It has been computed that nearly two years’ sickness is experienced by every person before he is 70 years old, and therefore that 10 days per annum is the average sickness of human life.  Till 40 it is but half, and after 50 it rapidly increases.  The mixed and fanciful diet of man is considered the cause of numerous diseases from which animals are exempt.  Many diseases have abated with changes of diet, and others are virulent in particular countries, arising from peculiarities.

Human Longevity.—­Of 100,000 male and female children, in the first month they are reduced to 90,396, or nearly a tenth.  In the second, to 87,936.  In the third, to 86,175.  In the fourth, to 84,720.  In the fifth, to 83,571.  In the sixth, to 82,526, and at the end of the first year to 77,528, the deaths being 2 to 9.  The next four years reduce the 77,528 to 62,448, indicating 37,552 deaths before the completion of the fifth year.

At 25 years the 100,000 are half, or 49,995; at 52, one-third.  At 58-1/2, a fourth, or 25,000; at 67, a fifth; at 76, a tenth; at 81, a twentieth, or 5,000; and ten attain 100.  Children die in large proportions because their diseases cannot be explained, and because the organs are not habituated to the functions of life.  The mean of life varies in different countries from 40 to 45.  A generation from father to son is about 30 years; of men in general five-sixths die before 70, and fifteen-sixteenths before 80.  After 80 it is rather endurance than enjoyment.  The nerves are blunted, the senses fail, the muscles are rigid, the softer tubes become hard, the memory fails, the brain ossifies, the affections are buried, and hope ceases.  The remaining one-sixteenth die at 80; except a one-thirty-third, at 90.  The remainder die from inability to live, at or before 100.

About the age of 36 the lean man usually becomes fatter and the fat man leaner.  Again, between the years of 43 and 50 his appetite fails, his complexion fades, and his tongue is apt to be furred on the least exertion of body or mind.  At this period his muscles become flabby, his joints weak; his spirits droop, and his sleep is imperfect and unrefreshing.  After suffering under these complaints a year, or perhaps two, he starts afresh with renewed vigor, and goes on to 61 or 62, when a similar change takes place, but with aggravated symptoms.  When these grand periods have been successively passed, the gravity of incumbent years is more strongly marked, and he begins to boast of his age.

In Russia, much more than in any other country, instances of longevity are numerous, if true.  In the report of the Holy Synod, in 1827, during the year 1825, and only among the Greek religion, 848 men had reached upward of 100 years of age; 32 had passed their 120th year, 4 from 130 to 135.  Out of 606,818 men who died in 1826, 2,765 were above 90; 1,432 above 95, and 848 above 100 years of age.  Among this last number 88 were above 115; 24 more than 120; 7 above 125, and one 130.  Riley asserts that Arabs in the Desert live 200 years.