Woman (La femme) / from the French of J. Michelet ; translated from the last Paris ed. by J.W. Palmer.
- Jules Michelet
- Date:
- 1860
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Woman (La femme) / from the French of J. Michelet ; translated from the last Paris ed. by J.W. Palmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![The needle-women were so suddenly famished in England, that many societies are occupied in promoting their emigra- tion to Australia. The sum advanced is seven hundred and twenty francs, but the emigrant can, after the first year, return half of it (Blosseville). In that country, where the males are infinitely the more numerous, she marries without difficulty, fortifying with new families that powerful colony, more stable than the Indian empire. What becomes of ours? They do not make much noise. They do not, like the conspiring and sturdy laborers, masons, car]tenters, make a formidable strike, and dictate terms. They die of hunger, and that is all. The fearful mortality of 1854 fell especially on them. Since that time, their condition has been sorely aggravated. Ladies' gaiters are sewed by machinery. FloAver-makers are paid much less. To inform myself on this sad subject, I spoke of it to many persons, especially to my venerable friend and associate, Dr. Villermi and M. de Guerry, whose excellent works are so highly esteemed, and to a young statistician whose vigorous method I had much admired, Dr. Bertillon. He had the extreme kindness to make a serious task of it, combining with the data furnished by the laboring classes, others communi- cated by public officers. I wish he would complete and pub- lish it. I will give but one line of his statement: In the great trade which occupies all women (except a very few), needlework, they can earn but ten sous a day. Why ? Because machinery, which is still dear enough, does the labor for ten sous. If the woman demanded eleven, the machine would be preferred. And how does she make up the loss? She walks the street at night. That is why the number of filles publigues, registered and numbered, does not increase in Paris, and, I believe, diminishes a little.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21140960_0034.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
