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230 WILLIAMS' CASE.
bearing, (p) the expectation of life is greater in favour of females,
than of males, (q) There is, however, some reason to believe,
that although an unquestionable state of celibacy, as that of the
condition of nuns in a convent, has no effect in shortening female
life before fifty; yet that after that age the mortality among them
becomes more severe, (r) So that it must be regarded as an esta-
blished truth, and a general rule, that there is something in the
physical constitution of males more frail and delicate than in those
of females; or that, in general, there is a greater degree of tena-
city of life in females than in males, (s) And it must likewise be
borne in mind, that in fixing a general rule, or adjusting a table of
the duration of human life, so far as any judicial inquiry is con-
cerned, the object is not to lay down a rule which may be safely or
profitably followed by an insurance company, but to establish the
truth, which involves nothing more than a consideration of those
facts in relation to the actual continuance of human life in the
place where the specified life exists, so as to calculate from them
a proper average as to its reasonably expected duration.
It seems to be generally admitted, that marriages are not more
fruitful now than in past ages, and in stages of society having
much less of the comforts, or even of the necessaries of life, than
at present; that the poor bring forth more children than the rich,
but preserve fewer; (t) and yet that the population increases much
more rapidly in modern than in ancient times, (u) These facts
only shew, however, that the present is more friendly to human
life than the past state of society; and that the probability, as well
as the average duration, or mean term of life, as people advance
from a savage to a highly civilized state of society, have improved
with their improved habits and condition; which has certainly
been the case in England, and much more so in France since the
revolution in that country, (w) The duration of the lives of those
who come into existence, is not only very materially affected by
the greater abundance of the means of subsistence with the in-
crease and variety of comforts to be had, in a generally improved
state of society, but also by the climate and salubrity of the coun-
(p) 2 Price Obser. 408, 442.—(g) 1 Price Obser. 8, 89, 95, 129, 186, 233; 2
Price Obser. 43; Rees' Cyclo, v. Marriage and Mortality; 9 Westm. Rev. 397,
398; Seybert Stat. An. 44; 2 Southern Rev. l77.--(r) Finlaison's Rep. 8; 2 Price
Obser. 131.—{s) 2 Price Obser. 111, 230.—(t) 9 Westm. Rev. 413.-~(u) 2 Southern
Rev. 178; 9 Westm, Rev. 401,—(w) 1 Malth. Popu. 52, 385, 401, 418; 1 Price
Obser, 182,186; 9 Westm. Rev. 388, 395, 398, 399; 1 Southern Rev. 175.
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