ness, influence the life of sailors adversely. He also refers to a number of misleading occupation death rates, because no correction is made for the difference in age distribution in widely different employments. As a result "the published rates do great injustice to employments, entirely healthy, while giving favorable position to employments the health conditions of which are quite the opposite. This point is readily illustrated, if comparison is made of the mortality of farmers and printers, the former of which according to the Census, experienced a mortality ‘at all ages' of 17.6 per 1,000, against a death rate of 12.1 per 1,000 for printers. Hence, apparently, printers enjoy a much lower mortality than farmers. Of course the opposite is the case. The inaccuracy of the rates is the result of radical differences in the age distribution of the two employments, there being 11.5% of farmers at ages 65 and over, while among printers there are only 1.5% living at this age period. * * * When proper comparison is made the mortality in farmers is considerably below that of printers at all periods of life."

Mr. Hoffman's suggestions for improving vital statistics are worthy of careful consideration. The present Chief Statistician of the Division of Vital Statistics, Dr. Wilbur, is a trained physician, a keen student of social, sanitary and industrial questions, and perfectly familiar with the literature and the results achieved by more accurate and scientific methods of the treatment of the subject elsewhere. We may, therefore, confidently expect more definite data concerning the relative danger incident to various occupations.

MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY OF WAGE-EARNERS.

The statistics of the morbidity and mortality of various occupations, while far from satisfactory, and subject to more or less erroneous conclusions, nevertheless indicate that persons habitually engaged in hard work are more frequently subject to disease and present a higher mortality than persons more favorably situated; and this is especially true of factory employees, because their work is generally more monotonous, fatiguing, performed under less favorable surroundings, and they are too often also badly nourished and badly housed.

Rohe, in his "Text Book on Hygiene," presents a table of a large number of persons in the State of Massachusetts whose occupations were specified, the total number of decedents was 144,954; the average age at death was 50.90. From this tabulation it appears, that farmers and gardeners have the greatest expectation of life, with an average of 65.29 years:

Among the occupations usually classed as inimical to health are
bleachers, bookbinders, brass founders, compositors, coppersmiths,
electrotypers, stonecutters, gas-works employees, white-lead workers,
match workers, persons employed in the manufacture of explosives,
firemen, potters, file makers, and rubber-factory operatives.

The following table from the reports of the Twelfth Census shows
the death rates per 1,000 for leading causes and for all causes in
certain occupations in 1900:

DEATH RATE PER 1,000 EMPLOYEES IN CERTAIN OCCUPATIONS IN REGISTRA-
TION STATES IN 1900, BY PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF DEATH.

The following table from the report of the registrar-general of

England and Wales shows the comparative mortality of occupations

in England and Wales 1890-1892. The average mortality of all males of the population between 25 and 65 years of age was placed at 1,000. The mortality of occupied males was 953 and of the unoccupied 2,215. The comparative mortality of the different groups was as follows:

A reasonable explanation for the excessive mortality in some of the occupations will be found in subsequent pages; the high rates in brewers, innkeepers, and hotel servants are believed to be due to the effects of alcohol.

According to Rauchberg' the average number per 1,000 members of the "Vienna Sick Benefit Society" taken sick during a period of 17 years was 423 per annum distributed as follows:

Industrial diseases and industrial accidents are everywhere assuming more and more importance and our knowledge should be based upon accurate data. In countries like England, where reports of certain occupations are compulsory, it is quite possible to secure, for example, reliable data as to the number of cases of lead poisoning. The same may be said of the facilities afforded by the statistics of the "German Industrial Insurance Institutes," which furnish not only the number of deaths, but also the number of cases treated, together

Die allg. Arbeiter-Kranken und Invalidencasse in Wien, 1886.

with the age period and the duration of the disease. Similar facts should be collected in this country. This is all the more important when it is remembered that even with the most complete statistics, it is extremely difficult to determine all the factors which influence the health and longevity of operatives. Great differences are found in the conditions under which the work is performed, some of which are entirely avoidable, while others are not, and it is hardly fair to characterize certain trades as dangerous, when experience has shown that no harm results when proper safeguards have been taken. In the consideration of this question the personal element of the workmen, their habits, mode of life, food, home environments, etc., can not be ignored. There are a number of occupations in which the alcohol habit prevails to an unusual extent, perhaps because of the character of the work, perhaps as a result of association, and it would not be fair to attribute the ill health of the operatives altogether to the character of the employment. Again, many persons are engaged in occupations for which they are not physically fitted, while others ruin their health by vice, dissipation, improper food, and insanitary environments at home. In addition to all this there are factors, such as water and soil pollution, for which neither the industry nor the individuals are primarily to blame. Thus, for example, the general anæmia of the agricultural classes in Porto Rico was attributed a few years ago to their occupation and starvation, when as a matter of fact it was caused by the "hook-worm disease." Recent investigations conducted by Doctor Stiles appear to indicate that the same disease prevails to some extent among the textile operatives in the South. All this indicates the need of a thorough study of the conditions affecting health in various occupations, not only to determine the relative health risks and the causes of the undue prevalence of certain diseases in certain occupations, but also to formulate rules which may remove the causes or render the system better fitted to resist them. In this, as in all preventive efforts, a hearty co-operation of the parties interested is absolutely essential for the attainment of the highest measure of success. In this instance the responsibility rests with the State, the employer, and employees; each have certain duties to perform, and the help of all is essential for the mitigation of existing evils.

INDOOR OCCUPATIONS.

Indoor employment, broadly speaking, is inimical to health, while outdoor work in a pure air favors health and longevity. Without underrating the influence of insanitary dwellings, improper and

insufficient food, lack of recreation, and other factors, there is no doubt that one of the chief dangers of indoor life is exposure to vitiated air. The air of dwellings and workshops is never as pure as the outer air, because it is polluted by the products of respiration, combustion, and decomposition, and the presence of individuals also tends to vitiate the air with dust, germs, and organic matter from the skin, mouth, lungs, and soiled clothing. Unless proper provision is made for the dispersion of foul air and the introduction of pure air there is much reason for assuming that these impurities play a more or less important role in what has been designated as "crowd poisoning," characterized in the acute form by symptoms of oppression, headache, dizziness, and faintness, while the chronic effects of deficient oxygenation and purification of the blood are plainly evinced by the pallor, loss of appetite, anæmia, and gradual loss of physical and mental vigor. All of these effects are intensified when human or animal beings are obliged to occupy rooms with an air supply insufficient for the proper oxygenation of the blood, and as a result of this habitual exposure to vitiated air, we note an undue prevalence of consumption in crowded workshops, dwellings, prisons, public institutions, and formerly also in military barracks and battle ships. Even live stock shows the baneful effects of insufficient air space for tuberculosis among the range cattle of the far west, which are practically without shelter, is comparatively rare, while it affects from 15 to 25 per cent. of dairy herds, which are housed, but without sufficient regard to light and air. Improved ventilation and increased air space has everywhere lessened the death rate, and it is chiefly by just such measures that the rate from consumption has been reduced from 11.9 to 1.2 per 1,000 in the British armies. As a matter of fact, an abundance of pure air has been found the most important factor in the treatment of tuberculosis, because it promotes oxygenation of the blood, stimulates the appetite and nutrition, and thereby increases the general resisting power of the system.

OCCUPATIONS INVOLVING EXPOSURE TO IRRITATING

DUST.

It has long been known that dust-inhaling occupations predispose to diseases of the respiratory passages, which may result in consumption. The particles of mineral dust produce an irritation of the mucous membrane of the nose, throat, respiratory organs, and eyes, and the hard, sharp, and angular particles of iron and stone dust may cause actual abrasions. According to Arnold' the dust which is

Untersuchungen ueber Staubinhalation, etc., Leipzig, 1885.