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would be disposed to conclude from somewhat diisipated habits out of working hours.
The per centage of deaths from apoplexy, paralysis, ; and probably similar causes are in operation, as the death-rate from heart
disease is not correspondingly high.
9. Watch and Clockmakers exhibit a seven years' death-rate of 834 per 10,000,
equal to 119 per annum. Their expectation of life is 28 years. Their largest
mortality is from paralysis, next from apoplexy and other diseases of the nervous
system. Theie diseases together account for 22 5 per cent, of the deaths. Evidently
this is not due to any peculiar tendency to heart disease (6'4 per cent.) Judging
from their small number of deaths from kidney and liver disease, it does not seem to
be connected with intemperate habits in this class of persons. The only other disease
which carries off any considerable number is phthisis, from which nearly one-fourth of
them die. No less than 19 3 per cent, of the deaths were from cerebral or spinal
paralysis and disease of the brain (putting apoplexy out of the question). The cause
of both the»e fatal diseases is probably the same, namely, the action of copper. The
inhalation of copper dust is, with their sedantry habits, probably the principal cause
of their liability to phthisis—a relation pointed out a few years ago by M. Perron in
the case of the watchmakers of Besangon, while the accidental, but probably habitual,
slow ingestion of copper, from the fine dust getting upon the food from the atmosphere
or from the workmen's hands, seems to account for the corresponding tendency to
fatal paralytic diseases. The latter, at all events, could be guarded against by habitual
ablution before meals and by not taking them in the same room where work is
goirfg on.
10. Plasterers show a seven years' death-rate of 829 per 10,000, or 118 per annum.
Their expectation of life at 20, so far as our limited experience goes, is 29 years.
Their principal mortality was from phthisis (25'9 per cent.) and paralysis, with disease
of the brain and epilepsy, altogether 25 9 per cent. The latter is due apparently to
some other causes than those which operate in producing heart disease. Some light
seems thrown upon the cause in finding 7'4 per cent, of deaths from gout and dropsy.
I do not know enough of the special habits of this class of persons to speculate further
upon the subject.
11. Butchers have, with us, a seven years' death-rate of 793 per 10,000, or 117 per
annum. This is low ; for the death-rate of butchers in all England for 1851 was 213.
The more favourable position in which our butchers stand is probably due to the more
wholesome circumstances in which they live and work. Their expectation of life at
20 years is however short, being only 25 years. The largest proportion die between
40 and 60. As causes cf high mortality among butchers, the Registrar-General suggests
a diet into which too much animal food and too little fruit and vegetables enter, drinking
to excess, exposure to heat and cold, and, as probably the most powerful cause, the
elements of decaying matter by which butchers are surrounded in the slaughterhouse
and its vicinity. I think other causes might be suggested, as the damp and wet to
which they are constantly exposed out of doors and in the slaughter houses, the
fatigues they have to encounter, and the heavy weights they have often to raise and
carry. The mortality from phthisis forms 44'6 per cent, of all the deaths; and the
mortality from kidney and liver diseases is sufficiently high to lead to the suspicion of