GENERAL EFFECTS OF INDUSTRY ON PHYSICAL CONDITION In addition to the influence of these special considerations on the health of girls in factory employment, certain ailments and forms of physical disability which may not of themselves be immediately incapacitating may be induced by the general unfavourable environment of industrial life Amongst such disorders may be classed: 1. Anaemia. 2. Gastric disorders. 3. Nervous affections. 4. Disturbances of menstrual function. Growing girls are particularly liable to these disorders, so that their extent was made the subject of special inquiry. _Anaemia._--The absence of an absolute standard and complete lack of statistical information render the evidence under this heading vague and inconclusive. Most of the Welfare Workers in the various munition factories visited stated that very few girls suffer from anaemia; two or three stated that many girls were anaemic when they started their industrial life, but that after a short time, thanks, as they believed, to better feeding and a regular life, the disorder passed off. On the other hand, the doctors and club workers interviewed were confident that the long hours worked were increasing the proportion of anaemic girls. One doctor, when recording the prevalence of anaemia among industrially employed girls, attributed it to the fatigue following inadequate rest, coupled in many cases with excessive menstruation, due similarly to the fatigue of long hours. There was considerable divergence of opinion as to the age incidence of anaemia, some observers stating that the period immediately following the taking up of employment, 14 to 16, showed the worst record, whilst others found the years 16 to 20 were responsible for most of the anaemia. It is interesting to note that some of the Coventry witnesses found anaemia much reduced since the War, no doubt as a result of the better feeding, and one Welfare Worker stated that only those girls who were found to be eating insufficient food or who came from long distances without breakfast suffered in this way. The textile industry presents a more uniform picture, and there is much evidence to show that a large proportion of the girls employed in the cotton and the worsted trades suffer excessively from this disorder. Some observers state that many girls are anaemic about the age of 12 when they start work, and then again between 18 and 22; others declare that most girls suffer from anaemia at some time between the ages of 13 and 18. As far as the actual sickness returns of the Trade Union Insurance Societies are concerned, it appears that anaemia is more frequent after 21 than before, but these refer to anaemia of such severity that absence from work is necessary, and the Sick Visitors say that many girls under 21 suffer from anaemia for lengthy periods without medical attention or sickness pay.