important limitation of their value consists in the fact that in the absence of statistics of occupations and manufactures for Spain and of the number of workmen in each branch of industry, and especially in those establishments which are subject to the compensation act, it is impossible to compute the rate of accidents either for the industry as a whole or for any branch of the industry. The Institute of Social Reforms, recognizing the importance of such a basis for computations, has made an effort to organize a provisional enumeration of employees in establishments, and in the reports of accidents for 1907 an attempt has been made to compute the rate of accidents.

In addition to these limitations, the collection of statistical data is incomplete, according to the statements made by the institute in its reports. This institute was established by the decree of April 23, 1903, and among other duties was charged with the computation and publication of statistics of industrial accidents. The first report covers the year 1904. Previously these statistics were published by the section of commerce and industry of the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry, Commerce, and Public Works. According to the reports. published by the institute there were registered in 1901 13,516 accidents and in 1902 32,343 accidents, the increase evidently being due to improvements in methods of reporting. During the five years, 1904 to 1908, for which statistics have been published by the institute, the number of accidents recorded was as follows: In 1904, 14,363; in 1905, 23,008; in 1906, 24,525; in 1907, 30,472; and in 1908, 25,505. In the three earlier reports complaints are made about the failure of many provincial governors to forward the necessary statistical reports, and it is stated that many accidents are not reported even to the local authorities. The data for the year 1907 only are claimed to be fairly complete and on the whole satisfactory. The decline in the number of accidents recorded in 1908 is partly due to the failure of the Province of Madrid to send in its report, except for the first six months, and so all accidents for that province were excluded. During the first six months 1,757 accidents were. recorded in that Province, and during the whole of the preceding year 3,575 accidents were recorded; but even if this number is added to the number recorded in 1908 the total is far below 36,976, which was given for this year in the official report of the insurance companies. These data may be partly checked by the reports published by the General Association of Insurance Companies, although those reports are also incomplete, by reason of the fact that some proportion of the wage-earners remains uninsured. The table on page 2340, giving the data for the five years from 1902 to 1906 shows a larger number of accidents for 1904, 1905, and 1906 than do the official statistics.

In the later year the difference was not so great, but it was still in favor of the reports of the insurance association. It is probable that

the official record for 1904 includes only about one-third of all the accidents, those for 1905 and 1906 are still incomplete, and only those for 1907 are fairly complete. This limits the value of the data for comparative purposes.

The distribution of the accidents by age and sex of employees is shown in the following table. The small number of female employees injured is probably due to the slight participation of women in Spain in industry, though statistical data for a determination of this fact are lacking. Less than 3 per cent of the injured were of the female sex in the year 1907.

EMPLOYEES INJURED IN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS, BY SEX AND AGE. 1904 TO 1908. [Source: Instituto de Reformas Sociales. Estadística de los Accidentes del Trabajo ocurridos en los años 1904-1908. Boletín del Instituto de Reformas Sociales, 1911.]

b This total is not the correct sum of the items; the figures are given as shown in the original report.

The distribution of accidents by industries is shown in the following table, where the industries are arranged according to the number of accidents in 1907. Transportation, mines, etc., and the iron and steel industry together claim more than one-half of the accidents occurring during the five-year period.

NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS, BY INDUSTRIES, 1904 TO 1908.

[Source: Instituto de Reformas Sociales. Estadística de los Accidentes del Trabajo ocurridos en los años 1904-1908. Boletín del Instituto de Reformas Sociales, 1911.]

This total is not the correct sum of the items; the figures are given as shown in the original report.

The reports also include tables classifying the accidents by causes, but these tables are not entirely satisfactory and they are not reproduced for the reason that in the vast majority of cases the cause is not stated; thus in 1907, out of 30,472 accidents, 17,704, or 58.1 per cent, were reported as due to various causes, and 7,329, or 24.1 per cent, as due to unknown causes, leaving only 17.8 per cent of the cases for which the cause is stated. Of the accidents recorded in 1908, the cause was stated for only 7,555, or 29.6 per cent; and in 1909, for only 6,811 out of 28,944, or 23.5 per cent.

The data in regard to the results of the accidents are also unsatisfactory, as all injuries are classified in 7 large groups: (1) Fatal cases, (2) those producing total and (3) those producing partial permanent disability, (4) grave injuries, (5) light injuries, (6) injuries for which the classification is reserved, and (7) injuries the results of which are unknown. These data are presented in the following table. The striking feature of this table is the small number of cases of permanent disability and the large proportion of the light injury cases. The latter is explained in the report as due to the absence of a strict definition of an accident in the law, resulting in many minor injuries being reported. On the other hand, the small number of permanently though partially disabled is probably explained by the limited class of injuries which are recognized by the law of 1900 as leading to permanent disability.

NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS, CLASSIFIED BY RESULTS OF INJURIES, 1904 TO 1908. [Source: Instituto de Reformas Sociales. Estadística de los Accidentes del Trabajo ocurridos en los Boletín del Instituto de Reformas Sociales, 1911.j

años 1904-1908.

a Included with injuries resulting in total permanent disability. Including injuries resulting in partial permanent disability.

c This total is not the correct sum of the items; the figures are given as found in the original report. d Not including the Province of Madrid.

e Including injuries resulting in total permanent disability.

ƒ Included in injuries resulting in partial permanent disability.

The reports indicate a decline in the number of fatal cases and in their proportion to the total number of accidents, which in 1904 was 1.64 per cent and in 1908 0.70 per cent. While this may in part be due to the better reporting of minor accidents, there has been an actual decline in the number of fatalities from 236 in 1904 to 207 in 1907. For 1908 the data are unfortunately incomplete, because the accidents in Madrid were not tabulated; but excluding the 14 fatal cases in Madrid in 1907 there still seems to be a decline from 193 to 178.

The distribution of the accidents by the day of the week are available only since 1906. As shown in the table following, the greatest number of accidents takes place on Monday. The number gradually falls toward the middle of the week, but rises again at the end of the week.

NUMBER AND RELATIVE FREQUENCY OF ACCIDENTS, BY DAYS OF THE WEEK, 1906 TO 1908.

[Source: Instituto de Reformas Sociales. Estadística de los Accidentes del Trabajo ocurridos en los años 1906-1908. Boletín del Instituto de Reformas Sociales, 1911. In computing the relative number the average number of accidents per day was used as a base.]

SICKNESS INSURANCE.

Sickness insurance of workmen is comparatively new in Spain. The progress made so far is due to private or cooperative efforts, without any interference, assistance, or regulation from the Government. There are hospitals and similar institutions for treatment of the poor, which are supported either by public or private charity and which do not make any special regulations for the wage-working population. As these establishments belong to the field of charity rather than of labor insurance, they will not be treated here. The existing institutions for medical or financial assistance during illness, which are organized more or less upon an insurance basis, may be classified in three groups: (1) The commercial sickness insurance companies; (2) the mutual sick benefit societies; and (3) the establishment funds.

COMMERCIAL INSURANCE COMPANIES.

Commercial organizations of sickness insurance confine their operations to the field of medical aid, and while not limited to wageearners, they have become popular principally among this class, being organized mainly in the large cities and among people of small means who desire to escape the expense of private medical advice.

The plan of these sickness insurance companies is in some features similar to that adopted by various religious and fraternal associations in the United States. The insured secures free medical advice and drugs for a stipulated fee, which usually amounts to 1 peseta (19.3 cents) per month for a single member and 2 pesetas (38.6 cents) for a family. There is this difference, however, that instead of a physician or druggist being hired by a club or lodge under direct contract, they are hired usually at a much lower rate of remuneration by the managers of the insurance company, who derive large profits from the position of intermediaries between the insured and the physicians. The popularity of this form of insurance may be judged from the following figures. An official investigation in 1903 showed 30 such companies in Madrid alone. Of these, 21 reported their membership, which aggregated 35,434 families, with 141,736 persons insured and a gross income of over 1,000,000 pesetas ($193,000) and net profits of 478,368 pesetas ($92,325.02), or about 48 per cent of the gross income. (") Under such conditions many evils manifested themselves, such as an insufficient number of physicians, who received very low remuneration and who furnished hasty medical advice as well as adulterated drugs.

a Les assurances sociales en Espagne, par Alvaro Lopez Nunez. (Congrès International des Assurances Sociales. 8me session, Rome, October, 1908.)