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4
Dr. Ogle's figures with respect to comparative mortality in various occupations are given in the
supplement to the 45th annual report of the Registrar General. The calculations were made from
deaths registered during 1880-1-2 (prior that is to say to the passing of the Bakehouse Regulation
Act of 1883.) The comparative mortality figure is given for each occupation, the mortality among all
males being taken as 1,000 and reference made to it as a standard. One hundred different headings
are dealt with in all, and in 37 of these the comparative mortality figure exceeds, while in 62 it falls
short of 1,000.
The comparative mortality figure of the baker and confectioner stands at 958, and it may be
noted that while he compares unfavourably with the grocer and with the shop keepers as a whole he
compares favourably with the cheesemonger milk or butterman, the greengrocer and fruiterer, the
fishmonger and poulterer, and the butcher.
Dr. Ogle has moreover attempted to ascertain what is the comparative mortality in the several
industries from each separate disease or group of diseases, and with this intention has abstracted from
the registers a considerable sample of the causes of deaths in certain industries, and has divided out
the total mortality in the industry ascribed to the several causes in the proportions existing in the
sample.
In basing conclusions upon the results so obtained, it must not be forgotten that the total
number of deaths dealt with varies in the different occupations. The number of deaths of bakers and
confectioners so divided out is 629, and while this number is sufficiently large to base general conclusions
upon, it is sufficiently small to render it inadvisable to attach great importance to small
variations in the figures.

Dr. Ogle remarks with reference to bakers and confectioners, that the death rates" have not
altered materially since the previous record; they are still rather high though far short of those of
butchers." Again he says " There is some indication in the table of Mortality by Causes, Table L,
of abuse of alcoholic drinks by bakers ; for the mortality in this trade directly ascribed to alcohol is
high, and that ascribed to suicide very high, while the mortality from liver disease is also somewhat
above the average. In spite of the high temperature in which bakers work, and the inhalation of
flour dust that their craft entails, their mortality from phthisis and from diseases of the respiratory
organs hardly departs from the average for all males."
Dr. Ogle again returns to the subject of phthisis among bakers in dealing with the " Influence
of Dust " (page lix. of the report already quoted). He shows (Table O) that the bakers occupation,
though constrasting favourably in respect of phthisis and diseases of the respiratory organs with the
majority of dust-inhaling occupations, constrasts unfavourably with carpenters and coal miners. The
excess of deaths of bakers from phthisis over those of carpenters is very small, but from diseases
of the respiratory organs greater, and he observes that it may be doubted whether the higher mortality
of bakers as compared with carpenters from diseases of the respiratory organs is due to the flour dust
so much as to the heated atmosphere of the bakehouse.
Dr. Arlidge in the work already referred to disputes the accuracy of the assumption that
flour dust is innocuous, and says there is ample evidence of flour entering the pulmonary tissue and
setting up chest affections ; he admits, however, that the exposure of bakers to flour dust " is neither
considerable in extent nor long in duration."
I am indebted to Mr. S. N. Fox for the privilege of being permitted to see the advance sheets
of an interesting article on the statistics of operative bakers, which he has contributed to the Economic
Journal, and which will shortly appear.
Mr. Fox contends that two circumstances deserve to be taken into account in estimating
the value of Dr. Ogle's statistics of the mortality of bakers, the one that confectioners are
included with bakers, the other that master bakers are included with journeymen bakers;
the former of these is important because the hours and conditions of work of confectioners
are very different from those of bakers proper, the latter because the master bakers, except in East
London, do not as a rule share in the labour of the journeymen, and are not therefore exposed to
the same unhealthy conditions.
Mr. Fox has been able to use the records belonging to the Amalgamated Union of Operative
Bakers and Confectioners. Of this union only five per cent. are confectioners, and only working
bakers are admitted as benefit members. Mr. Fox extracted from these records the deaths which
occurred among the members of the society during the three years, July 1890, to July 1893, and
found that of 131 deaths occurring between 25 and 65 years of age, phthisis caused 32, and bronchitis
and pneumonia 48 deaths.
The number of members at this age is not shown, and the death rates from these causes cannot
therefore be given, but Mr. Fox points out that the deaths from phthisis constituted 24 per cent., and
those from bronchitis and pneumonia 36'6 per cent. of the total deaths.