NATIONAL HEALTH AND WORK. 



655 



" off work " on account of sickness, receives money from his society. 

 Hence Mr. Sutton can estimate, and this he has been so good as to do 

 for me, the average number of days' sickness and consequent loss of 

 work among several hundred thousands of the workmen and others 

 who are members of these societies. From the entire mass of these 

 returns, he deduces that the average number of days' sickness, per 

 member per annum, is very nearly one and a half week ; and this 

 agrees, generally, with the estimates made in other societies by Mr. 

 Neison and others. But the averages thus obtained include the cases 

 of members of all ages, and among them many cases of chronic sick- 

 ness and inability to work during old age. In order, therefore, to get 

 a better idea of the actual annual loss of work through sickness, he 

 has calculated the average annual number of days' sickness of each 

 person during what may be deemed the normal working-time of life ; 

 that is, between fifteen and sixty-five years of age. This he has done 

 among the members of the large group of friendly societies known as 

 the Manchester Unity of Odd-Fellows ; and then, on the fair assump- 

 tion that the rates of sickness of the whole population during the 

 working years of life would not be far different, he has calculated the 

 following tables, showing the average annual rates of sickness of each 

 person enumerated in the census of 1881, as living between the ages of 

 fifteen and sixty-five : 



Briefly, it appears from these tables that the average time of sick- 

 ness among males during the working years is 1*314 weeks — that is, a 

 small fraction more than nine days in each year — and that among 

 females it is a small fraction more. The result is, that among males 



