Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/161



The above series of Tables place, in a strong point of view, the great inferiority of the mining parishes in respect of longevity, when compared with the agricultural parishes and towns; and, consequently, the very deleterious influence exercised by the occupation of the miner over his health and life. There seems hardly any possible source of fallacy in the inferences afforded by these Tables, as they all concur in exhibiting the same or similar results, although drawn from different sources. I will direct the reader's attention to some of the most striking of the results afforded by the Tables, in proof of the influence of mining in shortening life.

I. It is shown by Table XV. that, in the year 1811, the proportion of deaths to the living inhabitants, was one-tenth greater in the mining parishes, than in the agricultural parishes and towns.

2. It results from Table XVII. that out of the same proportion of births, (10,000) there is a regular annual superiority of deaths in the mining district, over the agricultural, from birth to the 60th year, amounting, in the whole of that period, to 722, or one-fourteenth of the whole births. This increased mortality is greatest in the prime of life, between the 30th and 60th year, the total being 2170 in the mining, and 1752 in the agricultural parishes, that is, considerably above one-fifth more in the former. This result is the more striking, as it appears from Table XXI. that the numbers of persons living, between the 30th and 60th year, is considerably less in the mining than in the agricultural districts. It appears from Table XX. that there is a much greater mortality in the mining parishes, even in very early