ctive phase of metabolism.

We should expect the death-rate of men to run high during the period
of manhood, in consequence of their greater exposure to peril,
hardship, and the storm and stress of life. But two tendencies operate
to reduce the comparative mortality of men between the twentieth and
about the fortieth year: the fact of the severe male mortality in
infancy, which has removed the constitutionally weak contingent,
and the fact that during this period women are subject to death in
connection with childbirth. So that in the prime of life the mortality
of males does not markedly exceed that of females. But the statistics
of longevity show that with the approach of old age the number of
women of a given age surviving is in excess of the men, and that their
relative tenacity of life increases with increasing years. Ornstein
has shown, from the official statistics of Greece from 1878 to 1883,
that in every period of five years between the ages of 85 and 110
years and upward a larger number of women survive than of men, and in
the following proportion:

------------------------------------
Years | Men | Women
--------------------+-------+-------
85-90 | 1,296 | 1,347
90-95 | 700 | 820
95-100 | 305 | 370
100-105 | 116 | 168
105-110 | 52 | 69
110 and over | 20 | 34
------------------------------------

Of the 459 centenarians 188 were men and 271 were women.[88] In
Bavaria the women aged from 51 to 55 years alive in 1874 had lived in
the aggregate more than seven million years, while the men of the same
age had lived not so much as six and one-half million.[89] Turquan[90]
gives a table showing the death-rate of centenarians in all France
during a period of twenty years (1866-85). From this it appears that
there died in these years an annual average of 73 centenarians, of
whom 27 were men and 46 women. In only one year of the twenty did the
deaths of men exceed those of women. Lombroso and Ferrero have shown
that between 1870 and 1879 the inhabitants of the prisons and convict
establishments in Italy who were over 60 years of age showed a
percentage of 4.3 among the women, and 3.2 among the men, although the
number of men condemned to prison for long periods is far greater than
among women.

Women are not only longer-lived than men, but have greater
powers of resistance to misfortune and d