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15
there is a general loss of about four years in the
lifetime of every man in the City; but the different
classes show remarkable variations in this respect.
The merchant and shopkeeper, for instance, dies at
the mean age of 57; the clerk at 54; the tailor,
shoemaker, labourer, carpenter, and porter, at from
51 to 52; the cabman, ostler, and carman, at 50;
the costermonger and hawker at 49; and the
printer at 45. In every instance the wives in these
classes have a much longer duration of life than
their husbands, for it commonly reaches to about
56 years ; and, therefore, we may conclude that the
circumstances which shorten existence in the City
are not so much in the homes of the people as in
their occupations and habits. It is true, that in
forming an estimate of the duration of life from the
mean age at death, considerable allowance must be
made for the fact that in many occupations the
young and active are almost alone employed, and
although the occupations may be healthy, the
deaths in them furnish a contrary indication;
and so again there are trades, which, from the lightness
of labour, engage an undue proportion of the
sick and ailing. These, also, would give us untruthful
indications. But with every consideration for
this, there can be no doubt that there are large
differences in the value of life among the different
classes of this City, and that in no class is the mean
duration of life as great as it should be.