Longevity : race or environment / by H. Jossé Johnson, M.B. (Lond.) medical officer, Gresham Life Assurance Society.

  • Johnson, H. Jossé
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Longevity : race or environment / by H. Jossé Johnson, M.B. (Lond.) medical officer, Gresham Life Assurance Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that their mortality is high, looking at the lack of hygienic principles in the conditions under which they live. The only thing in their favour is that they live a great deal in the open air, more so than the northern people. In conclusion, I must express my obligations to Dr. Johnson for his kind mention of my name in the paper and for giving us such an admirable contribution, because he has carried out what I hoped would come when I read my paper. I hoped it would evoke some information on this great subject, and Dr. Johnson’s paper is a very good instalment. I look forward to further contributions on the same subject, so that we may gain in time a body of valuable information of great assistance to us when dealing with the lives of other than British citizens. Dr. Kingston Fox: The subject of this valuable paper is new to our Transactions. It covers a wide range, and the material has been collected, I am sure, with much labour. I hope it will be followed in the future by further work in fuller illustration of the matters contained in it. In offering criticism on some points, I would plead in the first instance for a fuller description of some of the statistical tables, making it clear whether both sexes are in¬ cluded, and quoting authorities for the returns given. I do not know whether Mr. Smee’s table, compiled when he was at the Gresham office, refers to assured lives only. [Dr. Johnson dis¬ sented.] I cannot follow the author’s view on the subject of diet. He thinks that what each country has found to work best in practice is the most expedient. That implies an unlimited choice, but as a matter of fact we known that climatic and other conditions govern the range of diet available. I may illustrate this by extreme cases. The dwellers on the ice-bound coasts of Labrador or on some ocean island, have little choice. It is necessity rather than choice which fixes their diet for them, and so in a lesser degree in other cases. Hence food may play an important part in that environment which determines the comparative mortality of different nations. Then the author laid stress on vital elasticity as a cause or con-