90th and 100th years, is greater in Penwith than in all Cornwall and in all England.
In this respect, then, it is, indeed, true, that there is greater longevity in the Landsend District than elsewhere; but the general character of the district, as exhibited in these Tables, is directly the reverse of this, the inhabitants, taken as a body, dying at much earlier periods of life than in the remainder of the county of Cornwall, or at Carlisle, or even in the whole of England taken collectively.
It remains to be inquired whether the statement now made can be justly applied to the whole population of this district, or whether it has especial reference to certain classes of the people only, who are subject to peculiar influences having a tendency to shorten life.
It was stated in a former part of this memoir, that the inhabitants might be classed, according to their occupations, as agricultural labourers, fishermen, handicrafts men, or townspeople and miners, and that this last class bore a very large proportion to the others. The details formerly given of the habits and occupations of this class of persons, will prepare any one accustomed to hygienic inquiries, to expect that they should suffer greatly in their health and have their lives shortened, in consequence of their mode of living. If it should appear, on inquiry, that the abbreviation of life, from this cause, is very considerable, it may alone account for the results obtained by the last series of tables, and still leave the longevity of the inhabitants, when undisturbed by artificial influences, such as is claimed for them by their native topographers. That this is the state
