Low Mortality Among Athletes

Dr. William G. Anderson, director of the gymnasium at Yale University, has concluded, after an exhaustive statistical investigation of the mortality among members of Yale teams and of the non-athlete graduates of the last fifty years, that the college athlete lives longer and is a sounder man in after life than the average graduate who has not gone in for athletics.

In his report, Dr. Anderson says that judging from the investigations it is reasonable to say that there is no undue strain put on the athletes while they are in training and their later history seems to show they were benefited rather than harmed. Comparison of mortality of specialized athletes with the average graduate who does not distinguish himself in athletics is decidedly in favor of the athlete. The table of deaths further shows that the percentage of mortalities as the result of consumption and heart disease is lower in the case of athletes. Whether or not this fact is due to his development as an athlete or to the original vitality of the man cannot at present be proven satisfactorily.