TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS, 209 



tain cif about 50 than under one of an earlier or more advanced age. Tlie entire 

 premium to cover increased risk of master mariners is from 80s. to 40«. per cent, per 

 annum ; that is to saj', if a clergj'man or barrister can obtain insurance on his life 

 for £100 at a premium of £4, the premium required to insure a master mariner of 

 tlie same age woidd be from £5 10s. to £6. This is the ratio all roimd, but captains 

 of Cunard's and other first-rate lines -would of course be insured for less. 



As to railway accidents the facts were not brought up to the latest dates. But 

 it comes out very clearly that the lisk to railway officials actually employed on the 

 line is excessive. Nearly all railway accidents are remediable, and the chance of 

 disaster coidd be still vastly reduced by a universal adoption of the block and 

 interlocking system-, the use of perfect brakes, and other improvements long ago 

 suggested. 



The mortality from accidents generally is a very important and interesting de- 

 partment of vital statistics. The number of accidents occurring in England and 

 Wales is reproduced from year to year with extraordinary regidarity, indicating the 

 operation of a fixed law. Excessive di\ision of labour has a tendency to increase 

 accidents by the introduction of new machinery, at first often imperfectly under- 

 stood. The introduction of rinks and bicycles has led to a wholly new class of 

 accidents requiring special medical treatment. 



Insurance offices charge the same premiums against an m:forseen casualty from 

 the ages 15 to GO. But from -\ery recent data wholly reliable it was very clearly 

 shown in the paper that the mortality from accidents increases gi'eatly at the 

 more advanced ages, and that consequently some difference shoidd be made in the 

 premiums applicable to those ages. It is not that there are a greater number of 

 accidents at tliose ages, but that there is less power of rallying from the effects of 

 an accident. 



The paper concludes with specimen policies of the different companies, sliowuig 

 the ri-ik covered and the general conditions of the accident insurance contract. 



On tJie Boarding-out of Pauper Children in England. By Wm. Tfliack. 



The author said that the system had been adopted for five years in England, but 

 in consequence of want of information, and an unfounded confusion in tlie public 

 mind of the system with the obnoxious and wholesale farming out of children with 

 which so many evils and cruelties were associated, it had not made the progress 

 which miglit have been anticipated. He wannly advocated the system, more espe- 

 cially for girls. In contrasting it with the workhouse plan, he drew a vivid picture 

 of tlie evils attending the association of children with adult paupers who were 

 often vicious, and with other children, many of whom had been swept from the 

 streets. In the system of district schools he recognized a great improvement, but 

 he did not think it was equal, especially in the case of girls, to a system of boarding 

 them out singly in carefidly supervised cottage homes. But the district school 

 system was also objectionable on the score of cost. A sort of institution mania had 

 taken possession of many minds. It seemed to be assumed that both adidts and 

 children shoidd be gathered in masses and lodged in palatial abodes at the public 

 expense ; and parents were tempted, he believed, to suffer their children to go into 

 these places wliere they could get an excellent education witli all the advantages 

 of a co.«tly middle-class school at the public expense. The Scotcli people, with 

 proverbial natural .shrewdness, had perceived and warded off this danger which 

 was burdening England. Poor persons in Scotland were not tempted to throw 

 their children on the rates by providing them with these palatial edifices. Whereas 

 many such children in England cost from £20 to £30 per annum, the offspring of 

 destitute Scotch poor were as well or better cared for as a body for £10 each, being 

 trained imder careful supervision in healthy and well-selected houses amongst the 

 labouring classes, where they were never subject to the influence of the workhouse, 

 but were gradually and naturally introduced mto the wholesome conditions of 

 family and industrial life. This wise .system of supervised boarding-out was being 

 gradually adopted in England, and it was to be hoped that in a few years it might 

 become the general ride at any rate for pauper girls, There were altogether 573 



