67 
There were certain fixed rules in nature, and sickness and death 
have absolute rules laid down for them, and a person cannot die 
except as a result of certain laws ; he cannot be ill unless a 
certain formula be gone through. Nature is always the same: 
she shows no freaks, nor is she subject to any caprice. 
Competition is an important factor in the production of 
sickness. The race for influence and position is responsible 
for a large proportion of insanity, and the savings of thrift are 
sometimes spent in confining the provident victim and paying 
those who prevent him from doing himself bodily harm. 
Competition, too, leads to sweating, which, in its turn, induces 
drunkenness with all its concomitant evils. Glancing at ‘death 
rate” relating to occupations, it was noted that the four best 
lives were clergymen, gardeners, farmers, and agricultural 
labourers. 
These live nearly twice as long as the average, whereas a 
London labourer only half. Plumbers, cutlers, and chimney- 
sweeps have a higher mortality. It is an undoubted fact that if 
one enters a certain occupation, one’s chance of living is not so 
great as if one entered another kind. Yet these occupations 
must be followed, somebody must be a martyr. We cannot all 
be gardeners or farmers, but something should be done to render 
the dangerous occupations safe. Match-makers suffered from a 
form of phosphorous poisoning inducing necrosis of the jaw ; this 
was enquired into and remedied. Plumbers aud painters are 
liable to lead colic, but it has been shown to be due to swallowing 
the lead, by getting a little, say under the finger-nails and so on 
to their food, hence they have to carefully wash their hands or 
always use a knife and fork, and be careful not to allow their 
fingers in their mouths. 
Workers in woollen in Yorkshire are liable to a malignant 
form of disease acquired from the wool. 
Earthenware manufacturers have a high rate of mortality, as 
also have Cornwall miners. 
Ordinary coal miners have a good death rate. Whether it is 
owing to only strong men being selected for the work, or whether 
it is due to a certain healthfulness of the occupation, I am 
unprepared to say. 
Printers have a high rate of mortality, chiefly from consump- 
tion ; two printers die of consumption to one of all occupations 
taken together. 
A large number of people are annually destroyed by what are 
called zymotic diseases, infectious disorders such as measles, 
scarlatina, typhoid, and smallpox. Epidemics of these diseases 
spring up from time to time, and thence there comes a run on 
