MEMBERS OF THE MUTUAL BENEFIT SOCIETIES AND THEIR AVERAGE ANNUAL WAGES, 1890 TO 1903, BY BRANCH OF THE SERVICE. STATISTICS OF SICKNESS.-During the period 1891 to 1900 the Mediterranean fund published very interesting statistical data concerning the cause of disability, data which give a rare and valuable opportunity to compare the sickness rates and the nature of diseases affecting the seven classes of railroad employees. There is so little reliable sickness statistics by occupations in this country, that the presentation of these data is thought to be useful. In the following table the data for 1891 had to be discarded because presented on a different classification of diseases. As the numbers upon which the rates are based are not very large (about 30,000 employees for each year), and for each separate group, very much smaller, it was thought preferable to combine the data for the nine years and compute the rates and percentages from these combined data. The total membership for the nine years is: For engineers and firemen, 16,027; train service, 16,620; maintenance of way (male employees), 81,385; maintenance of way (female employees), 16,370; station service, 97,853; office force, etc., 6,367; shop employees, 41,762; total, 273,684. In this table the difference between the "ordinary" and "aggregate" members is disregarded and all sickness is included, whether compensated or not. The variations from year to year are not disclosed in these tables. Such variations may be due to purely local or temporary causes and are not important, but rather form a disturbing element in the study of sickness rates, except as they might indicate a tendency toward an increase or decrease. CAUSES OF DISABILITY OF THE MEMBERS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN RAILROAD CAUSES OF DISABILITY OF THE MEMBERS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN RAILROAD MUTUAL BENEFIT SOCIETY FOR THE NINE YEARS 1892 TO 1900, BY BRANCH OF |