280 Mr W. Fraser cyti tfie History and Ccntstitution of 



offered for the most valuable returns. In the course of two 

 years, returns were received from upwards of seventy societies, 

 situated in sixteen different counties, embracing periods of 3, 10, 

 20,30, 40, and even 50 years, and comprising upwards of 100,000 

 members. The great mass of information thus obtained was 

 carefully digested and arranged by the committee, with the as- 

 sistance of several other gentlemen who took an interest in the 

 subject, but more particularly with the aid of Mr John Lyon, 

 late house-governor of Watson's Hospital, and now one of the 

 Masters of the High School, Leith ; of the late Mr James Skir- 

 ving of the Stamp-Office ; and of Patrick Cockburn, Esq. ac- 

 countant in Edinburgh *. 



In these returns, the number of free-members (i. e. those en- 

 titled to benefit) during each year, were classed, according to 

 their ages, in decades or periods of ten years ; and the number 

 of weeks'* sickness experienced by each class was arranged in 

 the same manner. The average rate or law of sickness was 

 thence deduced, by allotting to each individual an equal share 

 of the sickness occurring in his class. Thus, supposing the 

 members between 20 and 30 years of age in any society to have 

 amounted to 104, and the sickness experienced by the whole of 

 that class, during one year, to have been 52 weeks, then this 

 was equal to half a week for each, and consequently the same, 

 with regard to the payments, as if one member had been per- 

 manently sick, and received benefit for that length of time. The 

 sickness of the other four classes, or till 70 years of age, was 

 calculated in the same way ; but above that age, and below 20, 

 die number of members was too limited for being the basis of 

 any calculation that could be relied on. The following table of 

 results will exhibit more clearly the mode adopted in classing the 

 number of members and weeks of sickness, as well as the exten- 

 ^ve data from which the law of sickness has been deduced. 



cieties as may still wish to review their own experience, and they will be seen 

 at pp. 260-262 of the published Report of the Committee of the Highland 

 Society on Friendly Societies. 



• To Mr James Cleghorn, accountant in Edinburgh, Friendly Societies 

 are also much indebted, not only by the attention which, as Editor of the 6th 

 volume of the Highland Society's Transactions, he paid to the Committee's 

 Report while in the press, but likewise by the ready and able assistance he 

 has since given in establishing several societies upon proper principles. See 

 ^Iso his excellent article on the subject in Farmer's Magazine, vol. xxv. p. 389; 



