Ruptures, rheumatism, diseases of the heart and of other organs, the results of over-exertion in unhealthy places, are common among the persons employed in the mines, as many intelligent persons testified before the commissioners. An employment often pursued under circumstances which bring with them so many and such formidable diseases, must prematurely exhaust the strength of ordinary constitutions; and the evidence collected in almost all the districts proves that too often the collier is a disabled man, with the marks of old age upon him, while other men have scarcely passed beyond their prime. The evidence shows that in South Staffordshire and Shropshire, many colliers are incapable of following their occupation after they are forty years of age; others continue their work up to fifty, which is stated by several witnesses to be about the general average. Mr. Marcy, clerk to the Wellington Union, Salop, states, that "at about forty the greater part of the colliers may be considered as disabled, and regular old men—as much as some are at eighty."[39] Even in Warwickshire and Leicestershire, in which their physical condition is better than in any other districts, Mr. Michael Parker, ground bailiff of the Smithson collieries, states that "some of the men are knocked up at forty-five and fifty, and that fifty may be the average; which early exhaustion of the physical strength he attributes to the severe labour and bad air."[40] Mr. Dalby, surgeon of the Union of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, says—"The work in the pit is very laborious, and some are unable for it as early as fifty, others at forty-five, and some at sixty; I should say the greater part at forty-five."[41] And Mr. Davenport, clerk of the Union of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, gives a higher average, and says that "a collier may wear from sixty-five to seventy, while an agricultural labourer may wear from seventy to seventy-five."[42] Of Derbyshire the sub-commissioner reports—"I have not perceived that look of premature old age so general amongst colliers, _until they are forty years of age_, excepting in the loaders, who evidently appear so at _twenty-eight or thirty_, and this I think must arise from the hardness of their labour, in having such great weights to lift, and breathing a worse atmosphere than any other in the pit."[43] Phoebe Gilbert states—"The loaders are, as the saying is, 'old men before they are young ones.'"[44] Dr. Blake says—"He has also noticed that when a collier has worked from a child, and becomes forty, he looks much older than those of the same age above ground."[45]