longevity. I shall try to show
a working community in which death,--if I may apply so common and
expressive a phrase on so solemn a subject,--is kept as nearly as
possible in its proper or natural place in the scheme of life.

HEALTH AND CIVILISATION.

Before I proceed to this task, it is right I should ask of the past
what hope there is of any such advancement of human progress. For, as
my Lord of Verulam quaintly teaches, 'the past ever deserves that men
should stand upon it for awhile to see which way they should go, but
when they have made up their minds they should hesitate no longer, but
proceed with cheerfulness,' For a moment, then, we will stand on the
past.

From this vantage-ground we gather the fact, that onward with the
simple progress of true civilisation the value of life has increased.
Ere yet the words 'Sanitary Science' had been written; ere yet
the heralds of that science (some of whom, in the persons of our
illustrious colleagues, Edwin Chadwick and William Fair, are with us
in this place at this moment), ere yet these heralds had summoned the
world to answer for its profligacy of life, the health and strength of
mankind was undergoing improvement. One or two striking facts must
be sufficient in the brief space at my disposal to demonstrate this
truth. In England, from 1790 to 1810, Heberden calculated that the
general mortality diminished one-fourth. In France, during the same
period, the same favourable returns were made. The deaths in France,
Berard calculated, were 1 in 30 in the year 1780, and during the eight
years, from 1817 to 1828, 1 in 40, or a fourth less. In 1780, out of
100 new-born infants, in France, 50 died in the two first years; in
the later period, extending from the time of the census that was taken
in 1817 to 1827, only 38 of the same age died, an augmentation of
infant life equal to 25 per cent. In 1780 as many as 55 per cent. died
before reaching the age of ten years; in the later period 43, or about
a fifth less. In 1780 only 21 persons per cent. attained the age of 50
years; in the later period 32, or eleven more, reached that term. In
1780 but 15 persons per cent, arrived at 60 years; in the later period
24 arrived at that age.

Side by side with these facts of the statist we detect other facts
which show that in the progress of civilisation the actual organic
strength and build of the man and woman increases. As in the highest
developments of the fine arts the sc