ABSTRACT Z. Ratio of Fatal Accidents from Collisions at different periods amongst Railway Employes. It is hence obvious that so far as the first group of servants are concerned, the danger of fatal accidents from collisions of both kinds has greatly decreased in recent years, but in regard to collisions at stations such has not been the case amongst the other group of railway servants, namely, "porters and other servants." The next part of this question to which attention is directed is similar to that contained in Abstract M of the preceding paper, which showed the accidents which had happened to passengers from collisions with trains of different kinds. At page 329 it will be found that throughout the whole period of nine years, 1844-52, but one death of a passenger took place from collisions of "express" trains, and also only one from collision of "excursion," while none happened from collision of mail trains, the "ordinary" trains being most fatal to passengers; so also will the same thing be found with regard to employés. The following condensed abstract from Table XXV. gives a general view of the results arrived at. ABSTRACT Aa. Ratio of Deaths and Injuries amongst Employés to the Number of Collisions during 1844-52. Although the "ordinary" trains have had the greatest number of collisions, and have been also the most fatal from this class of acci dents, yet when a collision of either an "express" or a "mail" train has taken place, it has proved more fatal to employés than a collision of an "ordinary train;" but on referring to Abstract M the reverse will be found to have been the case in regard to passengers, the collisions of "ordinary" trains being not only more frequent but also more severe and fatal than those of "express,' ," "excursion," and "mail" trains. In regard to the tendency which accidents from collisions have had, since the year 1844, to occasion a greater or a less ratio of nonfatal injuries amongst employés, it will be seen from the following abstract that in the classes engine drivers and guards there has been a marked and most decided decrease, varying, amongst engine drivers, from 1 in 366 to 1 in 805 per annum, and amongst guards from 1 in 566 to 1 in 1,135 yearly. In the class stokers, however, which appears much more liable to accidents of this kind than the other two classes, it will be observed that during the period 1848-51 the ratio of injuries was less than in either the preceding or subsequent period, but still, while the ratio was as high as 1 in 292 in the first period, it became reduced to 1 in 507 in 1852. ABSTRACT Ab. The Number and Ratio of Injuries from Collisions during the Years 1844-52, happening at Stations, and from Collisions not at Stations, among Period. Engine Drivers. Stokers. Guards. Number. Injured. One in Number. Injured. One in Number. Injured. One in The next part of this question which is to be considered is that of the fatal accidents to employés from trains "running off the line." According to Abstracts R and X this cause of accidents has been more fatal to engine drivers, stokers, and guards, than collisions; but it has been otherwise to the other railway servants and to passengers. It will also be observed that of 45 deaths amongst employés from trains running off the line, no less than 38 are recorded as happening to engine drivers, stokers, and guards; and this is only what might be expected, as they are more than any other of the employés exposed to this kind of accidents, while porters and other servants are more liable to death and injury from being crushed, as shown in Abstracts X and Z. The following table shows the deaths and injuries resulting from trains running off the line, since the year 1844 : TABLE XXXVIII. The Number and Ratio of Deaths and Injuries from Trains running "Off the Line" during the Years 1844-52, among Period. Number. Injured. One in Number. Injured. One in Number. Injured. One in One of the most startling results appearing in this inquiry will be found in the preceding table. It will be seen that whether attention be directed to the number of deaths or the number of non-fatal injuries, that in the year 1852 the ratio for each class was amazingly increased beyond that of the period of years immediately preceding, namely, 1848-51. The very wonderful rate of increase in this class of accidents during the year 1852 is difficult to be understood, and it will not be found easy to account for so extraordinary an increase in the deaths and injuries of employés from this class of accidents during the year 1852. On referring to Table XXVIII. it will be seen that the number of trains or parts of trains which actually ran off the rails in that year, was not only relatively to the extent of railway communication open to traffic, but also to the number of persons employed in the service of the companies less than in the preceding period; but likewise the deaths and injuries of passengers from trains running off the line during 1852 were greatly below the averages of the In 1852 not a 1848-51. years single passenger was killed from trains running off the line, and not more than 17 were injured, while in the period preceding 1848-51, the number killed from the same cause was 16, and that injured 96, or 4 per annum killed and 24 injured. It will be found impossible to account for this discrepancy between the deaths and injuries of employés and passengers, on the supposition of an undue proportion of the accidents from trains "running off the line" having happened to goods' and other trains not carrying passengers, for by referring VOL. XVII. PART III. R to Table XXX. it will be seen that not a single case occurred of a goods' train running off the line in the year 1852, and, consequently, no death or injury is recorded from that cause. Of the 14 recorded instances of "running off the line," given in Table XXX. it will be seen that None occurred to goods' trains. One only to engines-resulting in no deaths, but injury to one employé, and Thirteen occurred to resulting in no death amongst passengers, but injuring 17 of them, while no less than 10 employés were killed and 11 passenger trains.... injured. Results of so curious and anomalous a nature are certainly very striking, and must enlist the sympathies of every inquirer on behalf of the more important classes of the railway employés, who are thus exposed to so frightful a sacrifice of life and limb while engaged in discharge of their duties. It is to be lamented that some more effectual means than are yet in use have not been taken to avert the recurrence of such distressing and calamitous accidents, but I trust the efforts now made to bring this Analysis prominently before the public may not be altogether devoid of some beneficial influence in directing the attention of those in authority to so vitally important a subject. It is proposed to bring under review, in the next number of this Journal, a condensed summary of railway accidents as they affect passengers and employés on the continental railways; and then, as stated in the last paragraph of the preceding portion of this communication, when the whole body of facts is presented, it may be possible to offer some suggestions of practical importance in the prevention of railway accidents. On a Decimal Coinage for the United Kingdom. [Read before the Statistical Society of London, 19th June, 1854.] AMONG the many improvements which the progress of intelligence and the requirements of commerce are demanding at the present time, there is perhaps hardly one of more importance than that which relates to the coinage of the United Kingdom. The proposal to substitute a decimal system of money of account in lieu of £ s. d., is a change, the magnitude of which does not appear to be fairly estimated by many of its most zealous advocates; and the necessity and advantages to arise from the adoption of which, it must be confessed are as yet unfelt by the great mass of the people, upon whom it would exercise most important effects. A committee of the House of Commons, after an examination of witnesses representing the scientific and mercantile interests of the community, have decided upon recommending that such a change should be made, and have pointed out the advantages that would result to commerce and to the public generally, by the employment of a decimal system of money similar to the systems in use among many of the nations of continental Europe and America; and numerous pamphlets and several public discussions upon this subject have tended to strengthen their recommendation. Notwithstanding, the people of this country in general do not sympathize with the movement, nor participate in the views of those who are eager to see it carried out. This, I think, mainly arises from ignorance of the subject, or perhaps rather from a want of perception of the difficulties, on the one hand, that are attendant upon the present mode of reckoning, and on the other, of the facilities that would exist under a system of money, weights, and measures, arranged on the same principle as our ordinary numeration, in a decimal progression. Another reason may be, that the question of accounts, among the labouring population, is not so important an element in their pecuniary transactions as it is with those who have to deal with extensive mercantile transactions, and calculations involving the coins of account of this and other countries. And if the people generally are insensible to the benefit of a decimal coinage, they seem equally unconscious of the difficulties connected with many of the plans which have been proposed for effecting the change in question, otherwise it is reasonable to believe that we should have had public meetings at which the poor man the labourer and cottager-would have been able to express his opinion upon a subject so important to himself. It is the existence of these difficulties that has mainly contributed to raise the discussion on the subject at present going on, chiefly by means of the press. So much, indeed, has already been written on decimal coinage, and so many systems proposed for effecting its introduction, that it might seem unnecessary to bring it before this Society, when in all probability, every one of its members has already made himself very fully acquainted with the subject, and arrived at his own conclusion after an examination of witnesses more numerous than those who were questioned by |