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The physical condition of textile workers
[P. Gaskell, The Manufacturing Population of England. (London, 1833).
pp.161-162, 202-203.
Any man who has stood at twelve o'clock at the single narrow doorway, which serves
as the place of exit for the hands employed in the great
cotton-mills, must acknowledge, that an uglier set of men and women, of boys
and girls, taking them in the mass, it would be impossible to congregate in a
smaller compass. Their complexion is sallow and pallid - with a peculiar flatness
of feature, caused by the want of a proper quantity of adipose substance to cushion
out the cheeks. Their stature low - the average height of four hundred men, measured
at different times, and different places, being five feet six inches. Their limbs
slender, and playing badly and ungracefully. A very general bowing of the legs.
Great numbers of girls and women walking lamely or awkwardly, with raised chests
and spinal flexures. Nearly all have flat feet, accompanied with a down-tread,
differing very widely from the elasticity of action in the foot and ankle, attendant
upon perfect formation. Hair thin and straight - many of the men having but little
beard, and that in patches of a few hairs, much resembling its growth among the
red men of America. A spiritless and dejected air, a sprawling and wide action
of the legs, and an appearance, taken as a whole, giving the world but "little
assurance of a man," or if so, "most sadly cheated of his fair proportions..."
Factory labour is a species of work, in some respects singularly unfitted
for children. Cooped up in a heated atmosphere, debarred the necessary exercise,
remaining in one position for a series of hours, one set or system of muscles
alone called into activity, it cannot be wondered at - that its effects are
injurious to the physical growth of a child. Where the bony system is still
imperfect, the vertical position it is compelled to retain, influences its direction;
the spinal column bends beneath the weight of the head, bulges out laterally,
or is dragged forward by the weight of the parts composing the chest, the pelvis
yields beneath the opposing pressure downwards, and the resistance given by
the thigh-bones; its capacity is lessened, sometimes more and sometimes less;
the legs curve, and the whole body loses height, in consequence of this general
yielding and bending of its parts.
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4 March, 2016
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