Benefit or Friendly Societies. S95 



land was obtained by taking the means of 101,510^ weeks oi* ac- 

 tual sichness^ which had been experienced among 1 00,81 7 society 

 members, at all ages, variously employed, and situated both in 

 the country and in towns. That rate, again, according to Mr 

 Finlaison, is verified by the sickness occurring among the arti- 

 ficers under 50 years of age, employed in his Majesty's Dt)ck- 

 yards, their average sickness being .75920 parts of a week, while 

 that obtained by the Highland Society is .75639. This coinci- 

 dence, however, is rather remarkable, and it will probably be 

 found, lipon farther investigation, that the average rate of sick- 

 ness of the artificers in the Dock-yards is considerably above 

 that of the working classes in general ; for, besides the epide- 

 mic diseases and extremely noxious employments to which those 

 in the Dock-yards are well known to be exposed, " it is calcu- 

 lated, that, upon an average, between three and four thousand 

 men annually wound or otherwise injure themselves in following 

 their mechanical occupations in the Dock-yard, to such an ex- 

 tent as to oblige them to apply for chirurgical assistance ; and 

 that of the aggregate number, about four hundred, or about 

 the proportion of one to nine or ten, are for a time incapaci- 

 tated from pursuing their labours. During the last six months 

 of the year 1824, viz. from the 24th of June to the 31st of De- 

 cember, upwards of 250 of these mechanics were laid up from 

 their duty, in consequence of various hurts, more or less severe, 

 but none of them presenting any thing peculiar in their character 

 or circumstances *."" 



From all those facts, then, and with the utmost deference for 

 the opinion of the Committee of the House of Commons, we 

 must be allowed to conclude, that the high rate of sickness as- 

 sumed by the two societies in Nottinghamshire and Hampshire 

 is not warranted by the experience of the working classes in 

 general, — that the Law of Sickness deduced by the Committee 

 of the Highland Society is the most satisfactorily authenticated 

 of any yet published, — and therefore, that, until a better stand- 

 ard be obtained, the tables given in the Report of that body 



• See observations on Dr Butter's " Remarks on Irritative Fever, com- 

 monly called the Plymouth Dock-yard Disease," in the Edinburgh Journal 

 of Medical Science, vol, i. p. 361. 



