seldom make any reserve of wages?—No provision is made for the
families; nothing is heard of them, and, if they cannot provide for
themselves, they must go upon the parish.
“Are these habits created by the closeness of the rooms, attended by
carelessness as to their mode of living elsewhere?—I think not as to
their lodgings. The English and Scotch tailors are more careful as to
their places of lodging, and prefer sleeping in an open place. The
men, however, who take their pint of porter and their pipe of tobacco
in a public-house after their hours of work, take it at a place which
is sometimes as crowded as a shop. Here the single men will stay until
bedtime.
“Are gin and beer the only stimulants which you conceive are taken in
consequence of the want of ventilation and the state of the place of
work when crowded?—No: snuff is very much taken as a stimulant; the
men think snuff has a beneficial effect on the eyes. After going into
these close shops from the open air, the first sensation experienced
is frequently a sensation of drowsiness, then a sort of itching or
uneasiness at the eye, then a dimness of the sight. Some men of the
strongest sight will complain of this dimness; all eyes are affected
much in a similar manner. Snuff is much used as a stimulant to awaken
them up; smoking in the shops is not approved of, though it is much
attempted; and the journeymen tailors of the large shops are in
general great smokers at the public-houses.
“Do the tailors from villages take snuff or smoke as well as drink so
much as the tailors in the large shops in the towns?—They neither take
so much snuff nor tobacco, nor so much of any of the stimulants, as
are taken by the workmen in the crowded shops of the towns.
“Do their eyes fail them as soon?—No, certainly not.
“With the tailors, is it the eye that fails first?—Yes; after long
hours of work the first thing complained of by the tailors is that the
eyes fail; the sight becomes dim, and a sort of mist comes between
them and their work.
“Judging from your own practical experience, how long do you conceive
that a man would work in a well-ventilated or uncrowded room, as
compared with a close, crowded, ill-ventilated room?—I think it would
make a difference of two hours in the day to a man. He would, for
example, be able, in an uncrowded or well-ventilated room, to do his
twelve hours’ work in the twelve hours; whereas in the close-crowded
room he would not do more than ten hours’ work in the twelve.
“Of two men beginning at 20 years of age, what would be the difference
in extent of labour performed by them in town shops or in the
country?—A man who had begun at 20 in these crowded shops would not be
so good a man at 40 as a man working to 50 in a country village; of
the two, the country tailor would be in the best condition in health
and strength: in point of fact he is so. The difference may be set
down as a gain of 10 years’ good labour. There are very few who can
stand such work as the town shops 20 years.
“The eyes then become permanently injured, as well as fail during the
day, in these crowded shops?—Yes, they do. After 45 years of age, the
eyes begin to fail, and he cannot do a full day’s work.
“Supposing a workman to work in a well-ventilated room, and to be
freed from the nervous exhaustion consequent on the state of the
place, might he not save at least all that he drinks in the times
between his meals, or be enabled to apply it better, if he were so
disposed; and, perhaps, the value of the two hours’ extra work in the
12, when he is working piece-work?—Yes, certainly he might.
“Taking your account of the average loss by nervous exhaustion and bad
habits to be two hours’ work for 20 years, and 12 hours daily work for
10 years in addition, supposing him to be employed full time, it would
be a loss of the value of 50,000 hours of productive labour (of the
value at 6_d._ per hour, 1,250_l._); or, if he were only in work half
a-year, at a loss of 25,000 hours; so that if he were employed the
half time at the full wages, or full time at the half wages, such
workmen will have lost the means of putting by a sum of not less than
600_l._ to maintain him in comfort when he is no longer able to
work?—Yes, I think that would be found to be correct. Very few do
save; but I have known some save considerable sums. I knew one man, of
the name of John Hale, who saved about 600_l._ He was not one of the
most sober men, but he was in constant employment, sometimes at
Allen’s and sometimes at Weston’s, and he was very careful; but he
died when he was about 45. I knew another man, whose name was Philip
Gray, who used to prefer the smaller shops. He was a man of a very
good constitution, and he lived until he was about 70. He was a
journeyman all his life, and he had, when he died, more than
1,500_l._, all saved by London journey work. He used to live in a
baker’s shop in Silver-street, Golden-square.
“Was he of a penurious disposition?—He associated less with the men
than others, and they knew little about him. He was dressed much the
same as the rest, but he was much more clean in his person: he was
remarkable for his cleanliness, and he was very neat in his person.
Both he and Hale were single men.
“Can you doubt that, under favourable sanitary circumstances, such
instances would become frequent?—It cannot be doubted. I have known
other instances of saving, but those were not of men working on the
board: they were mostly of men who had situations in the
cutting-rooms.”
_Mr. John Fowler_:—
“You are a tailor, are you not?—I have been all my life a journeyman
tailor, and worked in the metropolis; but I have long been
superannuated, and now act as collector to the Benevolent Institution
for the Relief of Aged and Infirm Tailors.
“That is supported by the masters, is it not?—Yes; the journeymen
tailors subscribe, but it is principally supported by masters, who
subscribe to it most liberally. Mr. Stultze, for example, has
subscribed 795_l._ in money, and is a yearly subscriber of 25 guineas.
He has made a present to the institution of the ground for the
erection of almshouses, worth about 1000_l._, and has undertaken to
build six houses at his own expense, for the reception of 20 poor
pensioners. The funds are about 11,000_l._, principally subscribed by
the masters.
“Have you belonged to any other society?—I was clerk to a trade
society, consisting of upwards of 500 men.
“Have you worked in the more crowded shops?—I have worked at Mr.
Allen’s, and Mr. William’s, of Conduit-street, which was a shop
containing about as many men as Mr. Allen’s. I have worked at other
shops, not so large as Mr. Allen’s.
“Have you read Mr. Brownlow’s evidence?—Yes, I have.
“How far do the facts generally coincide with your own
observations?—Generally they do. I agree with him as to the effects of
work in close workshops, and as to the time a man would last as a
workman, under the most favourable circumstances, in a well-ventilated
place. I do not think the drinking of gin was general, to the extent
he mentions; and I think the improvement as to drinking beer, as well
as spirits, is now very great; particularly in spirits, since tea and
coffee have been so much drank. Of late, as far as my knowledge
extends, there is very little beer-drinking in the afternoon. I knew
the individuals he mentions as having saved money, and I have known
many others do so too. Some of them have become opulent and
respectable masters, who were fellow-shopmen with me. I conceive that
the establishment of coffee-shops has been of great benefit to the
health and morals of the men: it has taken them from the public-house.
I have known a very large proportion of men carried off young, and in
middle life, by consumption; but, in general, irregular habits were
mixed up with the effects of the work in close places. The crowding of
the large shops must be considered as occurring only in the season.”
The following is the examination of a tailor in Marlborough, taken by
Mr. Grainger:—
_Charles Dobson_, 58 years old,—
“Has been a tailor since he was 16 years old. Has always lived in the
country. Has two sons journeymen tailors, who have been employed in
London, one seven and the other five years. Formerly employed seven or
eight men, who worked with witness in a shop which was very close, so
that if there were nine men they could scarcely sit on the board.
Although there was very little drinking, they were so much oppressed
in the summer, and at other seasons when the candles were lighted,
that he has seen the men reel after getting off the board. Used
himself, when it was very warm, to feel faint. Attributes these
effects to the heat of the shop, arising from the closeness, the
stove, and the hot irons; also to the smell of the cloth and the
breath of the men. Latterly has worked with lower hands and in a more
open shop; finds his health better, and that he is not oppressed by
the work. Has often noticed in this town, where there are a few shops
containing, in the summer, 14 or 15 journeymen, that when men go into
them who have previously worked in the neighbouring villages, they
became pale and unhealthy-looking: attributes this to the heat. His
sons have complained to him that their health suffers from working in
large shops in London. Has seen many who have gone to London return
‘looking far worse than when they went.’ From his experience, thinks
that a man may enjoy his health in this business, if he works moderate
hours and in an airy shop, where the number is small. Should consider
12 hours, allowing out of them one hour for dinner, moderate: these
are the common hours in this part of the country. Has known many men
who have worked in the neighbouring villages; they are generally quite
as healthy as other people, ‘does not see any difference.’ They are
more strong and not so chilly as those who work in shops. Has known
many upwards of 50, who were quite able to go on with the work; they
are only obliged to give it up from failure of sight as they advance
in age: ‘from nothing else.’ Knew one man in this town who went on
till he was 77. Has himself good health.”
I have collected the evidence of several master tailors on the effects
of work in crowded or bad ventilated rooms. Some are inclined to ascribe
more of the ill health to the habits of the journeymen in drinking at
public-houses, and to the state of their private dwellings, but in the
main results the loss of daily power—_i. e._, the loss of at least
one-third the industrial capabilities enjoyed by men working under
advantageous circumstances—the nervous exhaustion attendant on work in
crowds, and the consequent temptation to resort continually to
stimulants, which in their turn increase the exhaustion, are fully
proved, and indeed generally admitted. I have caused the mortuary
registers to be examined, but find that they do not distinguish the
masters from the journeymen, and that there are no ready means of
distinguishing those of the deceased who have been employed in the
larger shops. It is also stated that many who come to work in town and
become diseased, return and die in the villages. But in the registered
causes of death of 233 persons entered during the year 1839 in the
eastern and western Unions of the metropolis, under the general head
“tailor,” no less than 123 are registered as having died of disease of
the respiratory organs, of whom 92 died of consumption;[13] 16 of
diseases of the nervous system, of whom 8 died of apoplexy; 16 of
epidemic or contagious diseases, of whom 11 died of typhus; 23 are
registered as having died of diseases of “uncertain seat,” of whom 13
fell victims of dropsy; 8 died of diseases of the digestive organs, and
six of “heart disease;” and of the whole number of 233 only 29 of old
age; and of these, if they could be traced, we may pronounce confidently
that the greater proportion of them would be found to be not journeymen,
of whom not two or three per cent. attain old age, but masters. On
comparing the mortuary registers in the metropolis with the registers in
north-western and the south-western parts of England, where we may
expect a larger proportion of men working separately, I find that whilst
53 per cent. of the men die of diseases of the respiratory organs in the
metropolis, only 39 per cent. die of these diseases in the remote
districts; that whilst five per cent. die. of typhus in London, only one
per cent. fall victims to it in the country; that whilst in London only
12 in the hundred attain old age, 25 in the hundred are registered as
having attained it in the remote districts.
It is due to Messrs. Stultze, the employers mentioned by the first
witness, to state, that since he worked with them they have made
considerable alterations with the view to increase the ventilation of
their workshops, and have expressed their desire to adopt whatever
improvements may be pointed out to them.
I have been informed, that some tailors’ workshops at Glasgow have been
carefully ventilated, and that the immediate results are as satisfactory
as were anticipated, but the change has been too recent to permit any
estimate of the effects on the general habits of the workmen.
The preceding case may serve as a general instance of the practical
difference of the effects in the saving of suffering as well as of
expense, by active benevolence exerted with foresight in measures of
prevention, as compared with benevolence exerted in measures of
alleviation of disease after it has occurred.
The subscriptions to the benevolent institution for the relief of the
aged and infirm tailors, by individual masters in the metropolis, appear
to be large and liberal, and amount to upwards of 11,000_l._; yet it is
to be observed, that if they or the men had been aware of the effects of
vitiated atmospheres on the constitution and general strength, and of
the means of ventilation, the practicable gain of money from the gain of
labour by that sanitary measure could not have been less in one large
shop, employing 200 men, than 100,000_l._ Independently of subscriptions
of the whole trade, it would, during their working period of life, have
been sufficient, with the enjoyment of greater health and comfort by
every workman during the time of work, to have purchased him an annuity
of 1_l._ per week for comfortable and respectable self-support during a
period of superannuation, commencing soon after _fifty_ years of age.
Of that which in these instances appear to be the main cause of
premature disease and death, defective ventilation, it is to be remarked
that until very lately little had been observed or understood, even by
professional men or men of science; and that it is only when the public
health is made a matter of public care by a responsible public agency
that, what is understood can be expected to be generally and effectually
applied for the public protection. Vitiated air not being seen, and air
which is pure in winter being cold, the cold is felt and the air is
excluded by the workmen. The great desideratum hitherto has been to
obtain a circulation of air which was _warm_, as well as fresh. This
desideratum has been attained, after much trial, in the House of
Commons; but there is reason to believe that, by various means, at an
expense within the reach certainly of large places of work, a
ventilation equally good might be secured with mutual advantage.
The effects of bad ventilation, it need not be pointed out, are chiefly
manifested in consumption, the disease by which the greatest slaughter
is committed. The causes of fever are comparatively few and prominent,
but they appear to have a concurrent effect in producing consumption.
The investigation of the whole of the contributary causes to the
production of the immense mass of mortality occasioned by that disease,
would be beyond the time or means allowed for the present inquiry; but
defective ventilation and defective management in respect to changes of
temperature, are causes everywhere apparent amongst the labouring
classes. The effects of good ventilation, as a single cause of the
prevention or alleviation of disease, are nowhere so clearly manifest as
in their effects on hospital treatment. What Dr. Bisset Hawkins states
in respect to the sanitary measures necessary to ensure successful
treatment in hospitals, may be stated in respect to common dwellings as
well as places of work.
“Next to the influence of national causes, the mortality of hospitals
is most affected by position and internal economy. These circumstances
appear more powerful than even the various merits of practice; and,
happily for mankind, they are advantages of a definite nature, easily
comprehended, and, of late years, generally demanded. The case was
formerly very different, when a singular prejudice or indifference
existed in respect to ventilation. At the Leeds hospital no case of
compound fracture, nor of trepan, survived. At the Hôtel Dieu, of
Paris, compound fractures were also almost always fatal, and few
survived amputation. The system which will bear improper air with
impunity during health becomes keenly susceptible of its mischief when
diseased, and a change of air will often restore where the strictest
diet has failed. Mortality is seldom to be assigned to the influence
of bad practice, which, probably, does not often destroy life. An
accomplished friend made particular notes on the comparative mortality
under three physicians in the same hospital; one was expectant, one
tonic, and the other eclectic. The mortality was the same, but the
length of the disorder, the character of the convalescence, and the
chances of relapse were very different.
“The earliest statement which we possess of the mortality of our
hospitals is in Sir William Petty’s work on Political Arithmetic, from
which it appears, that in the year 1685 the proportion of the deaths
to the cures in St. Bartholomew’s and St. Thomas’s hospitals was about
1 to 7. The annual printed report of St. Thomas’s hospital for 1689 is
still preserved: the mortality was then about 1 in 10. During the ten
years from 1773 to 1783, the mortality at St Thomas’s became still
smaller, it was 1 in 14. About the year 1783, some improvements were
made with respect to cleanliness and ventilation, and during the ten
subsequent years the annual deaths were accordingly still fewer than
before, less than 1 in 15. During the ten years intervening between
1803 and 1813 the improvement continued, and the proportion fell to
only 1 in 16. The average during the 50 years from 1764 to 1813 was
remarkably small, only 1 in 15.”
_Parent Du Chátelet_ notices in the following terms the diminution in
the mortality of the Hôtel Dieu from better ventilation:—
“The mortality has diminished in the Hôtel Dieu in remarkable
proportions. Without saying anything of the enlargement of the
windows, of the warm clothing, of a better system of heating the
apartments, are we to count for nothing the destruction of all the
high houses which surrounded the Hôtel Dieu on every side? In our
opinion the pure and dry air which circulates now in every part, the
sun which penetrates there, the stoves which have been erected, have
as much contributed to its healthiness as the suppression of the
amphitheatres of anatomy which were in its neighbourhood.”
The reports of other hospitals present similar and generally
corroborative experience. In the space of four years, ending in 1784, in
a badly-ventilated house, the Lying-in Hospital in Dublin, there died
2,944 children out of 7,650; but after freer ventilation, the deaths in
the same period of time, and in a like number of children, amounted only
to 279.
One effect of the attention given to the condition of the workers in the
factories has been, that ventilation has been extensively introduced,
and with marked effects, on the condition of the workpeople. When I was
at Glasgow a striking instance was pointed out to me of the beneficial
effects of ventilation when applied to the dwellings of the working
classes connected with such establishments. I was informed there was in
that city an assemblage of dwellings for their workpeople, called, from
its mode of construction and the crowd collected in it, the Barracks.
This building contained 500 persons; every room contained one family.
The consequences of this crowding of the apartments, which were badly
ventilated, and the filth were, that fever was scarcely ever absent from
the building. There were sometimes as many as seven cases in one day,
and in the last two months of 1831 there were 57 cases in the building.
All attempts to induce the inmates to ventilate their rooms were
ineffectual, and the proprietors of the work, on the recommendation of
Mr. Fleming, a surgeon of the district, fixed a simple tin tube of two
inches in diameter, into the ceiling of each room, and these tubes led
into one general tube, the extremity of which was inserted into the
chimney of the factory furnace. By the perpetual draught thus produced
upon the atmosphere of each room the inmates were compelled, whether
they would or not, to breathe pure air. The effect was that, during the
ensuing eight years, fever was scarcely known in the place. The process
was apparently defective only in not providing for the appropriate
warmth of the air introduced. The cost of remedies previously applied in
the public hospitals to the fever cases, continually produced as
described in the barracks, were stated by Dr. Cowan to have afforded a
striking contrast to the cost of the means of prevention.
Similar defective ventilation and overcrowding in rooms of work, with
the addition of the deterioration of the air by the use of candles or
gas-lamps at night-work, produce similar effects on the milliners and
dressmakers employed at the larger workshops of the metropolis. In a
return of the causes of death to the milliners and dressmakers who died
during the year 1839, in the unions of the metropolis, in which we have
no means of distinguishing those who worked separately or in small
numbers, the results were as follows:—
TABULAR STATEMENT of DEATHS from Disease of Milliners and
Dressmakers, in the Metropolitan Unions during the year 1839, as
shown by the Mortuary Registers.
┌───────────┬───────┬───────┬────────────┬───────┬─────────┬───────┐
│ Age. │Number │Average│ Number of │Average│Number of│Average│
│ │ of │ Age. │Deaths from │ Age. │ Deaths │ Age. │
│ │Deaths.│ │Consumption.│ │ from │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ other │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ Lung │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │Diseases.│ │
├───────────┼───────┼───────┼────────────┼───────┼─────────┼───────┤
│ Under 20│ 6│ 17│ 4│ 18│ │ │
│20 Under 30│ 24│ 24│ 17│ 23│ 1│ 23│
│30 Under 40│ 11│ 34│ 6│ 34│ 1│ 33│
│40 Under 50│ 2│ 45│ │ │ 1│ 40│
│50 Under 60│ 4│ 54│ 1│ 58│ 2│ 55│
│60 Under 70│ 5│ 64│ │ │ │ │
├───────────┼───────┼───────┼────────────┼───────┼─────────┼───────┤
│ Total│ 52│ 32│ 28│ 26│ 5│ 41│
└───────────┴───────┴───────┴────────────┴───────┴─────────┴───────┘
Out of 52 deaths in the year, 41 of the deceased attained an age of
25. The average age of the 33 who died of lung diseases was 28.
It is not doubted by medical witnesses that in this class of cases, as
in the case of the tailors, one-third at least of the healthful duration
of adult life will be found to have been destroyed by the ignorance of
the want of ventilation.
Unhappily, this fatal ignorance as to the requisites of the places of
work is as frequently manifested in the overcrowded places of repose. I
take an illustration from the answers of _Mr. Isaac Gilchrist_, surgeon
of Aberdeen, to the question as to the causes of fever:—
“In answering this query, the circumstance that calls for most remark
in reference to this district is the overcrowded state of dwelling
apartments. Six, eight, and even ten occupying one room is anything
but uncommon; and these, too, it frequently happens, are lone women,
all employed at the manufactories during the day and huddled together
during the night. Fever finding its way into any of these apartments,
seldom quits it until every member has been attacked. In some
instances of families of eight or ten members, not one individual has
escaped the disease. I believe also that deficient cleanliness (to a
certain extent the result of poverty) and bad ventilation co-operate
with the overcrowded state of the apartments in propagating fever.”