Report to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State For the Home Department, from the Poor Law Commissioners, on an Inquiry Into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain; With AppendicesChadwick, Edwin
History
Report to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State For the Home Department, from the Poor Law Commissioners, on an Inquiry Into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain; With Appendices
Chadwick, Edwin
Housing -- Great Britain; Public health -- Great Britain
“In such shops were there many superannuated men, or men above 50
years of age?—Very few. Amongst the tailors employed in the shops, I
should say there were not 10 men in the hundred above 50 years of age.
“When they die, what becomes of their widows and children, as they
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.
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