Dec. 3. 1885] 



NATURE 



109 



singly), are nevertheless far more formidable in regard to the 

 gross extent of the fatalities attending them, than are coal-mine 

 explosions. 



When the late Mr. MacDonald, M.P. for Stafford, made his 

 remarkable speech in the House of Commons, in 1878, advocat- 

 ing the necessity for the more rigorous inspection of coal mines, 

 and supported his arguments with the enumeration of an appal- 

 ling list of disastrous colliery explosions, it was pointed out by 

 Mr. Thomas Burt, and other members, that explosions did not 

 constitute the chief element of danger which the miner had to 

 encounter, and that, while out of 25,000 lives which had been 

 lost in mines since J851, over 6,000 deaths had been caused by 

 explosions, there were more than io,ooodue to falls of stone and 

 coal in the mine workings, which attracted little or no public 

 attention. Mr. Cowen also pointed out that there was a still 

 larger number of injuries, due to such causes as these, which were 

 never heard of beyond the locality of the disasters, because they 

 were not attended with fatal results at the time, although in the 

 larger proportion of such cases the sufferers were either maimed 

 for life, or died after more or less brief intervals. The Table below, 

 which has been compiled from the annual reports of the Mine 



Inspectors for the past ten years, shows the total number of deaths 

 annually due to accidents in mines, and the deaths due 

 respectively to explosions, to the falls of roof or sides in mine 

 workings, and to other miscellaneous causes ; and it will be 

 seen that even in those years when especially disastrous explosions 

 had occured, the fatalities due to explosions were, with the 

 exception of two years, considerably in the minority, compared 

 with deaths from falls of roof and sides, while — comparing them 

 with the deaths due to all other causes — the latter were invariably 

 much in excess. It is not surprising, however, that the paralys- 

 ing moral effect exercised upon small mining communities, and 

 the heartrending local misery and suffering which suddenly and 

 simultaneously fall upon many families, should cause coal-mine 

 explosions to command special sympathy, and to call forth 

 public expressions of regret and surprise that the resources of 

 science and of legislative power should have failed utterly to 

 prevent, or [even very greatly diminish, such sad disasters, 

 while, on the other hand, the daily occurrence of fatal accidents in 

 the ordinary pursuit of the miner's vocation, attracts little public 

 attention. It has been contended that the classes of constantly 

 recurring accidents, which combine to cause a far more formidable 



Statement of Proportion, at Column II., of Deaths from Explosions in Coal Mines, from Falls of Roof and 

 Sides, and from other Miscellaneous Causes, to Total Deaths in Mines from all Causes during the 

 Years 1875-1884I 



' The facts embodied in the above Table have been long accessible to all who care to inform themselves correctly, by reference to 

 the published annual reports of H. M. Mine Inspectors ; it is, therefore, somewhat surprising to find that the Manchester Corre- 

 spondent of the Ti/m-r, to whose views that journal appears to attach much weight, and whose evident acquaintance with high 

 authorities in matters relating to coal mines, such as Mr. Ellis Lever, should have, at any rate, assisted him to a knowledge of the 

 existence of those reports, is ignorant of the truth rehating to a subject with which he deals in a fashion somewhat over-.authoritative 

 for the representative of " unenlightened earnestness," which is "impatient " to learn the reason for "hesitation " on the part of a 

 Royal Commission on mine accidents in promulgating its conclusions, is "incredulous of the difficulty of speaking out," and indig- 

 nantly regards "the delay as a national scandal. " In support of this somewhat strong expression of sentiment, "unenlightened 

 earnestness " inquires whether it has " really needed so long to dispel any doubt that shot-firing, for instance, is the commonest 

 cause of the loss of life in coal mines." 



