trated in the treatises referred to, and with reference to American conditions the subject has received some recent consideration in the exhibits of the Museum of Safety Devices of the American Institute of Social Service.

ACCIDENTS IN THE TEXTILE INDUSTRIES.

In the textile industries, as a group, the varieties of employment are so very considerable that the degree of accident liability naturally varies widely with the different branches. Most of the work is, of necessity, carried on indoors, under fairly identical conditions and with about the same class of machinery used for spinning and weaving. That the risk to minor injury is a very serious one is emphasized in a very elaborate report on the prevention of accidents from machinery in the manufacture of cotton, published as a British parliamentary document in 1899. As pointed out by Mr. Arthur Whitlegge, His Majesty's chief inspector of factories, "although the proportion of recorded accidents to the number of persons engaged in this trade is not high in comparison with other industries, the total is sufficiently formidable, and the result of the inquiry is to show that it is capable of much reduction." The report furnishes valuable information to manufacturers and machine makers, suggesting methods and means for the reduction of accidents by the proper guarding of all future installations of cotton-making machinery. According to the report referred to, there occurred during 1898 in British cotton factories 3,214 accidents, of which 35 were fatal. Of the total number of accidents, 2,316 were caused by machinery moved by power. According to the factory inspector's statistics of the State of New York for the five years ending with 1905, out of 3,140 accidents in textile industries, 36, or 1.1 per cent, were fatal. Of the total number of accidents 82.5 per cent caused temporary disablement and 16.2 per cent permanent disablement. The details of accident frequency and degree of injury in this industry are set forth in tabular form below:

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF ACCIDENTS IN TEXTILE INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK STATE, BY DEGREE OF INJURY, FOR THE PERIOD 1901 TO 1905. [Compiled from the annual reports of the New York Bureau of Factory Inspection, 1901 to 1905.]

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF ACCIDENTS IN TEXTILE INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK STATE, BY DEGREE OF INJURY, ETC.-Concluded.

There are no similar accident returns in detail for the principal textile centers of the United States. The only useful data are the mortality returns for the State of Rhode Island, but on account of the relatively low proportion of fatal accidents in this industry the mortality data are of less value than they would be otherwise. During the ten years ending with 1906 there occurred in Rhode Island 1,186 deaths of operatives in textile mills, of which 90, or 7.6 per cent, were accidental. The term "operatives" is a very general one and includes weavers and spinners, carders, etc. Among 26 deaths of carders, separately reported, there was 1 accident, or 3.8 per cent of the total mortality from all causes. Among dyers there occurred 79 deaths from all causes, of which 8, or 10.1 per cent, were accidental. According to this return, the fatal accident liability in the textile industry was somewhat greater than generally assumed. (a)

TEXTILE ACCIDENTS IN GREAT BRITAIN.

The corresponding reports of British factory inspectors contain much more interesting and useful information. During the five years ending with 1904, out of all accidents reported for textile industries 1.6 per cent were fatal, against 3.9 per cent for nontextile industries, including laundries, docks and wharves, warehouses, and building construction. Grouped according to the degree of injury, the reports for the four years ending with 1903 furnish the details of 18,828 accidents reported as having occurred in textile manufactories and of 98,728 accidents reported as having occurred in nontextile industries.

" An interesting statistical analysis of 1,000 accidents in a representative cotton mill is contained in the special report on dangerous occupations of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, Boston, 1907, pp. 29 et seq.

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF ACCIDENTS IN TEXTILE AND IN NONTEXTILE INDUSTRIES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, BY DEGREE OF INJURY, FOR THE PERIOD 1900 TO 1903.

[Compiled from the Annual Reports of the Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops of the United Kingdom, 1900 to 1903.]

The table is a very suggestive one, but for a further understanding of the conditions injurious to life and health in this industry a much more extended analysis of the data is required. It is particularly evident in the case of this industry that material differences in the methods of reporting nonfatal accidents must seriously impair the value of conclusions, and extreme caution, therefore, is necessary in the use of any statistical data, official or otherwise, upon this subject.

ACCIDENTS IN ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIES.

The electrical industries of the United States have made such extraordinary progress during recent years that central electric light and power stations alone in 1902 gave employment to 6,996 salaried officials and clerks and 23,330 wage-earners, all more or less exposed to the risk of accidental death and injury as the result of direct or alternating electrical currents. The accident risk varies naturally very considerably according to occupations, the most important of which are those of foremen, inspectors, engineers, firemen, dynamo and switchboard men, linemen, mechanics, and lamp trimmers. A large amount of useful information regarding central light and power stations has been published in the form of a special report by the Bureau of the Census in 1905. The accident statistics for the State of New York for the five years ending with 1905 return 1,923 recorded casualties, of which only 16, or 0.8 per cent, were fatal. Of the total number of accidents 82.3 per cent caused temporary disablement and 16.8 per cent permanent disablement. Details of the accident frequency and degree of injury in this industry are set forth in the following table.

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF ACCIDENTS IN ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK STATE, BY DEGREE OF INJURY, FOR THE PERIOD 1901 TO 1905. [Compiled from the annual reports of the New York Bureau of Factory Inspection, 1901 to 1905.]

ACCIDENT LIABILITY OF ELECTRICIANS AND LINEMEN.

These statistics, however, have only a very limited bearing upon the electrical industry as a whole, pertaining, as they probably do, chiefly to the manufacture of electrical machinery, apparatus, and supplies, rather than to exposure in electric light and power stations. In the manufacture of electrical machinery, etc., more than 60,000 wage-earners are employed, and in addition more than 10,000 salaried officials, clerks, etc., who, however, are much less seriously exposed to the danger of electrical accident than men in responsible positions in central light and power plants. The statistics also have no reference to the accident liability of men employed on electric railways. The Prudential Insurance Company of America, at the Jamestown Exposition, exhibited the results of its industrial mortality experience for the period of 1897 to 1906 for certain well-defined groups of persons employed in the electrical industry. According to this experience, out of 645 deaths of electricians, 95, or 14.7 per cent, were from accidents, but the proportionate mortality was highest at ages 25 to 34, when 19.1 per cent of the deaths from all causes were from accidents, decreasing to 15.4 per cent at ages 25 to 34, to 11 per cent at ages 35 to 44, and to 7.8 per cent at ages 45 to 54. Among electric linemen there occurred 240 deaths during the period mentioned, of which 112, or 46.7 per cent, were from accidents. At ages 15 to 24 the proportionate mortality from accidents was 55.3 per cent of the mortality from all causes, increasing to 56.8 per cent at ages 25 to 34, and decreasing to 38.2 per cent at ages 35 to 44, and to 30 per cent at ages 45 to 54. Somewhat similar are the results of the analysis of the

mortality data for Rhode Island for the ten years ending with 1906, during which period there were recorded in that State 35 deaths of electricians, of which 6, or 17.1 per cent, were from accidents, while there occurred 13 deaths among linemen, of which 9, or 69.2 per cent, were from accidents.

The details of the published insurance mortality experience with this class of labor are set forth in the following two tables, which show the number of deaths from all causes at each period of life and the number of deaths from accidents and the resulting percentage of accident frequency at each decennial group of ages or the proportionate accident mortality as determined by this method.

NUMBER OF DEATHS FROM ACCIDENTS COMPARED WITH NUMBER OF DEATHS FROM ALL CAUSES AMONG ELECTRICIANS, BY AGE GROUPS, FOR THE PERIOD 1897 TO 1906.

[From mortality experience of an industrial insurance company.]

NUMBER OF DEATHS FROM ACCIDENTS COMPARED WITH NUMBER OF DEATHS FROM ALL CAUSES AMONG ELECTRIC LINEMEN, BY AGE GROUPS, FOR THE PERIOD 1897 TO 1906.

[From mortality experience of an industrial insurance company.]

ELECTRICAL ACCIDENTS IN GREAT BRITAIN.

In Great Britain during the four years ending with 1903 there were recorded 174 electrical accidents, of which 37, or 21.3 per cent, were fatal. The subject of electrical accident risk has been discussed at considerable length in Oliver's Dangerous Trades, in a separate chapter on electrical generating works, in which reference is made to a parliamentary report of 1897 of a departmental committee on elec