} 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 175 
The special combination considered in the paper, however, was the third, as 
showing the low rate of mortality among iron- and coal-miners, in comparison 
with the same of tin, lead, and copper. This was accounted for principally by 
the very inferior ventilation in the latter three classes of mines, the temperature in 
one copper-mine mentioned being as high as 125° F. (51°-6 C.), whilst, at the same 
time, this great heat engendered the absorption of deleterious matter into the 
system, as regarded lead- and copper-miners, and without doubt greatly increases 
the noxious effects of their occupation. A table was also given showing the 
mortality of the different classes of miners for the forty years of life intervening 
between twenty-five and sixty-five years of age, from which it appeared that, 
whilst the same among iron- and coal-miners was at the rate of 13 and 14 deaths 
per 1000 living, among lead- and copper-miners it was as high as 20 and 24 
er 1000. 
: Of occupations in general, all those connected with agriculture were shown to 
be by far the healthiest, these occupations, being those of labourers in rural 
districts, hushandmen, gardeners, and farmers; and their position as regarded 
health was in the order they are respectively placed. Sawyers, millers, shoe- 
makers, weavers, labourers in towns and cities, and bricklayers were, in the order 
given, above the average in health, whilst shipwrights, servants, blacksmiths, 
carpenters and joiners, and whitesmiths were in the same degree below it. 
Butchers, and others engaged in connexion with animal food, such as fishmongers, 
poulterers, and provisicn-curers, were given as experiencing a very high mortality, 
influenced, most probably, by the inhalation of an air always more or less im- 
pregnated with animal matter, whilst at the same time the partaking of an undue 
amount of animal food would, no doubt, have a very deleterious effect. Chronic 
bronchitis, engendered by the large quantities of dust always pervading the occu- 
pation of stonemasons and those engaged in the earthenware manufacture, renders 
their calling very unhealthy, so that the mortality in these classes ishigh. In the 
factory occupations, independently of the diseases produced by special branches, 
the influence of bad ventilation is more or less prominent throughout. In no 
other class of persons, however, was the mortality shown to be so high as among 
those connected with drinks and stimulants, which class, it may be specified, 
comprised beersellers, wine and spirit merchants, publicans and licensed vic- 
tuallers, and inn-keepers and hotel-keepers. In these occupations the effect was 
most marked at the younger ages, namely, twenty-five to forty-five; -for in 
these only does the mortality at this period of life attain as high a rate as 17 per 
1000 living’; as, notwithstanding all the unhealthy and injurious influences to 
which those engaged in mining, the earthenware manufacture, and several of the 
most obnoxious factory occupations are exposed, in none is the mortality for this 
period of life above 14 per 1000, whereas in England and Wales generally it 
would be but 10 per 1000, and among labourers in rural districts and gardeners as 
low as at the rate of 6 per 1000 living. 
In conclusion it was stated, as affording perhaps the best exemplification of the 
great influence of occupation upon health, that, if the mortality for the period of 
life under observation, namely, twenty-five to sixty-five, was compared with those 
two of the standard tables at present in use which may be supposed to represent 
the two extremes of longevity, the mortality would be confined between the two 
rates of 15 and 16-7 per 1000 living; yet, great as is the effect of occupation, the 
mortality in one class is over 188 per cent, more than that in another. 
On the relation between Learning and Teaching. By Josnpn Paynr. 
On the Extension of the Contagious Diseases Act. 
By Hoeyry J. Ker Porter, Esq., M.R.T_A. 
The author's object was to prove the value of the Institution, and to bring 
before those who may hear or read this paper the importance of establishing Lock 
