2130 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 895

time of injury, and shall award compensation in such pro-
portion as the determined loss bears to compensation
allowable for permanent total disability, the said compen-
sation to be paid weekly at the rate of sixty-six and two-
thirds per centum of the average weekly wages, in no case
to exceed twenty dollars per week, and not less than a
minimum of ten dollars per week unless the employee's
established weekly wages are less than ten dollars per
week at the time of the injury, in which event he shall
receive compensation equal to his full wages, but not to
exceed $5,000.00, and subject to reconsideration of the
degree of such impairment by the Commission on its own
motion or upon application of any party in interest.

The compensation for the foregoing specific injuries,
payable under sub-sections (3) and (4), shall be paid in
addition to, and consecutively with, the compensation here-
inbefore provided in Sub-section 2 of this section.

If any employee dies from any cause or causes not
compensable under this Article, the right to any compen-
sation payable under Sub-sections (3), (4) and (5)
unpaid at the date of his death, shall survive to his sur-
viving dependents as the Commission may determine, if
there be such surviving dependents, and if there be none
such, then to his wife and children under twenty-one years
of age if there was, at the time of his death, a legal obliga-
tion on the part of said employee to support his wife, and
if there was no such obligation, then to his children under
twenty-one, if any, alone.

(5) In all claims for compensation for hernia,
compensation may be allowed only upon definite proof
to the satisfaction of the Commission.

First. That there was an accidental injury causing
hernia, arising out of and in the course of the employee's
employment; or that the claimant sustained a hernia result-
ing from a strain arising out of and in the course of his
or her employment.

Second. That the hernia did not exist prior to the
injury or strain for which compensation is claimed;
provided that if as the result of an accidental injury,
or as the result of a strain, arising out of and in the
course of the employee's employment a pre-existing hernia
becomes so strangulated that an immediate operation is
necessary, the provision of this sub-paragraph requiring
proof that hernia did not exist prior to the injury for
which compensation is claimed shall not apply.