Much attention has been given of late years in England, France, and Germany to the means of protecting both the workmen and the neighborhood from the ill effects of dangerous and offensive trades, and the reports of the medical officer of the Privy Council and of the Local Government Board are a mine of information on this subject. It may be truthfully asserted that in those trades in which the special danger is caused by dust of various kinds, or by gases, or by metallic poisons--and these three include the greater number of the dangerous occupations--it is almost always possible to so arrange the work as to make it comparatively healthful and harmless. Overcrowded and unventilated workrooms are responsible for much disease, and when to these is added the risk of metallic poisoning, as is the case with printers, artificial-flower {195} makers, etc., bad results are almost sure to follow. It is curious that so comparatively little ill effect seems to be produced by exposure to great heat, as in stokers, foundry-men, glass-blowers, etc.; but further information is needed on this point as to the real facts in the case. In some occupations the chief evils arise from want of out-door exercise, a subject which will be considered presently. The want of useful or interesting occupation sometimes becomes indirectly the cause of disease among the wealthier classes, and the giving a man or woman something to do is in such cases the best prescription which can be made. This danger is especially apt to occur in the case of an active, energetic man who retires from business, intending to spend the rest of his life in pleasure and in the enjoyment of the fruits of his industry: the preventive or remedy is obvious.