The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Saturdays. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1898. OCCUPATION AND LONGEVITY.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXI, Issue 3715, 19 February 1898, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Saturdays. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1898. OCCUPATION AND LONGEVITY.

Dr Tatham, British Superintendent o£ Statistics, has lately made an analysis into the influence of occupation upon the mortality of males. The period under examination was the three years 1890, 1891, and 1892, and the range of age was from 25 to 65. The period taken permitted of full statistics being ascertained ; and the age limit was also carefully selected, so as to exclude as far as could be done factors in mortality that were not due to occupation. It would be tedious to pursue in detail the subject of Dr Tatham’s investigations, and all that is necessary is to take a few of his results ; which we can do with confidence because they represent a very elaborate inquiry, and because they agree in the main with the results or like studies undertaken by Dr Tatham’s predecessors and other statisticians. And although these figures apply to conditions very different from those in the colonies, they still possess interest here as indicating tendencies that already exist among us or are likely to arise with the increase of population. Our statistics are fairly full in regard to ages and causes of mortality, but beyond a few rough-and ready conclusions we are not in possession of much information about the effect which various employments have upon the longevity of men.

A marked difference wns found to exist in the ratio of death among employed and unemployed men of all ages. Other things being equal, the busy man lives longer than the idle one, and it is probably a sound generalisation that the active man not only lives longer, but enjoys his life more than the unoccupied man. But of course in a statistical statement this has to be qualified. The unoccupied classes, in Dr Tatham’s analysis include prisoners, lunatics, hospital patients and others whoso mortality in any case would be higher than that of almost any other classes, even those engaged in what are regarded as dangerous occupations. The most healthy class in the community, judged by its long life, is the clerical. Taking all clergy into account, Church of England, Roman Catholic, and others, and taking the general mortality among occupied males at 1000, the mortality among clergy is only 533, little more than half the normal deathrate. Now it is proved by (amongst other evidence) two tables in MupHall’s Dictionary that the averngo mortality among Roman Catholic priests in England is much higher than that of other English clergy—a fact which is in keeping with the general observation that celibacy is unfavorable to long life. .So that, makingallowances for this reduction of the average, it will probably be found that the clergymen have far and away the beßt chance of life. In their ranks we are constantly meeting instances of not only Jong life, but of activity of mind and body continued to a very great age. The causes are not far to seek. They are partly moral, in the self-control and temperance which the individual conscience as well as public opinion requires from a clergyman; they partly depend on the absence of what has been named the struggle

fur life. Among professional men tbs lawyers come next with a mortality of 821 as compared with 1000, the assumed normal rate of the occupied males. In connection with this class, however, we get one section whose death-rate is very great. Among law clerks the rate is 1070 ; the cause assigned is intemperance. Id the professions the doctors are worse off that*, other men ; their rate is 966. In every class of disease and cause of death, save only these three—phthisis, diseases of the respiratory system, and accident—they furnish more victims than other professional ranks. Especially are they prone to suicide. It would be thought that men most carefully and for several years together trained to take care of the health and the lives of others would themselves gain the benefit, but iu the cases under consideration it does not seem to have been so. A doctor’s life, especially if he practices in a poor and thickly populated district, is subject to perpetual demands. No other professional man is such a slave to his calling. Add to this that he is occasionally in the midst of an epidemic of small pox or typhoid or influenza, and that bis whole work lies among disease and physical collapse, aud the predisposing causes to break down, beyond his own control, are sufficiently apparent. One striking thing in these English returns is the satisfactory state of railway people. That is an occupation which nine out of ten men would select as distinctly unfavorable to longevity. We argue from the accidents so frequently heard of, and from the known risks of the calling. But the evidence in England ie that for drivers and stokers the rate of mortality is 810, and for guards, porters, and pointsmen 825, actually less than that of lawyers, and much less than that of doctors. In the class of drivers and stokers the mortality from drink is but 2 per cent, the same as in the case of clergymen; among other railway employees the rate is only 5 per cent. These are facts that favorably reflect the sobriety of a class upon which in a high degree the safety of millions of travellers constantly depends. As would be expected, the people engaged in agriculture show a low mortality. It is argued that in their case open air living counteracts the effect of cold and wet. Perhaps they owe this excellent result to that weeding-out process which is continually Bending from the fields and farms into towns to enlist or to take up town callings men who could not withstand the exposure, long hours, hard work and living of the agriculturist. Passing by the admittedly dangerous trades, which are a painful blot upon the industrial energy of the nation, there are two classes of men that pay a heavy price for their employment. These are publicans’ servants, publicans, and butchers. It is easy to found sweeping generalisations; but after allowing for the long hours in an unhealthy atmosphere, for an inactive, sluggish occupation, and other unfavorable conditions of the hotelkeeper’s business, it must be apparent that this trade takes a deadly revenge upon all connected with it.