The principles of physiology applied to the preservation of health, and to the improvement of physical and mental education / by Andrew Combe.
- Date:
- 1852
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The principles of physiology applied to the preservation of health, and to the improvement of physical and mental education / by Andrew Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![332 MORTALITY OF FACTORY-WORKERS. late cholera epidemic carried off a larger proportion of victims in London than tliat of 1832, and the census of 18iH has just shewn that during the last ten years an excessive mortality has prevailed in Glasgow, reducing, along witli other causes, tlie popula- tion many thousands below the num- ber which had been calculated. Much angry discussion has taken place at different times as to the rea- lity of tlie mischief inflicted by the protracted and unremitting exertion required in our factories and spinning- mills, where an unerring test miglit easily be found. If those who contend that the hours of labour are not too long for either tlie children or tlie adults, could produce evidence to shew that, among operative cotton and flax- spinners, for example, the average of life is equally high as among the ap- parently n>ore favoured classes, there would be at once and for ever an end of the argument; while, should the result pi'ove different, the system of labour may justly be deemed oppres- sive, in t!i(! precise ratio in which the mortality among the operatives ex- ceeds that among their wealthier countrymen. 'No criterion can be so infallible as the one here proposed; and as the Government now possesses the means of obtaining accurate re- turns, it is very desirable that the fact should be tested. In the first two re- ports of the Ilegistrai'-Gencral, a com- parison is made between tlie mortality of town and couiitrj' districts, which shews the superioritj' to be greatly in favour of the country, liut as no attempt is made to separate the mortality among the manufacturing population from that of the poor gene- rally, data are still wanting to decide the question conclusively. The French returns, however, are more specific, and they afford direct evidence of both diminished stature and an increased mortality as results of the introduc- tion and spread of manufactures ; and I wish much it were in my power to lay some of them before the reader. As it is, I can only refer to the excel- lent work of Villerme on the physical and moral condition of the manufactur- ing po])ulation of France, as a store- house of valuable information bearing directly upon the question at issue. Everything which tends etrongly to call attention to the conditions which influence public and individual health, is calculated to do great good to the community. In this point of view, I am disposed to consider the visitations of cholera to the i5riti.sh Isles, rather as among those remarkable instances in which a beneficent Providence brings good out of evil, and converts an apparent calamity into a positive blessing, than as the public scourges which they were generally proclaimed to be. True it is that many indivi- duals perished, and that others suffered by it in their affections and in their worldly circumstances ; but I question if any thing short of the dread which cliolera produced, could have combined all classes so efficiently and ardently in their efforts to discover and remove every thing in the condition of the poor and labouring portions of the commui'.ity, wliich could prove detri- mental to health. In the season of ap- parent danger, not only did the im- portance of cleanliness, ventilation, warmth, clothing, and nourishment, as preservatives of health, become manifest to minds on which nothing else could have made an impression; but their experienced efficacy gave an impetus to the exertions of the lower orders in their own behalf, which, it is hoped, will continue to be produc- tivettf good long after the cause from which it sprung shall be forgotten. 'As yet, however, it must be confessed, this hope has received but little encourage- ment from any actual deeds. But the lower orders themselves can scarcely be expected to continue exertions which arequickly relaxed by the authorities to whose care the public welfare is com- mitted. It has already been stated,' says Mr Grainger, that in several parishes, in consequence of the reports cither of the inspectors of nuisances or of the visitors, improvements and cleansing operations were effected by the local authorities; but it is proper](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21965353_0356.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
