328 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



fortuitous circumstance, there is doubtless a certain correlation 

 between the kind of employment followed and inborn quality. 

 As a result of the nature and diversity of industry, human beings 

 are forced into lines of activity which very materially shorten life 

 or cause a high percentage of accidental deaths. The differential 

 death rate associated with various occupations is therefore a 

 matter affecting the character of our racial inheritance. 



The racial effects of occupational mortality vary greatly from 

 industry to industry. In many cases the result is doubtless 

 dysgenic. Dangerous trades which draw workmen of skill and 

 capacity are racially bad. The high mortality among locomotive 

 firemen, iron workers, glass blowers, workers in porcelain, lead 

 and copper represents a loss of an inheritance of at least good 

 average quality. Occupations which draw and exterminate the 

 more incompetent types may on the other hand be regarded as a 

 racial benefit. 



Statistics on the average expectation of life of the followers of 

 different trades and professions cannot always be accepted as an 

 index of the relative healthfulness of the occupation in question. 

 Those pursuits which are entered upon relatively late in life, such 

 as the learned professions, tend to show an increased expectation 

 of life because cases of death before the professional career is 

 begun are not included. The average duration of life among 

 casual laborers is decreased by the occurrence of many deaths in 

 the ages below 20 years, but this would not be the case among 

 clergymen or physicians. An index of occupational mortality 

 which is better than the average age of death is afforded by the 

 mortality at various ages of life. 



The actual death rate among the followers of any occupation 

 is a result of two sets of factors: (i) Those concerned with the 

 occupation itself, and (2) those depending upon the kind of 

 human material the occupation selects. Of the first, the whole- 

 someness of the occupation itself is of prime importance. Many 

 trades cause a slow poisoning of those engaged in them. The 

 disastrous results that follow work in lead industries have already 

 been commented on. Phosphorus poisoning is not uncommon 



