“_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:--