LONGER LIVING

Evening Star, Issue 19025, 21 August 1925, Page 2

LONGER LIVING

NEW ZEALAND’S RECORD. Living long and living well are not necessarily the same, declares Louis A. Hansen in ‘ Life and Health ’ (Wash-ingt-on, D.C.), but he goes on to say that disease prevention does more than lengthen life by decreasing _ the death rate. “It increases the usefulness and enjoyment of lifo. It enlarges our possibilities, adds to our accomplishment, and makes for progress in every way. It greatly adds to the happiness of life itself, and makes life worth living.” If this estimate be accepted, we may well applaud the triumph of preventive medicine that vital statistics record. Here are certain details as Mr Hansen presents them:In 1800 the average length of life was thirty-three years, in 1855 it was forty years, and in 1920 it was fiftyeight years. Eighteen years have been added to the average duration of life since 1855. From 1910 to 1920 the increase in the life span was four years. It is generally considered that the larger part of the world’s bunions is borne by men above forty years of ago. Thus in 1800 the average man died seven years before he reached the ago of his greatest usefulness. In 1920 the average man lived eighteen years beyond this age. If we take the age of twenty-one as the time that men reach their productive period, we can see that m 1800 tho average man had but twelve years of productive lifo ahead of him, while in 1920 ho had thirty-seven years of splendid usefulness before him. These figures are for the United States. Five or six countries are ahead of the United States in the expectancy of life. New Zealand has an expectancy of sixty years. In 1910 Australia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Holland were from one to six years in advance of this country in their average of life expectancy. India stood lowest, with an average life expectancy of about twenty-two and a-haff years. In 1911 a death rate of 17 per 1,000 was generally accepted as normal. Deaths above this rate were considered abnormal or unnatural. In 1923 the rate was reduced to 1 12.3 per 1,000 for the registration area of the United States, and for 1924 the estimated rate is still lower, 11.6 per 1,000. Thus in a decade have standards ; had to change, showing a possibility in I life saving that is very remarkable.