THE QUESTION OF FATIGUE FROM THE ECONOMIC STANDPOINT. 259 



accidents as the day proceeds is likely to Be steeper than it is for all 

 types of accident taken together. The matter can be brought to the 

 proof. 



The Victim's Degree of Responsibility * 



An accident is by derivation an injury that was not premeditated. 

 A wound from a mortal enemy's bullet is not an accident, but a casualty 

 or murder, according to circumstance. It is only when injuries occur 

 in industry, where the main purpose is the making of goods, or in any 

 other peaceful pursuit, that they can be called accidents. 



Now, this terminology puts us on the track of the most essential 

 characteristic of an accident, the fact that it occurs owing to some 

 unusual circumstance. 



Confining ourselves purely to injuries occurring to human beings, it 

 is obvious that such injury * is due to some contact of the human body 

 with itself or with a material object, whether solid, fluid, or gas. 



The unusual cii-cumstance to which an accident is due must, there- 

 fore, occur, either in the movements (or position) of the human body, or 

 in the movements (or position) of some material object, at the time the 

 accident occurred. Where a man injui'es himself by falling, or places 

 his hand between two cogwheels, or bruises himself against a door-post, 

 it is his body that is behaving unusually; floor, cogv/heels, and post 

 are just persisting as usual. Where a load drops on a man, or a tool 

 breaks in his hand, or an explosion blows him up, it is the material, 

 not he, that is acting unusually ; or, where a man in the course of his 

 work steps on a plank with a nail in it which enters his foot, it is 

 the material that lay, presumably, in an unusual position. 



This analysis of the causes of an industi-ial accident is undertaken 

 in order to disclose the human element, the degree of responsibility of 

 the injured man at the time; to say that some object acted unusually 

 is, therefore, insufficient. The question must be raised as to what force, 

 human or natural, caused the unusual action. In shell factories the 

 most frequent cause of accidents is the dropping of a shell on to one's 

 own foot; here it was the object that made an unusual movement, 

 but the man who was the motive force. On the other hand, the action 

 of a material object may be due to a fellow workman, or (though the 

 distinction is irrelevant to the injured man's responsibility) where shells 

 fall off a table, or sparks fly out of a wheel, action may be caused by 

 purely natural and mechanical causes. 



Where it was the body of the injured man that made an unusual 

 movement, or was in an unusual position at the time, rather than any 

 material object, this may have been caused by something unusual in 

 the external circumstances beyond the man's control. A man may have 

 fallen down a hole because the floor was more slippery than he was 

 accustomed to find it, or he may have tripped up over an object not 

 usually placed in that position; or, again, he may have taken a 



' Based upon research undert^iken by Mr. P. S. Florence under a grant from 

 the Medical Research Committee (National Health Insurance). 



* Injury is not taken to cover cases of poisoning, strain, sprain, or fainting. 



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