'Sickness is a baffling matter'. A reply to James C. Riley.

Abstract

This paper replies to the comments made by James C. Riley. It provides a defence of the assumptions adopted in 'Physician, heal thyself' (Social History of Medicine, 9(1996), 1-30) to estimate the average duration of work-preventing sickness experienced by members of the medical profession in England in the 1860s as well as offering some new estimates. It also provides further criticisms of Riley's contention that although the rate of mortality declined in England between the 1860s and 1890s that of morbidity increased, which is based on surveys of friendly society members. In doing so it reiterates the warning given by Jacques Bertillon in 1892 concerning the use of friendly society surveys for the measurement of variations and trends in morbidity patterns by age.