1865.] 



Smith on the Health of Metal Miners. 



221 



affect the young, and we might collect evidence to this effect from 

 other countries. On this we cannot enter. 



The expense of such a low state of health may be more striking to 

 some persons than the enumeration of the years of life. 



By the following table we find the difficulty of insurance, which is 

 the more to be lamented, as the miners must be a provident people. 

 Dr. George Smith says that there are 800 houses in Camborne the 

 property of labouring men, nearly all miners. The following is part 

 of another table by Dr. Farr : — 





Single Premium which will Insure 100J., 

 or Life Insurance at 8 per cent. 



Annual Premium which will Insure 100Z., 

 or Life Insurance at 3 per cent. 



Ail!. 



Healthy 

 Districts, 

 Males. 



All 

 England, 



Males. 



Cornish 

 Miners. 



Healthy 

 Districts, 

 Males. 



All 

 England, 

 Males. 



Cornish 



Miners. 



20 

 30 



£ s. d. 



32 3 5 



37 11 7 



£ s. d. 

 35 14 11 



41 14 1 



£ s. d. 

 39 4 10 



36 14 5 



£ s. d. 



1 7 7 



1 15 1 



£ s. d. 



1 12 5 



2 18 



£ s. d. 



1 17 



2 11 



It is probable that the diagrams of Dr. Farr (see plate) will illus- 

 trate the subject more clearly than any of the tables. We see the 

 lifetime of healthy males in England in the first diagram ; in the 

 second there is a dark space with no lines ; in Cornwall that space 

 greatly increases, and in Merthyr Tydfil takes up a third of the ground. 

 Take also middle and old age— the space gradually diminishes. We 

 hope that some one will write on the social condition of those people. 

 We believe that in Cornwall there is found a class who have made 

 such advances as are very rare. 



The sum of the argument is, that Cornwall is an extremely healthy 

 coimty ; that the general population is very long-lived ; that the 

 miners are a very short-lived race ; that the social habits of the 

 miners are not such as can account for the great diminution of the 

 length of life, which is due consequently to the condition and work of 

 the miners. 



The Air of the Mines. — If the evidence against the ladders is great,* 

 that against the air is great also. In all inquiries there are men who 

 have particular favourites among the various views of a subject. They 

 desire that one side shall be the winner, and for no reason that they 

 can give. We think the cause is this : — they admire that which they 

 first learnt or understood, and especially if they thought of it them- 

 selves. It is the same as bigotry or superstition. We have a 

 curious instance of it in seeking the causes of disease in Cornwall. 

 Some persons would not understand what miners' consumption meant, 

 — would not acknowledge having heard of it. Others, and these are 

 many, do not believe in the existence of unwholesome air, and trace 

 everything to the ladders, forgetting that the miners' disease is cen- 



* See p. 63, No. 5 of this Journal. 



b2 



