[The Effects of Arts, Trades, and Professions, and of Civil States and
Habits of Living, on Health and Longevity; By C. Turner Thackrah, Esq.
Second Edition. Longman, 1832.]
The author of this book is a medical practitioner at Leeds; and the
object of his work, than which there can be none more important, is to
exhibit, in most cases from personal observation, the influence of
particular occupations on the health of the individuals pursuing them
and on the duration of their lives. His general impression is, that the
employments of large manufacturing towns, such as Leeds, Manchester,
Birmingham, and Sheffield, are decidedly unfavourable to health and
consequently to happiness; and, he says, with regard to the town in
which he lives, “every day we see sacrificed to the artificial state of
society one, and sometimes two victims, whom the destinies of nature
would have spared.” Doubtless, continued and laborious occupation in
crowded rooms is not favourable to health; but, on the other hand, it
should be considered that these very employments, by increasing the
comforts of the great mass of consumers, have a direct tendency to
secure the general health of the community; and that if the term
“destinies of nature” is to be taken to apply to man in an uncivilized
state, it is perfectly certain that the artisan who pursues his calling
under the most unfavourable circumstances is far better off in his
physical condition, and therefore in his capacity for long life, than
the poor dweller in the forests of America or the wilds of Africa, whose
supply of food and clothing is wholly dependent upon chance, and who is
entirely without medical aid in sickness. It is a well-known fact, that
in this country, a century ago, the average mortality in a year was one
in thirty; it is now about one in sixty; that is, where one person in a
year dies now, two died a century ago, as compared with the gross amount
of the population. When it is considered therefore, how large a number
of our countrymen are employed in manufactures, it would seem that, upon
the whole, manufacturing employments are not so unfavourable to health
as might at first be imagined. An attentive examination of Mr.
Thackrah’s book will show, that even in the most apparently unwholesome
employments there is a wonderful compensation in the power of habit; and
it is beyond all doubt that cleanliness, temperance, and that habitual
cheerfulness which leads the spirit to triumph over the most adverse
circumstances, will enable those who would appear necessarily the most
unfortunate, to pass through life with comparative happiness and
comfort. Still, it is very important to examine what occupations have
the most unfavourable influence on health,--not with the view of making
those who follow them dissatisfied with their condition, but for the
purpose of suggesting every preventive and remedial measure, within the
range of human knowledge, to the attention of the capitalist, whose
first duty is to provide for the happiness of those around him; and
above all to show the working-man himself how much he has it in his own
power to mitigate the evils which he cannot altogether avoid. In this
point of view Mr. Thackrah’s book deserves the most serious
consideration of all classes. It is most satisfactory to know, upon Mr.
Thackrah’s authority, that “in many of our occupations the injurious
agents might be immediately removed or diminished.”
For the convenience of his inquiry the writer before us divides society
into five great classes, viz.--I. Operatives. II. Dealers. III. Master
Manufacturers, and Merchants. IV. Men independent of business and
labour. V. Professional Men.--The first section of operatives he
sub-divides into--1, those whose employments are chiefly in the open
air; 2, those whose employments are carried on in an atmosphere confined
and impure; 3, those whose employments produce dust, odour, or gaseous
exhalations; 4, those whose employments injure or annoy by acting on the
skin; 5, those whose employments expose them to wet and steam; 6, those
who are exposed to a high temperature, or great variations of
temperature. When we state that in these six sub-divisions of the great
class of operatives, Mr. Thackrah describes the peculiar effects of
about two hundred different employments, it must be evident that we
cannot attempt even to enumerate the occupations whose influence upon
health is here noticed. To show, however, the interesting mode in which
this inquiry is for the most part conducted, we subjoin an abridged
extract, descriptive of the condition of the grinders and machine-makers
of Sheffield:--
“Dr. Knight, in the North-of-England Medical Journal, states that the
fork-grinders, who use a _dry_ grindstone, die at the ages of 28 or 32,
while the table-knife grinders, who work on _wet_ stones, survive to
between 40 and 50. Dr. K.’s paper very properly alludes to the
combination of injurious agents and circumstances. It is not, merely the
pernicious employment, but the want of sieve and ventilation in the
apartments where the men now work,--the want, moreover, of that exercise
in the open air which they formerly took in going to work and returning
from it; and finally, the intemperance which results from their
congregation, and still more from their desperation of life. It appears,
that in 1822, ‘out of 2,500 grinders, there were not 35 who had arrived
at the age of 50, and perhaps not double that number who had reached the
age of 45; and out of more than 80 fork-grinders, exclusive of boys, it
was reported that there was not a single individual 36 years old.’ The
symptoms of the grinders’ disease are those of slow but certainly fatal
consumption. The remedies judiciously recommended by Dr. Knight, are,
1st. Dusting the machinery, before the work commences: 2nd. Great
reduction in the time of labour: 3rd. Use of wet stones as much as
possible; 4th. Large flues to be laid on the floor for ventilation, and
currents of air to be forced through them by the machines: 5th.
Fork-grinding to be confined to criminals.
“_Draw-filing cast iron_ is a very injurious occupation. The dust is
much more abundant, and the metallic particles much more minute, than in
the filing of _wrought_ iron. The particles rise so copiously as to
blacken the mouth and nose. The men first feel the annoyance in the
nostrils. The lining membrane discharges copiously for some time, and
then becomes preternaturally dry. Besides the dust there are some very
bright scales, called _kisk_, very visible though scarcely tangible,
which rise from the castings, as these are taken out of the moulders’
boxes, and considerably irritate the air-tube. But these scales produce
much less frequent annoyance than the particles detached by the file,
notwithstanding the dust of the employ. Respiration is not promptly
impeded. Of ten men whom I examined with reference to this point, but
one had difficulty of breathing as a _primary_ symptom. The subsequent
symptoms are determined chiefly by intemperance, and the constitutional
disposition to consumption. The machine-makers earn high wages, and many
consequently are addicted to liquor. In all, the breathing becomes, in a
few years, more affected by exertion; but in the intemperate it is most
affected; the morning cough is attended with retchings, disorder of the
liver and of the other organs of digestion becomes established, and at
length pulmonary consumption closes the list of symptoms. Scarcely a
filer can be found in health. Few bear the employ, even modified as it
is by frequent changes of material, for twenty-five years. Only one
instance have I been able to find of a working filer exceeding the age
of fifty. What can be done to prevent this lamentable waste of life?
Magnetic mouth-pieces, which attract the particles of iron inhaled in
respiration, and thus greatly diminish the quantity which would enter
the air-tube, were many years ago introduced in Sheffield, and ought ere
this to have been more extensively tried. But there is a strange apathy
both among the men and the masters.”
If the working-classes, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, have
abundant evils in their employments, those who would appear to be placed
under happier circumstances are not exempt from those corroding cares
and unnatural excitements which injure health, and destroy life, as
speedily as crowded rooms and extreme heat or cold. Let us take Mr.
Thackrah’s description of the class of shopkeepers:--
“They are generally temperate in their diet. They injure health, not by
direct attacks, not by the introduction of injurious agents, but by
withholding the pabulum of life--a due supply of that pure fluid, which
nature designed as food for the constitution. Be it remembered that man
subsists upon the air, more than upon his meat and drink. Numerous
instances might be adduced of persons existing for months and years on a
very scanty supply of aliment, but it is notorious that no one can exist
for an hour without a copious supply of air. The atmosphere which
shopkeepers breathe is contaminated and adulterated; air, with its vital
principles so diminished, that it cannot fully decarbonize the blood,
nor fully excite the nervous system. Hence shopkeepers are pale,
dyspeptic, and subject to affections of the head. They often drag on a
sickly existence, die before the proper end of human life, and leave a
progeny like themselves.”
The merchant and manufacturer is probably not more fortunate, though he
may appear to have a greater command of worldly comforts:--
“Of the causes of disease, anxiety of mind is one of the most frequent
and important. When we walk the streets of large commercial towns, we
can scarcely fail to remark the hurried gait, and care-worn features of
the well-dressed passengers. Some young men, indeed, we may see, with
countenances possessing natural cheerfulness and colour; but these
appearances rarely survive the age of manhood. Cuvier closes an eloquent
description of animal existence and change, with the conclusion that
‘life is a state of force.’ What he would urge in a physical view, we
may more strongly urge in a moral. Civilization has changed our
character of mind as well as of body. We live in a state of unnatural
excitement:--unnatural, because it is partial, irregular, and excessive.
Our muscles waste for _want_ of action; our nervous system is worn out
by _excess_ of action. Vital energy is drawn from the operations for
which nature designed it, and devoted to operations which nature never
contemplated. If we cannot adopt the doctrine of a foreign philosopher,
‘that a thinking man is a depraved animal,’ we may without hesitation
affirm, ‘that inordinate application of mind, the cares, anxieties, and
disappointments of commercial life, greatly impair the physical
powers.’”
Let us see if the _idle_ man of independent fortune is placed under more
favourable circumstances for the enjoyment of existence:--
“A man supplied with food and comforts, without labour and care, has
constantly full opportunity of attending to health. But man is a social
animal. The Creator has ordained that no individual shall live to
himself, and live in happiness. A man without an object is like a tree
without a leading shoot. He has not the vigour of his fellows; his
strength is either dissipated in irregular pursuits, or decays from
listlessness. In professions and trades the nervous system is often
exhausted by excessive application; here, as frequently it declines from
the want of exertion. Need I add, that the vices which result from the
want of employment, undermine the constitution and shorten life.”
Mr. Thackrah has stated, in many instances, the modes which he conceives
applicable to the mitigation or removal of the evils of particular
employments. It is, of course, not within our province to follow him in
these details. But throughout his work he notices also those habits
which are best calculated to preserve man in health in every situation.
These best remedies, which are in a great degree within the reach of us
all, may be comprised in the words _temperance_, _cleanliness_,
_exercise in the open air_, and _cheerful relaxation_. It should be the
aim of every working-man to employ these remedies for any evils of his
occupation, as far as he can himself; it is the duty of every employer,
as much as in him lies, so to regulate his periods of labour, that no
artisan shall be unable, from want of time, to take his evening walk in
the fresh fields, to cultivate his little garden, or to afford an hour
to that improvement of his mind which will invigorate and refresh his
body, by the cheapest and the purest of all pleasures.
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