166 Influence of Occupation upon Health. 
labour, with exposure to the weather—such as agricultural 
and other outdoor labourers—a class in which he has 353,103 
cases; 2. Those who have heavy labour without exposure to 
the weather—such as smiths, sawyers, coopers, plumbers— 
a class numbering 94,259 ; 3. Those who have light labour, 
with exposure to the weather—such as shepherds, drovers, 
drivers, pedlars, messengers, custom-house officers—in num- 
ber 58,809 ; 4. Those who have light labour without exposure 
to the weather—such as clerks, shopmen, barbers, factory 
operatives, servants—in number 286,909. He found that 
persons engaged in heavy labour, with and without expo- 
sure to the weather, have respectively 28°04 and 26-54 per 
cent. of their number sick in the year; persons engaged in 
light labour 20°80 and 21-58. In round numbers, taking a 
census of working-men disabled by illness, for every three 
whose work is light or moderate there are four of the class 
whose lot is heavy labour. The duration of sickness to 
each person sick is, however, upon an average, only 38 days 
and 40°73 in the two classes engaged in heavy labour, and 
41 days and 44:25 in the two classes engaged in light labour. 
The mortality is heaviest among the persons classed as en- 
gaged in light labour; and indoor work shews itself less 
favourable to longevity than outdoor. But the main differ- 
ence in the distribution of sickness seems to turn upon the 
expenditure of physical force. 
« This is no new thing,” says Mr Finlaison, “for in all 
ages the enervation and decrepitude of the bodily frame has 
been observed to follow a prodigal waste of the mental or 
corporeal energies ; but it has been nowhere previously esta- 
blished upon recorded experience, that the guantum of sick- 
ness annually fallen to the lot of man is in direct proportion 
to the demands on his muscular power. So it would seem to 
be, however. Therefore, whatever scientific invention of 
machinery to save the expenditure of bodily strength may be 
devised, its production should be hailed as one of the greatest 
of blessings to the sons of toil, and not ignorantly contemned 
by the very class whom in reality it ultimately benefits. A 
study of the following digest leads to the conclusion, that 
the inventor of any engine which spares the physical ener- 
