HOW TO LIVE LONG.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 13729, 20 October 1908, Page 3

HOW TO LIVE LONG.

DKATHS AMONG DOCTORS. If you would enjoy a long life vol should become a mincer (of any religion denomination), or failing that, a gardener, a gamekeeper, a farmer, or a railway en gine driver. These, according to Dr John Tatham's report to the Kegistrar-Ueneral on the mortality in certain occupations durng the three years from 1900, -which was issued recently, are the callings which offer the best prospect of longevity. At the other end of the scale come the general labourer, the tin miner, the hawker, and the hotel servant, and about midway are the physic:an. the undertaker, and the tobacconist. As compared with lawyers, Dr Tatham records, medical men die more rapidly at • very stage of life, whilst, as compared with the clergy, the mortality it- enormously in exwss. Tuberculosis, phthisis, and diseases of the resp'ratory organs are the only causes of death that are substantially less fatal to medical men than to males in the aggregate. Diseases of the nervous and circulatory systems contribute the largest share to the mortality of men, due, no doubt, to their anxious and arduous occupation. A sign of the times is g : ven in the particulars relating to commercial travellers. They fall victims to alcoholism in greater proportion than to all occupied and retired males by 38 per cent., whilst the'r mortality from liver disease is more than 'double that standard. But the mortality irvm alcoholism, gout, liver disease, accident, and suicide was considerably less iu the last per.od than in 1880-82. In the previous supplement it was remarked that there was no other occupation in which the ravages of cancer approached that among chimney sweeps. It is still noteworthy that although the mortality from that disease has fallen by nearly onefourth part, chimney sweeps are still subject to the highest fatality from tlrs disease, although among several other occupations, such as servants in London, brewers, forrieis, general labourers, and seamen, the mortality does not fall far thort of that of chimney sweeps. It is a subject which, as Dr Tatham points out, deserves further at ten t ion. For the first time in thece- returns the question of the mortality among women workers is dealt with exhaustively; though it is a matter full of difficulty. For instance, the case of a domestic servant, the daughter of a bricklayer who has returned home permanently invalided, is given. She is thenceforward regarded as unoccupied, and in the event of death, will be registered as a bricklayer's daughter, no mention being made of her previous occupation. / In the case of a married woman this cause would appear to operate even more strongly, the deceased woman being described simply as a wife or widow, with mention of her husband's occupation, butwithout mention of her own. It is rather curious that a ctors, authors, and journalists have no place in these tables, even in the index. Even numerically they must be almost as important as, say, costermongers, wig makers, and chimney sweep*, who are all included.