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
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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
_Witness._ “As to the circulation of the blood, I should say that it
was more free than amongst persons sitting at a desk; as soon as the
journeyman tailor begins to feel warm and swell, he loosens everything
that he has on; his coat is off, and his shirt neck is open; if he
wears a handkerchief it is very loose; a tailor wears no garters,
nothing that can stop the circulation of the blood: the only
confinement that arises is from the position, which is certainly
sedentary, but he frequently changes it, and puts one leg over the
other when they are tired; they also stretch their legs out. Their
breathing even in the close shops is not noticed as short.”
_M. Patissier._ “Ramazzini says they are very subject to numbness of
the thighs, neuralgic sciatica, and lameness.”
_Witness._ “The tailors are frequently subject to rheumatism, but that
is from going from a hot to the cold open air in the way described.
Men who are generally emaciated will have their legs emaciated too:
the whole frame goes together, but I have never heard young men or
tailors in the middle of life being remarked as deficient in that part
of bodily capability. Those whom I have known to be emaciated have
been spirit drinkers; the emaciation has been more from
spirit-drinking than from the heat of the shop, though one brings on
the other. Some years ago there used to be much racing at about five
o’clock in the morning in the parks, sometimes amongst the tailors
themselves, and sometimes with other runners who had celebrity. The
tailors were generally good competitors and more active than other
workmen in London. There was one of the country tailors at Faversham
who some years ago was considered the first runner in England for a
hundred yards. The tailors have certainly a peculiar walk, but all
whom I have known to be lame were lame originally. When a lad has
anything the matter with him, which occasions him not to be strong
enough for anything working on his feet, it is a common thing to say,
‘Then we must make him a tailor.’ It is a very frequent thing to send
weakly children to be tailors, though it is a bad choice, for the lad
has little chance of recovering himself in the town shops, and a more
open trade would be better for him. Many tailors go for sailors and
soldiers, and they are always thought to be good men. I should think
there are many tailors in the guards.”
_M. Patissier._ “There is sometimes to be observed on the surface of
their skin a psoriform eruption, which by some writers is ascribed to
the irritation of the woollen cloth which these artisans are
continually handling. Guldner, however, considers that this eruption
is produced by their mode of living.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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