DANGEROUS AVOCATIONS.

Evening Post, Volume XVIII, Issue 5, 5 July 1879, Page 1 (Supplement)

DANGEROUS AVOCATIONS.

A. furious calculation of the proportion of dean hy accident in some of the most dangerous avoeati'DS is given in the recently do.ivered iaaugura 1 address of the Prcsi lent of the Northern ln«t tute of Mining Engineers From a mass of official report* the number ot •'ea'lis in mines, in the merchant f-ervice, in the Royal navy, and un rai way a is quoted; and a deduct on i- rinwn ihat tha Titio of d> aths per 10 JO persons employed" is less in coal mining than in the navy by drowning, a- d is about one-half only of the deaths in the railway fcrvic. The numbor of persons employed in tbes ¦ service-" in given a* urr'pr — Id mire*, 514,532; >'n the Hoya' navy, 45 010; in ih3 m n»h*nt s"rvie, 198,638; and on railways, 270,000; but lithe latter case the numbers are tor five y -srs ago. ihe deaths in the la»t jear ft r which tbe fi^uras are procurab'e are stated in the aidr-8* 'e'erred to as — d aths in and at nines by accident. 933; in tha i oyal navy by drowning:, only 58; iv iho merchant servre by drowning, ouly 2270; and tn railways, 1000 A<'di g the number of death* by atvidpntß o:her than drowning in th= navy, tin dfducri n U drawu »hat at th« mines the loss of life was 1 to 551 psr-on, employed; n the merchant service it wa< by drowuinsr a'one 1 to every 87 503 per<nns employed ; in the Royal navy, 1 to every 312 p. r«ODs enulcneri; and on railways it is « »raputed as 1 death to every 270 persons cmpl y«J These figures, which were support id by* e'aborate hed apparently t ustworthy data, go to show certainly that tho danger involved in mining wo k ia the United Kingdom has been much orer-estimated.