Statements on the subject
11. Other Relations of Longevity
12. Some Experimental Evidence
13. Summary
B. The Longevity of Man.
14. Preliminary
•
15. Sources of Information as to Human Longevity
55
бо
62
80
84
87
88
98
**
b 2
vili
CONTENTS.
PAGE
16. Statements as to the Duration of Human Life
A. Hebrew
B. Individual Opinion
C. Chinese Division of Life (Sir J. Bowling)
104
104
104
105
•
D. Flourens' Division of Life
105
E. Old Men in China (Sir J. Bowring)
105
F. Shortness of German Lives.
106
G. Shortness of American Lives
106
H Savages
107
I. Average Age of Persons of various Occupations dying
at fifty-one and upwards (Guy)
107
J Average at Death of Sovereigns of various laces dying
at fifty-one and upwards (Guy)
108
K Comparison of Ages at Death, of three centuries (Guy)
L Comparative Longevity of Mairied and Unmairied
108
108
M Comparative Longevity of more and less Distinguished
Persons
109
N Probable after-lifetime of Males at Age x, from Farr
and Quetelet
109
O Probable after-lifetime of Females at Age x, from Fair
and Quetelet
ΙΙΟ
P. Probable after-lifetime for Both Sexes, at Age x, from
Farı and Quetelet
III
Q. Probable after-lifetime at Age x, from Old and In-
accurate Sources (Quetelet). Both Sexes
II2
R. Probable after-lifetime at Age x, from Hendriks
S. Probable after-lifetime at Age x, Both Sexes (Scotch
Lives)
•
113
114
T. Tables based on limited Data and relating to Sections
of the Community
115
U. Calculations on a smaller Basis of Facts, by Dr. Guy
116
CONTENTS.
ix
17. General Conclusions from the foregoing Statements and
PAGE
Tables
117
18. Interpretation by the Law
119
19. Duration of Life in past Time
125
20. The Influence of various States of Civilization
126
21. Abnormal Longevity in Man
129
ARGUMENT.
1. Introductory.-2. Writers on Longevity and General Sources
of Information.-A. Longevity in Organisms generally. 3. Lon-
gevity defined.-4. The various kinds of Longevity. 5. Inherent
Death.-6. Elements of the Life Period.-7. High Individuation
favours Longevity.-8. Small Expenditure favours Longevity.—
9. Why Longevity is thus influenced.-10. Inductive.-11. Other
Relations of Longevity.-12. Some Experimental Evidence.-13.
Summary.-B. Longevity of Man. 14. Preliminary.-15. Sources
of Information as to Human Longevity.-16. Statements as to
the Duration of Human Life.-17. General Conclusions from the
foregoing Statements and Tables.-18. Interpretation of the Law.
-19. Duration of Life in Past Time.-20. The Influence of
various States of Civilization.—21. Abnormal Longevity in Man.
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
AN ESSAY ON THE COMPARATIVE LONGEVITY OF
DIFFERENT SPECIES OF LOWER ANIMALS, AND
THE LONGEVITY OF MAN IN DIFFERENT STATES
OF CIVILIZATION.
1. Introductory.
THE periodic phenomena observable in organisms
have always a special interest for students of Nature.
on account of the extreme obscurity of their rela-
tions, as well as from the practical importance which
they possess for mankind. There is probably but
small room for doubt that ultimately the various
recurring periods of death, of reproduction, of sleep,
of hybernation, of gestation, of puberty, are all re-
lated to or derive their origin from those great astro-
nomical cycles of change in the relative positions
of sun, moon, and earth-which we know as year,
month, and day. Whilst in some of the periodic
phenomena of organisms this relation is clear and
direct, in others it is obscured by the introduction
B
2
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
of most complex factors, which do not permit us to
trace in the majority of organisms the operation of
the astronomical cause. The duration of life¹ is
vastly influenced by varying conditions in various
organisms, but the prime factor in all cases is the
influence of changing day and night, of alternate
winter and summer, or wet and dry season.2 How
this influence is modified by the creation of cor-
respondences between organisms and their sur-
roundings, or how, in the words of the philosophy
of evolution, new factors have arisen in the pro-
gressive development of organisms by the law of
the survival of the fittest, is to be the subject of
enquiry in this essay.
Although it is vain (with present knowledge) to
expect to gain a complete insight into those agree-
ments between beings and their environment, of
which the duration of life is one, yet certain facts
and considerations have been pointed out which go
1 The great importance which man attaches himself to long life, gives
the enquiry into longevity in animals a greater importance than it deserves
as a physiological or philosophical question The varying intensity of
life in different species, and the average mortality of a species, are more
clearly influential quantities in nature than the possible length of life.
Time does not appear in the organic world as an easily recognisable
factor, for though in life as in levers what is lost in power is gained in
time, it is difficult to distribute the amount of life of any given species
rightly between intensity and length
2 In other words, astronomical cycles have furnished the unit for
organic cycles. The cyclical character has been as it were impressed
upon organic matter, by the great cycles of the universe. No further
implication is intended in the text.
1
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
3
far towards enabling us so to do. From the time of
Aristotle onwards, observers and philosophers have
accumulated facts and multiplied speculation on the
causes of longevity: the field is a well-trodden one,
and for many years to come any increased knowledge
of it must be looked for rather from the examination
of long-acquired facts and their re-arrangement, than
from new or unexpected observations ¹ by individual
workers.
1
2. Writers on Longevity, and general Sources of
Information.
In consequence of the general nature of the en-
quiry proposed in this essay, we have little in
common with those who in former ages have en-
larged upon the possible means of prolonging human
life; nor are we concerned specially with those
questions as to the possible and extreme periods
of man's tenure of existence, which to-day occupy
the attention of many literary men of an antiquarian
or curious turn of mind. In the writings of these
men we cannot expect to find more than one limited
class of facts bearing on comparative longevity; and
in too many cases the facts so called are not sup-
ported by scientific evidence. In a recent article in
¹ It will be seen below how vast an amount of enquiry has yet to be
made, as to length of life in animals and men. No single individual can
do much in this matter in less than a lifetime.
B 2
4
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
2
the 'Quarterly Review,'¹ and still more lately in the
'Fortnightly Review,' admirable résumés are given
of what is known and has been supposed with regard
to this possibility of human life—a subject to which
the term 'longevity' has had its meaning narrowed,
but one which will here be treated subordinately.
It will be unnecessary therefore to refer further to
authorities on this question, until their opinions are
discussed. Naturalists and philosophers, including
Aristotle, Bacon, and Haller, have incidentally given
expression to opinion as to the causes of the varied
tenure of life of organisms; but naturally the later
writers have had a larger number of facts to deal
with, and have been able to bring a sounder scientific
knowledge to bear on the problem than those who
preceded them. The treatise of Bacon, entitled
Historia Vitæ et Mortis,' contains a most admirable
enquiry into the causes of longevity. The question
is attacked from every side, and the most ingenious
hypotheses, with regard to animals and men, are
suggested and discussed with that order and pre-
cision which belong to the great philosopher. At
the same time, it must be admitted that, in Bacon's
time, strange traditions and superstitions held men's
minds, and that he actually, who shewed the means
January, 1868.
Also see Sir Henry Holland's able Essay on
Human Longevity' in the Edinburgh Review,' 1857, hereafter
referred to again.
2 April, 1869.
AN ESSAY ON LÖNGEVITY.
5
by which we have become free from such impedi-
ments, was to a considerable extent affected in this
way. The account of the ages attained by various
species of birds and animals, given by Bacon, is very
extensive, and his remarks upon each case valuable
These are referred to hereafter; but his statements.
with regard to various cases of human longevity are
less trustworthy, as well as his discussion of the value
of inunction, of smelling fresh earth on waking, and
other curious devices for prolonging life: little re-
liance, moreover, can be placed on the strange con-
nections between longevity and personal qualities and
characteristics, such as hairiness and temper, which
Bacon enumerates This treatise, however, is well.
worth the study of those interested in the subject, if
only as a collection of strange fancies. Bacon's con-
clusions set forth in the thirty-two canons at the close
of his treatise, explain variations in longevity as due
to variations in the density of the 'vital spirits,' and
other causes affecting these spirits. The work of the
Prussian physician, C F. Hufeland, entitled 'The Art
of Prolonging the Life of Man,' published in the be-
ginning of this century, is to a great extent founded
on Bacon's work, from whom most of his facts are
derived. The advance in science during a century
and a half, enabled him to treat the subject in a less
metaphysical style than Bacon could; at the same
time, his philosophy is one which has now in its turn
become antiquated. Hufeland endeavours, by an
6
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS
examination of the various leases of life in the vegetable
and animal world and their connected conditions, to
discover what will favour and what will combat the
prolongation of life in man; and the latter part of his
work is a recommendation of temperance and regu-
larity in the exercise of the various functions, such
being the lesson derived from his general study. At
the outset of his enquiry Hufeland observes, 'Is it
then impossible to penetrate the intimate nature of
this sacred flame (life), and to learn to distinguish
what will feed it from what will diminish it? I
know how rash is the enterprise I have undertaken.
I am about to approach a sanctuary from which
so many presumptuous men have had to depart
abashed and confused, and of which Haller himself,
the favoured confidant of Nature, has said that no
mortal can penetrate therein.' Hufeland had no
cause to regret his enterprise, for though he did
not accomplish his task, which indeed he could not
hope to do, he has shewn an excellent path, which
it remains for others to improve and extend.
The general conclusions Hufeland arrived at are
as follows. He says, 'The duration of life depends.
then, in general, on the following circumstances. Ist.
It depends on the quantity of vital force contained
in the body. . . . 2nd. Life consumes and destroys
not only vital force, but also the organs; the de-
struction of life ought then to occur later in a body
endowed with vigorous organs than in one in which
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
7
the organs are delicate, . . Thus, a certain solidity
of general organisation and a suitable condition of
the vital organs are the second condition on which
length of life depends. 3rd. The consumption (of
vital force and of organs) may be more or less rapid,
consequently its duration, or, what amounts to the
same thing, that of life, may be, other things being
equal as regards forces and organs, shorter or longer,
according as the act of destruction operates with more.
or less intensity. 4th. Finally, since the reparation
of losses is the principal means of counteracting con-
sumption, a body which has the most perfect means.
of regeneration, both internal and external, will en-
dure a longer time than one not provided with these
means. In a word, the duration of life in a being
depends on the sum of the vital forces which it
possesses, on the greater or less consistence of its
organs, on the rapidity or the slowness of its con-
sumption, and on the perfection or imperfection of
regeneration.'1
The only criticisms on these views which it is at
present useful to make, is that they involve certain
ideas which have become modified with the advance
of science, and hence require to be adapted to present
knowledge. In the sequel it will be seen how far
they differ or agree with modern conclusions.
¹ Hufeland observes in one passage, 'The more imperfect the or-
ganisation the longer the life,' after describing the prolongation of life
in plants by pruning. His own facts are sufficient to lefute this as a
general law. The truth is the very opposite of this.
8
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
A second work on Longevity, which treats of the
general subject, and which therefore has an interest
for the present enquiry, is that of the late P. Flou-
rens, who was perpetual secretary to the Academy
of Sciences of Paris, and Professor of Comparative
Physiology at the Museum of Natural History.
Flourens' work is devoted to human longevity in
its first part, and in this connection he considers
the longevity of other mammalia in order to answer
this question, Is there any sure characteristic in
animals from which we may infer their length of
life? He gives the supposed age of several mam-
mals, and the age at which the epiphyses of their
bones are supposed to become united throughout
the skeleton, and from this comparison he comes to
the conclusion that in mammals and man the period.
of life is five times that of the period of growth,—a
very neat and valuable rule to aid us in examining
the question of the causes of longevity, were there
a real foundation for it in fact.¹ The data used by
M. Flourens are, however, very few and of small
credibility, whilst such as they are, they do not bear
out his law of an exact quintuple ratio. The sug-
gestion of fixing by the junction of the osseous
epiphyses the period of growth, is nevertheless one
of great practical value.
In a work entitled, 'Life, its Nature, Varieties and
1 Buffon had previously supposed a ratio of 7 to 1 as that of the
length of life to length of growth.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
9
Phenomena,' Mr. Leo H. Grindon has discussed what
he terms the various leases of life in plants and
animals, using the data and inferences of Bacon,
Hufeland, and Flourens to a very large extent, but
adding some which are of value. The relation of
length of life to bulk, intensity, and fertility, which
have been more or less clearly apparent to all who
have thought on the matter from early times, are
briefly set forth, and apparent exceptions to the laws
enunciated are attributed to special design on the
part of the Creator, to serve the special require-
ments of the exceptional organism, or of some other
organism dependent on it.
Lastly, in regard to works, the volumes of Mr.
Herbert Spencer must be mentioned For whether
we accept the new philosophy of Evolution, so mar-
vellously born of Mr. Darwin's theory of the Origin
of Species, or cling to an older belief, the fitness
of things to their conditions, the correspondences of
organisms to their environment, so ably set forth in
Mr. Spencer's grand work, must enter into our theory
of Nature. It may be a fair boast of the evolutionist.
that the founder of his philosophy has been led by
the course of his speculations to trace a closer con-
nection, a more complete adaptation of living things
to their wants than the teleologist ever even hinted
at, much as such a close connection would have
added to the consistency of his theory of design.
In his 'Principles of Biology,' Mr. Spencer, in the
IO
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
chapters on Genesis and on Multiplication, estab-
lishes certain laws of correspondence, which, together
with the facts he so adequately cites, have the closest
bearing on the antecedents of longevity. Never-
theless it is to be noted that the term 'longevity'
is not once used in these chapters, nor is the dura-
tion of individual life discussed directly at all. Did
the nature of this essay permit, it would be perhaps
the most satisfactory way of treating the question
of longevity, to assume the contents of Mr. Spencer's
volumes and to write a last chapter on the Duration
of Individuals. This is not, however, the form which
it is deemed right to adopt upon the present occasion,
though frequent reference to and use of the views
of this most eminent philosopher will be made.
Having dismissed the subject of books, let us con-
sider for a moment the nature of the data which
are available with regard to the duration of life.
We shall find that the paucity and uncertainty of
observations on this class of facts is something really
extreme. Lord Bacon, in his 'Historia Vitæ et
Mortis,' makes a remark which is true to this day :-
'De diuturnitate, et brevitate vitæ in animalibus
tenuis est informatio, quæ haberi potest; observatio
negligens; traditio fabulosa; in cicurribus vita
degener corrumpit; in sylvestribus injuria cœli in-
tercipit." To begin with man himself, we have sta-
1 Montagu's edition, 1828, vol. x. p. 134.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
I I
tistics, individual assertions, general impressions, ex-
periment. It might be supposed that statistics would
furnish very valuable evidence on this matter; but,
in the first place, it is only within certain European
areas and a part of America that statistics relating
to age are prepared, and the qualifications to which
these are subject, from the shifting of population, are
of a very complex character; further, there is a re-
markable personal equation in the observers, who
are at the same time the subjects of the enquiry
into age, which it seems almost impossible fairly
to estimate. Men do not tell the truth as to their
age, either from ignorance or from deceitfulness. The
ill-educated and the aged are specially likely to make
false statements from ignorance, whilst that 'vanity
which never grows old'¹ affects equally the state-
ments of old and young.
Individual assertions, taken alone and apart from
the correction which the average of a vast number
must ensure, are of course still less to be depended
upon, and for the same reasons General impressions,
such as are imparted to us by travellers, by poets, and
even historians, are of very small value when they
relate to the duration of life, where it is so easy to
confuse wear and one of its factors age. Experiment
of what will ensure long duration of life in himself
has been too rarely tried by man to make this class
of evidence of any scientific value, whilst amongst
1 Buffon.
I 2
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
animals man seems never to have selected or en-
deavoured to produce longevity, probably because
of its uselessness; had he done so, we might hope
for some valuable facts from his experiments.
With regard to observations on the length of life of
other animals, the certain knowledge is very small,
only that tenure of life which is very brief being
easily observed.¹ The greatest uncertainty or even
ignorance prevails as to the duration of life of even
the commonest mammals, birds, and fishes; in most
cases it seems only possible to say that it is not less
than a certain period. This of course furnishes a
limited means of comparison. A writer in the 'Eng-
lish Cyclopædia' says: Of the age to which the
horse would naturally arrive, it is impossible to say
anything satisfactory. Many have exceeded thirty,
and some of them even forty, but from ill usage and
over-exertion the majority come to their end before
they have seen nine or ten years' M. Flourens gives
exceedingly wide ranges for many mammals in his
book above noted, whilst it is obvious, if we consider
the position of many wild animals, such as the larger
¹ We may naturally suppose that if we are ignorant with regard to
man to the extent above shewn, still more à fortiori shall we be ignorant
as to wild animals, to none of which has statistical examination been
applied, nor probably can be in any but the 1alest cases It is clear,
since animals do not carry the number of the years of their proper life
marked on their bodies, like any of those specific characters which are stiuc-
tural we can only form guesses as to this period from individual cases.
2 C Knight's English Cyclopædia,' Article Horse.'
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
13
carnivora, most birds, reptiles, fishes, and aquatic
animals, that any suppositions as to their duration of
life can rest on but few facts. In reply to enquiries,
Mr. Charles Darwin writes that he has no informa-
tion with regard to the longevity of the nearest
wild representatives of our domesticated animals,
nor notes as to the longevity of our quadrupeds.¹
Mr. Thomas Bell, the author of most valuable works
on 'British Quadrupeds,' 'British Reptiles,' and 'Bri-
tish Crustacea Podophthalmia,' in reply to special
enquiry, writes that the opportunities of observation
are few, and the results necessarily uncertain as to
length of life in Reptiles and Crustacea.2 Dr. Gun-
ther, of the British Museum, a most able ichthyologist
and naturalist, remarks, in a letter in reply to en-
quiries,' There is scarcely anything positive known
of the age and causes of death of various fishes.' So,
too, in Mr. Yarrell's works little is said of duration
of life; whilst in Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys' admirable treatise
on the British Mollusca a similar absence of know-
ledge with regard to those animals is admitted. The
Insects form a remarkable exception, since in a great
number of them the duration of life is well known.s
1 Mr. Darwin very kindly furnished me with a note relative to the
age of certain buds, which is quoted in the Table of Statements, which
follows.
2 He, however, gives two facts which are mentioned in the Table of
Statements.
*
3 Only comparatively well known,' however, for the relative duration
of life in different species of insects, involving a matter of months and
days, is not known
14
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
Of still lower forms of life there is as little knowledge
in most cases as in the higher forms. The Vegetable
division of organisms among its higher and terrestrial
members furnishes ample data; the ages of trees,
shrubs, and such like forms appear to be well
ascertained, but those whose condition and struc-
ture is diversified by aquatic habitat, leave us as
much in ignorance as do similarly inaccessible.
animals.
Here, then, before entering on this enquiry, whilst
but looking out on the road, we see how few are the
guide-posts-how small the assurance we can have of
taking the right turning. When that immense engine
of scientific observation, which is wielded by statisti-
cians, has been fairly and fully applied to the human
species and to such of the many and varied forms
of animal life as may be possible, not only so as to
determine length, but other quantitative phenomena ¹
of life also, then we may hope to see the problem,
about to be discussed, definitely and clearly investi-
gated by inductive methods.
1 Such are the time of gestation, incubation, metamorphosis, of hyber-
nation, of sleep, of growth, the amount of deaths and buths at various
ages, of food consumed, of force exerted-phenomena, none of which
can be measured or determined by isolated cases, but require, like
longevity the examination of vast numbers to give true results, varying
as they may do in the individuals of a species.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
15
A. LONGEVITY IN ORGANISMS GENERALLY.
3. Longevity defined.
It is very necessary to have a clear perception of
the meaning of the principal terms involved in the
consideration of the duration of life. By 'longevity'
must be understood the length of time during which
life is exhibited in an individual.¹ Unless we intro-
duce the term 'individual,' and assign to it a definite.
meaning, we become involved in numerous difficulties
when making a comparison of the length of life in
different species of organic beings. However im-
portant in a zoological sense the definition of 'in-
dividual' may be which regards the various forms and
existences appertaining to a species between ovum
and ovum, as the individual of that species, for
physiological purposes, such a definition cannot be
accepted. The whole product of a fertilized germ,
whilst it no doubt, in many cases, agrees with all
requirements as a definition of the individual of a
species, is yet, in many other cases, open to much
1 Though longevity is thus limited on the present occasion, in ac-
cordance with the ordinary usage of the term, it is only right to remind
the reader that there is a vastly important and most interesting aspect of
longevity which has been but little written on or considered as yet, and
which it is to be regretted we cannot now enter upon. The longevity of
races and species (as such) is the subject to which allusion is made. în
connection with the Darwinian theory and struggle for existence, the
longevity of species will prove a most fertile field of research.
16
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
1
objection. In the Vertebrata, in Mollusca, in most
Insects, such a definition is unobjectionable; but when
we consider the numerous examples of asexual re-
production we are led into difficulty. 'It seems a
questionable use of language to say that the countless
masses of Anacharis alsinastrum which, within these
few years, have grown up in our rivers, canals, and
ponds are all parts of one individual.' And yet, as
this plant does not seed in England, these countless
masses, having arisen by asexual multiplication, must
be so regarded, if the above definition be accepted.
In the Hydrozoa are we to ascribe the same amount
of individuality to those forms which give rise to
separate polypidoms by the separation of budded
offspring, as to those to which these remain attached,
to form a compound polypidom? The same difficulty
occurs with the lower Annelids and Vermes, with
Aphis, and such asexually proliferous insects, and
with multiaxial plants whose buds are capable of
separation and the initiation of distinct existences.
An illustration of the perplexity into which the above
definition of the individual would lead us in regard to
the question of longevity is furnished by such com-
pound organisms as are known among the Actinozoa.
'Ehrenberg judges that certain enormous corals which
he saw in the Red Sea, and parts of which are still
tenanted by working polypes, were alive in the time of
the Pharaohs, and have been growing and enlarging
1 Spencer.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
17
ever since. Others of equally vast age have been
observed in the waters of tropical America.'¹ If we
regard the whole product of the fertilized germ
as an individual, then we must conclude that these
corals have a longevity of more than 3000 years,
though we well know that countless generations
of asexually-produced polyps have succeeded one
another in these great coral masses. Without further
discussing the question here, we may adopt Mr.
Spencer's view, that there is no possible definition of
individual which is absolutely unobjectionable. 'In-
dividualities merge and are distributed, in such cases
as fusion and fission, which renders the estimation of
their longevity a matter of great indefiniteness, and
we shall find it most agreeable to all the facts in
issue, to consider as individuals all those wholly or
partially independent organized masses which arise
by multicentral and multiaxial development that is
either continuous or discontinuous.' 2
The period of life which we must compare in dif-
ferent species is then that presented by individuals
as above defined. We have not to consider the life
of attached gemmæ, nor of unlaid ova. Such life is
not the life of distinct individuals. Thus then, for our
purpose, all parts of a tree, as long as they remain
attached to the original axis, are but one individual.
But we have to consider and compare the duration
C
1 Leo Grindon: Life,' &c p 99.
2 Principles of Biology' Spencer, vol. i. p. 207.
C
18
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
of life of all separated and independent organized
masses: the branch is part of the individual tree
while it is attached thereto; but if it be removed
when young and grafted or bedded, it is a new in-
dividuality and has its own longevity So with the
bedded polyps or worm-segments: whilst attached,
they have but one individuality; when thrown off or
disunited by the death of their common parent or
axis, they are distinct individualities. Though not
fully satisfactory, such seems to be the fittest use of
the word 'individual' in relation to our subject.
Certain difficulties are also involved in the term
'life.' For, whilst in this essay it is beside the subject
to enter into an explanation or definition of that
phenomenon, we are certainly called upon to consider
whether, in defining longevity as the duration of life.
of an individual, we regard the suspended animation
of such organisms as Rotifera, Tardigrada, and some
Nematodes, as also the retarded development of
seeds, such as those of Egyptian wheat obtained
from the most ancient monuments, as coming into
consideration as instances of duration of life. The
best solution which can be given of this difficulty
appears to be in regarding these cases as strictly
exceptional, and as being rather examples of suspen-
sion of life than of its duration. Though the condi-
tions under which this suspension occurs may furnish
some evidence as to the conditions favourable to the
retention of vitality by an organism, they must be
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
19
looked upon as abnormal, and not credited with a
false significance. The life of a dried Rotifer is
rather potential or latent life than efficient life, and
it is with efficient life that our definition of longevity
deals.¹ Doubtless efficient life, by approximating
more closely, from time to time, or continuously, to
this merely potential life, has its term extended in
various cases; 2 but the normal and natural course
of events must not be confounded with what is
abnormal and accidental. With these qualifications,
longevity may be defined as the length of duration.
of life of an individual. With this meaning of the
term we may now endeavour to see how the longevity
of various organisms may be compared.
4. The various kinds of Longevity.
Great as is our ignorance with regard to longevity
in all that relates to accuracy and detail, yet there are
a few patent facts within everyone's experience which
it is well to consider at once. Firstly, various indi-
viduals enjoy various durations of life. That men, cats,
1 Professor Owen 1emaiks in a recent note ('Monthly Microsc. Journal,'
vol. 1. p. 294)—There are organisms (Vibio, Rotifer, Maciobiotus, &c)
which we can devitalize and revitalize-devive and revive-many times.
As the dried animalcule manifests no phenomenon suggesting any idea
contributing to form the complex one of "life" in my mind, I regard it
to be as completely lifeless as is the drowned man whose breath and
heat have gone, and whose blood has ceased to ciculate.'
2 Ex. gr. Parasitic worms which become encysted: hybernation ap-
proaches this condition in great measure.
C 2
20
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
mice, bees, and buttercups live for different periods
of time, is matter of experience, and not only this,
but all men do not live equally long, nor all cats, nor
all bees and flowers. Hence every individual has its
own longevity, if we understand that term to mean
duration of life. On looking a little further, we
readily discover that there is a closer agreement as
to duration of life (though we cannot deal with accu-
rate numbers) between the individuals of the same
species than there is between the individuals of dif-
ferent species; and though the individuals of the
same species exhibit great variation in their length
of life, yet there is a probable duration which cha-
racterizes the species, and is the same therefore for
all the individuals. We thus, then, have individual
and specific longevity. But when we try to form
some more definite notion of this 'specific longevity,'
great difficulties have to be encountered.
By 'specific longevity' we may mean the average
longevity of the individuals of a species, that is, the
average duration of life of all the individuals born;
and had we data for various organisms as we have
for some groups of mankind, we should speak of this
period as the expectation of life at birth, and could
assign to it a fixed quantity, as is done for men. On
the other hand, a very different term is that which
we usually speak of as the 'longevity' of this or that
race, family, or species. Howsoever ignorant we are
of numbers in this matter, though it is even difficult.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
2 I
to define what are the limits of the period to which
we refer, yet, in speaking of 'longevity' of groups of
beings, we usually mean the potential longevity-or
'lease of life,' as Mr. Grindon terms it—and do not
allow the average longevity, affected as it is by
disease and accident at all periods of life, to enter
into our consideration.
The term 'mortality' is usually applied to the ques-
tion of average longevity, and hence, in accordance
with general convention, longevity may be under-
stood to refer to potential longevity. Once for all,
here it may be pointed out how slightly these quan-
tities can affect each other, though they are to a
certain extent related. Mortality has been largely
studied in the case of man, and much more is known
of it than of longevity in his case; but among animals
and plants generally, vastly important as mortality is
in regard to the necessities of life and of organisms,
there is as little known as in the matter of longevity.
That the average longevity of a group of individuals
is but slightly related to the potential longevity,
appears from these considerations. From enemies
preying upon the 'young ones,'¹ or from disease, or
from a severe struggle for food, or from the accidents
of dispersion, vast numbers of the individuals of the
group may die at a very early age; those, on the
other hand, which do survive, may live to a period of
time quite unaffected by the conditions which acted
10
1 'Young ones.'-Herbert Spencer.
22
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
on them in early stages of existence. Thus from
great destruction of young the average longevity.
may be brought very low, and not indicate directly
at all the potential longevity. It is clear that a very
high potential longevity will materially raise the
average longevity, whilst a low one will somewhat
diminish it; on the other hand, the chances of life.
may be the better in each individual of the survivors
from the fact that the average longevity has been
lessened by the destruction of numbers of the weaker
and unhealthy among the young. It is clear that
the subject of mortality is so distinct from that of
longevity that it cannot enter largely into considera-
tion on the present occasion.
Whilst we have fixed terms to give us the means
of comparing average longevities, what have we that
corresponds in the case of potential longevity?
This matter has not been fixed by any authority,
even in the case of man, who is indeed the only
animal of which there are sufficient facts known to
enable one to use in any way such a definite indica-
tion of potential longevity for comparison. Statis-
ticians frame tables for various groups and classes of
men, in which the probable¹ after-lifetime or expec-
tation of life is calculated for any given age. The
expectation of life at birth obviously indicates the
1 Mr. Neison has proposed 1ather to compare the lifetime, of which
there is an equal chance, at different ages, but this proposal has not
been made use of.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY
23
average longevity of the group, but at what period of
life does the expectation fairly indicate the poten-
tial longevity? It might be answered at once that,
as a matter of course, the highest age attained by any
individual of the group, that is, the greatest individual
longevity, is the measure of the potential longevity of
the group; but we must remember, in dealing with
a large number of cases, not to mistake abnormal or
exceptional cases for normal ones, and not to base
conclusions for a group on such cases. In the case of
man, as noted again below, this may be of less import-
ance, but with the various organisms of the animal
and vegetal kingdoms we cannot justly say that the
longevity proper to a species is indicated by the
greatest longevity attained by an individual of the
species. In searching for some terms to be used as
indicating the potential longevity where statistics are
available (and where they are not, guesses and estima-
tions based on the few existing data must take their
place), the probable after-lifetime of an individual,
when it has attained the average longevity of the
species, might be taken arbitrarily as fixing the
potential longevity of the species But it seems better,
though less precise, to use the probable after-life-
time of an individual at that age when it has passed
some crisis, such as the maturity of the reproductive
organs, or other similar crises, as the case may be,
for the purpose of giving fixed terms of comparison
as to potential longevity. It is perhaps scarcely
24
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
worth while speculating as to what may best serve
this purpose, since in no animal or plant are we in a
position to make use of any decision on the matter,
and in the case of man it will be seen that it is not
much wanted. The day may, however, come when
sufficient observations will have been made on lower
organisms to render such a fixed point of comparison
useful.
Potential longevity differs then in different species.
(as a glance at the statements as to longevity below
will fully prove), and agrees within certain limits in
individuals of the same species. Why is this? It
is no doubt because the particular structure and
habits of each species in some way require or entail
the particular limit or lease of life. But how is this
effected? Does the life of a given species receive
its limit simply through the operation of the par-
ticular or specific external agencies (to which the
species is born and specially constructed to meet),
on each individual born? Undoubtedly this is so
to a large extent. For man may take an animal
lower than himself in the scale of life, or a plant,
and by his care and attention, by removing the
agencies to which the creature is born, and care-
fully substituting others, may cause it to live much.
longer than it could possibly do if left to its natural
conditions. Thus man may take a bird, and by
providing it with food, and protecting it from com-
petition with its fellows, from accidents and enemies,
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
25
from the want caused by weakness in old age, pro-
tract its life. Parrots, thus, live even one hundred
years, and goldfinches twenty-three, which there is
good reason to believe is far beyond their length of
life when in a 'state of nature.' So lions have lived
in menageries to be forty to sixty years old (Haller),
being fed after the loss of their teeth and the blunting
of their claws. Insects have been so kept for three
or four years; and many plants by attention are
made perennial or biennial, whereas in natural con-
ditions they would be annual. It will probably be
admitted that man has this power in many cases
without further illustration.
Hence we must again qualify or analyse potential
longevity as applied to species; for there is one
period which is proper to the species in its normal
conditions, which it cannot by any struggles of its
own extend, hedged in as it is by those very con-
ditions in relation to which it has either been created,
or by which it has been evolved. There is a second
period which is equally proper to a species (as far
as experiments tell us), which man can make evident
by removing some of the natural conditions and sub-
stituting others, which however has its limit, beyond
which limit no power that is known can extend the
life. The first period may be called Normal Potential
Longevity, the second Absolute¹ Potential Longevity.
Absolute is used for want of a better term, it is only 'absolute'
within man's experience.
26
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
Man himself, in his civilized form, is continually
bringing his intelligence to bear on his own longevity,
thus changing conditions as no other organism can,
and consequently in his case normal and absolute
potential longevity are merged. It is the develop-
ment of unprecedented and overpowering intelligence
which interferes in the case of man, and separates
him in this as in other matters so greatly from other
organisms. His intelligence enables him to take
many precautions with advancing years; it leads him
to form communities and organizations in which the
active and young protect and minister to the aged.
This great peculiarity in man, and the more than
specific differences of condition which his all-adapting
brain renders possible in various groups of individuals
with less than specific difference of structure, makes
it desirable to consider him apart from the rest of
the organized world in such a matter as longevity.
When man exerts the greatest care to protract
the life of certain organisms, he yet finds that death
will come and limit the period. There is a limit to
absolute potential longevity clearly enough in many
organisms, and this limit, which may be termed an
inherent one, must of course act in limiting normal
potential longevity. What is it that constitutes this
limit, are all organisms subject to it, and how does
it become inherent? It appears that in some orga-
nisms we cannot clearly say from observation that
there is such an inherent limit; in fact, their absolute
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
27
potential longevity appears to be very nearly practi-
cally unlimited; but we may suppose that it has a
remote limit which is difficult to observe on account
of its distant character. Such organisms are fish,
molluscs, large crustacea, annelids, many trees and
sea-weeds. In other organisms, on the contrary,
there is distinctly observable a natural inherent limit
to life, which is inevitable, however carefully injurious
and destructive influences are kept off, which makes.
its approach felt with the advance of years, in that
state which is called 'natural decay' or 'senility.'
Men, other mammals and birds, some reptiles, insects,
some lower invertebrata, and many plants, exhibit
this condition of things very obviously. In some,
as insects, and some low worms and protozoa, the
action of this 'natural decay' is far more powerful
than it is in the other cases, and we see these crea-
tures dying clearly under its influence; in others it
is less obvious, and hence we may suppose that in
the former group, where natural decay appears
to play no part, its apparent absence is merely a
matter of degree, and that it is simply reduced to
a minimum.
That the time of the on-coming of this period of
natural decay, i. e. the limit of absolute potential
longevity, varies strictly and largely in different
species, and proportionately to the normal potential.
longevity, is difficult of absolute proof in the absence
of experiment; but it will probably be admitted
28
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
from common experience as to ageing, and some
facts bearing on it which it is needless to parti-
cularize are given in the 'Statements as to Longevity,'
below.
What we are then endeavouring to examine in
various species of lower animals and in man, viz.
normal potential longevity, varies in accordance with
two sets of influences, the external agencies or spe-
cific 'milieu,' acting directly on individuals, and an
inherent limiting agency. To the first, all organisms
are severally subject; the second seems to possess
a very small power in some. Both these are here-
ditary influences, as is implied in their truly specific
character; the inherent is so by hypothesis, the ex-
ternal agencies are less obviously so, being indirectly
inherited by the transmission of structural capacities
and necessities involving the same details of life in the
offspring as in the parent.
Not less hereditary is that average longevity which
was spoken of as constituting the study known as
mortality.' It, equally with potential longevity, is a
specific character as truly as a tuft of feathers or an
additional antennary joint, and is determined by the
reciprocal relations of the 'environment' and the
'organism,' and with a constant organism it cannot
vary, whilst, if the 'environment' is not constant, the
organism must become a new species on the evolu-
tion hypothesis, or cease to exist on the special-
creation hypothesis being no longer fitted to its
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
29
conditions. The close relation of the average lon-
gevity to the welfare of the species is seen in cases
where man has interfered with this quantity, as in
game-preserving. Gamekeepers killed 'vermin,' i. e
hawks, weasels, foxes, &c, which were in the habit of
diminishing the average longevity of the grouse, by
destroying weakly birds. The vermin being de-
stroyed, the average longevity was unduly raised, and
as a consequence we had the grouse disease, which
threatened the extinction of the species. Other such
cases might be actually pointed to, or conjectured.¹
We have then these three quantities of life—the
normal, the absolute, and the average longevity, each
one of which, in its unequal distribution, we are en-
titled to assume, is fitted to the requirements of the
specific organism, either by special design, or by the
gradual evolution of relations. By enquiring what
the correspondences are, we may endeavour to frame.
some general propositions as to the causes affecting
longevity, and thus be the better able to examine the
question of man's longevity. It is seldom, on account
of the small knowledge available, that the term
'absolute potential longevity' will have again to
be used. In speaking of potential longevity, or
longevity, henceforth, unless otherwise said, normal
1 Such, for example, are the diseases of domesticated animals, and of
civilized man himself. The incapacity of some plants and animals to
become established in a new country may be attributed, in many cases
to the absence of some cause-nature's sanatory police-which would
check undue average longevity, and thus maintain a healthy stock.
30
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
potential longevity, or what appears to belong to
that term, as above explained, will be meant.
5. Inherent Death.
Let us
now parenthetically enquire as to this
inherent cause of death-this something in the or-
ganism which, more clearly than the other structures
and properties of the organism, limits life. We say,
more clearly,' for it is impossible to regard what
was ascribed to the 'milieu,' 'environment,' or 'ex-
ternal agencies,' without remembering that they have
their correlatives in the organism itself.
How is it that absolute potential longevity is made
to have a limit by heredity? How is it that natural
decay is hereditary as to time and effect? The whole
subject of the hereditary transmission of specific cha-
racters has been recently treated of by Mr. Darwin
in his volumes on 'Animals and Plants under
Domestication,' and the ingenious theory of Pan-
genesis started to explain and collect all these pheno-
mena under one head. Though Mr. Darwin does not
allude especially to senility, he mentions at length
periodic developments agreeing as to their time of
appearance in both parent and offspring. The theory
of Pangenesis is thus stated: 'I assume that cells
before their conversion into completely passive or
"formed material," throw off minute granules or
atoms, which circulate freely throughout the system,
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
31
and when supplied with proper nutriment multiply by
self-division, subsequently becoming developed into
cells like those from which they were derived. They
are supposed to be transmitted from the parents to
the offspring, and are generally developed in the
generation which immediately succeeds, but are often
transmitted in a dormant state during many genera-
tions, and are then developed. Their development
is supposed to depend on their union with other
partially developed cells or gemmules which precede
them in the regular course of growth.' 'Gemmules
are supposed to be thrown off by every cell or unit,
not only during the adult state, but during all the
stages of development.' (Darwin, loc. cit. vol. ii.
P. 374.)
We may use this theory to explain the hereditary
character of senility. The gemmules, 'when supplied
with proper nutriment, multiply.' As long as there
is nutriment for them they will continue to be pro-
duced, but when the superabundance of nutriment
ceases, which, as we shall see, is soon after growth is
quite completed, their production ceases; they are
thus limited in number, and, being called upon in
repair and reproduction, are gradually exhausted
But it is not necessary to have recourse to the
pangenetic gemmules, which are only considered
by Mr. Darwin as provisional hypotheses.¹ The
1 Mr Darwin does not appear to connect the gemmules with
ordinary iepai (1. e. of waste, not injury), which it would be more satis-
I
32
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
1
physiological units of Mr. Herbert Spencer, which he
describes as follows, will suffice as an assumption;
or, indeed, we need go no further in explicitness
than is involved in the assumption of 'a matter of
life.' What we have to explain is why Mr. Spencer's
units, or the matter of life,' should be limited in
quantity in various organisms, so that life terminates
at different periods, even when two species compared
appear to have been subjected to the same external
agencies. The old writers distinguished the 'vires in
posse' and the 'vires in actu.' The aged, they said,
factory to do The material character seems also some objection to
these gemmules. For take the case of a polyp reproducing asexually
for three thousand years. According to Mr. Darwin's supposition,
involved in his explanation of Atavism and Reveision, the last genera-
tion of polyps contain gemmules from every preceding generation. The
persistence of the same material gemmule, and the vast increase in the
number of gemmules, and consequently of material bulk, as later
generations come on, make a material theory difficult. Modified force-
centres, becoming further modified in each generation, such as Mr.
Spencer's physiological units, might be made to fit in with Mr. Daiwin's
hypothesis in other respects.
1 Mr Spencer, after describing the organic 'polarity' seen in the
phenomena of repair and development, says, 'If then this organic
polarity can be possessed neither by the chemical units nor the mor-
phological units, we must conceive it as possessed by certain intermediate
units, which we may term physiological. There seems no alternative but
to suppose that the chemical units combine into units immensely more
complex than themselves, complex as they are, and that in each
organism, the physiological units produced by this further compounding
of highly compound atoms, have a more or less distinctive character.
We must conclude that in each case, some slight difference in their
mutual play of forces produces a difference in the form which the
aggiegate of them assumes
$
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY
33
2
The
had not, as the young, this under-stratum of 'vires
in posse' to call upon in cases of exhaustion. 'We
must never forget to insist,' says M. Reveillé Parise,¹
'upon this fundamental principle, that the unknown
force of life, vis abdita quædam, diminishes more and
more with the progress of age.' 'Ex viribus vivimus,'
said Galen. A young man is commonly said to
overtax his strength and to injure his constitution
by great expenditure of force when young.
common idea expressed in these various statements
of opinion is that a store of life-force or life-
material exists, which the young accumulate, which
increases up to a certain amount, but which ceases to
do so at some period, and thenceforward dwindles.
Professor Huxley has well expressed this in terms of
life-material, in a lecture delivered at Edinburgh, in
January, 1869. At any rate,' says Professor Huxley,
'the matter of life is a veritable peau de chagrin,
and for every vital act it is somewhat the smaller.
All work implies waste, and the work of life results,
directly or indirectly, in the waste of protoplasm.'
Is there any direct evidence of the existence of such
a store of force or material as is evidently usually
supposed to exist in organisms? If we look at the
question from the point of view of force, it makes
little difference, for force implies, matter in a particular
condition. It could not be maintained that one
6
¹ Quoted by M. Flourens, loc. cit.
2 Method. Medend.' Lib. x1.
D
34
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
organism might possess a greater store of vital force
or life-power than another, without there being some
Hence we
material representative of that force.
must-whether taking force or matter as our text-
look for some matter in the young which disappears
in the old. Protoplasm, the physiological basis of
life, which no doubt is the same thing as that which
Dr. Beale terms 'germinal matter,' is a matter which.
by its increase or accumulation in an organism must
increase its power-in fact, its amount of life; and,
conversely, when diminished, the amount of life must
be diminished. It is from the changes of this
germinal matter that the formed tissues result, that
repair is effected, force evolved, nutriment elaborated,
secretion manufactured; and it is a matter of ob-
servation that this germinal matter is more abundant
in young than it is in aged organisms. The numerous
preparations of tissues, and their description by
Dr. Beale, the result of his carmine process, clearly
demonstrate this, and it is on all hands admitted.
The quotation which follows from Mr. Paget is a
fair description of that diminution of repairing power
to which we shall have to refer, whilst Dr. Marshall
Hall has largely detailed the decline of the vital
powers in old age :-
'Some people, as they grow old, seem only to
wither and dry up: sharp-featured, shrivelled, and
spinous old folk, yet withal wiry and tough, clinging
to life, and letting death have them, as it were, by
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
35
small instalments slowly paid. Such are the "lean
and slippered pantaloons," and their "shrunk shanks”
declare the pervading atrophy. Others, women more
often than men, as old and as ill-nourished as these,
yet make a far different appearance. With these the
first sign of old age is that they grow fat; and this
abides with them till, it may be, in a last illness,
sharper than old age, they are robbed even of their
fat. These too, when old age sets in, become pursy,
short-winded, pot-bellied, pale and flabby; their skin
hangs not in wrinkles but in rolls; and their voice,
instead of rising "towards childish treble," becomes.
gruff and husky.'—'Surgical Pathology,' p 82.
The germinal matter which abounds more in youth
than age, obviously embraces Mr. Spencer's physio-
logical units, thus accounting for and correlating its
power of general and special repair. It also must
include Mr. Darwin's gemmules, and must be im-
mensely called upon therefore in reproduction, far
more largely, perhaps, than is represented by the
mere bulk of the generative products. Mr. Spencer
recognizes this, and alludes to the shrinking and
diminution of the germinal matter in advancing life
in the following passage: 'Protoplasm, which has
become specialized tissue, cannot be again general-
ized and afterwards transformed into something else,
and hence the progress of structure in an organism,
by diminishing the unstructured part, diminishes the
amount available for making offspring;' or, we may
D 2
36
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
add, for carrying on the work of life. This same
store of living matter is called upon and reduced
in cases of great expenditure of force, such as are
greater than the contemporaneous power of assimi-
lation can supply; and it seems not impossible that
this germinal matter may be the store from which
Professor Parkes supposed a muscle to draw a supply
of nitrogenous aliment in the absence of nitrogenous
food, and when only carbo-hydrates and hydro-car-
bons had been supplied. This is consistent with what
is known of the great danger of excessive exertion,
especially in the absence of abundant nutriment.
The ovum is composed, in its very earliest stages,
of nothing but this protoplasm.¹ As development
and growth advance, it gives rise to the formed tissues,
increasing itself also in bulk. But the germinal
matter never increases at the same rate as the whole
organism; it is always diminishing relatively to the
whole, though increasing absolutely as long as growth
continues. This gives us some insight into the way
in which the change in the vitality of youth and age
occurs.
But there is a more important action than this.
What is it that limits growth? what gives the limit.
to size? Mr. Herbert Spencer (Principles of Biology,'
vol. i. p. 128) very fully enters into this matter, and
clearly shews that expenditure (expenditure which uses
There is not even a cell-wall, according to the recent very important
researches of Dr. Edouard Van Beneden
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
37
the matter of life, and prevents its accumulation) in-
creases more rapidly than growth; there is not a direct
agreement between the increase of the one and of the
other. This appears from the following considerations.
It is demonstrable that the excess of absorbed over
expended nutriment must, other things being equal,
become less as the size of the animal becomes greater
In similarly shaped bodies the masses vary as the cubes
of the dimensions, whereas the strengths vary as the
squares of the dimensions. Supposing a creature
which a year ago was one foot high, has now become
two feet high, what are the necessary concomitant
changes that have taken place in it? It is eight
times as heavy, but the muscles and bones have.
increased their power only in proportion to the areas
of their cross sections; hence they are severally but
four times as strong as they were. Thus, while the
creature has doubled in height, and while its ability
to overcome forces has quadrupled, the forces it has
to overcome have grown eight times as great. Hence,
to raise its body through a given space, its muscles.
have to be contracted with twice the intensity, at
a double cost of matter expended.' Mr. Spencer
shews that the same relation is true for the absorbing
surface, which has only increased fourfold, and for
the circulation of nutriment, which has to be trans-
mitted to an enlarged periphery. Thus, then, the
period of growth must be limited; thus a period
must be reached when the germinal or living matter
38
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS
is no longer accumulated but is destroyed; thus the
inherent cause of death has a structural existence.
The apparent absence of inherent decay in many
trees, in fish, in some reptiles, is alluded to by Mr.
Spencer. He attributes it, as we have done above,
to their exceedingly small expenditure; trees and
plants generally exhibiting no personal expenditure
at all, whilst fish and cold-blooded inert reptiles.
shew very little indeed. Mr. Spencer also remarks
that a strict inductive confirmation of the law of
increase of expenditure and of growth must not be
expected, since the bodies compared, e. g. fish and
mammal, are not of the same density or chemical
constitution entirely.
Another circumstance co-operates with the arrival
of a period of balance between the expenditure and
the accumulation (and depends on that period) to
influence the natural termination of life. The con-
dition of equilibrium between expenditure and nu-
trition, growth having ceased, might be maintained
for an indefinite time, were it not that precisely at
this period a new form of expenditure, involving a
very severe tax, sets in-namely, reproduction.
is when a stationary condition has been reached that
we may anticipate from general laws new adjust-
ments of the whole aggregate; whilst the changes
of the more adaptable state of growth were in course,
whilst concrete shape was being built up, discrete
shapes were less likely so to be; and hence it is,
It
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
39
when growth has ceased or nearly so, that repro-
duction sets in.
The effect of this additional tax is to start the
organism more rapidly down the incline towards the
termination of the road of life, the length of time
occupied in the downward run depending no doubt
on the height of the hill which has been mounted,
and on the friction, inclination, and additional acce-
leration, if any, of the descending body. An accident
on the way may bring the imaginary rider over
some precipice to the bottom of the course at once,
and it is little likely that he will succeed in avoiding
the many dangerous corners and pitfalls which in-
crease towards the end of the road, and finally
expend the full amount of impulse in traversing the
whole course.
Some organisms may continue to grow and pro-
duce young throughout their life; but the earlier
reproduction is commenced, and the more rapidly
it is carried on, the sooner must the increase of the
organism's bulk be stopped, and so waste and death.
ensue. Fish, molluscs, and trees are the extreme
cases of this protracted period, which was explained
as due to small personal expenditure. A test of the
superabundance of the matter of life is seen in the
reproduction of lost parts which Salamandroid Am-
phibians, and also Crustacea, exhibit during a con-
siderable period of life,¹ though it may be questioned
1 The power is possessed by the larve only of insects.
40
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
I
if they possess it after their last moult, if they ever
have a last moult. Salamanders and Crustacea belong
to the same category as fish.
A second lot of organisms die at once upon the
setting in of reproduction by the rapid abstraction
of the matter of life contained in the eggs and
sperm. The Protozoa are typical of this group, for
in them the formed matter of the organism is all
that remains after reproduction, the entire mass of
the germinal or living matter being used in repro-
duction. Hence there is no after-life, no down-hill
run. It is the same with insects and with annual
plants; so much of the living matter is taken that
they have not power to recover the loss; even assimi-
lation is stayed. The animals of the former group
of small expenditure could recover their generative
loss, not being called upon simultaneously in other
directions.
A third group have the procreative subtraction
coming on late. It checks growth and finally stops
it, but it is so moderate as to leave the organism.
enough living matter to go on with, and life ceases
only when the living matter is so far reduced as to
be unable to keep the existing structures in adequate
repair, or provide sufficient material for the neces-
sary outlays of force. Such cases are presented
by mammals, birds, and possibly some trees and
shrubs.
It may not be out of place here briefly to state
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
4I
how death may be brought about by mechanical
causes and external agencies in those organisms.
whose period of natural decay is very remote. There
is of course the chance of accident, which is greater
in a long life than a short one. But there are two
examples of self-adjusting, or rather self-destroying
tendency in the organism, to which allusion may be
made. Trees increasing in size as they grow older,
expose a larger surface to the wind, whilst the roots
cannot penetrate beyond the limited soil; they thus
are more liable to get blown over year by year.
Again, increasing as they do and being stationary in
position, they encroach on each other's area, and
exhaust the limits of soil and space by their united
action, what is enough for one being not enough
for five or six. In the case of animals, the same
mechanical limit appears; where the food is diffused
and taken in numerous but small mouthfuls (i e. as
in herbivorous and scavenger animals, not prædaceous
animals), five small mouths will be more efficient in
supporting five pounds of an animal than one big
one. It is thus that the Maori fly is expelled by
the smaller European house-fly. It is thus that
large fish, large molluscs, large crustacea of species
with diffuse food receive a limit to their life. The
greater danger of all kinds involved in increased.
surface also tends to limit life in such organisms.
We have yet to ask how the exact or approximate
42
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
period of natural death comes to differ in various
species by heredity. We have seen how it is pos-
sible for a limit to be inherited; but how does the
period so limited come to be an hereditary quantity
characterizing species? How is it that it varies in
animals which commence life and carry it on under
very much the same conditions? The specific acci-
dents, actions, wear and tear to which different
species are severally subjected are not sufficient alone.
to account for the fixity of the period, though their
influence is important. There is something addi-
tional, some more direct cause than these, and we
must look for it in the quantitative limitation of the
germinal matter itself, varying in species. If it were
not so, how can we account for the fact that a cow
and a sheep,' which start from ova so exactly iden-
tical in form and size, composed probably of equal
amounts of germinal matter or protoplasm, subject.
as they develope to the same external influences,
living perhaps side by side in the same field, yet
differ in their inherited term of life, which appears
to be, as nearly as can be guessed, about twenty
years for the larger and twelve for the smaller rumi-
nant? We have seen that the expenditure increases
during growth more rapidly than the bulk, more
rapidly à fortiori than the accumulation of germinal
matter, which we saw did not increase even as rapidly
1 This illustration and the augment ale borrowed from Mr. Herbeit
Spencer, who discusses the question of size.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
43
as the bulk. We may regard this germinal matter
as a sort of stock-in-trade with which the losing game
of increasing profit or accumulation, but more rapidly
increasing expenditure, has to be played. The rate
at which a man's wealth accumulates is measured
by the surplus of income over expenditure, and this,
save in exceptionally favourable cases, is determined
by the capital with which he begins business.' In the
transactions of an organism we trace the same three
elements. 'There is the expenditure required for the
obtainment and digestion of food, there is the gross
return in the shape of nutriment assimilated or fit for
assimilation, and there is the difference between this
gross return of nutriment and the nutriment that was
used up in the labour of securing it.' As long as this
is in excess, we have an increase of living matter and
an increase of structure, and clearly the larger the
capacity of the animal to take in food, &c., on com-
mencing life (individual life), the larger and the
longer¹ will be the accumulation of germinal matter
by the increase of bulk (profit). Say that each year
the profit doubles, whilst the expenditure trebles,
with a capital at starting of 6 units, whilst the ex-
penditure is a third of the capital, and the profit
cent. per cent., or equal to the capital at starting.
In the fourth year, with these figures, we shall find
that the capital commences to diminish, the figures
1 Mr. Spencer does not discuss time at all,
44
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
representing its condition in the same units being
respectively for the four years, 7, 13, 19, and 13,
whilst it descends to I in the fifth year. Now, for
comparison, suppose 9 units as the initial capital, and
the same relations of expenditure and profit, we shall
find that the diminution does not commence till the
fifth year, the growth thus continuing a year longer,
the figures being 15, 24, 35, 36, and 33 respectively.
These two cases, in which the quantities are of
course merely arbitrarily chosen for example, and
in which the ratio of expenditure and profit as to
increase is exaggerated, suffice to demonstrate the
principle, which may be applied to organisms. It
is because the calf at birth is a much larger animal
than the lamb, having been carried longer by its
parent, who from her greater size could of course
give to the offspring a greater proportionate amount
of living matter to commence life with, that the cow
lives longer than the sheep, or rather inherits a later
natural limit to life. The quality of the germinal.
matter and many other conditions which have to be
provided for, in laying down such rules as this, by the
expression cæteris paribus,' must always be taken
into consideration.
We have, then, seen reason to think that the dura-
tion of life, after growth is completed or coming to an
end, depends on the amount of living matter accumu-
lated during growth, and that this depends on the size
at birth, cæteris paribus. Thus it is that we may trace.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
45
the rationale of that connection between time of
growth, time of gestation, and potential longevity,
which has been pointed out,¹ though we can see
no good reason why the number 5 or any other
number should express the ratio for a whole class of
animals.
6. Elements of the Life Period.
It is obvious that by increasing the duration of any
one part of the lifetime of an organism, the sum total
or whole may be lengthened, and it may be useful,
therefore, to consider what are the phenomena which
most clearly involve periods of time for their manifes-
țation in organisms.
They are, 1st, the period of evolution (including in
this term both growth and development); 2nd, the
period through which reproductive activity is spread;
3rd, the period of dissolution or decay. Any condi-
tion of existence which necessitates the lengthening
or shortening of one of these periods for the require-
ments of the organism directly affects longevity. In
the period of evolution are included the period of
embryonic development, of fœtal life and incubation,
the larval period, which many animals exhibit, the
period of growth as indicated by osseous completion
or similar perfection, or the assumption of the mature.
1 Both by Flourens and Buffon, as well as the earliest wiiters on
longevity.
46
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
state. To the period of dissolution belong those
slow senile changes, or that rapid exhaustion of
power, which it is clear from the preceding section
depend on the period of growth, in large measure.
as to their length, but which are also affected by
external agencies, which will be referred to again.
The period of reproductive activity is a variable.
quantity according to the case, in some lasting but
a brief day or hour of the whole life, whilst in other
organisms, for certain definite objects, it may be pro-
longed over a considerable time, recurring at intervals.
This period does not seem to depend directly on
the period of growth at all, but it is distributed to
organism with regard to other and special conditions.
7. High Individuation favours Longevity.
Having seen, then, that the period of evolution
is a very important item in longevity, since (p. 44)
the period of dissolution depends directly on it,
as to duration, we are in a position deductively
to make the proposition that potential longevity
varies with, or is favoured by, high evolution, if it
be admitted that high evolution, i. e. complex struc-
ture and large bulk, both or either, are identical with
evolution occupying long time. A few considerations
will prove that this is admissible. You cannot have
mere growth of bulk without time, as is obvious
from general facts; the very word 'grow' implies
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
47
not a sudden but a gradual acquisition of volume.
We infer that a great thickness of strata, or of other
such accumulations, has taken a long time to grow,
measuring the time by the bulk; similarly, a large
population or a large city is known to take a long
time to accumulate. That complexity and interde-
pendence of structural arrangement also implies time
spent in the evolution of those arrangements, is proved
from the observation of other cases of non-organic
development. A language, a civilization, a city, a
land-surface, the sidereal system, are universally ad-
mitted to have taken time in their growth in pro-
portion to their complexity, in proportion to the
extent of redistribution and readjustment of parts.
of which they bear tokens. And so we may infer
that high organic complexity and high organic bulk,
both involved in the term 'high evolution,' or better
perhaps 'high individuation,' postulate time in pro-
portion, and we may conclude that high individua-
tion favours longevity.
8. Small Expenditure favours Longevity.
We now come to a proposition which we have
already anticipated in previous paragraphs, and which
has great importance, qualifying largely as it does
the application of the preceding, and explaining the
reason of the existence of a normal potential lon-
gevity limited in some cases abruptly by natural
48
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
decay, and in other cases only remotely so. It
is the influence of expenditure on longevity which
really gives rise to that complication which led us to
distinguish normal and absolute potential longevity.
(See antea, p. 25.) Expenditure, which was pointed
out as increasing more rapidly than the means of
supplying the loss it involved, and thus limiting
natural life, may be increased greatly or diminished
in organisms according to their requirements, and
may be so far diminished as never actually to allow
that period of balance and the subsequent one of
decay, which we saw occurred in one group of organ-
isms, to come on in another.
Expenditure is of two kinds-that involved in the
wear and tear of obtaining and assimilating food,
and generally carrying on the life, and that involved
in the propagation of the species by the elaboration
or separation of living portions of the parent organ-
isms. We may distinguish these as-(1) personal, and
(2) generative expenditure; and we may affirm, that
by diminishing or increasing either of these, you
favour or antagonize longevity. This follows de-
ductively from the conclusions arrived at with regard
to the relation of organic structure to longevity.
Expenditure of either sort uses up the matter of life,
and hastens on the period of natural decay. It is
observable that these two forms of expenditure are
naturally, inter se, antagonistic, on the old principle
that 'one cannot have a pie and eat it.' If personal
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
49
expenditure is great, as a rule generative expenditure
will be small, and vice versa; and when they both
exist in large (that is, large relatively to the degree
of evolution) quantity, the longevity is greatly
diminished. A complication introduces itself here
in the fact that great personal expenditure, antagon-
izing longevity, accompanies high evolution rather
than low-high evolution which favours longevity.
The injurious influence however of the personal ex-
penditure, possibly increased in some directions, is
counteracted by diminished expenditure in other di-
rections, which high structure brings to its possessor
in the form of advantages in securing nutritious food
and escaping noxious agents; and further, the in-
creased personal expenditure tells almost invariably
upon the generative expenditure, which is small in
highly-evolved organisms, or organisms of high in-
dividuation.¹ Thus the whole average expenditure
is not necessarily greater in highly-evolved organisms,
like things being compared to like.
There are other minor and more direct influ-
ences affecting longevity in organisms, which may
possibly be brought under the general heads of
Evolution and Expenditure, but to which further
reference will be made in discussing the two pro-
positions inductively.
¹ This relation is clearly brought out in Mr. Spencer's chapters on the
Antagonism of Individuation and Genesis, and of Expenditure and
Genesis. Principles of Biology,' vol. ii.
E
1
50
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
1
9. Why Longevity is thus influenced.
Before proceeding to do this-the propositions
standing thus: 'The potential longevity of a species
is favoured by high individuation and by small
expenditure, both generative and personal, and is
antagonized by small individuation and by great
expenditure, either generative or personal,' we might
ask why is it that this agreement of long duration.
of life with high evolution and antagonism to ex-
penditure has been instituted or has arisen in the
slow development of ages?
If we can see what
purpose the Creator may have designed to serve
by such a disposition, or by what antecedent ne-
cessities He has caused it to arise, greater prob-
ability of truth will have been deductively added
to the conclusions.
The amount of a species must be directly pro-
portionate to the amount of its accessible food.
It is on this fundamental relation that the argu-
ment rests. If the relations above shewn assist in
adjusting the amount of the species to the amount
of its accessible food, we can understand their
Without
purpose, or how they must have arisen.
going into detail as to other terms introduced in
the argument, we may briefly endeavour to shew
how such an adjustment is favoured.
The argu-
ment is developed at length for the quantities,
Fertility, Genesis, Individuation, Nutrition, in Mr.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
5I
Spencer's chapters on the Laws of Multiplication.
The amount of the species is made up by these
three factors: (1) the number born-i. e. the fertility;
(2) the average longevity (affected by early death-rate
and difficulties of development, see antea); (3) the
potential longevity. If a case is taken where the
amount of food is increased, or the accessibility of
food increased, including in this all increased facili-
ties in carrying on the life, you must, to maintain the
balance of species and food, increase the amount of
the species either by increased fertility, by increased
average longevity, or by increased potential longevity
It is of the last only that we have here to speak.
The relation of expenditure as antagonistic to lon-
gevity tallies with this necessity thus. Increased
accessibility of food, of the means of life, clearly
renders less personal expenditure necessary; less
exertion is required in obtaining it, and may be less
in digesting it; also less waste of material in main-
taining the temperature (for that condition may be
included in accessibility of food), and with this there
will be, according to our proposition (p. 47) increased
potential longevity. Thus the balance may be main-
tained through the antagonism of personal expendi-
ture and longevity. Should increased accessibility
of food produce increased generative expenditure,
as it may¹though the potential longevity should,
¹ Mi. Spencer clearly shews this in his chapter Coincidence of High
Nutrition and High Genesis.'
E 2
52
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
cæteris paribus, be diminished—yet that this relation
is duly consistent with the requirements of the case
is seen in the fact that increased generative expendi-
ture means increased fertility; and so the equation
Fertility × Average Longevity x Potential Longevity
= Food x c is maintained; the diminished potential
longevity being directly corrected by the correspond-
ingly increased fertility. It is not necessary to shew
that the correspondence is true for diminished food,
since it is sufficiently obvious
Increased
Next as to Evolution or Individuation.
food does not at first sight appear to go with high
individuation, and thus admit of the balance in the
equation being struck by the consequent increase of
potential longevity. Low organisms feed on abun-
dant and widely dispersed food, and fulfil the re-
quirements of the equation by their increased fertility.
But increased food, in the sense of more nutritious
food, and more of it for each individual, does go with
increased individuation, and at the same time dim-
nished fertility accompanies increased individuation;"
hence the balance has to be made up out of the
other two terms, average and potential longevity,
and we have seen that it is so made up by the re-
lation of individuation and longevity, deduced above.
Then as to the effect of decrease of food; by absolute
diminution of food accessible to the species, you do
This must be accepted from Mr Spencer, who fully demonstrates
that this is the case.
1
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
53
not get increased evolution, but rather the reverse
process; on the other hand, if we may assume the
theory of progressive development of species, it is by
a decreased accessibility of food that higher evolution
is brought about, new developments, fresh powers
and activities, being originated to cope with the
increased difficulties, and this results in such a gain
to the individual,¹ that food may become more abun-
dant to it in its improved structure than it ever was
before; in this case, the species survives and becomes
dominant. In this case, clearly, the apparent dimi-
nution of food becomes in reality an increase, and
thus again in the equation fertility x average lon-
gevity x potential longevity=food xc, the change in
the quantity 'food,' as well as the diminution in
'fertility' necessarily accompanying increased indi-
viduation, is counterbalanced by the increased lon-
gevity accompanying increased individuation Diffi-
cult and deeply involved as the analysis here attempted
is, and especially hard to discuss without entering into
much detail (already fully treated by Mr. Spencer,
but not in relation to longevity)-yet the above
outline may serve to shew why it is that the relations
which we have seen reason to believe, do exist for
longevity, should exist.
1 Mr. Spencer shews that the increase of individuation is greater than
the increased difficulties which call it forth, and that thus there is a
surplus of power to the evolved form, which may make itself seen in
a greater fertility (or we may add, a greater longevity) than a direct
ratio of individuation would admit.
}
54
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
10. Inductive.
We may now endeavour to see how far observation
supports the deductive hypothesis that longevity is
favoured by high individuation, and small expendi-
ture, both personal and generative. And here again.
we must allude to the profound ignorance in, which
we are as to the exact potential life-period, by what-
ever standard it be given, of any animal. Those
which we have under observation we influence ab-
normally, and those which we have not under
observation we know little about. We must then,
as well as we can, make allowance for abnormal
influences, and depend largely on general impres-
sions. A list of statements as to the longevity of
different groups of organisms is hereto appended,
derived from the works of many authors, and from
private sources of information. It is by no means
a satisfactory accumulation of data, but it is believed
that under present circumstances nothing better can
be drawn up.¹ Lord Bacon's chapter on the same
subject is added in full, in order that the reader may
appreciate the state of knowledge in his time as to
the question. It will be seen from many of his
remarks that he had the notion that bulk favours
longevity, and that personal and generative expen-
diture antagonize it.
Any trustworthy additions to these statements will be very acceptable.
to me.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
55
Statements as to Duration of the Individual in
Organisms.
ANIMALS.
PROTOZOA -Cause of death is the breaking up of the whole living
substance into generative particles, or its division into two
or mole new individualities. Persistence of life unknown in
nearly all cases.
Protomyxa aurantiaca -a Moneron-is stated by Haeckel to take
from 4 to 6 days in the process of division. (Monogr. of
Monera Quarterly Journal of Microsc. Science, 1869)
Amaba probably takes longer.
Infusoria have been seen to divide every half hour. (H Spencer)
Zoothamnuum—a Vorticellidon-every 2 hours (Brightwell.)
Spongilla fluviatilis dies yearly, leaving reproductive masses, the
so-called seeds
CŒLENTERATA (Polyps).—Some appear to die annually or on repio-
duction, others continue to live and grow till mechanical
causes bring death.
* Hydra viridis reproduces sexually in the autumn and dies.
* Actinia mesembryanthemum has been living 42 years in an aquarium.
(Sir John Dalyell and Dr Flemming.)¹
Compound Hydrozoa live for a much longer period than one year.
Compound Actinozoa also; but the masses of coral in the Red Sea,
estimated by Ehrenberg to be 3000 years old, do not indicate
the longevity of simply a tertially aggregated individual, but
of many generations of asexually produced individuals whose
parent stocks have died time after time.
ECHINODERMATA, from the great variation in size of mature speci-
mens of the same species, are inferied to die only from me-
chanical or accidental causes. No observations on record.
<
1 "A letter from Mr. C. W. Peach informs me that granny,' as this
Actinia is called, is still alive and well, in spite of once being accidentally
buried in white-wash.
56
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
VERMES (Worms) -Turbellaria, unknown longevity; they have more
than a year's life.
Parasitic forms have interposed periods of quiescence (encysted
Tœnia solium and Trichına), but die on reproduction.
* Rotifera die yearly or half-yearly in some cases consequent on
reproduction
ANNULATA (Ringed Worms).—None but a mechanical limit to life is
apparent. From the rate of growth and size, many years
of life are inferred for Lumbricus, Eunice, Aphrodite, and
Amphinome. The smaller but not the larger Oligochata
die in winter after reproducing sexually.
CRUSTACEA.—The larger forms (Decapoda and some Schizopoda, also
Merostomata), from their gieat 1ange of adult size, are in-
feired to continue growth long after sexual maturity, and no
period of natural decay is known to be leached.
Smaller forms, many die annually, in the same way as Rotifeia
* Cheirocephalus diaphanus developes from the egg, reproduces, and
dies in 2 to 3 months. (Observed by the wiiter.)
* Cancer pagurus, of gieat size, was observed with adherent Cuihi-
pedia, which must have become attached subsequently to the
last moult, and have taken some years in their own growth.
(Communicated by Thomas Bell, Esq, FRS)
INSECTA -The Imago, as a rule, lives pait of a year-fiom 6 months.
to a few hours-dying on reproduction. The length of life
of the larva varies greatly in closely allied forms, from 4
years or more to a week (Coleoptera, Diptera)
* Rose-chafer (Scarabæus auratus) was kept and observed 4 years
in larva and 2 years in imago. (Leo Grindon, Life, its
Nature,' &c)
* Vanessa Cardui, usually observed to die at the end of the year,
was kept by a lady 3 or 4 years. (Rev J G. Wood.)
? Mantis religiosa is said to attain 8 years of life. (Leo Grindon,
loc. cit.)
Butterflies which escape copulation are known to hybernate and
live a second year, or part of it, as imagines
* Flea, 9 months in imago. A man is now in London with per-
forming fleas, and he finds that 9 months is a very great age
for them to attain.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
57
MYRIAPODA-ARACHNIDA.-The large forms are supposed to
live longer than Insects, but this idea may be due to the
absence of metamorphosis.
MOLLUSCOIDA.—?
MOLLUSCA (Snails and Mussels) are in the same case as large Crus-
tacea as to long growth, and absence of observed period of
decline No observations. [The same Limpet might prob-
ably be observed for many years] It is known from the
rate of growth of the shell that some Mollusca must live 20
years or more.
FISH-Great variation in sizes of adults (from 10 to 100 lbs.) of the
same species. They are not known to get feeble as they
grow old, and many are known not to get feebler.
* Carp,¹ 150 years old, and lively (seen by Buffon in pond of Comte
de Maurepas). The same fish were seen by Duhamel.
? Pike, 267 years old-if a ring with the following inscription which
was attached to it be genuine :- I am the fish which was
fist of all put into this lake by the hands of the Governor
of the Universe, Frederick the Second, the 5th of October,
1230.' It weighed 350 lbs, and was 19 feet long
skeleton was exhibited at Manheim. Taken in Suabia, at
Halibiun, in 1497. (Gesner, quoted by Yarrell )
*
90 years old. (Pennant, quoted by Yanell.)
Its
Muræna, 60 years old, in the Roman vivaiia. (Pliny, quoted by
Bacon and Hufeland.)
Salmon of sufficient size, acco:ding to their rate of growth, to lead
one to infei 100 years as age, are recorded by Yairell.
AMPHIBIA —The fish-like forms may agree with fish in their lon-
gevity. The Batrachia appear to have a period of senility
and decay.
* Sieboldia maxima has been in the Zoological Gardens for 10
years
? Toad, 36 years. (Smellie, quoted by L. Grindon, loc. cit.)
? Frog, 12-16 years. (Grindon, loc. cit)
1 Carp were observed by Yarrell to weigh 6 lbs. at 10 years; the largest
he could ascertain the weight of was 18 lbs The rate of increase is prob-
ably not uniform, diminishing with age, but never ceasing entirely.
J
58
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
REPTILES.—Some are believed to grow as long as they live, are vely
slow in growth, very long-lived, and very variable in average
adult size; e g. Chelonia and Crocodilia; others, as the
Lacertilia, are much more constant in size, and are believed
to be shorter-lived.
Crocodiles, some of the sacred crocodiles of India, have been
known since the Conquest.
* Tortoise, from the Galapagos, was inferred to be 175 years old
from its rate of growth in the Zoological Gardens, London.
(Grindon.)
Tortoise, from the Cape, which had been in the Governor's garden
for 80 years; it was believed to be 200 years old. (Com-
municated by T. Bell, Esq., F.R S.)
C
BIRDS -Their growth is limited; they appear to get feeble at a certain
age, varying in species, and like mammals may die of old
age.'
* Parroquet, 120 years old at death, lived at Florence for 100
years in a noble family. (Fontenelle, quoted by Flourens,
Human Longevity,' trans by C Maitel.)
↓
?
* Parrot, sp 120 years old at death, lived in the family of Mr. W.
for 80 years, it was said to be 40 when brought to Mr. W.'s
great-grandfather. (Communicated)
? Goose, 100 years. (Willoughby.)
? Falcon, large species, 162 years, from inscription on an attached
ring. It was brought from the Cape in 1772. (Hufeland,
'The Art of Prolonging Life ')
? Raven, 180 years. (Buffon.)
The following seven facts were communicated by Mr Darwin :—
* Saxicola sialis, for 10 years and more was observed to build its
nest in same spot. (Amer. Jour. Scı' vol 30, p. 81.)
* Muscicapa fusca, 9 years; same observation.
* Turdus, foi a longer period.
* Falco borealis, 12 years.
* Starling, for 8 years the same lame specimen was observed by
Eckmark.
* Kestrel, for 6 years the same specimen was seen.
* Goldfinch, lived 23 years in confinement. (Montagu )
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY
59
BIRDS (continued).
? Pelicans and Herons, 40-50 years. (L. Grindon, 'Life, its Nature.")
Hawks
? Peacocks.
Goldfinches
? Blackbirds
? Pheasants
? Pigeons
30-40 years.
20 years.
>>
19
15 years.
رو
""
"9
99
""
""
""
19
? Nightingales
""
* Domestic Fowls
•
10 years.
??
? Thrushes .
8-9 years.
? Wrens
2-3 years.
""
Mr. Grindon does not give his authority for these ages It will be
seen that he differs from Bacon as to the ages of some birds and
mammals.
MAMMALS.-The general cause of death is the same as for bids.
? Greenland Whale, 300-400 years, înferied from the growth of the
Baleen. (Grindon, loc. cit.)
? Dolphin, 30 years (Bacon.)
* Elephant (Asiatic), 120 years.
*
(De Blainville)
150 years.
(Flourens.)
(Buffon.)
? 200 years.
200 years
(Aristotle)
500 years. (Sunt qui.)
At 30 years the epiphyses were not joined ('Philos Trans.'
Everard Home)
Rhinoceros and Hippopotamus, 70-80 years. (Grindon.)
Horse, 25 years. (Flourens) But the Bishop of Metz had one
that lived to be 40 years old.
9 or 10 years for most, but some live to 40 years. (Engl.
Cyclop.' article Horse.)
20 years. (Bacon.)
Horse and Ass, 25-30 years. (Grindon.)
* Mule, is longer-lived than these. (Bacon.)
? Camel, 40 years. (Flourens) May live to 100 years. (Aristotle.)
50 to 100 years. (Bacon.)
? Ox, 15-20 years. (Flourens.)
Bull, 16 years. (Bacon.)
f
60
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
MAMMALS (continued).
? Sheep and Goat, 12 years. (Grindon.)
less than the Bull. (Bacon.)
Pig, 20 years. (Bacon.)
Stag,¹ 30-40 years. (Flourens)
? Lion, 20 years. (Flouiens) Haller saw one in a menagerie at
40 years of age which died at 50. Grindon gives 9-10 years
as the life of the hon in menageries; longer when wild.
? Leopard, Bear, Tiger, 25 years.
* Dog, 10-12 years (Flourens.)
(Grindon.)
Some to 20, 23, or 24 years.
One was 34 years with a correspondent of the writer.
* Cat, 9-10 years.
Some to 18 years. (Flourens.) Mr T. W.
Danby had a cat which died at the age of 18 years; it had
long been unable to move, except very slowly; it walked
across a room for milk and died. (Communicated by T. W.
Danby, Esq)
Rabbit, 8 years. (Flourens)
7 years. (Bacon )
Guinea Pig, 6-7 years. (Flourens )
Man, Fuegian, 45-50 years
Civilized, 70-80 years. (The Book of Psalms)
English, 75 5, average age at death of those dying at 51 and
upwards. (Farr.)
VEGETALS.
PROTOPHYTA, as with PROTOZOA.
Euglena divides so rapidly as in a single night to colour a pool
green.
Diatoms, some species divide in 24 hours at certain seasons.
(Smith's British Diatomaceæ.')
C
Protococcus nivalis reddens a district in a single night, so rapid is
the shifting of individuality by reproductive self-division.
1 'Hesiod,' says Pliny, 'attributes to the rook nine times our life, to the
stag four times the life of the rook, and three times the life of the stag to
the raven.' Teveά is the word used by Hesiod, and ætas by Pliny. Aristotle
remarks, in the History of Animals,' lib. vi ch xxix, 'What is related of
the longevity of the stag rests upon no foundation: the duration of gestation
and growth of the young stag indicates anything but a long life.'
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
61
FUNGI live from 7 to 15 days. (Grindon.)
Polyport are perennial.
ALGE-Fuci and other large forms are perennial.
Delesseria sanguinea is annual.
LICHENES -?
PHÆNOGAMS.-The majority in severe climates are annuals. Mig-
nonette is a shrub in Barbary, and Palma Christi is a tree
in India.
Shrubs live 4 to 5 years.
Odoriferous shrubs live 10 or more years. (Hufeland, loc. cit.)
e.g. Sage, Balm, Lavender.
Trees with soft wood, e g. Poplar and Willow, live 50 years.
(Hufeland.)
Fruit trees, 60 years. (Hufeland)
In the following list, given by Mr. Grindon, the age is estimated by
rings of supposed annual growth, which is not a quite trustworthy
method.-
? Cercis
? Elm.
? Ivy
? Maple
? Laich
? Orange.
? Cypress
? Olive
? Walnut
་
? Spruce
? Oak
? Cedar
? Schubertia
1500
300 years.
? Oriental Plane.
1000 years.
335
? Lime.
IIOO
""
450
I 200
""
""
516
•
•
576
95
•
630
800
? Yew
•
""
800
? Taxodium
""
•
4000-5000
29
900
? Adansonia
"
""
•
2000
""
3000
25
•
3200
In the preceding statements the authorities are given. In many cases,
the supposed age is only an inference and not an observation at all.
This is especially the case with the ages given by Flourens, who made
them suit his theory of quintuple ratio. A query is put against the
most doubtful and an asterisk against the most soundly based of the
statements made.
62
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
We now present Lord Bacon's statements on the
subject, which we have transcribed from a well-
known translation of his works. Truth and error
are strangely mixed in this interesting summary.
'Touching the length and shortness of life in living
creatures, the information which may be had is but
slender, observation is negligent, and tradition fabu-
lous. In tame creatures their degenerate life cor-
rupteth them, in wild creatures their exposing to all
weathers often intercepteth them; neither do those
things which may seem concomitants give any fur-
thérance to this information (the greatness of their
bodies, their time of bearing in the womb, the number
of their young ones, the time of their growth, and the
rest), in regard that these things are intermixed, and
sometimes they concur, sometimes they sever.
1. Man's age (as far as can be gathered by any
certain narration) doth exceed the age of all other
living creatures, except it be of a few only, and the
concomitants in him are very equally disposed, his
stature and proportion large, his bearing in the womb
nine months, his fruit commonly one at a birth, his
puberty at the age of fourteen years, his time of
growing till twenty.
2. The elephant, by undoubted relation, exceeds
the ordinary race of man's life, but his bearing in the
womb the space of ten years is fabulous; of two
years, or at least above one is, certain. Now his bulk
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
63
is great, his time of growth until the thirtieth year,
his teeth exceeding hard, neither hath it been ob-
served that his blood is the coldest of all creatures;
his age hath sometimes reached to two hundred years.
3. Lions are accounted long livers, because many
of them have been found toothless, a sign not so
certain, for that may be caused by their strong
breath.
4. The bear is a great sleeper, a dull beast, and
given to ease, and yet not noted for long life; nay,
he hath this sign of short life, that his bearing in the
womb is but short, scarce full forty days.
5. The fox seems to be well disposed in many
things for long life; he is well skinned, feeds on flesh,
lives in dens, and yet he is noted not to have that
property. Certainly he is a kind of dog, and that
kind is but shortlived.
6. The camel is a long liver, a lean creature, and
sinewy; so that he doth ordinarily attain to fifty, and
sometimes to a hundred years.
7. The horse lives but to a moderate age, scarce to
forty years, his ordinary period is twenty years, but
perhaps he is beholden for this shortness of life to
man; for we have now no horses of the sun that live
freely, and at pleasure, in good pastures; notwith-
standing the horse grows till he be six years old, and
is able for generation in his old age. Besides the
mare goeth longer with her young one than a woman,
and brings forth two at a burthen more rarely. The
64
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
ass lives commonly to the horse's age, but the mule
outlives them both.
8. The hart is famous amongst men for long life,
yet not upon any relation that is undoubted. They
tell of a certain hart that was found with a collar
about its neck, and that collar hidden with fat. The
long life of the hart is the less credible, because he
comes to his perfection at the fifth year, and not long
after his horns (which he sheds and renews yearly)
grow more narrow at the root, and less branched.
9. The dog is but a short liver, he exceeds not the
age of twenty years, and, for the most part, lives not
to fourteen years; a creature of the hottest temper,
and living in extremes, for he is commonly either in
vehement motion, or sleeping; besides, the bitch
bringeth forth many at a burden, and goeth nine
weeks.
10. The ox likewise, for the greatness of his body
and strength, is but a short liver, about some sixteen
years, and the males live longer than the females:
notwithstanding they bear usually but one at a
burden, and go nine months; a creature dull, fleshy,
and soon fatted, and living only upon herby sub-
tances, without grain.
II. The sheep seldom lives to ten years, though he
be a creature of a moderate size, and excellently
clad; and, that which may seem a wonder, being a
creature with so little a gall, yet he hath the most
curled coat of any other, for the hair of no creature is
เ
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
65
so much curled as wool is. The rams generate not
before the third year, and continue able for genera-
tion until the eighth. The ewes bear young as long
as they live. The sheep is a diseased creature, and
rarely lives to his full age.
12. The goat lives to the same age with the
sheep, and is not much unlike in other things, though
he be a creature more nimble, and of somewhat
a firmer flesh, and so should be longer lived; but
then he is much more lascivious, and that shortens
his life.
13. The sow lives to fifteen years, sometimes to
twenty; and though it be a creature of the moistest
flesh, yet that seems to make nothing to length of
life. Of the wild boar or sow we have nothing
certain.
14. The cat's age is betwixt six and ten years; a
creature nimble and full of spirit, whose seed (as
Ælian reports) burneth the female; whereupon it is
said, that the cat conceives with pain, and brings
forth with ease. A creature ravenous in eating, rather
swallowing down his meat whole than feeding.
15. Hares and coneys attain scarce to seven years,
being both creatures generative, and with young ones
of several conceptions in their bellies. In this they
are unlike, that the coney lives under ground, and the
hare above ground. And, again, that the hare is of
a more duskish flesh.
16. Birds, for the size of their bodies, are much
F
66
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
lesser than beasts; for an eagle or swan is but a
small thing in comparison of an ox or horse, and so
is an ostrich to an elephant.
17. Birds are excellently well clad, for feathers,
for warmth and close sitting to the body, exceed wool
and hairs.
18. Birds, though they hatch many young ones
together, yet they bear them not all in their bodies
at once, but lay their eggs by turns, whereby their
fruit hath the more plentiful nourishment whilst it is
in their bodies.
19. Birds chew little or nothing, but their meat is
found whole in their crops, notwithstanding they will
break the shells of fruit and pick out the kernels;
they are thought to be of a very hot and strong con-
coction.
20. The motion of birds in their flying is a mixed
motion, consisting of a moving of the limbs, and of a
kind of carriage, which is the most wholesome kind
of exercise.
21. Aristotle noted well touching the generation of
birds (but he transferred it ill to other living crea-
tures), that the seed of the male confers less to gene-
ration than the female, but that it rather affords.
activity than matter; so that fruitful eggs and un-
fruitful eggs are hardly distinguished.
22. Birds (almost all of them) come to their full
growth the first year, or a little after. It is true, that
their feathers in some kinds, and their bills in others,
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
67
show their years; but for the growth of their bodies
it is not so.
23. The eagle is accounted a long liver, yet his
years are not set down; and it is alleged, as a sign of
his long life, that he casts his bill, whereby he grows
young again; from whence comes that old proverb,
the old age of an eagle. Notwithstanding perchance
the matter may be thus, that the renewing of the
eagle doth not cast his bill, but the casting of his bill
is the renewing of the eagle; for, after that his bill is
grown to a great crookedness, the eagle feeds with
much difficulty.
24. Vultures are also affirmed to be long livers,
insomuch that they extend their life well near to a
hundred years. Kites likewise, and so all birds that
feed upon flesh, and birds of prey, live long. As for
hawks, because they lead a degenerate and servile
life for the delight of men, the term of their natural
life is not certainly known; notwithstanding amongst
mewed hawks some have been found to have lived
thirty years, and amongst wild hawks forty years.
25. The raven likewise is reported to live long,
sometimes to a hundred years. He feeds on carrion,
and flies not often, but rather is a sedentary and
melanchollic bird, and hath very black flesh. But the
crow, like unto him in most things (except in great-
ness and voice), lives not altogether so long, and yet
is reckoned amongst the long livers.
26. The swan is certainly found to be a long liver,
1
F 2
68
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
and exceeds not unfrequently a hundred years.
He
is a bird excellently plumed, a feeder upon fish, and
is always carried, and that in running waters.
27. The goose also may pass amongst the long
livers, though his food be commonly grass, and such
kind of nourishment, especially the wild goose;
whereupon this proverb grew amongst the Germans,
Magis senex quam ansernivalis; older than a wild
goose.
28. Storks must needs be long livers, if that be true
which was anciently observed of them, that they
never came to Thebes, because that city was often
sacked. This, if it were so, then either they must
have the knowledge of more ages than one, or else
the old ones must tell their young the history. But
there is nothing more frequent than fables.
29. For fables do so abound touching the phoenix,
that the truth is utterly lost, if any such bird there be.
As for that which was so much admired, that she
was ever seen abroad with a great troop of birds
about her, it is no such wonder; for the same is
usually seen about an owl flying in the daytime, or a
parrot let out of a cage.
30. The parrot hath been certainly known to have
lived threescore years in England, how old soever he
was before he was brought over; a bird eating almost
all kind of meats, chewing his meat, and renewing
his bill likewise curst and mischievous, and of a black
flesh.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
69
31. The peacock lives twenty years, but he comes
not forth with his argus eyes before he be three years
old; a bird slow of pace, having whitish flew.
32. The dunghill cock is venereous, martial, and but
of a short life; a crank bird, having also white flesh.
33. The Indian cock, commonly called the turkey
cock, lives not much longer than the dunghill cock;
an angry bird, and hath exceeding white flesh.
34 The ringdoves are of the longest sort of livers,
insomuch that they attain sometimes to fifty years of
age; an airy bird, and both builds and sits on high.
But doves and turtles are but short lived, not exceed-
ing eight years.
35. But pheasants and partridges may live to six-
teen years. They are great breeders, but not so
white of flesh as the ordinary pullen.
36. The blackbird is reported to be, amongst the
lesser birds, one of the longest livers; an unhappy
bird, and a good singer.
37. The sparrow is noted to be of a very short life;
and it is imputed in the males to their lasciviousness.
But the linnet, no bigger in body than the sparrow,
hath been observed to have lived twenty years.
38. Of the ostrich we have nothing certain; those
that were kept here have been so unfortunate, that no
long life appeared by them. Of the bird ibis we find
only that he liveth long, but his years are not recorded
39. The age of fishes is more uncertain than that
of terrestrial creatures, because living under the water
70
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
they are the less observed; many of them breathe
not, by which means their vital spirit is more closed
in; and, therefore, though they receive some refri-
geration by their gills, yet that refrigeration is not so
continual as when it is by breathing.
40. They are free from the desiccation and depre-
dation of the air ambient, because they live in the
water, yet there is no doubt but the water, ambient,
and piercing, and received into the pores of the body,
doth more hurt to long life than the air doth.
41. It is affirmed, too, that their blood is not warm.
Some of them are great devourers, even of their own
kind. Their flesh is softer and more tender than
that of terrestrial creatures; they grow exceedingly
fat, insomuch that an incredible quantity of oil will
be extracted out of one whale.
42. Dolphins are reported to live about thirty
years; of which thing a trial was taken in some of
them by cutting off their tails, they grow until ten
years of age.
43. That which they report of some fishes is
strange, that after a certain age their bodies will
waste and grow very slender, only their head and
tail retaining their former greatness.
44. There were found in Cæsar's fishponds lam-
preys to have lived threescore years; they were
grown so familiar with long use, that Crassus, the
orator, solemnly lamented one of them.
45. The pike, amongst fishes, living in fresh water
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
71
is found to last longest, sometimes to forty years; he
is a ravener, of a flesh somewhat dry and firm.
46. But the carp, bream, tench, eel, and the like,
are not held to live above ten years.
47. Salmons are quick of growth, short of life; so
are trouts; but the perch is slow of growth, long
of life.
48. Touching that monstrous bulk of the whale or
ork, how long it is weiled by vital spirit, we have
received nothing certain; neither yet touching the
sea-calf, and sea-hog, and other innumerable fishes.
49. Crocodiles are reported to be exceeding long
lived, and are famous for the times of their growth,
for that they, amongst all other creatures, are thought
to grow during their whole life. They are of those
creatures that lay eggs, ravenous, cruel, and well
fenced against the waters. Touching the other kinds
of shell fish, we find nothing certain how long they
live.'-Basil Montagu's translation of Bacon's works,
'The History of Life and Death.
Let us first examine the facts given above in
view of the relation of high Evolution or high
Individuation to longevity. It is apparent that
the longest-lived animals and trees are those of
high development, and not only generally, but in
comparing the members of a class or order this is
found to be true. Thus we see the great trees, ex-
hibiting no doubt the greatest bulk and greatest
72
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
differentiation among plants, as having the longest
life. The Vertebrata, which are the highest in evolu-
tion of animals, are, as a whole, the longest lived;
for the Mollusca and Crustacea and Echinodermata,
though, as stated in the list, they are not known to
have a definite limit of life, yet certainly do not, on
the whole, exhibit anything like so great a potential
longevity as the Vertebrata. Again, amongst the
Vertebrata, the longest lived are found in the Mam-
malia; and the whale and the elephant, living re-
spectively 300 and 150 years, are the largest, and, in
this special characteristic, as highly evolved¹as any
of the class. Then, side by side, we see the whale.
longer lived than the elephant on account of its
greater bulk; man longer lived than the chimpanzee,2
being larger and more highly differentiated; the ox
longer lived than the sheep and goat; the lion than
the ox, being although not bulkier yet of higher
development. So the small Rodents and Insectivora
have short lives; the mouse being said to live a
shorter time than larger allied forms. It would be in-
teresting to know as to the longevity of Marsupials;
whether their lower evolution tells strongly on their
1 Mr. Herbert Spencer says, 'Principles of Biology,' vol. in p 479,
The Elephant (which though otherwise less evolved, is, in extent of
integration, more evolved)' i. e. as compared with man
2 Mr. Alfred Wallace told the writer that he knew nothing contrary
to the supposition that the orang-outang lives as long as the human
inhabitants of Borneo This shews the difficulty there is in observing
in regard to the question of longevity.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
73
longevity, or whether bulk affects it most. The large
Kangaroo, were longevity regulated by bulk alone,
should live longer than the sheep. The Reptiles
present inter se the same relations; the crocodiles
and chelonia, which are certainly those of greatest
individuation, being longest lived. So too the Fishes,
as far as facts go, the Pike being a highly evolved
fish. The Sharks may be guessed from their great
size to have very long lives, which confirms the rule
as to high development, though of course it cannot
as to bulk. That bulk and development increase
together is well ascertained from general principles.
The Sharks of the later Tertiary period are calculated
from the size of their teeth to have measured between
eighty and ninety feet in length, and may have had
a proportionate longevity. Speculation might lead
-one to attribute enormous longevity to the gigantic
extinct mesozoic Reptiles. Amongst Mollusca, the
highest in evolution are the highest in longevity,
if we may judge by the size and rate of growth
of some Cephalopods, both recent and extinct, as
compared with Conchifers and Brachiopods. The
Insects inter se present facts supporting the truth of
the proposition as to high evolution: the Coleoptera
and Orthoptera, undoubtedly from their carnivorous
habits (in many cases) and generally dominant
character, the most highly evolved, are the longest
lived, according to observation, e. g. Scarabæus and
Mantis.
74
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS
Amongst Birds, the most striking case is seen in
the exceeding longevity, which is well ascertained, of
Parrots. They are undoubtedly the very highest of
Birds in development, and they live probably the
longest. The facts as to age do not however relate
to their normal potential longevity, we have to guess
that from the experiment in abnormal conditions.
Next, as to generative expenditure.¹ Since this
generally and clearly increases with diminished evo-
lution, it is not difficult to establish the contrast
between it and high longevity, as a general rule. The
Protozoa and Protophyta are exceedingly prolific, an
Infusorian being calculated to produce 268 millions
in the course of a single month (Paramecium):
another 170 billions in four days, and their duration
of life is correspondingly of the shortest. Insects are
exceedingly prolific, and hence, in spite of their high
evolution, very short-lived. Many insects deposit
300,000 ova, but, what is a more important item of
consideration, they deposit an enormous bulk rela-
tively to their living matter. Compare the not far
distant but inferior Annelids, and they are seen to be
1 It does not appear worth while to consider asexual and sexual
genesis separately, where so little is to be said But it does appear from
the facts that asexual genesis is less severe a tax, and therefore less
inimical to longevity than sexual genesis Thus Chatogaster and other
worms live and reproduce asexually in abundance, but at length sexual
genesis occurs and they die It is in those cases where asexual genesis
partakes of the nature of growth rather than germ-production that it
is least severe in its effect on longevity
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
75
longer lived, for though in most cases possessing large
genital organs, they do not deposit their ova or sperm
so early or so rapidly as the Insects. The Vertebrata
are by no means prolific (except fish), and at the
same time are longer-lived than Invertebrata.
Fish are long-lived, in spite of considerable gene-
rative expenditure,¹ the explanation lying in the
diminished personal expenditure involved in their
aquatic life. This, too, affects greatly the case of
Annelids just quoted. Amongst Birds it is easy to
point out that smaller broods go with a greater lon-
gevity: thus the Eagle has but one or two eggs, the
common Owl four or five; Finches two broods of five
in a season, and the Wrens and Tits eight to fifteen;
and these, as appears from our list above, stand in the
same order as to longevity. It is very difficult indeed
to find particular cases in which the direct action of
generative expenditure on longevity is apparent, for it
affects other quantities before longevity, or its action
is counteracted by fluctuations in these quantities, as,
1 The bulk of the ova and speim in fish is not so large as the number
of the ova lead one to think; and moreover, as a rule, they give no
parental attention, which is a most important item of generative ex-
penditure. In those fishes which do, e. g. Pipe-fish, Hippocampus, and
Arius of the Amazons, the bulk and number of the ova is immensely
reduced.
This item of parental attention is what in the case of man and other
animals tends much to balance the male and female generative expendi-
tuie, for the male feeds both mother and young for a considerable time
by his exertion; hence the female's expenditure of substance is in some
degree balanced.
76
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
for example, in personal expenditure and degree of
evolution. One ought to compare organisms which
are alike in these two last quantities. In trees, we
may take the pear, apple, and such fruit-trees, and
we find that they are excessive in their reproductive
expenditure, and short-lived as compared with other
trees which agree (as do all Vegetals) in the absence
of personal expenditure, and are of equivalent indi-
viduation. In animals¹ we may best compare expe-
rimental cases: thus we find that animals used for
breeding, and made to breed early, are less long-
lived than those which are not so used.2 There are,
besides, two important cases to compare, viz. mules
which are born incapable of reproducing, and animals
which have been operated upon. With regard to the
Mule, Bacon states that it lives longer than either
the Horse or the Ass, which confirms the hypothesis
that generative expenditure antagonizes longevity.
But as to the results of operations, it appears that,
as in cases of forced abstinence, a disturbing element
is introduced by the interference with the proper
functions and nutrition of the animal. The principle
of Treviranus, 'that every organ is as an excreting
gland to the rest of the body' must be remem-
1 The case of Actinia is alluded to farther on. Its longevity is an
example where small generative expenditure, either asexual or sexual,
entails long duration of the individual.
2 This statement is derived from general assertions and needs con-
fimation.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
77
bered, and we can comprehend that by the removal
of generative glands no advantage as to longevity
would accrue to the organism, but perhaps great
injury, whilst the abeyance of normal functions will
equally not prevent that nutrition of the organs and
their growth, which is a great part of the tax of
generative expenditure. At the same time, both cas-
trated organisms, and those restrained from the sexual
act, gain in the possible absence of nervous excite-
ment, which has 'a relatively enormous costliness,' 1
and by not losing the simple weight of the emitted
generative product. It does not appear from facts,
that castrated animals are longer-lived than those
normal, neither amongst men nor lower animals,
nor that celibates, male or female, among either men
or lower animals, have a large if any advantage.
'1
2
Passing on to personal expenditure, we find more
numerous facts in the list to support our deductions.
Aquatic animals, generally, have less personal expen-
diture than terrestrial animals; they are supported
in the water, the temperature fluctuates little, their
1 Spencer.
;
2 It is exceedingly difficult to make estimation as to male celibates
the unmarried have a considerably higher death-rate at ages below fifty
among males than the married, but there are not statistics to shew that
of the numbers surviving there is a less expectation of life than among
the mairied, or widowers It is impossible to be assured of the strict
abstinence of any group of men. Amongst women the oldest are widows,
but the relative ages of manage of males and females, and the numbers
of manied and unmarried affect these numbers vastly, and their influence
cannot yet be eliminated.
78
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
food is abundant, for waters 'team with life' truly
more than the atmosphere. Terrestrial animals, whilst
supporting themselves mostly on the ground, live in
the air, and in very few cases is their food to be
found abundantly in this medium, and accordingly
their expenditure in getting food is greater. Thus
among Vertebrata, the Whale is long-lived, the Cro-
codiles and Chelonians are long-lived, the Salaman-
droids and the Fish. It does not appear certain that
the Batrachia (Frogs and Toads) are shorter lived
than the Salamandroids; their terrestrial habits in-
volve greater expenditure, but their very much higher
individuation may counterbalance this. Among In-
vertebrata, the Mollusca are long-lived; the Pul-
monata less so than the branchiate Gasteropods.
Paludina and Lymnæus living in the same pond
differ thus in age, whilst no land Mollusc is as
large (and therefore probably from what we have
seen as long-lived) as many hundreds of aquatic
(marine) species.
1
The aquatic Arthropods (Crustacea), excluding the
minuter forms, are most broadly contrasted with the
terrestrial Insects, Myriapods, and Arachnids, in re-
spect of length of life, as we have before mentioned,
and set forth in the list. Descending lower, we find
no terrestrial groups to compare.2
1 As far as the writer's observations go, Lymnæus lives four years,
and Paludina seven or eight.
2 There is the terrestrial leech, and there are the teri estial Planariæ,
or ground Flukes, the longevity of which is not ascertained.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
79
Reptiles living in hot countries, and feeding on
large masses of food at intervals, have small ex-
penditure and live long. The higher Reptiles are the
most sluggish and inert of any animals in proportion
to their degree of development; and hence, their
expenditure being small and their development high,
we should expect them to exhibit great longevity,
which they do. A very instructive contrast is af-
forded by Birds and Reptiles, which are so closely
allied in structure. The active, expending Birds are
short-lived as compared with such Reptiles as the
Tortoise and Crocodile.
Echinoderms, being exceedingly sluggish, living
on the most easily obtainable food, in many cases,
viz. the organic matter diffused in sand, live longer
than would be expected from their comparatively
low place in the scale of life. Actinia, which is
also almost like a vegetal as to absence of personal
expenditure, as are other sedentary colenterates,
owes its great longevity to a relatively high evolu-
tion, in respect of integration. It buds never (or
rarely), and breeds sexually but little.
The parasitic worms and crustacea might be ex-
pected to have a great longevity from the total
absence of personal expenditure; but here, as in
many plants, there is enormous generative expendi-
ture, which shortens life, the small percentage of
those born which ever get into the happy conditions.
of a stomach or gill, being the reason for this great
80
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
generative outlay. Most of these forms die on re-
production. Tænia does not die at once, because
of its tertiary aggregation; that is to say—it is
separated into a number of joints, which, one by
one, come to maturity and die, whilst new joints
continue to grow from the head.
These are some of the most striking inductive
verifications which the collected statements furnish;
others are to be found by a further examination of
the list.
II. Other Relations of Longevity.
There seem to be some minor modifications of
the terms 'evolution' and 'expenditure' which affect
longevity, and which do not strike us at once as
coming under those heads, and yet are very plainly
influential in the result. How difficult it is to get
clear views in the intricacies of such a problem as
the one before us, we may let Mr. Spencer say, who
shews, in his chapter on the Inductive Verification
of the Laws of Multiplication, the frequency of com-
plications which can only be dealt with by the use
of the phrase 'cæteris paribus' as a continual quali-
fication.
Animals which feed on large masses of food, of
great concentration-as, e. g. other animals, or special
fruits and portions of trees-are longer lived than
those feeding on diffused and widely-spread food,
as the lower sorts of vegetable growth and decaying
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
81
material. This we see in the greater length of life
of carnivorous and frugivorous animals as compared,
cæteris paribus, with herbivorous and garbage-eaters.
This reduces itself to a case of evolution and bulk;
for in the first group it is an advantage to be large
and highly endowed, to be swift and powerful, and
to secure the whole mass by one effort. In the
second group, five mouths will take in more nutri-
ment than one, it being equally diffused; and hence
it is better for a given bulk of the species to be
divided into five small individuals than retained in
one large one. Where the acquisitive power in-
creases more nearly with the bulk, as in vegetals,
such a distinction does not hold. It is in ac-
cordance with this relation of bulk to food that
insects which feed on widely-spread vegetable
juices, or similarly wide-spread garbage, are shorter
lived than the birds which prey on the insects, or
than other insects which are carnivorous; and that
the lower animals, generally feeding as they do on
diffused food, are shorter lived. Thus the frugiv-
orous apes are longer lived than other animals similar
to them in many other matters which are not fruit-
eaters; carnivora generally than herbivora, in the
various classes and orders, cæteris paribus.
Another apparently important influence in longe-
vity is what Mr. Spencer calls 'tertiary aggregation.'
This is obviously only a form of increased evolution.
Mr. Spencer supposes that what has been somewhat
Ꮐ
1
82
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
unaccountably called vegetative repetition-for it is
quite as truly animal or animative repetition-is an
arrested production of zooids by budding; that it
is, in fact, a merging of many individualities in one.
This, we see, in many cases, like being compared
with like, is accompanied by increased longevity. The
Tænia which exhibits this tertiary aggregation in a
loose sort of way continues to develope from the
attached head, and to protract its individual duration
of life long after sexual organs have ripened and
death followed in the separated proglottides. In the
closely-allied Trematodes (flukes), in which the indivi-
duality is that of a secondary aggregate, death follows
reproduction; as also in the Nematodes, which live
in similar conditions, and are structurally allied to the
other parasitic worms. In vegetals we find the same
relation holding good, the multiaxial plants being
the long-lived, the uniaxial the short-lived. That
tertiary aggregation only has this accompaniment as
long as it implies an increased comparative evolution,
is seen in the fact that the Mollusca and Vertebrata,
supposed to be secondary¹ aggregates, are longer
lived than many tertiary aggregates; whilst similarly
the relation of expenditure to longevity considerably
qualifies the influence of tertiary aggregation. The
Annelids of high tertiary aggregation, i. e. of many
segments (e. g. Lumbricus and marine forms), are
1 That is aggregates compounded of primary aggiegates; primary
aggregates being simply cells.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
83
1
much longer lived than the Naids and Chatogaster,¹
with few segments and one year of life. So, too,
the Echinoderms are tertiary aggregates, and con-
sequently have long life as compared with simple
Vermes. Tertiary aggregation acts in aiding lon-
gevity like the construction in five compartments of
the Great Eastern steam-ship, if one is injured and
lost, the others can go on without it, or even one
may survive by itself. The question of tertiary
aggregation brings us very near again to the dis-
cussion of individuality, which is not within our
scope. Remembering what was said at the outset
as to this, it is clear that tertiary aggregation acts
by merging many individualities into one, and thus
improving the chance of continued life.
Social organization is a sort of tertiary aggregation,
in that newly-produced individuals do not separate
from but remain attached to the preceding generation,
supporting and ministering to the life of the older
constituents. Thus it is with civilized man. He is
supported in old age by the younger generations;
the hope of, and confidence in, such support which
the younger individuals have, being the strongest
bond of society.
¹ Naids and Chatogaster are continually giving rise to new segments,
which separate and become new individuals. How long the life of one
original ancestor may be thus carried on by means of division is not
known; but it is probably not for the immense period supposed by
some writers; for, when sexual organs develope, the woim ceases to
bud, and dies.
G 2
84
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
Mere size acts in plants and animals both, in
rendering them less susceptible to the cold of the
wet season, or the winter, and thus protracts life.
The production of woody fibre in plants is a con-
dition of longevity, and anything directly favouring
this may extend life. It enables the plant to resist
breakage by wind or other violence, and protects it
from cold. Thus bulbs continue the individual life
of an annual flower for many years, and thus the
trunks and branches of trees and shrubs live, whilst
the leaves and flowers die.¹ Obviously the influence
on age of the development of wood is but a part
of the law of relation of evolution and longevity; but
it is a special correlation, of very wide application.
12. Some Experimental Evidence.
There are some experimental proofs of the influence
of generative and personal expenditure on longevity
which may be now cited. By preventing plants from
reproducing, that is, by cutting off their flower-buds,
the gardener increases the bulk and the longevity
of some plants; leaves and wood being produced in
place of generative products. By change from a
warm to a colder climate, this may similarly be
¹ Some persons would wish to regaid tree-stems, bulbs, &c. as a
kind of asexual reproductive mass, and would look upon the flowers
of each year as successive generations of individuals The compound
nature of perennial plants is one of the difficulties met with in attempting
to define individuality.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
85
effected. The American aloe reproduces and dies in
about five years in Mexico; in England it elaborates
leaves for a hundred years before flowering. Again,
the axolotl reproduces in warm Mexico as a branch-
iferous amphibian; in colder climates its fertility is
diminished, it becomes a salamandroid before repro-
ducing, thus lengthening life by delaying genesis
It is rarely that we can point to such cases as these,
where the diminution of warmth affects sexual de-
velopment. Usually it will kill the animal or plant
experimented upon-as in the case of the mignonette
(a shrub in Barbary), and the palma Christi (a tree in
India), which both die annually in our severe climate ;
the longevity of the individual being in these cases
diminished rather than the fertility delayed.
The two cases are interesting to compare with
man, who is believed to live longest in cold countries.
Like the American aloe, as is seen, when it is taken
to still colder climates than our own, or like the
mignonette in England, man ceases to gain in lon-
gevity when a certain limit of cold is attained.
Beyond the cold of temperate regions his longevity
is probably injuriously affected,¹ as is that of the
palma and the mignonette in England, and that of
the aloe in regions farther north. The general action
of cold lies no doubt in the production of a sluggish-
ness of the chemico-vital changes, which, if carried
C
¹ It is stated (Aitken's Medicine'), but not on statistical evidence, that
the longevity of the Icelanders is greatly reduced by catarrh.
86
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
far, may destroy, but if moderated must extend,
length of life (at the expense of intensity). The
coldness of water, together with its diminished power
of oxygenation, as compared with the atmosphere,
is one of the direct causes of diminished expenditure
in aquatic animals, rendering their life necessarily less
intense than that of terrestrial forms, and so longer.
In keeping animals in menageries, in rearing pets
and domesticated animals, man performs an experi-
ment by diminishing personal expenditure. He fre-
quently does the same in his own case, leading
a careless, labourless existence; but there is in this
as in other experiments (which are rarely so good
in physiological enquiry in their results as natural
comparisons) a disturbing cause, for Luxury, 'the
fertile parent of a whole family of diseases,' as Galen
termed her, steps in and works against the diminished
expenditure. When man in his own person, or in the
organisms he interferes with, so far baulks Nature's
provisions that the organs become, as it were, rusty
through the suspension of that personal expenditure,
which is usually necessary to keep up the warmth by
oxygenation, and to obtain necessary food, then he
shortens rather than increases the length of life,
disease attacks his victim, and death follows. This is
seen exemplified in the case of domesticated animals,¹
1 Mr Darwin informed the writer that he did not know of any
reliable data admitting of a comparison between domestic animals and
their nearest wild representatives (their actual wild forms being unknown
in every case).
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
87
which are fattened for eating, and are believed to be
short-lived in consequence. It is clearly the case in
pets, such as small dogs, whose life is shortened by
luxury. Hounds are the longest lived amongst dogs.
On the other hand, there are cases in which man,
by his care in avoiding expenditure, has lengthened
his own and other animals' tenure of life; and it
appears, from the little that is known, that experi-
mental evidence does support the proposition, that
longevity is lengthened by diminution of personal
expenditure.
13. Summary.
Hence, in spite of the great complication of the
case, we may conclude, on both deductive and
inductive grounds, that the high or low potential lon-
gevity of different species, as a general law, is neces-
sitated by those conditions of life which necessitate
high or low individual development, as the case may
be, whether of mere bulk, or complexity, or both;
that it is directly subject to those conditions which
cause personal expenditure to fluctuate, or which
affect generative expenditure, being high when these
are low, and low when these are high; that these
relations interacting and contending variously ac-
cording to the special case, determine the potential
longevity of the various species of lower animals.
From the intricacy of these relations we may con-
clude that potential longevity is a very delicately
88
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
1
balanced quantity, and that very slight causes may
produce great fluctuations in it, and be almost im-
possible to trace; the magnitude of the result being
far larger than in proportion to the magnitude of the
initial cause, as is so often found to happen in
Biological Science.
THE LONGEVITY OF MAN.
14. Preliminary.
In this part of the essay, our object is to apply
the conclusions we have obtained from the study of
organisms generally to the case of man, and es-
pecially to observe how far his obedience to the
general law is affected by, or dependent on, the
different phases of civilization which he exhibits.
Man presents the most marked contrasts with
animals generally in many of the chief conditions of
existence affecting longevity. Civilized man lives in
societies, one of the most essential bonds of union in
which is the maintenance, to a greater or less extent,
by the community of the feeble. The security which
the healthy and vigorous man hopes for himself, when
grown old and feeble, he naturally extends to others,
and thus the aged are fed and protected as the result
of a specific habit or characteristic among men (the
most barbarous excepted).
Further, the intellect of man renders him utterly
unlike animals in much that relates to age; for
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
89
whilst he grows feebler in limb, unproductive as a
labourer, impotent as a warrior, in all such regards a
mere burden on the species, yet the knowledge and
experience stored in his great brain is of use to his
younger fellow-men, and age is for that reason re-
spected. Moreover, the species Homo is widely dif
ferent from any other species; indeed, from the point
of view of a general philosophy, it is almost erroneous
to apply the term 'species' to the collective varieties
of man¹ at all. For the development of the brain
and of intelligence in man has really changed the
whole course of Nature, supposing that the develop-
mental course was hers. The further progress of
organic beings beyond the limit reached by man
(and this may be as acceptable a truth to the teleo-
logist as to the evolutionist) can only operate through
that brain, so thoroughly dominant, so all-powerful
has it become. No longer are the structures of the
whole organism affected by changed conditions, but
of the brain alone,2 and the result of this is that
there are no physiological species among men. The
various races and kinds of men can interbreed. It is
only their intelligence, their power, knowledge, and
cast of thought which largely differs, and this does
1 The term 'polymorphism' is fairly applicable, in its zoological
sense, to man as a civilized being, each unit in a society, with his
special skill and special function, being comparable to such units in a
polypidom or a hymenopterous colony.
2 Other changes are exceedingly small, and are not permanent as are
those of the brain.
90
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
not prevent the sperm-cell and germ-cell of two races
being so developed as to unite in forming a fertile
ovum.
Men exist in the most diverse conditions, not
only in distant lands and varied climates, but even
in the same city, in conditions so diverse, that were
any other organism known, to be submitted to an
equally great range of external agencies, even the
most highly developed, it must either perish, or, if
gradually introduced to the change, must so com-
pletely modify its structure as to become a new and
distinct species. Man may be said to make his own
conditions by his brain, or through it all conditions.
may be said to be comparatively uniform for him
and for the animals which he chooses to associate
with himself. Originating probably in the East, in a
warm but not a tropical climate, feeding on rich and
abundant fruits, he has yet gradually spread over
the whole world, and does not shew any material
modification of structure-no modification so great
as to prevent interbreeding. When circumstances
forced him to cold countries, his intelligence made
him light a fire and build a house, and cover himself
with the skins of other and inferior animals, which
he entrapped by cunning, and whose roasted flesh
served him as a substitute for the failing fruits. As
necessities arose, he learned to build boats, skill of
all kinds became his through his brain, and his vast
knowledge was gradually acquired, and handed down
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
91
from generation to generation, and passed from man
to man by means of speech, which yearly grew more
perfect. Meanwhile, he lived in families at first,
then in tribes, and still later in societies of various
kinds, which have grown, and are daily growing
larger, in virtue of which the individual struggle for
existence is, almost in the most civilized, and must be
eventually entirely, abandoned, Darwin's law of sur-
vival of the fittest operating through the emulation of
hundreds of varied combinations of men as wholes,
instead of through the isolated struggles of the units
composing them.¹
The structural differences which have been pro-
duced in men by their distribution over the vari-
ous parts of the globe, are apparent enough to
the eye; perhaps seeming greater than they really
are, as compared with differences amongst other in-
dividuals, by reason of our detailed knowledge of
the objects compared, when they are men. But
these characters of skull-form and hair-form, of com-
plexion and hair-colour, and of size, which are what
constitute the chief divergencies, other than those
of the brain, among men, are not sufficiently con-
stant in races to enable naturalists to ascertain the
pedigree of the various nations of the earth, and
to group their races by descent. Indeed, locality
not race is what is marked by these characters. It
1 Individual men do not struggle for existence-that is assured to
them by society-they struggle to 'get on.'
92
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
is in the variety of language-a part of the in-
tellectual development-that characters of far greater
constancy and value are found 1 Whilst the shape of
the skull, the colour and such structural attributes,
having assumed a certain state in a race, may rapidly
change in a few generations to a totally different
state,2 language remains comparatively constant. The
Circassians, who embody the ideal of beauty of the
Western Europeans, are Mongolidæ in language;
that is, are more closely related in descent to the
Chinese and Siamese than to us. The Turk in
Europe is acquiring European characteristics, losing
his rounded form of head; whilst the Jew and the
Ashantee are of nearer relationship to one another than
either is to any of the other races named. Compare
an English Jew of pure race with an African savage,
and the transient character of structural character
in man, such as is not brain structure, will be re-
cognised.
It is needless to mention further the varied colour
of the hair and physiognomy of Europeans; all such
and many similar facts tend to shew the complete
subordination of other to brain character. Hence
1 Too great reliance must not be placed on language; for an invading
race will in some cases communicate its language to the conquered, or,
in other cases, adopt the language of the invaded country.
2 The fact that the Jewish physiognomy has been traced in some
African races, must be mentioned on the other side, and the certainly
long persistence of the type of hair in the two great groups of smooth-
and curly-haired races.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
93
potential longevity being dependent on structure
(as pointed out early in the essay), and the various
races of men not exhibiting constancy in structural
character, we cannot expect that the various races
should exhibit anything like an approach to specific
potential longevity. This, too, the more so, remem-
bering the delicacy of the quantity, and its liability
to fluctuation with small influences. We have, on
the contrary, every reason to believe that a man of
English race and a man of Fuegian race, who by
gradual change in the condition of their ancestors
(for sudden change is likely to act injuriously by
its mere suddenness ¹) should be living side by side,
would live to the same period of time, that is, have
the same potential longevity. But it is true enough
that either the Fuegian would be no longer a Fue-
gian, for he would have abandoned the habits and
conditions of life which are his peculiarities, or the
Englishman would have ceased to be an Englishman
by similar metamorphosis. Buffon, a man of really
great insight and philosophical spirit, says: 'The
man who does not die of accidental causes reaches
everywhere the age of ninety or one hundred years.
If we reflect that the European, Negro, Chinese,
and American, the civilized man, the savage, the
1 Dr. Kane, the American Arctic explorer, and his companions, after
residing three years in a high latitude, experienced the most seveie
injury from the summer heat of the Northern States, and eventually
Di. Kane died from the exhaustion and pilostiation so produced.-
'Wynn's American Statistics' (Influence of Locality on Disease).
94
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
rich, the poor, the dweller in cities and in the
country, differing so much from each other in some
respects, all resemble each other in having the same
allotment, the same interval of time to pass from
birth to death; that the variations of race, climate,
food, conveniences, have nothing to do with the dura-
tion of life,—we shall discover that the duration of
life does not depend on habits, customs, nor on the
quality of food. Nothing can change the physical
laws which regulate the number of our years'1
Buffon does not bring forward adequate data to
support his statements, and we cannot admit the
truth of his assertion in its entirety. But we have
seen reason to believe that hereditarily the power of
life in all men (within a few generations) is the same,
disease, habits, and customs being dependent on ex-
ternal conditions, and thus longevity is rendered sub-
ject to external rather than internal causes, in the
case of man; though with these varying external
conditions are correlated small structural variations,
which may make the longevity, in a certain sense,
appear to be dependent on structure, so intimately
bound up, so closely corresponding and reciprocal
are structure and habit, even when dominated by
such an organ as man's brain.
What we are concerned with, then, in the various
kinds of man, is not variation in hereditary longevity,
1 Vol ii. p. 76, quoted by Flourens, p. 52.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
95
but variation in the longevity of groups characterized
by different habits, food, &c, and it is not to the
race of men, but to the difference of conditions in
which they live, that we must direct our attention.
As was stated above, man's brain by its adapting
power makes the essential conditions of life much
more nearly uniform than would at first be sup-
posed from his varied habitat, the total expendi-
ture in procuring heat, food, safety, and in repro-
duction together being about the same in most
races and classes. Hence we do not look for much
difference of longevity, even in different climes and
different civilizations. It is when we come to ex-
tremes, however, such as do exist, in which men
are living and not adequately contending with nature
by their intelligence, but are getting worsted in the
struggle, that we may expect appreciable variation in
longevity; the expenditure is increased in one direc-
tion without being diminished in another, and con-
sequently the longevity suffers. Thus, whilst the
savages of Polynesia and of many parts of Africa,
1
1 The inhabitants of Iceland are stated to rarely attain old age, com-
paratively few leaching the age of sixty, but I have not found any statis-
tical proof of this assertion. (Aitken's Medicine,' vol. ii) In the same
work the terrible condition of the inhabitants of the Pontine Maishes is
described from various sources, and it is clearly shewn that men living
in such malarious conditions have life greatly curtailed, becoming old
and exhausted before other men have reached their piime. These cases
appear to be abnormal in their conditions of life, and no evidence is
forthcoming as to whether hereditary diminution of longevity is brought
about by the subjection of a population to such circumstances. Prob-
ably it is.
96
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
together with the semi-civilized Mongolidæ, and the
highly-civilized Iapetidæ, are, through the action
of their brain power, equalised as to potential
longevity by equality in respect of accessibility of
food and warmth, what the barbarous gain by the
diminished expenditure implied in warmth, abun-
dance, and absence of intellectual exertion, being
made up to the civilized by the higher evolution
both personal and social; yet there are extremes
of misery and want, of cold and of heat, to which the
most degraded savages are subject, not being suffi-
ciently intelligent to cope with these difficulties, and
to which classes of men even in the most civilized
communities are born and bred, not allowed by the
more fortunate to receive either necessaries or educa-
tion, which no doubt entail upon these savages and
these classes a much diminished potential longevity.
There is then perhaps reason to admit hereditary
diminution of longevity in such cases as compared
with the mass, though the hereditary character will
probably cease to affect the second or third genera-
tion after removal from the injurious conditions spe-
cified The same character of temporary heredity
appears in families which for some few generations
are often remarkable for longevity; or, on the other
hand, through disease,¹ intemperance, or other feeble-
1 Disease may be regarded as increasing expenditure-entailing ab-
normal and useless expenditure, often in excess, by causing exhaustion,
misdirected nutrition, &c.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
97
ness in parentage, are equally remarkable for short
life. It is in this regard (influence of disease) that
the question of the average longevity or mortality of
groups of men to their potential longevity deserves
to be closely studied. At present, there are no data
to solve the question as to the extent or nature of
the influence of the one over the other, and an ex-
amination of the various life-tables given below shews
that the relation is most inconstant (see p. 109 et seq.).
1
We may almost look upon excessively injurious
conditions of existence and their effect on individuals
as a definite thing comparable to a disease, being just
as abnormal as in contrast with the most healthy state
known to us; and we may say that no man with the
disease 'Fuegian,' or 'Esquimaux,' or 'Australian,'¹
would have as fair a chance of long life, however
favourable his circumstances, with that exception, as
the man who does not labour under the disadvantage
of a long ancestry of degraded savagery, and is there-
fore free from such disease; just as we have no hesi-
tation in saying that a man with hereditary phthisis,
scrofulous, or cancerous tendency, has not so fair a
chance of long life as the healthy man. And just as
in the course of a few generations the offspring of the
latter may become quite healthy, so may the offspring
of the former, in so far as his hereditary tendency to
short life is concerned.2
<
1 Or we may add, English mechanic,' or 'poverty and dirt.'
2 Mr. Hendriks, of the Universal Life Office, informed the writer that
H
98
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
With these preliminary remarks on the nature of
the possible variations in human potential longevity,
we may proceed to some facts, and their interpreta-
tion, by means of the relations shewn to exist in
all organisms for longevity.
15. Sources of Information as to Human Longevity.
Before making enquiry, one is apt to suppose that
a good deal must be known as to the probable
duration of human life; that there are, at any rate,
statistics of some nations or periods of which assur-
ance companies make use. But there are statistics
and statistics,¹ and very few of the calculations re-
lating to this matter are of real value. Besides
statistics, as observed in a previous paragraph, we
have general impressions either brought home by
travellers or current amongst a people, and appearing
in their sayings, poetry, traditions, and philosophy.
he believed himself that there is hereditary difference of life-tenure in
various races. But he gave no facts, and probably the explanation here
given of the apparent hereditary character may include all that he would
contend for.
¹ Professor Huxley most truly observes that there are many cases in
which the admitted accuracy of mathematical processes is allowed to
throw a wholly inadmissible appearance of authority over the results
obtained by them Mathematics may be compared to
be compared to a mill of exquisite
workmanship, which grinds you stuff of any degree of fineness; but,
nevertheless, what you get out depends on what you put in; and as the
grandest mill in the world will not extract wheat-flour from peascods, so
pages of formulæ will not get a definite result out of loose data.'-
Anniversary Address to the Geological Society, 1869.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
99
In addition to these classes of evidence, we have
experiments and observations on individuals which
are of little value. Were sure post-mortem signs of
yearage—not of wearage only-traceable, we might
have a class of evidence from examination of dead
bodies.¹ But there are no sufficiently definite signs
known, though Professor Rolleston's investigation of
the Anglo-Saxon interments at Frilford shews how
such evidence may be of use in regard to average
longevity or mortality. Cases of individual longevity
in any race or condition of men carry little scientific
value, and none that are recorded appear to assist
in the discussion of the general question as to
causes, but belong to the subject of abnormal lon-
gevity, of which a few words will be said before
concluding. The incompetence of travellers to bring
home facts as to longevity is obvious. They cannot
make direct observations, or take a census of the
peoples they see; hence Messrs. Wallace, Bates,²
Darwin, Livingstone, and others, able observers as
they are, give no information of use.
Even in our
own colonies, where civilized men are in close contact
¹ Were there any laws known, such as Buffon and Flourens have
tried to lay down, of an exact ratio of age to growth, much might be
expected in this way, and the whole enquiry facilitated.
2 Mr. H W. Bates informed the wiiter that he saw many great-grand-
fathers on the Amazons, but that is all the information he could afford.
This kind of evidence is clearly of no use at all when we want to know
to a nicety of a year what is the expectation of life of men at 50, 60
years of age, and upwards.
H 2
100
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
with the barbarians of whom we desire the know-
ledge, no records have been obtained. Thus, in an
elaborate Report by Mr. Fenton to the Government
on the natives of New Zealand, published in the
'Statistical Society's Journal,' the whole statement
is quite barren of any facts relating to the longevity
of the Maoris. A kind of census is given, in which
all above puberty are distinguished from all below
puberty, but no greater detail than this. Even
less is known of the North American Indians,
the writer having consulted many authorities and
made many enquiries as to these and other native
races.2 Even in China, so highly organized and
civilized, nothing definite can be ascertained statis-
tically. That acute and accomplished man, Sir John
Bowring, says, 'I have no means of obtaining any
satisfactory tables to shew the proportion which dif-
ferent ages bear to one another in China, or the
average mortality at different periods of human life.'2
The only datum which he does adduce is appended
hereto with the life-tables (p. 105). Of the native popu-
lation of British India, thoroughly permeated as it is
by European administration, nothing is known relating
to longevity. Englishmen who have been residents are.
1 Dr. Farr, Prof. Busk, Dr. Barnard Davis, Prof. E. A. Parkes, Dr.
Lawson (of the Army Medical Department, Inspector), Prof. Huxley,
Dr Guy, Dr. Leared, Dr. Allbutt, and others, personally; besides the
works of Quetelet, Wynn, Neison, Gairdner, Farr, Hendriks, many
travellers, and the volumes of the Journal of the Statistical Society.
2 Stat Soc. Journal, vol. xx. p. 42.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
101
of opinion that the natives of all classes have a much
less potential longevity than Europeans, being very
old at 60.¹ Mr. Hendriks states that the assurance
companies will not take native lives at all, there
being a general impression that they are bad, and
a certainty that the natives lie so determinedly that
no proper tables can possibly be framed.2 From
many places we have such loose and valueless state-
ments as the following, which relates to Nova Scotia,
and is the only one that need be quoted, 'its inhabit-
ants often live to extreme age, many attaining 90 and
even 100 years;' 1 3 a statement that could be made
with equal truth and equal futility of any area within
the limits of civilization.
There are some definite statements in poetic and
other authors, which are of more value as reflecting
the common judgment of a place, people, or time,
on this question. Thus the Psalmist and the writer
in Genesis give authoritative statements so far as
their day and nationality; whilst Shakespeare's,
¹ It appears from the writer's special enquiries that medical army
officers are of this opinion. Dr. Lawson has prepared a lepoit for the
Government on the mortality of natives and whites of the West African
coast, but he can give no information as to longevity, except from general
impression.
2 A writer in the Statistical Society's Journal' states that women as a
rule have an advantage in their dealings with assurance societies,
which he attributes to their deceit, since they conceal diseases from
the physicians, and are guided by the anticipation of coming disease
to insure!
3 Stat. Soc. Journal, vol. xvii. p. 74.
102
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
Flourens', Cabanis', the Chinese, and other divisions
of the term of life indicate the writer's estimation of
that period for man as he knew him.
Returning to the matter of statistics, we find that
there are few countries which have kept returns, or
in which the shifting nature of the population has
allowed the necessary facts to be readily acquired,
even amongst the most civilized; and what we notice
very conspicuously is that statistics have been utterly
misinterpreted, and made to furnish conclusions by
faulty logic. The Northampton life-table of Price
is a remarkable instance of this. And we may point
to the discrepancies in some of the life-tables ap-
pended, when treating of the same classes, as further
examples. It is indeed only within the last twenty
years that really sound conclusions as regards lon-
gevity have been deduced from the statistics of
population. In Sweden, England,¹ Belgium, Holland,
and Bavaria alone are there statistics which are of suffi-
cient value to quote. France has no sufficient returns
(though the old tables, now considered untrustworthy
by authorities, are given herewith), nor America,
1 There are no facts as to Ireland at all. Mr Hendriks, in a letter
to the writer, states that he believes they are not such good lives, primâ
facie, as English lives. A life-table for Scotland is given by Mr. Neison
(see Tables, p. 114). Bacon, on the other hand, relates wonderful things
of the Hiberni sylvestres,' who are, he says, very long-lived; and he
mentions, amongst other customs, their frequent use of saffron as a
draught. Irishmen have abandoned this potion and taken to others—
and are not now so celebrated for long life.
<
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
103
nor other European states. Statistics are liable to
error when relating, above all things, to old age;
since, as men get old they lose their memory, or
gain a superstitious reverence from others which in-
duces them to lengthen their reputed age, or to allow
others to do so for them. The Russian census, in
which so many persons are returned as over 150
years of age, is worthless, in this regard, on account
of the ignorance and superstition of the lower classes ;¹
whilst the interesting comparisons which might fairly
be anticipated from facts as to the negroes and whites
in the United States are similarly rendered quite
useless and untrustworthy. Thus the average age
of those dying above 20 at Charleston appears as
47'74 for whites, and 52:56 for blacks. (Wynn, loc.
cit.). Leaving out of the question all other interfering
causes as to shifting of population, the greater age of
the blacks is quite probably due to their inventive
and imaginative talents. Americans tell us that the
number of negroes reputed to have been 'servant
to George Washington' is something extraordinary.
It is clear that numerous advantages in the shape
of diminished labour are to be obtained by pleading
old age, or greater price than he would otherwise
realize may have been gained by the slave-dealer
by passing off a youth as a mature man.
1 According to the Russian census, the age of 100 is reached by 9
persons out of every 10,000 that are boin-that is, by nearly 1 in 1000.
This is known to be absurd.
104
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
The Swedish life-table, constructed from the longest
and most various returns, is considered the best and
truest, whilst great value is also attached to the
English and Belgian life-tables. The returns of
assurance companies furnish some evidence as to the
comparative longevity of assuring classes, and from
this source we have two statements appended (see
p. 106) which relate to America and Germany, and
though not expressed in numbers, are sufficiently
important. Some few calculations upon returns of
various classes in the community have been pub-
lished, which are in some cases reliable-e. g. Mr.
Neison's, as to friendly societies; others are based
on so few facts as to be very much smaller in value,
though interesting for general comparison (e.g. Dr.
Guy's observations).
1
16. Statements as to the Duration of Human Life.
A. Hebrew.
'The days of our years are threescore years and ten, and if by reason
of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and
sorrow. for it is soon cut off and we fly away.'-Psalm xc 10.
'Yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
giants in the earth in those days.'-Genesis vi. 3, 4
•
There were
(The 120 years is coupled with the account of giants. It was con-
sidered exceptional by the writer of Genesis)
B. Individual Opinion.
'When man has attained the age of forty or fifty he must know that
he has reached half the term of his life.'-Cornaro (Italian).
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
105
The man who does not die of disease reaches everywhere the age
of ninety or a hundred years.'-Buffon (French).
'Non citra alterum seculum ultimus terminus vitæ humanæ subsistit.
Annos definire erit difficilius.'-Haller, quoted by Flourens.
'Man, being twenty years growing, lives five times twenty; that is to
say, a hundred years.'-Flouiens.
C. Chinese Division of Life. SIR J. BOWRING.
'Journal of Statist. Soc.' vol. xx. p. 42.
Age.
Io is called Opening degree.
ΙΟ
20
30
""
40
""
50
бо
70
80
90
100
Youth expired.
Strength and Marriage.
Officially apt.
Error knowing.
Cycle closing.
Rare bird of age.
Rusty visage.
Delayed.
Age's extremity.
+
D. Flourens' Division of Life. (loc. cit. p. 24.)
Age.
I to Io is called
ΙΟ
20
20 30
30 40
40
55
55 70
70
85
85 100
Infancy.
Adolescence.
Fust youth.
Second youth.
First manhood.
Second manhood.
First old age.
Second and last old age.
Others have divided age by periods of seven years. Dr. Farr, in the
introduction to the Census of 1851, quotes various such divisions, and
gives one of his own.
E. Old Men in China. SIR J. BOWRING. (loc. cit.)
Relief was administered in the reign of Kanghi (1657) to 373,935
3
тоб
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
indigent old men in China from various provinces. The archives of the
empire shew that of this number the reputed ages were as follows:-
70 to 80
194,086
80 to 90
169,832
90 to 100
9,996
F. Shortness of German Lives.
100
2 I
Mr. Neison observes (Contributions to Vital Statistics,' p xi) that
in the returns from the Gotha Life Office, at the younger ages the
mortality is much less than that indicated by any of the other Tables
yet alluded to (English), but at the older ages the rate of mortality is very
much greater. Also,
G. Shortness of American Lives.
Professor Gill has obtained returns from New York Assurances
'shewing the same peculiar features in the rate of mortality described
as characteristic of the Gotha Company's experience, only at the older
ages the mortality is even higher than that of the other'
The following paragraph from the 'Lancet' has come to hand while
these sheets are in the press -The American Philosophical Society
has received from Mr. Pliny Earle Chase an important contribution on
the value of life in the town of Philadelphia. Mr Chase shows that,
notwithstanding the increased juvenile mortality, the Philadelphia life-
tables indicate a possible life in Philadelphia of 114 years, a probable
life of 33 44, and an expectation life of 35 09 years. He means by the
term possible life, the limit sometimes obtained in a given locality; by
the probable life, the age the probability of living beyond which is as
great as that of dying before the age is attained; and by the expectation
life he defines the average which will be attained by all who are born.
In sixty-two years the average mortality was I in 47 836, the coloured
mortality in the same period being I in 27.763. The ratio of still
births to total births was 43 per cent., and to total deaths 5.8 per cent.
The ratio of living births to population was 2 8 per cent., and of deaths
to births, 74 5. The average natural increase was 3.3, and the increase
by emigration 2.6 per cent. The main age at death was 23'57 years,
and the main age of persons living was 24 29.
C
But the most interesting facts in Mr. Chase's tables are those which
shew how the simple mode of life of a quaker community compares
with the life of a more active, or, rather, more luxurious people. He
analyses the life-tables of the two communities of Philadelphia, dividing
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
107
them into Friends and Philadelphia, and finds, as his results, that
the Friends at the age of twelve years have a maximum vitality of
20 49 per cent. over their neighbours; that from twenty to sixty years
of age they have a proportionate mortality of 23 37 under their neigh-
bours; that their expectation of life is 24 62 per cent. higher, their
probable life 43.78 per cent. more valuable, and their proportionate
mortality at birth 44'70 lower than the mortality of their neighbours.
"The Quakers of Philadelphia approach thus towards the Jewish race
in respect of vitality, in which they are, probably, exceptional to all
other Christian communities. The lesson brings us back in thought to
those peoples of whom the student's classical and great master speaks:
"Plerumque tamen eam bonam contigisse ob bonos mores, quos neque
desidia, neque luxuria vitiarant.” '
H. Savages.
Fuegians and other very degraded races are stated rarely to exceed
the age of 45, being killed and eaten in some cases at that age by their
children.
(
I. Average Age of persons of various Occupations
dying at fifty-one and upwards.¹ GUY. Journal
of Statist. Soc.' 1846, p. 353.
England, males (Farr)
•
756
Fine Arts
71.15
Clergy
Gentry
•
Medical men
•
7404
Painters (Bell)
•
•
70 96
74
Chemists (Thomson)
6951
72 95
English Literature (Cham-
Lawyers
Navy
Trade and Commerce
72.78
bers)
69.14
72.62
Male members of Royal
7232
Houses
•
68.54
Literature and Science (Eng-
Sovereigns of all countries
64.89
lish)
•
Aristocracy
Army
72.10
Kings of England
64 12
71.69
7158
England, females (Farr)
•
76.58
reign).
•
71.44
Literature and Science (Fo-
1 This quantity must be carefully distinguished from the expectation of
life' at the age of fifty-one, given in tables N to U. The ' expectation'
Upper class females. .
76·56
Females of Royal Houses. 69.11
108
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
J. Average at Death of Sovereigns of various races
dying at fifty-one and upwards. GUY. Fournal
of Statist. Soc.' 1847, p. 68.
Emperors of Rome
70 18
Czar of Russia
61.90
Moors of Spain
•
68.
Kings of Sweden.
61.75
•
76.8
Kings of Spain
65 88
Caliphs of Bagdad, Egypt,
&c.
Eastern Emperors (Roman) 66 8 3
Emperors of China and
Hungary
61°
Denmark
60.82
Poland.
6073
Bohemia
""
65.16
Japan
60'4
Bavaria
""
65 24
Western Emperors (Rome)
60 26
56
Sicily
6442
Kings of Wurtemberg
•
59.66
""
England
64.12
Sultans of Turkey
•
59°30
Saxony
63.83
Kings of France.
39
6363
""
62.52
Portugal
Savoy
N.B.—It is noticeable that the hereditary princes are less long-lived
than those who have won their position by some merit, either military
or administrative.
Scotland
•
59 26
57.33
K. Comparison of Ages at Death, of three centuries.
GUY. 'Journal of Statist. Soc.' 1859.
16th century 1500 facts gave mean of
17th
**
3400 facts
18th
2800 facts
""
64.25
60.36
63'41
L. Comparative Longevity of Married and
Unmarried.
A number of married persons gave mean of
unmarried
66.77
62.00
""
tables are framed on more extensive data, and indicate the probable after-
lifetime at a given age: hence they can only be compared inter se, and not
with the above.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
109
M. Comparative Longevity of more and less
Distinguished Persons.
Clergy more distinguished gave
•
Lawyers
""
Medical men
Literary and Scientific
Artists
""
GUY.
•
66.42 less 69'49
•
6651
68.41
•
67.04
67.31
·
65 22
67.55
64.74
65 96
N.B.-These data only admit of comparison between the terms here
compared.
N. Probable after-lifetime of MALES at Age x,
from Farr and Quetelet.

39'91
22
31
40
48
37
ΙΟ
47'05
50
49
49
50
50
20
39°48
4I
40
42
41
4 I
30
32.76
34
33
34
33
34
40
26'06
26
25
26
25
26
50
19'54
18
18
18
18
18
60
13'53
I 2
I2
I 2
I 2
12
70
8.45
7
7
7
7
7
80
4'93
3 3
4
3
3
90
2.84
100
I'68
110
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
Age x.
O. Probable after-lifetime of FEMALES at Age x,
from Farr and Quetelet.

BAVARIA.
Hermann.
O
41 85
55
43
36
32
43
ΙΟ
47.67
55
51
5I
49
52
20
40'29
46
43
43
4I
43
30
33.81
37
36
34
33
35
40
27.34
29
28
27
26
28
50
20'75
21
2 I
20
18
20
60
14°34
13
13
I 2
I I
13
70
9.02
7
7
7
7
7
80
5.26
4
4
3
4
4
90
3 ΟΙ
100
I'76
MEAN.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
III
P. Probable after-lifetime for BOTH SEXES,
at Age x, after Farr and Quetelet.

О
45
51
42
34
27
40
ΙΟ
5I
53
50
50
50
51
20
43
43
43
42
4I
42
30
35
35
35
34
34
35
40
27
27
27
26
26
27
50
20
19
20
19
18
19
60
13
13
13
I 2
I 2
13
70
8
7
7
7
7
7
80
4
4
4
3
4
4
II 2
EX VIRIBUS VÍVIMUS.
Age x.
FRENCH
Annuitants.
Deparcieux.
Q. Probable after-lifetime at Age x, from Old and
Inaccurate Sources. (Quetelet.)
BOTH SEXES.

O
20
8
41
31
33
38.5
ΙΟ
43
40
53
45
49
50'3
20
40
36
34
45
38
41
42.2
30
34
29
28
36
32
33
34'5
40
27
23
23
29
26
25
26'5
50
20
17
17
21
20
19
19*2
60
14
II
I 2
14
14
I2
12'7
70
9
6'5
8
8
8
7
7.2
80
LO
5
3'5
4
4.6
4.5
3'5
37
90
2
100
2
MEAN.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
113
R. Probable after-lifetime at Age x, from Hendriks
(Statistical Society's Journal).

SWEDISH, 1841-55.
NETHERLANDS.
Age x. Males.
Females.
Both.
Males.
Females.
O
4I
45'60
43°43
34°2
36 43
ΙΟ
46.48
49'99
48.29
45'91
46.51
20
38.55
42.12
40.38
38.26
39°17
30
31.22
34'45
32.90
31 75
32°40
40
24°33
27.21
25.84
24'96
26.36
50
18.02
20'II
19:16
18.46
19'73
60
12.31
13.48
12.97
12.78
13°31
70
7:40
8.04
7'79
7'91
8:07
80
3.88
4'32
4'17
4'36
4.47
90
2.42
276
2.64
2:36
2.67
100
H
I'
I'
114
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
$
S. Probable after-lifetime at Age x, BOTH SEXES.
Scotch Lives (Neison's Contributions).

Age x. RURAL.
Town.
CITY.
IO
53'05
50'74
42.63
20
44'99
42.75
34.58
30
37.78 35'03
28.63
40
30°30
27.64
22.64
50
22.89
2074
17.38
бо
16.01
13.12
13°33
70
10.65
9°13
8.76
80
5'65
5'43
4.81
90
3°22
276
2.35
100
'5
'5
Οι

T. TABLES BASED ON LIMITED DATA AND RELATING TO SECTIONS OF
THE COMMUNITY.
Probable after-lifetime at Age x for VARIOUS CLASSES in the Community, compiled from
Nerson's Vital Statistics, from Bailey and Day, from Hendriks, and Guy.
PEERAGE.
Males
Bailey and Day
BAKERS
All Districts.
(Friendly Societies)
Nerson.
CLERKS.
All Districts.
(Friendly Societies)
Nelson
LIVERPOOL.
Males.
(Friendly Societies }
Nerson.
MINERS.
All Districts.
(Friendly Societies)
Nerson.
SOVEREIGNS.
All Countries.
Guy.
Persons of
INTEMPERATE
HABITS.
Neison.
53 71
49'00
52 61
52°
ΙΟ
56 00
20
47.90
50 16
43°48
52'03
51 08
49°39 | 49°04
47.89
39
98
46 00
48.51
43.89
43 45
42 21 4146
40'02
31 83
37.95
40.67
34'3
15'55
30
4° 59
3682
37°22
36.64
35 9635 51
32'35
27 57
30'14
33°15
273
13.80
40
32.76
29 93
30.09
29'64
28.86
2833
24 47
21 85
23.15
24'92
20°9
II.62
50
25.07
23 08
22.79
22.44
21'95
21 40
19*09
16'04
17 09
17'53
15'
10.86
60
1782
1642
16.23
15 37
15 16
14'56
14.06
12 42
II.96
11.85
10'9
8.94
70
II 34
II.28
10.81
961
961
877
876
8.76
8.61
870
7 4
80
6'95
6.92
6.69
5'51
5 45
4'58
4.81
4.80
4.80
4.80
5
90
3 80
4.10
380
3'05
3'54
1.64
2*35
2°34
2*35
2.34
3.9
100
5
'5
*5
5
*5
'5
9
116
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
6
U. Calculations on a smaller Basis of Facts, by Dr.
Guy (the data are derived from the Annual
Register,'' Peerage,' and similar sources).

Age x.
PEERAGE
and
BARONETAGE.
FEMALES
GENTRY.
Males.
PROFESSIONS.
of these
Three Classes.
Males.
Guy.
Guy.
Guy.
Guy.
O
ΙΟ
20
38.5
37°3
37°
30
30'9
312
33'9
32'I
40
24'5
24'9
26'0
27.1
50
17.9
184
18'9
20°9
60
12.6
128
12.8
14.6
70
8.2
8.5
8.6
9'I
80
5'I
5.8
5*3
5'7
90
3'4
4°
3°2
2.8
100
1'2
1.6
0'5
0'5
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
117
17. General Conclusions from the foregoing Statements
and Tables.
The following is a summary of the facts set forth
in the pages immediately preceding and elsewhere.
I. The most degraded races have life shortened by
starvation in old age, or even by suffering death at
the hands of their fellows. The more civilized races
protect the aged, and contribute to their longevity
by care and respect.
2. Most nations speak of the ages from sixty to
a hundred in language which indicates the same
opinion with regard to the duration of life, e. g.
Chinese, Jews, Greeks, Romans, modern Europeans.
Many nations give equally traditions and accounts of
excessive longevity.
3. There is an impression amongst interested ob-
servers (i.e. medical men and actuaries) that Euro-
pean lives, and especially English lives, are the best,
that is, have the greatest probable duration.
4. Statistics shew clearly, more clearly than per-
haps any other fact, that females have at all ages,
especially in advanced periods of age, a better expec-
tation of life than males; also that English lives are
considerably better in advanced years (for a difference
of one year of expectation is considerable when the
whole average expectation is less than thirteen) than
Dutch, French, Swedish, Belgian, or American
lives.
118
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS
5. English statistics tend to prove that, taking the
expectation of life at sixty years of age as the crite-
rion, the relative longevity in different classes of the
community stands as follows:-Agricultural labourers
in rural districts, belonging to friendly societies, with
an expectation of 178 years of life; females of the
aristocracy (peerage), with 16'42; males and females.
of the rural districts of Scotland, with 1601; healthy
English lives (so considered by assurance societies),
with 15:37; males of the peerage, with 14 56; bakers,
town and country, with 1406; clerks, town and
country, with 12:42; males in Liverpool, with 11.96;
miners, with 11 85; sovereigns of all countries, with
109; persons of intemperate habits, with 894; all
England (Farr), males, with 13:53 years expectation,
and females with 14:34 years at the age compared,
namely, sixty.'
6. To these may be added the observations of
Dr. Guy, tending to prove that the more distin-
guished are less long-lived than the less distinguished
members of professions, contrary to a general opinion
prevalent as to the bar; that married persons are
1 Too great reliance must not be placed on these statistics, as they
are from various authorities and very variable data Some coirections
are due to circumstances, which are not stated to have been considered
by the authorities who gave them thus the males in Liverpool may
appear to have a great moitality in old age, when then diminution in
numbers is really due to their leaving the city. Dr Farı informed the
wiiter that no thoroughly reliable statistics of this kind could be ob-
tained until the registration of buths has been efficiently carried out in
the localities examined for many years.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
119
f
longer lived than unmarried;¹ and that the clergy,
medical men, lawyers, and other classes of the com-
munity stand in the order given in § I. as to lon-
gevity.
18. Interpretation by the Law.
The interpretation of these facts in a general way,
according to the law that high evolution and small
expenditure favour longevity, is not difficult; but it is
not possible, nor is the endeavour useful in the pre-
sent state of knowledge, to explain in detail all the
possible inferences.
The first two sets of facts tend to prove induc-
tively, though the observational basis is slender,
that the potential longevity of man is the same for
the various races, if we exclude abnormally wretched
and degraded tribes. Perhaps we should have to
exclude thus the Homo paleolithicus of Mr. Dawkins.
Keener scrutiny seems to indicate a small difference
in favour of European civilization, but this is un-
certain. Observations 'agree well with the deductive
conclusions with which we started when speaking of
the nature of races and varieties in the species man.
The highest civilization, corresponding to the highest
evolution, appears to give a somewhat increased poten-
tial longevity.
¹ Dr. Farr placed in the wiiter's hands a paper by him on The
Influence of Marriage on Mortality in France,' which does not, however,
touch on longevity.
120
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
The generally high longevity of females as com-
pared with males in civilized communities is well
established, and is fully explained in agreement with
the law of diminished expenditure favouring longe-
vity, women having undeniably less personal expen-
diture, and but little more generative expenditure,
though such as they do have is concentrated, than men.
It is noteworthy that the generative expenditure is
lessened in women when the personal expenditure is
increased, as is distinctly observed in the United
States of America, where the women are intellectually
far more active than elsewhere, and suffer, so far, from
the relatively enormous costliness of nervous outlay.
Thus the material of generation serves as a store
which is drawn upon before the general powers in-
volving longevity are affected in women.
The females of the English peerage present a
greater contrast with the males than is observable
between the sexes of any other group recorded.
This conforms to the law, for in them there is the
greatest difference as to expenditure, the females
leading the most carefully-guarded, well-considered,
and easy lives, whilst the males, especially in young
life, having money at disposal, may lead irregular
lives, involving great expenditure both personal and
generative, leading to disease and enfeeblement, which
is a direct result of misdirected expenditure. The
destructiveness of intemperate habits may be seen in
the column given in the life-table T. Moreover,
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
121
though intemperateness is not a vera causa in the
case of all peers, yet such men do not lead the quiet
and refined lives which characterize those of the other
sex in the same class, but are given to exertion of a
violent and irregular character, possibly quite harm-
less morally, yet involving great expenditure from its
irregularity.
The long life of the agricultural labourer belonging
to a friendly society, exceeding what is termed the
'healthy English life,' is explained by the man's small
personal expenditure, the absence of tax implied in
the regularity of his daily labour, and the sobriety
implied in his membership of such a society. Mr.
Neison remarks (Vital Statistics,' p. 45), 'A member
of a friendly society may be regarded as a type of
industry, frugality, regularity of habits, and simplicity
of life.' Males of the English peerage have a higher
longevity than the males of All England, but not so
high as the healthy life of the insuring classes Af-
fluence involving less personal expenditure increases
the longevity of those who enjoy it as compared to the
average due to disease and intemperateness which
embraces towns with all their misery and wretched-
ness; but it does not insure the absence of excessive
and abnormal expenditure, to which indeed it directly
leads, 'luxury being the parent of diseases.' It is
evident from the facts given, that it is an error
to quote our English peerage as the longest-lived
class in Christendom, though it does not appear to
I 22
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
be so low in the scale as Dr. Guy's observations on
partial data at one time led him to believe.
Men living in towns are likely to suffer expenditure
through intemperance, in addition to which they are
more liable to be taxed by diseases, favoured as these
are by diminished oxygenation and the close con-
tiguity of persons. Hence we understand the low
longevity of bakers, and the still lower longevity of
clerks, to whose sedentary habits the tax of anxiety
and mental labour is added.
The expenditure of mental labour in its highest
forms as antagonizing longevity is well illustrated in
Dr. Guy's comparisons of the more and less dis-
tinguished members of professions.
The small longevity of males in Liverpool is due.
to increased expenditure dependent on crowding, as
just observed, and in a measure on the greater
struggle, not for existence, but 'to get on,' a
struggle in which existence is not considered, and
is in many cases lost,—which naturally occurs in the
great cities.
That sovereigns (dying natural deaths) are short-
lived, is explicable partly by what has been said of
luxury, and partly by anxiety, both involving expen-
diture. It is noticeable that those sovereigns who
have won and not inherited their position have been
longer lived than those who have been born from a
stock bred in injurious luxury for generations. This
is as we should expect, such men being the strong
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
123
and vigorous raised by natural selection from the
masses.
The apparently higher longevity of England, as
contrasted with other western European states, may
be due to a somewhat higher development. Hufeland
states that Danes and Englishmen are the longest-
lived races, basing his opinion on the reputed cases of
abnormal longevity in these countries, which are,
however, of doubtful value as scientific evidence. He
explained the supposed fact by the cold climate of
these countries, and there may be possibly some
truth in this notion, as we saw that a sluggishness of
vital actions is induced by cold in the case of the
American aloe; but this explanation is very doubtful.
Sweden does not give a higher or as high a poten-
tial longevity (judging by the expectation of life at
sixty) as England, though its climate is as cold or
colder. The higher evolution or civilization of the
Anglo-Saxons-or, better, Kelto-Teutons-into which
not only are they born as members of a community,
but which they inherit individually as a tendency,
and which makes them alone able to colonize suc-
cessfully, may not improbably be connected with
their higher longevity. How is it, then, it may be
asked, that the American branch of the race are
reputed to be shorter-lived than Europeans? The
subject here opened out is one of vast interest and
practical importance, which we do not now propose
to discuss in detail, connected as it is with that
124
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
strange question of the permanence and domination
of races in various regions of the earth which the
facts of colonization are bringing into view at the
present day. We have before given reasons for
not looking for permanency of peculiarities in such
characters as longevity in the races of mankind. Sir
Charles Dilke, in his admirable sketch 'Greater
Britain,' notes the disappearance of the Anglo-Saxon
element and character in the Eastern United States,
not only by the influx of Irish and German ele-
ments (both of which races are reputed shorter
lived than the Anglo-Saxon), but by a direct
influence of the locality—an unfitness of the soil
to the plant-which involves either the death or
the modification of the latter Moreover, the im-
migration of short-lived and unhealthy classes, and
the extraordinary intensity of life, implying rapid
expenditure-which has become a thoroughly Ame-
rican characteristic, whether from climatic or social
influences, or both-must greatly diminish Ame-
rican longevity. To use their own expressive phrase,
they are a 'go-a-head' people, and the early ageing
of both male and female inhabitants of the States
is an example of an individual tendency to travel
fast as regards age, which is strictly dependent on,
or correlated with, their activity. It is not unlikely
that the small longevity of Americans-if it be a
real phenomenon is a transient attribute of the
population, which, with other characteristics, will be
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY
125
greatly changed for what is happier and better in
the future consolidation and development of that
great people.
19. Duration of Life in past Time.
Under this heading, there is little more to be said
than was contained in a celebrated but brief chapter.
'There is nothing known' of the duration of life in
past time. A few years since it was the belief, based
upon supposed statistical facts, that the potential
longevity of man, that is, the expectation of life in
the higher ages, was increasing and had been in-
creasing for a hundred years. Dr. Farr has fully
exposed the fallacy involved in this supposition,
which was due to life-tables, erroneously constructed
by Dr. Price (to whom, nevertheless, credit is due as
a vital statistician), from the mortuary records of the
town of Northampton. Dr. Farr has shewn that a
table constructed by Price's method gives the same
results to-day for Northampton as it did in the
celebrated doctor's time. Moreover, the statistics of
Sweden, which are very ample, extend from the
middle of the eighteenth century, and furnish no in-
dication whatever of a change. Some few facts have
been adduced by Dr. Guy, which tend to shew a
slight fluctuation in longevity in past centuries (see
Tables K), but are really too few in number to allow
of any generalization by even the most venturesome.
126
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
There is not within the cognizance of the writer a
single fact of any antiquity to help us materially in
the enquiry, unless it be thought that the limitation
of life to seventy or eighty years in the Psalms is
a smaller span than such a writer would now assign ;
but this supposition is not worth further consideration.
It is very well ascertained that average longevity
has immensely increased since the middle ages in
Europe; the question, however, of mortality clearly
does not come within the limits of this Essay. It
would be very satisfactory could some general re-
lation between high average longevity and high
potential longevity among men-i. e. small death-
rate at early and late ages-be established, but the
facts are conflicting, and deductive analysis renders.
it improbable that any constant relation does obtain,
as was pointed out in treating of longevity in organ-
isms generally.
20. The Influence of various States of Civilization.
We have seen that the influence of civilization
cannot be fairly examined inductively, but the facts
quoted, and the conclusions they offer, warrant us in
supposing that a civilization of the highest order, in
which the efficiency of the community and the effi-
ciency of the component individuals is greatest—in
which there is the most harmonious action, the
greatest happiness for the greatest number, the least
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
127
excessive expenditure with the least luxury, where
regularity and temperateness are innate character-
istics, will be that state of civilization most favourable
to longevity. It may be supposed by some that
since the tendency of civilization at present is to
call out increased mental expenditure, that even
when the other conditions of longevity are complied
with, future men will rather lose than gain in lon-
gevity. This, however, depends upon the assumption,
which we have no ground for allowing, that the
structural capacity for such requirements will not
increase simultaneously. There is every reason to
believe that it will-that it is so doing. We are now
in the midst of a struggle-in a transition state-which
is really causing a survival of the fittest, operating
chiefly through the emulation of communities, but also
on individuals, and by means of this struggle greater
mental power is being added to the human race.
As we had occasion to remark in the case of or-
ganisms generally (quoting Mr. Herbert Spencer),
increased difficulty of life-conditions necessitates in-
creased evolution, and this is true for man's mental
progress as for general structural progress. Were
the evolution not always in advance of the provoking
cause, we might anticipate the extinction of humanity
by the excessive competition and excessive difficul-
ties of existence which must accompany increased
population. More justly, as it appears, and more
hopefully, we may look forward to a time when, the
128
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
whole earth being peopled, man will become finally
adjusted to his conditions by the limitation of his
expansion and the closer interaction of the members.
of the human aggregate. In that almost perfect.
civilization—where the greatest happiness for every
individual must finally be attained-will man's lon-
gevity be extended? It does not seem improbable
that this may be the case: and certainly an average
longevity coincident with the potential is, under those
conditions, to be looked for. Men would no longer
'die of disappointment,"¹ but would all attain eighty
or a hundred years. There is no apparent reason
why longevity should not increase beyond that limit,
and advance with advanced evolution, and the di-
minished expenditure implied in more complete
adjustment.2
1 Buffon.
2 It has been asserted by a wiiter in 'Fraser's Magazine' (September,
1869), and endorsed by another writer in the 'Spectator,' that civilization
acts so as to suspend Darwin's law in the case of man-the feeble and
diseased being allowed to breed, and the inferior often inheriting wealth
won by no ment of their own, which could not be the case were there
a free struggle for life and consorts. This is supposed to tend to shorten
the life of the species, and to produce general inferiority in civilized aces
But the argument is based on fallacy. As we have pointed out, man is
a social animal, and the social virtues, which are urged by some persons
as causes of deterioration, are the very strength of the communities in
which they have been naturally and necessarily developed. That the
individual withers, and the world is more and more,' as sung by Tennyson,
is profoundly true. Natural selection operates largely on communities of
men in place of individuals. That the fitter do survive, even in the case
of individuals, is, however, clear enough. The diseased and feeble who
propagate produce some healthy children, and these surely and certainly
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
129
21. Abnormal Longevity in Man.
A few words remain to be said on this subject
from a general point of view. It has been often
treated of under the head of Longevity by able writers
and curious speculators. An article in the 'Quar-
terly Review' of January, 1868, and one in the
marry sooner and live longer than the unhealthy offspring, so that a
very minimum of injury is done to the race by warding off the selective
destructiveness of disease: inferiority must produce its legitimate results
in spite of man's interference. Moreover, the mixing of stocks, with
a tendency only to certain diseases, may be a source of strength, im-
plying as it does mixture of varied constitutions. The tendency to
particular diseases under given conditions is not a proof that under all
conditions which may arise there will be that tendency. If the con-
ditions are changed, as they are iapidly changed in the progress of
civilization, what was weakness may become strength, a constitutional
tendency to one kind of disease being associated with immunity from
other kinds. Little is known on this matter; but compare the ravages
of small-pox among Africans, of syphilis among Europeans, and the
immunity of the Maoris from any severity under these diseases ('Fenton's
Report,' loc. cit.). The effect of sanatory action in preventing the natural
elimination of fermentable' matters from the blood (Paget) of gene-
rations is a curious subject for speculation. Zymotic diseases, if allowed
to run their course unchecked in a community, kill off those individuals
most imbued with this supposed fermentable matter, or 1emove it from
those who recover from their attacks. If zymotic diseases are kept off,
will not the 'fermentable matters' increase from generation to geneia-
tion? It seems as though such elimination as vaccination should be
adopted, together with sanatory measures, or we may accumulate a
nidus in the veins of posterity. Possibly, if exempt for great length of
time from a disease, a species may become no longer subject to it, just
as two closely allied species of animal, e g the sheep and ox, ale not
subject to the same diseases, though presumably descended from a not
remote common ancestor.
K
130
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
'Fortnightly Review' of April, 1869, contain details
on this matter which it would be, on that account,
superfluous to introduce here, and which, more-
over, have a very restricted interest.¹ Abnormal lon-
gevity must not be confused with normal potential
longevity, nor even with absolute potential longevity
(see antea). There is a normal potential height² for
various groups and classes of men, namely, that which
they may be expected to reach, accidents of death, &c.
being avoided. There is an absolute potential height,
the greatest height which any one man of such a
group, under the most favourable conditions, could be
expected to attain; and there is the abnormal height
of the giant, extending even to nine feet, and re-
cognized as monstrous. Just so with longevity, there
are three such terms possible, and there appears to
be no à priori reason for excluding the last or
1
¹ I must again heie draw the reader's attention to an admirable Essay
by Sir Henry Holland, Bait, M D., in the Edinburgh Review,' 1857.
The whole question of human longevity is there discussed in a masterly
way, with reference to many authorities and recoids not here noted.
The article was brought to my notice while these pages were in the
press- and I can only point out that Sir Henry, by comparison of
abnormal human height and weight, is led to adopt the conclusion
aived at above that many men have exceeded 100 years of age.
He also points to the concurrence of all testimony in assigning 130 to
150 years to the most aged of various races and times
This con-
curience, he considers, gives credibility to the statements.
last letters which Sır G. C. Lewis wrote was to Sir Henry Holland, ın
which he acceded to Sir Henry's view of human life sometimes exceed-
ing 100 years.
One of the
2 The average height, corresponding to average longevity, would be
the average height of all born, whenever they might die.
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
131
abnormal longevity from recognition. Sir George
Cornewall Lewis and others have endeavoured to
throw doubt on the possibility of man's longevity
exceeding 100 years. Though it has been clearly
shewn that the cases of Jenkins, Parr and others, rest
on no proper evidence, and are quite inadmissible as
proofs of excessive longevity, yet Sir George appears
to have rushed into a fanciful conclusion in arbitrarily
limiting man to 100 years: the fascination of numbers
has had some share in this. There are well-authen-
ticated cases of persons who have exceeded the age
of 100 years attested by the registration at baptism,
which is what the opponents of man's possibly ex-
ceeding 36,500 and odd days of existence have always
demanded. There is the case of Miss Baillie, sister
of Dr. Baillie, of Mr. Shuldham of Marlesford Hall,
who took the chair at a dinner given to his tenants
on his 100th birthday, and lived two years subse-
quently. Of this case my friend, Mr. Cordy Jeaf-
•freson, has been good enough to give me the following
sketch :-
'The old man lived at Marlesford—not at Mar-
tlesham-famous in history for its Red Lion; and
he certainly was not more than 102 years at the
time of his death.
Baptized at Beccles, in Suffolk, in July 1743,
William Shuldham died in May, 1845. The exact
date of his birth I do not know, but I presume that
it preceded his baptism long enough to entitle him.
K 2
132
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
to be credited with having lived into his 103rd year,
the age which he is represented in obituary notices to
have attained. That the above-mentioned were the
dates of his baptism and death you may be confident.
The celebration of the completion of his 100th year
took place on July 22, 1843, when a great gathering
of the gentry and humble folk of the neighbourhood
feasted at Marlesford Hall, and had sports in the
park. If that celebration took place on the actual
anniversary day of his birth, he was some two months
under 102 at his death. So that your statement may
be unassailable, you had better speak only of the
dates of his baptism and death, unless you make
enquiries at Beccles.
William Shuldham's circumstances and habits of
life were favourable to health. An energetic but not
overworked man, he drove a capital business, as a
country attorney, at Wickham Market and Sax-
mundham. A lover of country sports, he had for
the greater part of his life a house in the country,"
first at Carlton Cross, a mile out of Saxmundham ;
and secondly, at Marlesford, where he built a hand-
some hall which, together with its small but pic-
turesque park, may be commended as one of the best
county places in the neighbourhood of Wickham
Market. He retained his faculties up to his last
illness, which did not cover more than a week or so,
writing letters with a firm, clear hand, and managing
his affairs until the last days of existence. Every
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
133
successive decade of his career saw him a wealthier
man. He never knew serious care: was active, and
of what in his day of universal drunkenness was
deemed temperate habits; but he was a steady port-
wine drinker. His son and heir composed a song
that was sung at the centenary celebration, one verse
of which fairly describes his general mode of living
thus:
"Some take pills and physic, for gout or for phthisis,
Try every new nostrum for malady sore;
Some quit their home-quarters to drink foreign waters,
And yet kick the bucket the same as before;
But comfort and quiet, and temperate diet,
Will make a man healthy and wealthy and bold,
While a glass of good wine, too, will strengthen the spine, too,
And make him, like Shuldham, a hundred years old."
By referring to Davy's "Suffolk Collections," pedigree
"Shuldham" (British Museum), you may ascertain that
the Shuldhams were, upon the whole, given to
longevity. The centenarian's grandfather completed
his eighty-sixth year. The said centenarian married
early in life my father's first-cousin, Mary Barber, of
Boyton, who survived her husband and died con-
siderably more than ninety years old: and the
vigorous constitution and tenacity of life of these
long-lived parents were transmitted in some degree
to two of their offspring. The centenarian had by
Mary Barber four children, William Abraham Shuld-
ham, who lived to see his seventy-fourth year, though
he suffered from epilepsy more violently than any
134
EX VIRIBUS VIVIMUS.
1
other epileptic patient I have ever known, his fits
were frequent and inordinately violent, but did not.
kill him till he was seventy-three: Lemuel, killed at
the battle of Waterloo: Frances Mary, a married
woman who died, ætat. 42, after giving birth to
several children and Louisa, a spinster, who was
born December 23, 1791, and still lives a very vigorous
woman for one of her years.'
I am also indebted to Mr. Cordy Jeaffreson for a
notice of the case of the father of the Rev. Thomas
Hart Davies, chaplain at the Dockyard, Portsmouth,
in 1800. This gentleman died at the supposed age of
116, but his age was afterwards investigated and found
to be only 109.
Sir Henry Holland informs me that last summer
he breakfasted on the St Lawrence, in America, with
a British officer, whose commission proved him to
be 104 years of age. Sir Henry also has evidence of
a case in which the age of III years was reached.
On à priori grounds we have seen no reason to
believe that man should not have a higher longevity
than 100 years as a monstrous and abnormal phe-
nomenon, and on this consideration we may be not
indisposed to accept statements as to ages as great
as 110, or even 120 years being attained, even though
such an occurrence were not absolutely demonstrated
and proved.
The expenditure implied in distinction, and the
generative expenditure implied in twenty-two children,
AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY.
135
the offspring of a lady who certainly was alive in her
100th year, cannot be held to militate against the
general law. These are isolated cases, where unusual
vigour (i. e. abundant 'matter of life') has increased
longevity and the other quantities simultaneously.
There is not a sufficient number of trustworthy
records of cases of high longevity to make an ex-
tended testing by them of the conclusions arrived at
as to causes favouring longevity, likely to be of any
real value.
In the course of what has been written, the ex-
ceedingly involved nature of the enquiry, and the
absence of all but the fewest data as to comparative
longevity, have been made sufficiently apparent. It is
to this condition of the subject that we would gladly
direct attention, as the cause of indefinite and specu-
lative character in an essay treating of it. It is hoped
that in indicating possible lines of productive enquiry,
and in pointing to the more prominent and reme-
diable gaps in information, some more practical result
has been attained.
It would have been possible no doubt to carry
mere speculation into greater detail than has been
attempted here, as to the influences affecting longevity
in man, but the facts, such as they are, seem fairly to
admit of no more positive inferences than have been.
here given.

OXF
FORD
SSB
OXFORD:
BY T. COMBE, M. A, E B GARDNER, E P HALL, AND H LATHAM, M A.,
PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.
16, BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON.
January, 1870
MACMILLAN
&
Co's GENERAL CATALOGUE
of Works in the Departments of History,
Biography, Travels, Poetry, and Belles
Lettres. With some short Account or
Critical Notice concerning each Book.
SECTION I.
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, and TRAVELS.
Baker (Sir Samuel W.).—THE NILE TRIBUTARIES OF
ABYSSINIA, and the Sword Hunters of the Hamian Arabs
By SIR SAMUEL W BAKER, M A, F.R.G S. With Portraits,
Maps, and Illustrations. Thud Edition, 8vo. 21s.
Sir Samuel Baker here describes twelve months' exploration, during
which he examined the rivers that are tributary to the Nile from Abyssınıa,
including the Albara, Settite, Royan, Salaam, Angrab, Rahad, Dinder,
and the Blue Nile The interest attached to these portions of Africa differs
entirely from that of the White Nile regions, as the whole of Upper Egypt
and Abyssinia is capable of development, and is inhabited by races having
some degree of civilization; while Central Africa is peopled by a race of
savages, whose future is more problematical.
THE ALBERT N'YANZA Great Basin of the Nile, and Explo-
ration of the Nile Sources. New and cheaper Edition, with
Portraits, Maps, and Illustrations. Two vols clown Svo 16s
(
Bruce won the source of the Blue Nile, Speke and Grant won the
Victoria source of the great White Nile; and I have been permitted to
succeed in completing the Nile Sources by the discovery of the great
reservoir of the equatorial waters, the Albert N'yanza, from which the
river issues as the entire IVhite Nile."-PREFACE.
NEW AND CHEAP EDITION OF THE ALBERT N'YANZA.
I vol crown 8vo. With Maps and Illustrations.
A
7s. 6d.
2
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
Baker (Sir Samuel W.) (continued)—
CAST UP BY THE SEA; or, The Adventures of NED GREY
By SIR SAMUEL W BAKER, M.A., F.R.G. S. Second Edition.
Crown 8vo. cloth gilt, 7s. 6d.
A story of adventure by sea and land in the good old style. It appears
to us to be the best book of the kind since ‘Masterman Ready,' and it runs
that established favourite very close."-PALL MALL GAZETTE.
"No book written for boys has for a long time created so much interest,
or been so successful. Every parent ought to provide his boy with a copy."
DAILY TELEGRAPH.
Barker (Lady).-STATION LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND
By LADY BARker. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
"These letters are the exact account of a lady's experience of the brighter
and less practical side of colonization. They record the expeditions, ad-
ventures, and emergencies diversifying the daily life of the wife of a New
Zealand sheep-farmer; and, as each was written while the novelty and
excitement of the scenes it describes were fresh upon her, they may succeed
in giving here in Englund an adequate impression of the delight and frec
dom of an existence so far removed from our own highly-wrought civiliza-
ion."-PREFACE.
Baxter (R. Dudley, M.A.).—THE TAXATION OF THE
UNITED KINGDOM. By R. DUDLEY BAXTER, M. A. 8vo.
cloth, 4s. 6d.
The First Part of this work, originally read before the Statistical
Society of London, deals with the Amount of Taxation; the Second Part,
which now constitutes the main portion of the work, is almost entirely new,
and embraces the important questions of Rating, of the relative Taxation
of Land, Personalty, and Industry, and of the direct effect of Taxes upon
Prices. The author trusts that the body of facts here collected may be of
permanent value as a record of the past progress and present condition of
the population of the United Kingdom, independently of the transitory
circumstances of its present Taxation.
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, & TRAVELS.
Baxter (R. Dudley, M.A.) (continued)—
NATIONAL INCOME. With Coloured Diagrams. 8vo. 3s. 6d.
ديا
PART I -Classification of the Population, Upper, Middle, and Labour
Classes. II.-Income of the United Kingdom.
A painstaking and certainly most interesting inquiry."-PALL MALL
GAZETTE.
Bernard.-FOUR LECTURES ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED
WITH DIPLOMACY. By MOUNTAGUE BERNARD, M.A,
Chichele Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, Oxford.
8vo. 95.
Four Lectures, dealing with (1) The Congress of Westphalia; (2) Systems
of Policy, (3) Diplomacy, Past and Present; (4) The Obligations of
Treaties.
Blake.-THE LIFE OF WILLIAM BLAKE, THE ARTIST.
By ALEXANDER GILCHRIST. With numerous Illustrations from
Blake's designs, and Fac-similes of his studies of the "Book of
Job." Two vols. medium 8vo. 32s.
These volumes contain a Life of Blake; Selections from his Writings,
including Poems; Letters; Annotated Catalogue of Pictures and Drawings;
List, with occasional notes, of Blake's Engravings and Writings. There
are appended Engraved Designs by Blake: (1) The Book of Job, twenty-
one photo-lithographs from the originals; (2) Songs of Innocence and
Experience, sixteen of the original Plates.
Bright (John, M.P.).-SPEECHES ON QUESTIONS OF
PUBLIC POLICY. By JOHN BRIGHT, M. P.
Edited by
Professor THOROLD ROGERS. Two Vols. 8vo.
Two Vols. 8vo. 25s. Second
Edition, with Portrait.
"I have divided the Speeches contained in these volumes into groups.
The materials for selection are so abundant, that I have been constrained
to omit many a speech which is worthy of careful perusal. I have
A 2
4
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
naturally given prominence to those subjects with which Mr. Bright has
been especially identified, as, for example, India, America, Ireland, and
Parliamentary Reform. But nearly every topic of great public interest on
which Mr. Bright has spoken is represented in these volumes."
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
AUTHOR'S POPULAR EDITION. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth. Second
Edition.
3s. 6d.
Bryce.—THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. By JAMES BRYCE,
B.C L., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford.
[Reprinting.
CAMBRIDGE CHARACTERISTICS. See MULLInger.
CHATTERTON: A Biographical Study. BY DANIEL WILSON,
LL D, Professor of History and English in University College,
Toronto Clown 8vo. 6s. 6d.
The Author here regards Chatterton as a Poet, not as a mere resetter
and defacer of stolen literary treasures Reviewed in this light, he has
found much in the old materials capable of being turned to new account,
and to these materials research in various directions has cnabled him to
make some additions
Clay.-- THE PRISON CHAPLAIN. A Memoir of the Rev JOHN
CLAY, B D, late Chaplain of the Preston Gaol. With Selections
from his Reports and Correspondence, and a Sketch of Prison
Discipline in England. By his Son, the Rev. W. L CLAY, M. A.
Svo. 15s.
Few books have appeared of late years better entitled to an attentive
perusal. . . It presents a complete narrative of all that has been done and
attempted by various philanthropists for the amelioration of the condition and
the improvement of the morals of the criminal classes in the British
dominions."-LONDON REVIEW.
$
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, & TRAVELS
Cooper.—ATHENA CANTABRIGIENSES
5
BY CHARLES
HENRY COOPER, F.S.A, and THOMPSON COOPER, F.S A.
Vol I 8vo., 1500-85, 18s. Vol. II, 1586—1609, 18s.
This elaborate work, which is dedicated by permission to Lord Macaulay,
contains lives of the eminent men sent forth by Cambridge, after the
fashion of Anthony à Wood, in his famous " Athena Oxonienses.”
Dilke.-GREATER BRITAIN.
A Record of Travel in English-
speaking Countries during 1866-7 (America, Australia, India.)
By Sir CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE, M P. Fourth and Cheap
Edition. Crown 8vo 6s.
Its
“Mr. Dilke has written a book which is probably as well worth reading
as any book of the same aims and character that ever was written
merits are that it is written in a lively and agreeable style, that it implies
a great deal of physical pluck, that no page of it fails to show an acute and
highly intelligent observer, that it stimulates the imagination as well as the
judgment of the reader, and that it is on perhaps the most interesting
subject that can attract an Englishman who cares about his country."
SATURDAY REVIEW.
Durer (Albrecht).—HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF AL-
BRECHT DURER, of Nurnberg. With a Translation of his
Letters and Journal, and some account of his works
By Mrs
CHARLES HEATON. Royal Svo bevelled boards, extra gilt. 31s. 6d.
This work contains about Thirty Illustrations, ten of which are produc-
tions by the Autotype (carbon) process, and are printed in permanent tints
by Messrs. Cundall and Fleming, under license from the Autotype Com-
pany, Limited, the rest are Photographs and Woodcuts
EARLY EGYPTIAN HISTORY FOR THE YOUNG. See
"JUVENILE SECTION.”
6
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
Elliott.-LIFE OF HENRY VENN ELLIOTT, of Brighton.
By JOSIAH BATEMAN, M.A., Author of "Life of Daniel Wilson,
Bishop of Calcutta," &c. With Portrait, engraved by JEENS.
Crown 8vo. Ss. 6d. Second Edition, with Appendix
"A very charming piece of religious biography, no one can read it
without both pleasure and profit."—BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW.
Forbes.- LIFE OF PROFESSOR EDWARD FORBES,
F.R.S. By GEORGE WILSON, M.D, F.R S. E., and ARCHIBALD
GEIKIE, F.R.S. 8vo. with Portrait, 14s.
"From the first page to the last the book claims careful reading, as being
a full but not overcrowded rehearsal of a most instructive life, and the true
picture of a mind that was rare in strength and beauty."-EXAMINER
Freeman.- HISTORY OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT,
from the Foundation of the Achaian League to the Disruption of
the United States. By EDWARD A. FREEMAN, M. A. Vol. I.
General Introduction.
21S
History of the Greek Federations. 8vo.
"The task Mr. Freeman has undertaken is one of great magnitude and
Νο
importance. It is also a task of an almost entirely novel character.
other work professing to give the history of a political principle occurs to
us, except the slight contributions to the history of representative govern-
ment that is contained in a course of M Guzzot's lectures
The
history of the development of a principle is at least as important as the
history of a dynasty, or of a race.' —Saturday Review,
•
With
OLD ENGLISH HISTORY FOR CHILDREN. By EDWARD A.
FREEMAN, M A., late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford.
Five Coloured Maps. Extra fcap 8vo, half-bound 65.
"Its object is to show that clear, accurate, and scientific news of history,
or indeed of any subject, may be casily given to children from the very
first... I have, I hope, shown that it is perfectly easy to teach children, from
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, & TRAVELS.
7
the very first, to distinguish true history alike from legend and from wilful
invention, and also to understand the nature of historical authorities, and
to weigh one statement against another. . . . . I have throughout striven to
connect the history of England with the general history of civilized Europe,
and I have especially tried to make the book serve as an incentive to a more
accurate study of historical geography."-PREFAce.
French (George
GENEALOGICA.
Russell).
SHAKSPEAREANA
8vo cloth extra, 15s. Uniform with the
"Cambridge Shakespeare."
Part I.-Identification of the dramatis personæ in the historical plays,
from King John to King Henry VIII., Notes on Characters in Macbeth
and Hamlet; Persons and Places belonging to IVarwickshire alluded to.
Part II.-The Shakspeare and Arden families and their connexions, with
Tables of descent. The present is the first attempt to give a detailed de-
scription, in consecutive order, of each of the dramatis personæ in Shak-
speare's immortal chronicle-histories, and some of the characters have been,
it is believed, herein identified for the first time. A clue is furnished which,
followed up with ordinary diligence, may enable any one, with a taste for
the pursuit, to trace a distinguished Shakspearean worthy to his lineal
representative in the present day.
Galileo.-THE PRIVATE LIFE OF GALILEO Compiled
principally from his Correspondence and that of his eldest
daughter, Sister Mania Celeste, Nun in the Franciscan Convent of
S Matthew in Arcetii. With Portrait Crown 8vo. 7s 6d.
It has been the endeavour of the compiler to place before the reader a
plain, ungarbled statement of facts; and as a mans to this end, to allows
Galileo, his friends, and his judges to speak for themselves as far as possible.
Gladstone (Right. Hon. W. E., M.P.).—JUVENTUS
The Gods and Men of the Heroic Age
With Map. 10s 6d. Second Edition
MUNDI.
cloth extra.
Crown Svo.
This new work of Mr. Gladstone deals especially with the histor
element in Homer, expounding that element, and furnishing by its and a
8
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
full account of the Homeric men and the Homeric religion. It starts, after
the introductory chapter, with a discussion of the several races then existing
in Hellas, including the influence of the Phoenicians and Egyptians It
contains chapters on the Olympian system, with its several deities; on the
Ethics and the Polity of the Heroic age; on the geography of Homer; on
the characters of the Poems, presenting, in fine, a view of primitive life
and primitive society as found in the poems of Homer.
"GLOBE" ATLAS OF EUROPE. Uniform in size with Mac-
millan's Globe Series, containing 45 Coloured Maps, on a uniform
scale and projection, with Plans of London and Paris, and a
copious Index.
Strongly bound in half-morocco, with flexible
back, 9s.
This Atlas includes all the countries of Europe in a series of 48 Maps,
drawn on the same scale, with an Alphabetical Index to the situation of
more than ten thousand places, and the relation of the various maps and
countries to each other is defined in a general Key-map
All the maps
being on a uniform scale facilitates the comparison of extent and distance,
and conveys a just impression of the relative magnitude of different countries
The size suffices to show the provincial divnsions, the railways and main
roads, the principal rivers and mountain ranges “This atlas,” writes the
British Quarterly, "will be an invaluable boon for the school, the desk, or
the traveller's portmanteau
>>
Guizot.—(Author of "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN ")—M. DE
BARANTE, A Memoir, Biographical and Autobiographical. By
M GUIZOT. Translated by the Author of "JOHN HALIFAX,
GENTLEMAN. Crown 8vo. 6s 6d.
"The highest purposes of both history and biography are answered by a
memoir so lifelike, so faithful, and so philosophical."
BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIFw.
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, & TRAVELS.
9
HISTORICAL SELECTIONS. Readings from the best Authorities
Selected and arranged by
Crown 8vo. 6s
on English an European History.
E. M SEWELL and C M YONGE.
When young children have acquired the outlines of history from abridge-
ments and catechisms, and it becomes desirable to give a more enlarged
view of the subject, in order to render it really useful and interesting, a
difficulty often arises as to the choice of books. Two courses are open, either
to take a general and consequently dry history of facts, such as Russell's
Modern Europe, or to choose some work treating of a particular period or
subject, such as the works of Macaulay and Froude. The former course
usually renders history uninteresting, the latter is unsatisfactory, because
it is not sufficiently comprehensive. To remedy this difficulty, selections,
continuous and chronological, have in the present volume been taken from
the larger works of Freeman, Milman, Palgrave, and others, which may
serve as distinct landmarks of historical reading. "We know of scarcely
anything," says the Guardian, of this volume, "which is so likely to raise
to a higher level the average standard of English education
""
Hole.-A GENEALOGICAL STEMMA OF THE KINGS OF
ENGLAND AND FRANCE By the Rev C. HOLE, M. A,
Trinity College, Cambridge On Sheet, Is
The different families are printed in distinguishing colours, thus faıılı-
tating reference.
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL
DICTIONARY.
Compiled and
Second Edition,
Airanged by the Rev CHARLES HOLE, M A.
18mo neatly and strongly bound in cloth, 4s 6d.
One of the most comprehensive and accurate Biographical Dictionaries
in the world, containing more than 18,000 persons of all countries, with
dates of birth and death, and what they were distinguished for. Extreme
care has been bestowed on the verification of the dates; and thus numerous
errors, current in previous works, have been corrected Its size adapts it
for the desk, portmanteau, or pocket.
An invaluable addition to our manuals of reference, and, from its
moderate price, cannot fail to become as popular as it is useful."-TIMES
IO
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
Hozier.—THE SEVEN WEEKS' WAR; Its Antecedents and
its Incidents. By. H. M. HoZIER. With Maps and Plans. Two
8vo. 28s.
vols. 8vo.
"The
This work is based upon letlers reprinted by permission from
Times." For the most part it is a product of a personal eye-witness of some
of the most interesting incidents of a war which, for rapidity and decisive
results, may claim an almost unrivalled position in history.
THE BRITISH EXPEDITION TO ABYSSINIA Compiled from
Authentic Documents By CAPTAIN HENRY M. HOZIER, late
Assistant Military Secretary to Lord Napier of Magdala 8vo. 9s.
"Several accounts of the British Expedition have been published. ...
They have, however, been written by those who have not had access to those
authentic documents, which cannot be collected directly after the termination
of a campaign. The endeavour of the author of this sketch has been to
present to readers a succinct and impartial account of an enterprise which
has rarely been equalled in the annals of war."-PREFACE.
• •
Irving.-THE ANNALS OF OUR TIME A Diurnal of Events,
Social and Political, which have happened in or had relation to
the Kingdom of Great Britain, from the Accession of Queen
Victoria to the Opening of the present Parliament. By JOSEPH
IRVING. Svo half-bound. 18s.
"We have before us a trusty and ready guide to the events of the past
thirty years, available equally for the statesman, the politician, the public
writer, and the general reader. If Mr. Irving's object has been to bring
before the reader all the most noteworthy occurrences which have happened
since the beginning of Her Majesty's reign, he may justly claim the credit
of having done so most briefly, succinctly, and simply, and in such a
manner, too, as to furnish him with the details necessary in each case to
comprehend the event of which he is in search in an intelligent manner.
Reflection will serve to show the great value of such a work as this to the
journalist and statesman, and indeed to every one who feels an interest in
the progress of the agc, and we may add that its value is considerably in-
creased by the addition of that most important of all appendices, an
accurate and instructive index."-TIMES.
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, & TRAVELS.
I I
Kingsley (Canon).—ON THE ANCIEN REGIME as it
Existed on the Continent before the FRENCH REVOLUTION.
Three Lectures delivered at the Royal Institution By the Rev.
C. KINGSLEY, M.A, formerly Professor of Modern History
in the University of Cambridge. Crown 8vo 6s.
These three lectures discuss severally (1) Caste, (2) Centralization, (3)
The Explosive Forces by which the Revolution was superinduced. The
Preface deals at some length with certain political questions of the present
day.
THE ROMAN AND THE TEUTON A Series of Lectures
delivered before the University of Cambridge. By Rev. C.
KINGSLEY, M.A. Svo 125
CONTENTS -Inaugural Lecture; The Forest Children; The Dying
Empire, The Human Deluge, The Gothic Civilizer, Dietrich's End, The
Nemesis of the Goths, Paulus Diaconus; The Clergy and the Heathen:
The Monk a Civiliser, The Lombard Laws, The Popes and the Lombards,
The Strategy of Providence
Kingsley (Henry, F.R.G.S.).-TALES
OF OLD
With
TRAVEL. Re-nariated by HENRY KINGSLEY, F.R GS
Eight Illustrations by HUARD Clown 8vo 65
CONTENTS—Marco Polo; The Shipwreck of Pelsart; The Wonderful
Adventures of Andrew Battel, The Wanderings of a Capuchin; Peter
Carder, The Preservation of the "Terra Nova," Spitsbergen, D'Erme-
nonville's Acclimatization Adventure, The Old Slave Trade; Miles Philips;
The Sufferings of Robert Everard; John Fox; Alvaro Nunez, The Foun-
dation of an Empire.
Latham.-BLACK AND WHITE: A Journal of a Three Months*
Tour in the United States By HENRY LATHAM, M A., Barrister-
at-Law. 8vo. IOS. 6d.
"The spirit in which Mr Latham has written about our brethren in
America is commendable in high degree "-ATHENÆUM.
12
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
Law. THE ALPS OF HANNIBAL. By WILLIAM JOHN Law,
M A, formerly Student of Christ Church, Oxford. Two vols.
Svo. 21S
"No one can read the work and not acquire a conviction that, in
addition to a thorough grasp of a particular topic, its writer has at
command a large store of reading and thought upon many cognate points
of ancient history and geography,"-QUARTERLY REVIEW
Liverpool.-THE LIFE AND ADMINISTRATION OF
ROBERT BANKS, SECOND EARL OF LIVERPOOL, K.G
Compiled from Original Family Documents by CHARLES DUKE
YONGC, Regius Professor of History and English Literature in
Queen's College, Belfast, and Author of "The History of the
British Navy," "The History of France under the Bourbons," etc
Three vols Svo 42s.
Since the time of Lord Burleigh no one, except the second Pitt, ever
enjoyed so long a tenure of power, with the same exception, no one ever
held office at so critical a time Lord Liverpool is the very last
minister who has been able fully to carry out his own political views, τύπο
has been so strong that in matters of general policy the Opposition could
extort no concessions from him which were not sanctioned by his own
deliberate judgment The present work is founded almost entirely on the
correspondence left behind him by Lord Liverpool, and now in the possession
of Colonel and Lady Catherine Harcourt.
"Full of information and instruction."—FORTNightly Review
Maclear. See Section, "ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY."
Macmillan (Rev. Hugh).— HOLIDAYS
ON HIGH
LANDS, or, Rambles and Incidents in search of Alpine Plants.
By the Rev. HUGH MACMILLAN, Author of "Bible Teachings in
Nature," etc Crown Svo cloth 65
'Botanical knowledge is blended with a love of nature, a pious en-
thusiasm, and a rich felicity of diction not to be met with in any works
of kindred character, if we except those of IIugh Miller "-DAILY
TELEGRAPII.
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, & TRAVELS.
Macmillan (Rev. Hugh), (continued) —
13
FOOT-NOTES FROM THE PAGE OF NATURE. With
numerous Illustrations Fcap. 8vo. 5s.
"Those who have derived pleasure and profit from the study of flowers
and ferns—subjects, it is pleasing to find, now everywhere popular—by
descending lower into the arcana of the vegetable kingdom, will find a still
more interesting and delightful field of research in the objects brought under
review in the following pages PREFACE.
""
BIBLE TEACHINGS IN NATURE
6s. See also "SCIENTIFIC SECTION "
Fourth Edition
Fcap Svo
Martin (Frederick). THE STATESMAN'S YEAR-BOOK ·
A Statistical and Historical Account of the States of the Civilised
World. Manual for Politician and Merchants for the year 1870.
BY FREDERICK MARTIN. Seventh Annual Publication.
8vo. IOS 6d.
Crown
The new issue has been entirely re-written, revised, and corrected, on the
basis of official reports received direct from the heads of the leading Govern-
ments of the World, in reply to letters sent to them by the Editor.
"Everybody who knows this work is aware that it is a book that is indis-
pensable to writers, financiers, politicians, statesmen, and all who are
directly or indirectly interested in the political, social, industrial, com-
mercial, and financial condition of their fellow-creatures at home and
abroad Mr Martin deserves warm commendation for the care he takes
in making The Statesman's Year Book' complete and correct
C
Martineau.-BIOGRAPHICAL
STANDARD
SKETCHES, 1852-1868.
By HARRIET MARTINEAU, Third Edition, with New Preface.
Crown Svo. 8s. 6d.
A Collection of Memoirs under these several sections —(1) Royal, (2)
Politicians, (3) Professional, (4) Scientific, (5) Social, (6) Literary These
Memoirs appeared originally in the columns of the "Daily News."
14
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
Masson (Professor).—ESSAYS, BIOGRAPHICAL AND
CRITICAL. See Section headed" POETRY AND BELLES LETTRES."
LIFE OF JOHN MILTON. Nairated in connexion with the
Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of his Time By
DAVID MASSON, M.A, LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric at Edin-
burgh. Vol. I. with Portraits. Svo. 18s. Vol. II. in the Press.
It is intended to exhibit Milton's life in its connexions with all the more
notable phenomena of the period of British history in which it was cast-
its state politics, its ecclesiastical variations, its literature and speculative
thought. Commencing in 1608, the Life of Milton proceeds through the
last sixteen years of the reign of Fames I, includes the whole of the reign
of Charles I. ana the subsequent years of the Commonwealth and the
Protectorate, and then, passing the Restoration, extends itself to 1674, or
through fourteen years of the new state of things under Charles II. The
first volume deals with the life of Milton as extending from 1608 to 1640,
which was the period of his education and of his minor poems.
Morison.-THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SAINT BERNARD,
Abbot of Clairvaux. By JAMES COTTER MORISON, M. A.
Edition, revised. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
New
"One of the best contributions in our literature towards a vivid, intel-
ligent, and worthy knowledge of European interests and thoughts and
feelings during the twelfth century. A delightful and instructive volume,
and one of the best products of the modern historic spirit.”
PALL MALL GAZETTE.
Morley (John).—EDMUND BURKE, a Historical Study. By
JOHN MORLEY, B. A. Oxon. Crown Svo.
7s. 6d.
"The style is terse and incisive, and brilliant with epigram and point.
It contains pithy aphoristic sentences which Burke himself would not have
disowned. But these are not its best features: its sustained power of
reasoning, its wide sweep of observation and reflection, its elevated ethical
and social tone, stamp it as a work of high excellence, and as such we
cordially recommend it to our readers."-SATURDAY REVIEW.
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, & TRAVELS.
15
Mullinger.-CAMBRIDGE CHARACTERISTICS IN THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. By J. B. MULLINGER, B.A.
Crown 8vo.
4s. 6d.
"It is a very entertaining and readable book."-SATURDAY REVIEW.
"The chapters on the Cartesian Philosophy and the Cambridge Platonists
are admirable."—ATHENÆUM.
Palgrave. HISTORY OF NORMANDY AND OF ENG-
LAND. By Sir FRANCIS PALGRAVE, Deputy Keeper of Her
Majesty's Public Records Completing the History to the Death
Four vols. 8vo. £4 45.
of William Rufus.
Volume I. General Relations of Mediaval Europe-The Carlovingian
Empire-The Danish Expeditions in the Gauls-And the Establishment
of Rollo.
Volume II The Three First Dukes of Normandy; Rollo,
Guillaume Longue-Épée, and Richard Sans-Peur-The Carlovingian
line supplanted by the Capets. Volume III. Richard Sans-Peur-
Richard Le-Bon-Richard III-Robert Le Diable-Villiam the Con-
queror. Volume IV. William Rufus—Accession of Henry Beauclerc.
Palgrave (W. G.).—A NARRATIVE OF A YEAR'S
JOURNEY THROUGH CENTRAL AND EASTERN
ARABIA, 1862-3 By WILLIAM GIFFORD PALGRAVE, late of
the Eighth Regiment Bombay N. I. Fifth and cheaper Edition.
With Maps, Plans, and Portrait of Author, engraved on steel by
Jeens. Crown Svo. 6s.
Considering the extent of our previous ignorance, the amount of hus
achievements, and the importance of his contributions to our knowledge, we
cannot say less of him than was once said of a far greater discoverer. Mr.
Palgrave has indeed given a new world to Europe."-PALL MALL GAZETTE.
16
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
Parkes (Henry).—AUSTRALIAN VIEWS OF ENGLAND
By HENRY PARKES.
Crown Svo cloth
3s. 6d.
"The following letters were written during a residence in England, in
the years 1861 and 1862, and were published in the Sydney Morning
Herald on the arrival of the monthly mails On re-perusal, these
letters appear to contain views of English life and impressions of English
notabilities which, as the views and impressions of an Englishman on his
return to his native country after an absence of twenty years, may not be
without interest to the English reader. The writer had opportunities of
mixing with different classes of the British people, and of hearing opinions
on passing events from opposite standpoints of observation "—AUTHOR'S
PREFACE
Prichard.—THE ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.
From
1859 to 1868. The First Ten Years of Administration under the
Clown By ILTUDUS THOMAS PRICHARD, Barrister-at-Law
Two vols. Demy 8vo. With Map. 2IS.
In these volumes the author has aimed to supply a full, impartial, and
independent account of British India between 1859 and 1868-which is
in many respects the most important epoch in the history of that country
which the present century has seen
Ralegh.-THE LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEGH, based
upon Contemporary Documents By EDWARD EDWARDS. To-
With Portrait
gether with Ralegh's Letters, now first collected.
Two vols 8vo. 32s
"Mr Edwards has certainly written the Life of Ralegh from fuller
information than any previous biographer. He is intelligent, industrious,
sympathetic. and the world has in his two volumes larger means afforded
The new letters and
it of knowing Ralegh than it ever possessed before
the newly-edited old letters are in themselves a boon."-PALL MALL
GAZETTE.
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, & TRAVELS.
17
Robinson (Crabb).—DIARY, REMINISCENCES, AND
CORRESPONDENCE OF CRABB ROBINSON. Selected
and Edited by Dr SADLER With Portrait. Second Edition.
Three vols 8vo cloth 36s.
Mr Crabb Robinson's Diary extends over the greater part of three-
quarters of a century. It contains personal reminiscences of some of the
most distinguished characters of that period, including Goethe, Wieland, De
Quincey, Wordsworth (with whom Mr Crabb Robinson was on terms of
great intimacy), Madame de Stael, Lafayette, Coleridge, Lamb, Mılman,
&c. &c and includes a vast variety of subjects, political, literary, ccclesi-
astical, and miscellaneous.
Rogers (James E. Thorold).—HISTORICAL GLEAN-
INGS A Series of Sketches Montague, Walpole, Adam Smith,
Cobbett. By Rev. J E. T. ROGERS Crown 8vo. 4s 6d.
Professor Rogers's object in the following sketches is to present a set of
historical facts, grouped round a principal figure. The essays are in the
form of lectures.
Smith (Professor Goldwin). — THREE
ENGLISH
STATESMEN: PYM, CROMWELL, PITT A Course of
Lectures on the Political History of England. By GOLDWIN
SMITH, M A. Extra fcap Svo New and Cheaper Edition 55.
"A work which neither historian nor politician can safely afford to
neglect."-SATURDAY REVIEW.
Tacitus.
English
THE HISTORY OF TACITUS, translated into
By A J CHURCH, M. A and W. J. BRODRIBB, M A.
With a Map and Notes. 8vo. IOS. 6d.
The translators have endeavoured to adhere as closely to the original as
was thought consistent with a proper observance of English idiom. At
the same time it has been their aim to reproduce the precise expressions of
the author This work is characterised by the Spectator as a scholarly
and faithful translation.”
B
18
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
THE AGRICOLA AND GERMANIA. Translated into English by
A. J. CHURCH, M.A. and W. J. BRODRIBB, M. A.
With Maps
and Notes. Extra fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d.
The translators have sought to produce such a version as may satisfy
scholars who demand a faithful rendering of the original, and English
readers who are offended by the baldness and frigidity which commonly
disfigure translations. The treatises are accompanied by introductions,
The Athenæum says of
CC
notes, maps, and a chronological summary.
this work that it is a version at once readable and exact, which may be
perused with pleasure by all, and consulted with advantage by the classical
student
Taylor (Rev. Isaac).-WORDS AND PLACES;
or
Etymological Illustrations of History, Etymology, and Geography.
By the Rev. ISAAC TAYLOR. Second Edition. Crown Svo.
12s. 6d.
"Mr. Taylor has produced a really useful book, and one which stands
alone in our language."-SATURDAY REVIEW.
Trench (Archbishop).—GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS: Social
Aspects of the Thirty Years' War. By R. CHENEVIX TRENCH,
D.D, Archbishop of Dublin. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d.
"Clear and lucid in style, thesc lectures will be a treasure to many to
whom the subject is unfamiliar "-DUBLIN EVENING MAIL
Trench (Mrs. R.).—Edited by ARCHBISHOP TRENCH. Remains
of the late MRS. RICHARD TRENCH. Being Selections from
her Jounals, Letters, and other Papers. New and Cheaper Issue,
with Portrait, 8vo 6s.
Contains notices and anecdotes illustrating the social life of the period
-cxtending over a quarter of a century (1799-1827). It includes also
pocms and other miscellaneous preces by Mrs. Trench.
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, & TRAVELS.
19
Trench (Capt. F., F.R.G.S.). THE RUSSO-INDIAN
QUESTION, Historically, Strategically, and Politically con-
sidered. By Capt. TRENCH, F. R G S. With a Sketch of Central
Asiatic Politics and Map of Central Asia. Crown 8vo
•
7s. 6d.
"The Russo-Indian, or Central Asian question has for several obvnous
reasons been attracting much public attention in Engiand, in Russia, and
also on the Continent, within the last year or two. .
I have thought
that the present volume, giving a short sketch of the history of this question
from its earliest origin, and condensing much of the most recent and inte-
resting information on the subject, and on its collateral phases, might
perhaps be acceptable to those who take an interest in it."-AUTHOR'S
PREFACE.
Trevelyan (G.O., M.P.).—CAWNPORE. Illustrated with
Plan By G. O. TREVELYAN, M.P., Author of "The Com-
petition Wallah.”
Second Edition. Crown 8vo
65.
In this book we are not spared one fact of the sad story; but our
feelings are not harrowed by the recital of imaginary outrages. It is good
for us at home that we have one who tells his tale so well as does Mr.
Trevelyan."-PALL MALL GAZETTE.
•
THE COMPETITION WALLAH. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s
“The earlier letters are especially interesting for their racy descriptions
of European life in India Those that follow are of more serious
import, secking to tell the truth about the Hindoo character and English
influences, good and bad, upon it, as well as to suggest some better course of
treatment than that hitherto adopted."-EXAMINER.
Vaughan (late Rev. Dr. Robert, of the British
CC
Quarterly).-MEMOIR OF ROBERT A. VAUGHAN.
Author of "Hours with the Mystics." By ROBERT VAUGHAN,
D D
Second Edition, revised and enlarged Extra fcap 8vo. 5s.
>
It deserves a place on the same shelf with Stanley's Life of Arnold,
and Carlyle's 'Stirling. Dr. Vaughan has performed his painful but
not all unpleasing task with exquisite good taste and feeling"-NONCON-
FORMIST.
B 2
20
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
Wagner.-MEMOIR OF THE REV. GEORGE Wagner,
M A., late Incumbent of St. Stephen's Church, Bughton By the
Rev J. N. SIMPKINSON, MA. Third and cheaper Edition, cor-
rected and abridged. 5s.
A more edifying biography we have rarely met with "
LITERARY CHURCHMAN
the Land of the
Wallace. -THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO
Qiang Utan and the Bird of Paradise A Namative of Travels
with Studies of Man and Nature By ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE.
With Maps and Illustrations. Second Edition. Two vols crown
8vo. 245.
A carefully and deliberately composed narrative.
We advise
our readers to do as we have done, read his book through.”—TIMES.
Ward (Professor).—THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA IN THE
THIRTY YEARS' WAR. Two Lectures, with Notes and Illus-
trations By ADOLPHUS W. WARD, M A, Professor of History
in Owens College, Manchester. Extra fcap 8vo
2s 6d.
Very compact and instructive."-FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.
Warren.-AN ESSAY ON GREEK FEDERAL COINAGE.
By the Hon. J. LEICESTER WARREN, M A. Svo 25 6d.
"The present essay is an attempt to illustrate Mr Freeman's Federal
Government by evidence deduced from the coinage of the times and countries
therein treated of"-PREFACE.
MD,
Wilson.-A MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON, M D,
FRSE, Regius Professor of Technology in the University of
Edinburgh By his SISTER. New Edition. Crown 8vo 65.
“An exquisite and touching portrait of a rare and beautiful spirit."
GUARDIAN.
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, & TRAVELS.
21
Wilson (Daniel, LL.D.).—PREHISTORIC ANNALS
OF SCOTLAND. By DANIEL WILSON, LL D, Professor of
History and English Literature in University College, Toronto.
New Edition, with numerous Illustrations Two vols. demy
8vo
36s
This elaborate and learned work is divided into four Purts. Part I
deals with The Primeval or Stone Period: Aboriginal Traces, Sepulchral
Memorials, Dwellings, and Catacombs, Temples, Weapons, &c. &c.,
Part II, The Bronze Period: The Metallurgic Transition, Primitive
Bronze, Personal Ornaments, Religion, Arts, and Domestic Habits, with
other topics, Part III, The Iron Period The Introduction of Iron, The
Roman Invasion, Strongholds, &c. &c., Part IV, The Christian Period:
Historical Data, the Norrie's Law Relics, Primitive and Medieval
Ecclesiology, Ecclesiastical and Miscellaneous Antiquities. The work 25
furnished with an elaborate Index.
+
PREHISTORIC MAN. New Edition, revised and partly re-written,
with numerous Illustrations. One vol 8vo. 21S
This work, which carries out the principle of the preceding one, but with
a wider scope, aims to "view Man, as far as possible, unaffected by those
modifying influences which accompany the development of nations and the
maturity of a true historic period, in order thereby to ascertain the sources
from whence such development and maturity proceed." It contains, for
example, chapters on the Primeval Transition; Speech; Metals, the
Mound-Builders; Primitive Architecture; the American Type; the Red
Blood of the West, &c &c
SECTION IL
POETRY AND BELLES LETTRES.
Allingham.-LAURENCE BLOOMFIELD IN IRELAND;
or, the New Landlord. By WILLIAM ALLINGHAM. New and
cheaper issue, with a Preface. Fcap. Svo. cloth, 4s 6d.
In the new Preface, the state of Ireland, with special reference to the
Church measure, is discussed.
•
"It is vital with the national character. It has something of Pope's
point and Goldsmith's simplicity, touched to a more modern issue.
ATHENÆUM.
Arnold (Matthew).—POEMS.
Two vols. Extra fcap 8vo. cloth. 12s.
each.
By MATTHEW ARNOLD.
Also sold separately at 6s.
Volume I contains Narrative and Elegiac Poems; Volume II. Dra-
matic and Lyric Poems. The two volumes comprehend the First and
Second Series of the Poems, and the New Poems.
NEW POEMS. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. 6a.
In this volume will be found" Empedocles on Etna;”“ Thyrsis" (written
in commemoration of the late Professor Clough), Epilogue to Lessing's
Laocoon, "Ileine's Grave;" "Obermann once more." All these
poems are also included in the Edition (two vols.) above-mentioned.
>>
POETRY & BELLES LETTRES.
23
Arnold (Matthew), (continued) —
ESSAYS IN CRITICISM. New Edition, with Additions. Extra
fcap. 8vo. 6s.
CONTENTS :-Preface, The Function of Criticism at the present time;
The Lilerary Influence of Academies; Maurice de Guerin; Eugenie
de Guerin; Heinrich Heine, Pagan and Medieval Religious Sentiment;
Joubert, Spinoza and the Bible; Marcus Aurelius.
ASPROMONTE, AND OTHER POEMS.
extia 4s 6d.
Fcap. 8vo. cloth
CONTENTS-Poems for Italy; Dramatic Lyrus; Miscellaneous.
Barnes (Rev. W.).—POEMS OF RURAL LIFE IN COM-
MON ENGLISH. By the REV. W. BARNES, Author of
"Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect." Fcap. 8vo. 6s.
"In a high degree pleasant and novel. The book is by no means one
which the lovers of descriptive poetry can afford to lose."-ATHENÆUM.
Bell.-ROMANCES
AND
AND MINOR POEMS. By HENRY
GLASSFORD BELL. Fcap. 8vo. 6s.
"Full of life and genus"-COURT CIRCULAR.
Besant.-STUDIES IN EARLY FRENCH POETRY.
WALTER BESANT, M A. Crown. 8vo. 8s. 6d.
""
By
A sort of impression rests on most minds that French literature begins
with the “siècle de Louis Quatorze, any previous literature being for
the most part unknown or ignored. Few know anything of the enormous
lilerary activity that began in the thirteenth century, was carried on by
Rulebeuf, Marie de France, Gaston de Foix, Thibault de Champagne,
and Lorris; was fostered by Charles of Orleans, by Margaret of Valois,
by Francis the First; that gave a crowd of versifiers to France, enriched,
strengthened, developed, and fixed the French language, and prepared the
way for Corneille and for Racine. The present work aims to offerd
24
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
information and direction touching the carly efforts of France in poetical
literature.
เ
In one moderately sized volume he has contrived to introduce us to the
very best, if not to all of the early French poets."-ATHENÆUM.
Bradshaw.—AN ATTEMPT TO ASCERTAIN THE STATE
OF CHAUCER'S WORKS, AS THEY WERE LEFT AT
HIS DEATH. With some Notes of their Subsequent IIistory.
By HENRY BRADSHAW, of King's College, and the University
Library, Cambridge.
เ
[In the Press.
Brimley.-ESSAYS BY THE LATE GEORGE BRIMLEY
M A.
Edited by the Rev. W. G. CLARK, M. A.
Cheaper Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d.
+
With Poitiant,
Essays on literary topics, such as Tennyson's Poems," Carlyle's
Life of Stirling," "Bleak House," &c., reprinted from Fraser, the
Spectator, and like periodicals.
Broome.
THE STRANGER OF SERIPHOS.
A Dramatic
Poem. By FREDERICK NAPIER BROOME, Fcap. 8vo. 55.
Founded on the Greek legend of Danae and Perseus.
Clough (Arthur Hugh).-THE POEMS AND PROSE
REMAINS OF ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH.
With a
Selection from his Letters and a Memoir. Edited by his Wife.
With Portrait. Two vols. crown 8vo. 215. Or Poems sepa-
rately, as below.
The
The late Professor Clough is well known as a graceful, tender poet,
and as the scholarly translator of Plutarch. The letters possess high
nterest, not biographical only, but literary-discussing, as they do, the
most important questions of the time, always in a gensal spirit.
“Remains" include papers on Retrenchment at Oxford;" on Professor
F. W. Newman's book "The Soul;" on Wordsworth; on the Formation
of Classical English; on some Modern Poems (Matthew Arnold and the
late Alexander Smith), &c &c.
POETRY & BELLES LETTRES.
Clough (Arthur Hugh), (continued) —
25
THE POEMS OF ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH, sometime Fellow
of Oriel College, Oxford. With a Memoir by F. T. PALGRAVE
Second Edition. Fcap 8vo. 6s
"From the higher mind of cultivated, all-questioning, but still conser-
vative England, in this our puzzled generation, we do not know of any
utterance in literature so characteristic as the poems of Arthur Hugh
Clough."-FRASER'S MAGAZINE,
Dante.-DANTE'S COMEDY, THE HELL.
W. M. ROSSETTI
Fcap Svo cloth 55.
Translated by
The aim of this translation of Dante may be summed up in one word
-Literality. To follow Dante sentence for sentence, line for line,
word for word-neither more nor less-has been my strenuous endeavour
-AUTHOR'S PREFACE
""
By
De Vere.--THE INFANT BRIDAL, and other Poems.
AUBREY DE VERE. Fcap. 8vo
75 6d
"Mr De Vere has taken his place among the poets of the day. Pure
and tender fee ing, and that polished restraint of style which is called
classical, are the charms of the volume"-SPECTATOR.
Doyle (Sir F. H.).—Works by Sir FRANCIS HASTINGS Doyle,
Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford
•
THE RETURN OF THE GUARDS, AND OTHER POEMS.
Fcap 8vo. 75.
“Good wine needs no bush, nor good verse a preface; and Sir Francis
Doyle's verses run bright and clear, and smack of a classic vintage. .
His chief characteristic, as it is his greatest charm, is the simple manliness
which gives force to all he writes. It is a characteristic in these days rare
enough."-EXAMINER.
26
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
Doyle (Sir F. H.), (continued )—
LECTURES ON POETRY, delivered before the University of
Oxford in 1868. Extra crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.
THREE LECTURES —(1) Inaugural; (2) Provincial Poetry; (3) Dr.
Newman's "Dream of Gerontius.”
•
"Full of thoughtful discrimination and fine insight the lecture on
"Provincial Poetry' seems to us singularly true, eloquent, and instructive"
SPECTATOR.
Evans.-BROTHER
FABIAN'S MANUSCRIPT, AND
OTHER POEMS. By SEBASTIAN EVANS. Fcap. 8vo. cloth.
65.
"In this volume we have full assurance that he has the vision and the
faculty divine.' Clever and full of kindly humour.”—GLOBE.
Furnivall.-LE MORTE D'ARTHUR. Edited from the Harlean
M S. 2252, in the British Museum. By F J. FURNIVALL, M. A.
With Essay by the late HERBERT COLERIDGE. Fcap. 8vo. 7s. 6d.
Looking to the interest shown by so many thousands in Mr Tennyson's
Arthurian poems, the editor and publishers have thought that the old
version would possess considerable interest. It is a reprint of the celebrated
Harleian copy; and is accompanied by index and glossary.
Garnett.-IDYLLS AND EPIGRAMS. Chiefly from the Greek
Anthology. By RICHARD GARNETT. Fcap. 8vo.
2s. 6d
“A charming little book. For English readers, Mr. Garnett's transla-
lations will open a new world of thought."—Westminster Review.
GUESSES AT TRUTH. By Two BROTHERS. With Vignette,
Title, and Frontispiece. New Edition, with Memoir. Fcap. 8vo. 6s.
"The following year was memorable for the commencement of the
'Guesses at Truth. He and his Oxford brother, living as they did in
constant and free interchange of thought on questions of philosophy and
POETRY & BELLES LETTRES.
27
literature and art; delighting, each of them, in the epigrammatic terseness
which is the charm of the 'Pensées' of Pascal, and the Caractères' of La
Bruyère-agreed to utter themselves in this form, and the book appeared,
anonymously, in two volumes, in 1827.”—Memoir.
Hamerton.-A PAINTER'S CAMP.
HAMERTON.
•
By PHILIP GILBERT
Second Edition, revised. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s.
BOOK I. In England; Book II. In Scotland; Book III. In France.
This is the story of an Artist's encampments and adventures. The
headings of a few chapters may serve to convey a notion of the character
of the book A Walk on the Lancashire Moors; the Author his own
Housekeeper and Cook; Tents and Boats for the Highlands, The Author
encamps on an uninhabited Island, A Lake Voyage; A Gipsy Journey
to Glen Coe; Concernung Moonlight and Old Castles, A little French
City; A Farm in the Autunois, &c. &c.
"His pages sparkle with happy turns of expression, not a few well-told
anecdotes, and many observations which are the fruit of attentive study and
wise reflection on the complicated phenomena of human life, as well as of
unconscious nature."-WESTMINSTER REVIEW.
ETCHING AND ETCHERS. A Treatise Critical and Practical.
By P. G. HAMERTON. With Original Plates by REMBRANDT,
CALLOT, DUJARDIN, PAUL POTTER, &c. Royal 8vo. Half
morocco. 31s. 6d.
"It is a work of which author, printer, and publisher may alike feel
proud It is a work, too, of which none but a genuine artist could by pos-
sibility have been the author."—-SATURDAY REVIEW.
Helps.-REALMAH.
Crown 8vo. 6s.
By ARTHUR HELPS. Cheap Edition.
Of this work, by the Author of "Friends in Council," the Saturday
Review says '
“Underneath the form (that of dialogue) is so much shrewd-
ness, fancy, and above all, so much wise kindliness, that we should think
all the better of a man or woman who likes the book."
28
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
Herschel.-THE ILIAD OF HOMER Translated into English
Hexameters By Sir JOHN HERSCHEL, Bart. 8vo. 18s.
A version of the Iliad in English Hexameters. The question of Homeru
Iranslation is fully discussed in the Preface.
It is admirable, not only for many intrinsic merits, but as a great
man's tribute to Genus "-ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS.
IIIATUS: the Void in Modern Education Its Cause and Antidote
By OUTIS. Svo. Ss 6d.
The main object of this Essay is to point out how the emotional element
whuh underlies the Fine Arts is disregarded and undeveloped at this time
so far as (despite a pretence at filling it up) to constitute an Educational
Hiatus
HYMNI ECCLESLE See "THEOLOGICAL SECTION "
Kennedy. LEGENDARY FICTIONS OF THE IRISH
Collected and Narrated by PATRICK KENNEDY. Crown
7s 6d
CELTS
8vo.
"A very admirable popular selection of the Irish fairy stories and legends,
in which those who are familiar with Mr Croker's, and other selections
of the same kind, will find much that is fresh, and full of the peculiar
vivacity and humour, and sometimes even of the ideal beauty, of the true
Celtic Legend.”—Spectator.
Kingsley (Canon).—See also "HISTORIC SECTION," "WORKS
OF FICTION," and "PHILOSOPHY;" also "JUVENILE BOOKS,"
and "THEOLOGY."
THE SAINTS' TRAGEDY: or, The True Story of Elizabeth of
Hungary. By the Rev. CHARLES Kingsley
the Rev. F. D. MAURICE. Third Edition
ANDROMEDA, AND OTHER POEMS
8vo. 5s,
With a Preface by
Fcap 8vo. 55.
Third Edition. Feap
POETRY & BELLES LETTRES.
Kingsley (Canon), (continued)—
29
PHAETHON; or, Loose Thoughts for Loose Thinkers Third
Edition. Crown 8vo. 25.
Kingsley (Henry).-See' WORKS OF FICTION,"
Lowell.-UNDER THE WILLOWS, AND OTHER POEMS
By JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL Fcap Svo. 6s
Under the Willows is one of the most admirable bits of idyllic work,
short as it is, or perhaps because it is short, that have been done in our gene-
ration."-SATURDAY REVIEW.
CRITICAL
Masson (Professor).—ESSAYS, BIOGRAPHICAL AND
Chiefly on the British Poets. By DAVID MASSON,
LL D, Professor of Rhetoric in the University of Edinburgh
8vo. 12s. 6d.
Distinguished by a remarkable power of analysis, a clear statement
of the actual facts on which speculation is based, and an appropriate
beauty of Language. These essays should be popular with serious men
"}
ATHENAUM
BRITISH NOVELISTS AND THEIR STYLES Being a Critical
Sketch of the History of British Prose Fiction Crown Svo 7s. 6d.
"Valuable for its lucid analysis of fundamental principles, its breadth
of view, and sustained animation of style."-SPECTATOR.
MRS. JERNINGHAM'S JOURNAL. Extra fcap 8vo. 3s 6d. A
Poem of the boudoir of domestic class, purpoiting to be the journal
of a newly-married lady.
"One quality in the piece, sufficient of itself to claim a moment's atten-
tion, is that it is unique original, indeed, is not too strong a word—ın
the manner of its conception and execution."-PALL MALI. GAZETTE.
30
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
Mistral (F.).—MIRELLE: a Pastoral Epic of Provence. Trans-
lated by H. CRICHTON. Extra fcap. 8vo. 65.
"This is a capital translation of the elegant ana richly-coloured pastoral
epic poem of M Mistral which, in 1859, he dedicated in enthusiastic
terms to Lamartine.
It would be hard to overpraise the
sweetness and pleasing freshness of this charming epic."—ATHENÆUM.
•
Myers (Ernest).—THE PURITANS. BY ERNEST MYERS.
Extra fcap Svo. cloth 2s. 6d.
"It is not too much to call it a really grand poem, stately and dignified,
and showing not only a high poetic mind, but also great power over poetic
expression."-LITERARY CHURCHMAN.
Myers (F. W. H.)-ST PAUL. A Poem. By F. W. H.
MYERS. Second Edition Extra fcap. Svo. 2s. 6d.
"It breathes throughout the spirit of St. Paul, and with a singular
staicly melody of verse."-FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.
-
Nettleship. ESSAYS ON ROBERT BROWNING'S
POETRY. By JOHN T. NETTLESHIP. Extra fcap. Svo. 6s. 6d.
Noel.-BEATRICE, AND OTHER POEMS. By the Hon.
RODEN NOEL. Fcap 8vo. 65.
"Beatrice is in many respects a noble poem; it displays a splendour
of landscape painting, a strong definite precision of highly-coloured descrip-
tion, which has not often been surpassed."-PALL MALL Gazette.
Norton.-THE LADY OF LA GARAYE. By the HON MRS
NORTON. With Vignette and Frontispiece. Sixth Edition
Fcap. 8vo.
4s 6d.
"There is no lack of vigour, no faltering of power, plenty of passion,
much bright description, much musical verse. Full of thoughts well-
expressed, and may be classed among her best works."-TIMES.
POETRY & BELLES LETTRES.
31
Orwell.-THE BISHOP'S WALK AND THE BISHOP'S
TIMES. Poems on the days of Archbishop Leighton and the
Scottish Covenant. By ORWELL. Fcap. 8vo. 5s.
"Pure taste and faultless precision of language, the fruits of deep thought,
insight into human nature, and lively sympathy."-NONCONFORMIST
Palgrave (Francis T.).-ESSAYS ON ART. By FRANCIS
TURNER PALGRAVE, MA, late Fellow of Exeter College,
Oxford. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s.
Mulready-Dyce-Holman Hunt-Herbert-Poetry, Prose, and Sen-
sationalism in Art—Sculpture in England-The Albert Cross, &c.
SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS AND SONGS. Edited by F. T
PALGRAVE Gem Edition. With Vignette Title by JEENS. 35. 6d.
"For minute clegance no volume could possibly excel the 'Gem
Edition."-SCOTSMAN.
Patmore.-Works by COVENTRY PATMORE
THE ANGEL IN THE HOUSE.
BOOK I. The Betrothal; Book II. The Espousals; Book III.
Faithful for Ever. With Tamerton Church Tower.
8vo. 125.
x
Two vols. fcap.
** A New and Cheap Edition in one vol. 1Smo., beautifully printed on
toned paper, price 2s. 6d.
THE VICTORIES OF LOVE. Fcap 8vo.
•
·
4s. 6d.
The intrinsic merit of his poem will secure it a permanent place in
literature. Mr. Patmore has fully earned a place in the catalogue
of poels by the finished idealization of domestic life."-SATURDAY
REVIEW.
32
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
Rossetti.-Works by CHRISTINA ROSSETTI :-
GOBLIN MARKET, AND OTHER POEMS. With two Designs
by D G. ROSSETTI. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 55.
"She handles her little marvel with that rare poetic discrimination which
neither exhausts it of its simple wonders by pushing symbolism too far, nor
keeps those wonders in the merely fabulous and capricious stage
In fact
she has produced a true children's poem, which is far more delightful to
the mature than to children, though it would be delightful to all."
SPECTATOR.
THE PRINCE'S PROGRESS, AND OTHER POEMS With
two Designs by D G ROSSETTI Fcap. 8vo
65.
"Miss Rossetti's poems are of the kind which recails Shelley's definition
of Poetry as the record of the best and happiest moments of the best and
happiest minds
They are like the piping of a bird on the spray in
the sunshine, or the quaint singing with which a child amuses itself when
it forgets that anybody is listening "-SATURDAY REVIEW.
Rossetti (W. M.).—DANTE'S HELL. See "DANTE."
FINE ART, chiefly Contemporary By WILLIAM M. ROSSETTI
Crown 8vo. IOS 6d
This volume consists of Criticism on Contemporary Art, reprinted from
Fraser, The Saturday Review, The Pall Mall Gazette, and other pub-
lications
Roby.-STORY OF A HOUSEHOLD, AND OTHER POEMS.
By MARY K ROBY Fcap 8vo 55.
Shairp (Principal).-KILMAHOE, a IIighland Pastoral, with
other Poems. By JOHN CAMPBELL SHAIRP. Fcap. 8vo. 5s
"Kilmahoe is a Highland Pastoral, redolent of the warm soft air of
the Western Lochs and Moors, sketched out with remarkable grace and pic-
turesqueness."-SATURDAY Review.
POETRY & BELLES LETTRES,
Smith.-Works by ALEXANDER SMITH :-
A LIFE DRAMA, AND OTHER POEMS. Fcap. 8vo.
CITY POEMS. Fcap. 8vo. 5s.
EDWIN OF DEIRA. Second Edition. Fcap. Svo
55.
33
2s. 6d.
"A poem which is marked by the strength, sustained sweetness, and
compact texture of real life."-NORTH BRITISH REVIEW.
Smith.-POEMS. BY CATHERINE BARNARD SMITH.
8vo. 5s
Fcap.
Wealthy in feeling, meaning, finish, and grace; not without passion,
which is suppressed, but the keener for that."-ATHEN.EUM
Smith (Rev. Walter).-HYMNS OF CHRIST AND THE
CHRISTIAN LIFE. By the Rev. WALTER C. SMITH, M.A.
Fcap. 8vo. 65.
"These are among the sweetest sacred poems we have read for a long
time. With no profuse imagery, expressing a range of feeling and
expression by no means uncommon, they are true and elevated, and ther
pathos is profound and simple."-NONCONFORMIST
Stratford de Redcliffe (Viscount).-SHADOWS OF
THE PAST, in Veise By VISCOUNT STRATFORD DE RED-
CLIFFE Crown Svo IOS. 6d
"The vigorous words of one who has acted engorously. They combine
the fervour of politician and poet."—GUARDIAN.
Trench.-Works by R CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D., Archbishop
ef Dublin See also Sections
29 66
PHILOSOPHY, THEOLOGY," &c.
摹
​POEMS. Collected and arranged anew. Fcap. 8vo.
ELEGIAC POEMS. Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo.
C
7s. 6d
25 6d.
34
GENERAL CATALOGUE
Trench (Archbishop), (continued) —
CALDERON'S LIFE'S A DREAM The Great Theatre of the
World With an Essay on his Life and Genius.
4s 6d.
HOUSEHOLD BOOK OF ENGLISH POETRY.
Fcap. 8vo.
Selected and
ananged, with Notes, by R C. TRENCH, D.D, Archbishop of
Dublin Extra fcap Svo
5s 6d
This volume is called a "Household Book," by this name implying that
it is a book for all-that there is nothing in it to prevent it from being
ronfidently placed in the hands of every member of the household Spec-
mens of all classes of poetry are given, including selections from living
authors. The Editor has aimed to produce a book “which the emigrant,
finding room for little not absolutely necessary, might yet find room for
in his trunk, and the traveller in his knapsack, and that on some narrow
shelves where there are few books this might be one.'
"The Archbishop has conferred in this delightful volume an important
gift on the whole English-speaking population of the world.”—PALL
MALL GAZETTE.
SACRED LATIN POETRY, Chiefly Lyrical. Selected and arranged
for Use. Second Edition, Corrected and Improved. Feap 8vo.
775
"The aim of the present volume is to offer to members of our English
Church a collection of the best sacred Latin poetry, such as they shall be
able entirely and heartily to accept and approve—a collection, that is, in which
they shall not be evermore liable to be offended, and to have the current of
their sympathies checked, by coming upon that which, however beautiful as
poetry, out of higher respects they must reject and condemn—in which, too,
they shall not fear that snares are being laid for them, to entangle them
unawares in admiration for ought which is inconsistent with their faith
and fealty to their own spiritual mother.”—PREFACE
POETRY & BELLES LETTRES.
Turner.-SONNETS.
By the Rev.
35
CHARLES TENNYSON
TURNER. Dedicated to his brother, the Poet Laureate
8vo. 4s 6d.
Fcap.
"The Sonnets are deducated to Mr. Tennyson by his brother, and have,
independently of their merits, an interest of association. They both love to
zurite in simple expressive Saxon, both love to touch their imagery in
epithets rather than in formal similes; both have a delicate perception
of rythmical movement, and thus Mr Turner has occasional lines which,
He knows the
for phrase and music, might be ascribed to his brother
haunts of the wild rose, the shady nooks where light quivers through the
leaves, the ruralities, in short, of the land of imagination' —ATHENÆUM,
SMALL TABLEAUX. Fcap 8vo. 4s 6d
These brief poems have not only a peculiar kind of interest for the
student of English poetry, but are intrinsically delightful, and will reward
a careful and frequent perusal. Full of narveté, piety, love, and knowledge
of natural objects, and each expressing a single and generally a simple
subject by means of minute und original pictorial touches, these sonnets
have a place of their own "-PALL MALL GAZETTE,
Vittoria Colonna.-LIFE AND POEMS By Mrs HENRY
ROSCOL. Crown Svo gs
The life of Vittoria Colonna, the celebrated Alarchesa di Pesiara, has
received but cursory notice from any English writer, though in every
history of Italy her name is mentioned with great honour among the poets
of the sixteenth century In three hundred and fifty years," says her
biographer Visconti, there has been no other Italian lady who can be
compared to her.
(C
"It is written with good taste, with quick and intelligent sympathy,
casionally with a real freshness and charm of style."-PALL MALL
GAZETTE
36
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
Webster.-Works by AUGUSTA WEBSTER :—
DRAMATIC STUDIES Extra fcap. 8vo. 5s.
*
“A volume as strongly marked by perfect taste as by poetic power."
NONCONFORMIST.
PROMETHEUS BOUND OF ÆSCHYLUS Literally translated
into English Veise. Extia fcap 8vo. 3s 6d.
"Closeness and simplicity combined with literary skill."-ATHENÆUM.
MEDEA OF EURIPIDES
Extia fcap. Svo. 3s. 6d.
Literally translated into English Verse.
"Mrs Webster's translation surpasses our utmost expectations. It is a
photograph of the original without any of that harshness which so often
accompanies a photograph”—WFSTMINSTER REVIEW
A WOMAN SOLD, AND OTHER POEMS.
Crown Svo.
7s 6d.
"Mrs. Webster has shown us that she is able to draw admirably from
the life, that she can observe with subtlety, and render her observations
with delicacy; that she can impersonate complex conceptions, and venture
into which few living writers can follow her."-GUARDIAN.
Woolner.-MY BEAUTIFUL LADY. BY THOMAS WOOLNER
With a Vignette by ARTHUR HUGHES.
Svo. 55.
Third Edition
Fcap.
"It is clearly the product of no idle hour, but a highly-conceived ana
faithfully-executed task, self-imposed, and prompted by that inward yearn-
ing to utter great thoughts, and a wealth of passionate feeling which is
poetic genuus. No man can read this poem without being struck by the
fitness and finish of the workmanship, so to speak, as well as by the chas-
tened and unpretending loftiness of thought which pervades the whole."
GLOBE.
WORDS FROM THE POETS. Selected by the Editor of "Rays of
18mo Extra
Sunlight." With a Vignette and Frontispiece
cloth gilt. 2s. 6d. Cheaper Edition, 18mo. limp, Is
GLOBE EDITION S.
UNDER the title GLOBE EDITIONS, the Publishers are
issuing a uniform Series of Standard English Authors,
carefully edited, clearly and elegantly printed on toned
paper, strongly bound, and at a small cost. The names of
the Editors whom they have been fortunate enough to
secure constitute an indisputable guarantee as to the
character of the Series. The greatest care has been taken
to ensure accuracy of text; adequate notes, elucidating
historical, literary, and philological points, have been sup-
plied; and, to the older Authors, glossanes are appended.
The series is especially adapted to Students of our national
Literature, while the small price places good editions of
certain books, hitherto popularly inaccessible, within the
reach of all.
Shakespeare.—THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE Edited by W G. CLARK and W. ALDIS
WRIGHT. Ninety-first Thousand. Globe Svo.
3s. 6d.
“A marvel of beauty, cheapness, ana compactness. The whole works—
plays, poems, and sonnets—are contained in one small volume · yet the
page is perfectly clear and readable. For the busy man, above all
for the working Student, the Globe Edition is the best of all existing
Shakespeare books."—ATHENÆUM
•
38
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
Morte D'Arthur.-SIR THOMAS MALORY'S BOOK OF
KING ARTHUR AND OF HIS NOBLE KNIGHTS OF
THE ROUND TABLE The Edition of CAXTON, revised for
Modern Use With an Introduction by SIR EDWARD STRACHEY,
Bart. Globe Svo.
35 6d
Third Edition
It is with the most perfect confidence that we recommend this edition of
the old romance to every class of readers."-PALL MALL GAZEITE
Scott.-THE
SCOIT
Globe 8vo
POETICAL WORKS OF SIR
With Biographical Essay, by FT
by FT
WALTER
PALGRAVE
35. 6d
New Edition
"As a popular edition it leaves nothing to be desired
such an one has long been felt, combining real excellence with cheapness
SPECTATOR.
The want of
Burns. THE POETICAL WORKS AND LETTERS OF
ROBERT BURNS. Edited, with Life, by ALEXANDER SMITH.
Globe Svo 3s. 6d. Second Edition.
"The works of the bard have never been offered in such a complete form
na single volume"-GLASGOW DAILY HERALD.
Admirable in all respects"-SPECIATOR.
Robinson Crusoe.-THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON
CRUSOE By DEFOE Edited, from the Original Edition, by
J. W CLARK, MA, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
With Introduction by HENRY KINGSLEY Globe Svo
3s 6d
"The Globe Edition of Robinson Crusoe is a book to have and to keep.
It is printed after the original editions, with the quaint old spelling, and
is published in admirable style as regards type, paper, and binding A
well-written and genial biographical introduction, by Mr Henry Kingsley,
is likewise an attractive feature of this cdition."-MORNING STAR
GLOBE EDITIONS.
39
Goldsmith.-GOLDSMITH'S MISCELLANEOUS WORKS.
MASSON.
With Biographical Essay by Professor Masson. Globe Svo.
3s 6il.
This edition includes the whole of Goldsmith's Miscellaneous Works-
the Vicar of Wakefield, Plays, Poems, &c Of the memoir the SCOTSMAN
newspaper writes. "Such an admirable compendium of the facts of
Goldsmith's life, and so careful and minute a delineation of the mixed
traits of his peculiar character, as to be a very model of a literary
biography"
Globe
Pope.-THE POETICAL WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE.
Edited, with Memon and Notes, by Professor WARD
Svo. 3s Gd
"The book is handsome and handy
The notes are many, and
the matter of them is rich in interest ”—ATHENÆUM.
Spenser.
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF EDMUND
SPENSER. Edited from the Original Editions and Manuscripts,
by R MORRIS, Member of the Council of the Philological Society.
With a Memoir by J W HALES, M A, late Fellow of Christ's
College, Cambridge, Member of the Council of the Philological
Society. Globe 8vo
3s 6d.
"A complete and clearly printed edition of the whole works of Spenser,
carefully collated with the originals, with copious glossary, worthy—and
The work is
higher praise it needs not—of the beautiful Globe Series
edited with all the care so noble a poct deserves "-DAILY NEWS.
Y
дов
Other Standard Works are in the Piess
** The Volumes of this Series may also be had in a variety of morocco
and calf bindings at very moderate Puces.
GOLDEN TREASURY SERIES.
Uniformly printed in 18mo, with Vignette Titles by SIR
HOLMAN HUNT, J. E.
Engraved on Steel by
NOEL PATON, T. WOOLNER, W.
MILLAIS, ARTHUR HUGHES, &c.
JEENS. Bound in extra cloth, 4s. 6d. each volume. Also
kept in morocco.
"Messrs. Macmillan have, in their Golden Treasury Series especially,
provided editions of standard works, volumes of selected poetry, and
original compositions, which entitle this series to be called classical.
Nothing can be better than the literary execution, nothing more elegant
than the material workmanship."-BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW.
THE GOLDEN TREASURY OF THE BEST SONGS AND
LYRICAL POEMS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
Selected and arranged, with Notes, by FRANCIS TURNER
PALGRAVE.
"This delightful little volume, the Golden Treasury, which contains
many of the best original lyrical pieces and songs in our language, grouped
anth care and skill, so as to illustrate each other like the pictures 111 a
well-arranged gallery.”—QUARTERLY Review.
THE CHILDREN'S GARLAND FROM THE BEST POETS.
Selected and arranged by COVENTRY PATMORE.
"It includes specimens of all the great masters in the art of poetry,
selected with the matured judgment of a man concentrated on obtaining
insight into the feelings and tastes of childhood, and desirous to awaken its
finest impulses, to cultivate its keenest sensibilities."-MORNING POST.
GOLDEN TREASURY SERIES.
41
•
THE BOOK OF PRAISE. From the Best English Hymn Writers
Selected and arranged by SIR ROUNDELL Palmer. A New and
Enlarged Edition.
•
"All previous compilations of this kind must undeniably for the present
give place to the Book of Praise.. The selection has been made
throughout with sound judgment and critical taste The pains involved
in this compilation must have been immense, embracing, as it does, every
writer of note in this special province of English literature, and ranging
over the most widely divergent tracts of religious thought."-SATURDAY
REVIEW
THE FAIRY BOOK; the Best Popular Fairy Stories. Selected and
rendered anew by the Author of "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN."
"A delightful selection, in a delightful external form, full of the
physical splendour and vast opulence of proper fairy tales."—Spectator
THE BALLAD BOOK. A Selection of the Choicest British Ballads.
Edited by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM
"His taste as a judge of old poetry will be found, by all acquainted with
the various readings of old English ballads, true enough to justify his
undertaking so critical a task."-SATURDAY REVIEW.
THE JEST BOOK. The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings. Selected
and arranged by MARK LEMON.
"The fullest and best jest book that has yet appeared”—SATURDAY
REVIEW.
BACON'S ESSAYS AND COLOURS OF GOOD AND EVIL.
With Notes and Glossanal Index. By W. ALDIS WRIGHT, M A
"The beautiful little edition of Bacon's Essays, now before us, does
credit to the taste and scholarship of Mr. Aldis Wright It puts the
reader in possession of all the essential literary facts and chronology
necessary for reading the Essays in connexion with Bacon's life and
times"-SPECTATOR
tr
•
By far the most complete as well as the most elegant edition we
possess."-WESTMINSTER REVIEW.
D
42
GENERAL CATALOGUE.
THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS from this World to that which is to
come. By JOHN BUNYAN.
"A beautiful and scholarly reprint "-SPECTator.
THE SUNDAY BOOK OF POETRY FOR THE YOUNG
Selected and arranged by C. F. ALEXANDER,
A beautiful and scholarly reprint "—SPECTATOR.
A BOOK OF GOLDEN DEEDS of all Times and all Countries.
Gathered and narrated anew. By the Author of "THE HEIR OF
REDCLYFFE."
"... To the young, for whom it is especially intended, as a most interesting
ollection of thrilling tales well told; and to their elders, as a useful hand-
book of reference, and a pleasant one to take up when their wish is to while
away a weary half-hour. We have seen no prettier gift-book for a long
time.”—ATHENÆUM.
THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BURNS. Edited, with
Biographical Memoir, Notes, and Glossary, by ALEXANDER
SMITH. Two Vols.
Beyoud all question this is the most beautiful edition of Burns
yet out."-EDINBURGH DAILY REVIEW.
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE Edited from
the Original Edition by J W. CLARK, M.A., Fellow of Trinity
College, Cambridge.
“Mutilated and modified editions of this English classic are so much
the rule, that a cheap and pretty copy of it, rigidly exact to the original,
will be a prize to many book-buyers -EXAMINER.
THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO
""
TRANSLATED into ENGLISH, with
Notes by J Ll. DAVIES, M A. and D. J VAUGHAN, M. A.
"A dainty and cheap little edition."-EXAMINER.
GOLDEN TREASURY SERIES.
43
THE SONG BOOK. Words and Tunes from the best Poets and
Musicians. Selected and arranged by JOHN HULLAH, Professor
of Vocal Music in King's College, London.
"A choice collection of the sterling songs of England, Scotland, and
Ireland, with the music of each prefixed to the words. How much true
wholesome pleasuse, such a book can diffuse, and will diffuse, we trust,
through many thousand families."—EXAMINER.
LA LYRE FRANCAISE Selected and arranged, with Notes, by
GUSTAVE MASSON, French Master in Harrow School.
A selection of the best French songs and lyrical pieces.
TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS. By an OLD BOY.
"A perfect gem of a book. The best and most healthy book about boys
for boys that ever was written."-ILLUSTRATED TIMES
A BOOK OF WORTHIES. Gathered from the Old Histones and
written anew by the Author of "THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE."
With Vignette.
"An admirable edition to an admirable series
WESTMINSTER REVIEW
LONDON
R CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
EREAD STREET HILL
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OCT 21
DEC1 2 1974
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APR D 3 1975
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