Symptomless Hyperpiesia in Dockyard Workers

made neurosis which thereafter effectively prevents them from working even if they are allowed to do so. Symptomless hyperpiesia as it occurs in working men at the age of 60 has been the subject of this small study. My object has been to try and show first whether hyperpietics, who are known to carry a short expectation of life,1 are particularly prone to chronic ill health or to die within a short time after the diagnosis has been made; secondly, to determine the incidence of hyperpiesia in working men between the ages of 60 and 65 ; and thirdly to try and assess the effect of hyperpiesia upon a man's usefulness in industry. To get an idea of the effect of hyperpiesia on health, it was necessary to consider the effect of cardiovascular disease in general on life and industrial efficiency, since hyperpiesia is known to be the greatest single factor in the production of cardiovascular disease.2 To this end, I scrutinised the health records of H.M. Dockyard for two successive years. During these two years, 1943 and 1944, the average number of employees at H.M. Dockyard was 20,995. In this period 335 persons were invalided (Table I), and 314 persons died (Table II) while still