Persons who live upon annuities in Europe have been observed to be longer lived, in equal circumstances, than other people. This is probably occasioned by their being exempted, by the certainty of their subsistence, from those fears of want which so frequently distract the minds, and thereby weaken the bodies of old people. Life-rents have been supposed to have the same influence in prolonging life. Perhaps the _desire of life_, in order to enjoy for as long a time as possible, that property which cannot be enjoyed a second time by a child or relation, may be another cause of the longevity of persons who live upon certain incomes. It is a fact, that the desire of life is a very powerful stimulus in prolonging it, especially when that desire is supported by hope. This is obvious to physicians every day. Despair of recovery, is the beginning of death in all diseases. But obvious and reasonable as the effects of equanimity of temper are upon human life, there are some exceptions in favour of passionate men and women having attained to a great age. The morbid stimulus of anger, in these cases, was probably obviated by less degrees, or less active exercises of the understanding, or by the defect or weakness of some of the other stimuli which keep up the motions of life. 5. _Matrimony._ In the course of my inquiries I met with only one person beyond eighty years of age who had never been married. I met with several women who had borne from ten to twenty children, and suckled them all. I met with one woman, a native of Herefordshire, in England, who was in the 100th year of her age, who had borne a child at 60, menstruated till 80, and frequently suckled two of her children (though born in succession to each other) at the same time. She had passed the greatest part of her life over a washing-tub. 6. _Emigration._ I have observed many instances of Europeans who have arrived in America in the decline of life, who have acquired fresh vigour from the impression of our climate, and of new objects upon their bodies and minds; and whose lives, in consequence thereof, appeared to have been prolonged for many years. This influence of climate upon longevity is not confined to the United States. Of 100 European Spaniards, who emigrate to South-America in early life, 18 live to be above 50, whereas but 8 or 9 native Spaniards, and but 7 Indians of the same number, exceed the 50th year of human life. 7. I have not found _sedentary employments_ to prevent long life, where they are not accompanied by intemperance in eating or drinking. This observation is not confined to literary men, nor to women only, in whom longevity, without much exercise of body, has been frequently observed. I met with one instance of a weaver; a second of a silver-smith; and a third of a shoe-maker, among the number of old people, whose histories have suggested these observations.