Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/671

 "off work" on account of sickness, receives money from his society. Hence Mr. Sutton can estimate, and this he has been so good as to do for me, the average number of days' sickness and consequent loss of work among several hundred thousands of the workmen and others who are members of these societies. From the entire mass of these returns, he deduces that the average number of days' sickness, per member per annum, is very nearly one and a half week; and this agrees, generally, with the estimates made in other societies by Mr. Neison and others. But the averages thus obtained include the cases of members of all ages, and among them many cases of chronic sickness and inability to work during old age. In order, therefore, to get a better idea of the actual annual loss of work through sickness, he has calculated the average annual number of days' sickness of each person during what may be deemed the normal working-time of life; that is, between fifteen and sixty-five years of age. This he has done among the members of the large group of friendly societies known as the Manchester Unity of Odd-Fellows; and then, on the fair assumption that the rates of sickness of the whole population during the working years of life would not be far different, he has calculated the following tables, showing the average annual rates of sickness of each person enumerated in the census of 1881, as living between the ages of fifteen and sixty-five:

Briefly, it appears from these tables that the average time of sickness among males during the working years is 1·314 weeks—that is, a small fraction more than nine days in each year—and that among females it is a small fraction more. The result is, that among males