To the Editor of the "Norrs-Cuina Darty News."
Sir,—In your issue of the 5th instant you comment "'in lighter vein" on the question of obesity. This, however, is of more than passing interest, being indeed li-torally a matter of life and death to most Of your readers. The records of life insurance companies furnish to-day the most authoritative statistics obtainable on al} those matters pertaining fo the duration of human life, and these have established beyond all' doubt a remarkable relationship between height, weight and longevity.
The latest, and most precise, information on this subject, based on probably the greatest number of lives ever under the observation of an individual company, is supplied by the Metropolitan Lite Insurance Ao. of New York in one of their Statistical Bulletins published this year, This report, based on an analysis of the records of that company, and which is in' agreement with the general experience of all other life insur-one companies, conveys positive information of such vita] interest to anyone who finds life so worth the living as to be worth preserve ing, that it should be accorded the widest publicity possible. It is for this reason that I crave the indulgence of your columns for a brief summary of that part of the report which has special reference to the subject of over-weight. Departures from average measurements at early adult ages possess a somewhat different' significance from those at middle age or past middle life, and a limited amount of overweight at such ages is, apparently, an advantage, as, for example, such persons have uniformly a lower death rate from
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.