The first-born is significantly handicapped, as Karl Pearson[57] has shown, and more subject to tuberculosis, insanity, and criminality. But out of 71 centenarians analysed by Sir George Humphry 17, or 24 per cent, were firstlings, and 24 per cent of 824 persons between 80 and 100 were first-born. It must be remembered that first-born are more numerous than any others, and some of the above were only children. The most frequent position in the family among these 895 old people analysed by Sir George Humphry was the third.
The influences included under the head of environment are numerous, and this factor cannot be entirely separated from that of heredity, for environment may favour and shape hereditary characteristics. The subject of the harmony and the want of harmony existing between man and his surroundings is so vast that it is possible to touch on a few only of these aspects.
The average length of life varies in different countries; a temperate or moderately cold climate is conducive to a slower development of maturity and so to a longer life than tropical regions. The Balkans, Greece, Scandinavia, the Pyrenees, California, and small islands are considered favourable to longevity. A high elevation has been regarded as an important factor, and the great age of the monks of Mount Athos has been thus explained, though other influences, such as simplicity of life, may well play a part. Switzerland, however, does not conform to the view that a high elevation confers long life on its inhabitants. From observations around Dijon Noirot[58] drew up a scale showing that the elevation above the sea and length of life rose together. National habits have a bearing, and this may help to explain the longevity of the Jews, who follow the Mosaic laws of health, and why the French appear to be more long-lived than the Germans. The long-continued persecution and hard life that the Jews have undergone has led to the survival of the fittest and a hereditary factor. The former simplicity of the Russian peasants would also provide a reason for their reputed longevity (one centenarian in every thousand). In Ireland, though much depleted by migration of young adults, the absolute number of centenarians is very high; in 1888 there were 208 such deaths, or 43 per million living; in the ten years 1911–20 inclusive there were 1030 centenarian deaths, or about 23 per million living; and the Registrar-General, Sir William J. Thompson, kindly informs me that in 1921 there were 314 centenarians living in a population of 4,496,000, or about 70 per million of the population. It seems probable that this is the outcome of a simple life. In England and Wales the number of centenarians is both relatively and absolutely less; in 1887 there were said to be about 2 and the 1911 census returns showed 3·6 living centenarians per million of the population; the return of the 1921 census is not yet available. In the ten completed years 1910–19 there were 691 centenarian deaths, or an average of 69 annually among a population averaging about 35 millions--about two per million living. In California there are, according to Laurent,[59] 300 centenarians in a population of three millions, or 100 per million, the extremely favourable climatic conditions accounting for this high ratio. In the same country there is a difference, much to the advantage of the rural inhabitants, between the prospect of longevity in the towns and in the sparsely populated districts. From their open-air life agricultural labourers provide the largest percentage of long lives.