INTRODUCTORY.
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on others imply proportionate loss. Says Dr. Jarvis, “Nor is the loss by early death all that the commonwealth suffers in diminution of productive power in the period presumably devoted to profitable labor. Even while men and women live they are subject to sickness, which lays a heavy tax on their strength and effectiveness. ... It is estimated by the English observations and calculations that for every death there are two constantly sick; that is, 730 days’ sickness and disability for every death.” Reckoning on the basis of calculation furnished by the data of the English “ sick-clubs,” it is found that there was in the year 1870, among the people of Massachusetts of the working productive age, a total amount of twenty-four thousand five hundred and fifty-four years and eight months’ sickness or disability, equivalent to so much loss of labor to the community. The bases on which the English results are made up do not include sickness of less than a week’s duration, or any thing less than illness preventing labor:
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