In South Wales, "the testimony of medical gentlemen, and of managers and overseers of various works, in which large numbers of children as well as adults are employed, proves that the physical health and strength of children and young persons is deteriorated by their employment at the early ages and in the works before enumerated."[23] Mr. Jonathan Isaacs, agent of the Top Hill colliery:—"I have noticed that the children of miners, who are sent to work, do not grow as they ought to do; they get pale in their looks, are weak in their limbs, and any one can distinguish a collier's child from the children of other working people."[24] Mr. P. Kirkhouse, oversman to the Cyfarthfa collieries and ironstone mines, on this point observes—"The infantine ages at which children are employed cranks (stunts) their growth, and injures their constitution."[25] John Russell, surgeon to the Dowlais Iron Works:—"In stature, I believe a difference to exist in the male youth from twelve to sixteen, employed in the mines and collieries, compared with those engaged in other works, the former being somewhat stunted; and this difference (under some form or other) seems still perceptible in the adult miners and colliers."[26] A crippled gait, often connected with positive deformity, is one of the frequent results of slaving in the mines. In Derbyshire, the children who have worked in the collieries from a very early age are stated to be bow-legged.[27] In the West Riding of Yorkshire, "after they are turned forty-five or fifty, they walk home from their work almost like cripples; stiffly stalking along, often leaning on sticks, bearing the visible evidences in their frame and gait of overstrained muscles and over-taxed strength. Where the lowness of the gates induces a very bent posture, I have observed an inward curvature of the spine; and chicken-breasted children are very common among those who work in low, thin coal-mines."[28] Mr. Uriah Bradbury, surgeon, Mirfield:—"Their knees never stand straight, like other people's."[29] Mr. Henry Hemmingway, surgeon, Dewsbury:—"May be distinguished among crowds of people, by the bending of the spinal column."[30] Mr. William Sharp, surgeon, Bradford:—"There are occasionally cases of deformity."[31]