Chapter XXXVII: Appendix (5)

There exist in Paris some thousands of individuals who have no domicile—who sleep to-day in one place, the next day in another—and who have recourse every evening to those houses where, for a payment usually very moderate, they can at least obtain a place to lie in, and a covering for their heads. It is not only strangers living temporarily in Paris who lodge in this manner; a mass of workmen, mostly single men, who have not stirred from the capital for ten, fifteen, and twenty years, prefer this kind of life to the occupation of a separate chamber. It may be affirmed, without fear of contradiction, that this population comprises all that is most drunken and debased in society. It is composed of people without foresight, and without a home, living from day to day, and trusting to the hospitals in the case of sickness or infirmity. It is in the lowest places in these disgusting haunts in which a person is lodged for six, four, and even for two sous, that the greater part of the prostitutes reside, who can scarcely, after purchasing food, lay aside from their daily gains the trifling sum necessary to avert sleeping in the open air. I have visited some of these lodgings, and it was not without a feeling of pain that I have seen human creatures reduced to live in such places, and that in the capital of France. To give a just idea of these abodes, I will extract some passages from the remarkable report which the inspector-general of furnished lodgings addressed to the prefect of police at the time of the cholera. It tells of nothing but houses in ruin, of straw for beds in a state of putrefaction, of darkness, of infectious smells, of filth without example. These are some of the passages:—

“Rue ——, No. —. This house is remarkable for its excessive dirt. It is a genuine centre of infection. It is inhabited solely by thieves, smugglers, beggars, and prostitutes. It is impossible to enter without being suffocated.

“Rue ——, No. —. This house fixes the attention by its construction and filth. There are no beds, except some loathsome pallets; animal remains, intestines, and the refuse of meals, are rotting in the court; all the chambers look on a corridor completely deprived of air and light; the sinks and the privies of every story are loathsome from ordure and fecal matter. It is the hideous abode of vice and misery.

“Rue ——, No. —. The court of this house is four feet square, and is full of dung; the chambers, crowded with occupants, open on it; the privies, dilapidated to the fifth floor, let the fecal matter fall upon the staircase, which is covered with it to the bottom. Many of the rooms have no other aperture than the door which opens upon this staircase. The house is the resort of sharpers, of thieves, of the most filthy prostitutes, and of everything that is most abject both of men and women.

“Rue du Faubourg ——, No. —. A house occupied from top to bottom by chiffonniers, mendicants, street-organists, street-walkers, and Italian boys, who go about with animals. All these sleep upon rags picked from the street, and of which there is a depôt on the ground-floor. More complete abjectness it is impossible to witness.

“Rue ——, No. —. This house is the resort of all that is most abased. It is exclusively inhabited by thieves, prostitutes, discharged criminals, beggars, vagabonds, gamesters, and every species of rogues. The greatest filth reigns everywhere; the windows are made of oiled paper instead of glass; the rooms are infected; at each story the ordure of the privies flows upon the staircase.”[58]

Another French writer, M. Frégier, has given the following description of the external appearance of these abodes:—“The streets, not, at farthest, more than eight feet wide, are dirty, and flanked by lofty houses, four stories high, which are blackened by time. The height of the houses renders the streets gloomy and damp, and the houses themselves are dark, particularly on the ground-floor. Spirit shops, beer shops, and low eating houses abound. The gloom of these shops, joined to the repulsive physiognomy of the streets, infuse a secret horror into the visitor who is led there by the spirit of observation, and who knows that the greater part of the shops are the habitual resort of the lowest prostitutes, and of rogues that live in the neighbourhood. The lodgings and places of dissipation frequented by this part of the population are worthy, from their filth, of the streets and quarters in which they are situated.”[59]

20.-_Extract from the Report of the Commission appointed by the Central
Board of Public Health to ascertain the Condition of the Dwellings of
the Working Classes in Brussels, and to suggest Means for their
Improvement._

Our inquiries have led us more particularly into the most populous and miserable districts into which the working classes are continually crowding, in proportion as new and elegant buildings have encroached upon the districts within the heart of the capital, formerly almost exclusively occupied by those classes. We have visited successively, in the district of _Minimes_, the _rue des Pignons_, and _de la Samaritane_, the _cul-de-sac des Minimes_, the alley _des Prêtres_, _les rues de l’Epris_, _du Bourreau_, _de la Oventail_, &c.; in the district _de la Chapelle_, _les rues des Ménages_, _du Radro_, _de la Rasière_, _des Rats_, _du Renard_, &c.; in the district _de la rue d’Anderlecht_, _la rue des Navets_, and the alley _au Lait_. We entered into a great number of the dwellings. We not only inquired, but also inspected, in order that we might ascertain the truth of the statements which were made to us. In now presenting the results of this inquiry, we do not hesitate to call your attention to the very important facts which have been gathered, at the same time that we ask your indulgence for the imperfect manner in which we have been able to perform the duties committed to our zeal and exertions.

The misery of the localities we have visited struck us immediately, from their appearance of uniform poverty. The streets and alleys, at all times dirty and ill-paved, in times of rain or thaw had the appearance of a pestilential mire; the water had no means of running off, and the smallness of the passages, the absence of courts or gardens, the crowding of families, and the detestable modes of building, rendered all circulation of air or ventilation quite impossible. The most indispensable conveniences were entirely wanting in most of the houses. They had no pumps, nor privies, nor sewers, except one in common. Indeed, we saw seventy houses that were provided with only one pump or one privy for the whole of that number.

If you enter the houses, the spectacle which is there presented to your view is, if anything, still more wretched. If the arrangement and order to be seen in some of the rooms recall the proverbial neatness of the Flemish, on the other hand, the houses occupied by large families, the alleys, the passages, and the stairs, are generally disgustingly filthy; the brush of the whitewasher never passes along them, or if they are ever cleaned, it is only to attract new tenants, who soon restore them to their primitive dirtiness. The steepness of the stairs, which, indeed, are often more like ladders, must be a perpetual cause of accidents, especially to the young children. The space occupied by a family is generally much too confined for each of the members to receive the quantity of fresh air necessary for the preservation of health. Hence their appearance is generally that of suffering and of bad condition. The children are pale and emaciated, and bear all the visible signs of premature suffering. The number of those who are rickety and scrofulous is considerable, and the mortality amongst the children and the aged exceeds all the most unfavourable averages. As we pass along these receptacles of misery, we feel astonished to see so few old people; an early death has carried them beyond their wretchedness: and if inquiries are made of parents, there are few who have not lost one or more children. It would be important to compare the proportion of deaths in the families of the rich and of the indigent. There is little doubt that this comparison would prove that misery, the want of proper air and space, the occupations of these people, and privations of every sort, sensibly diminish the period of life of the working classes.

In these wretched habitations everything is sacrificed generally to the rapacity of the proprietor. Every repair which affects the health or the comfort of the tenant merely, and that is not necessary to prevent the total ruin of the dwelling, is entirely neglected. What is the use of cleaning the walls for people whose habits are filthy? Why make windows for the entrance of air and light, or repair a sewer, or cleanse an alley covered with stagnant water, for people who are accustomed to pestilential smells? It is what a proprietor can never understand. Do not believe, however, that these dreadful abodes are rented at their proper value. On the contrary, the unfortunate people obliged to live in these houses, because all better ones are closed against them, in reality pay a higher rent than for a wholesome room in a good house.

21. _Principles of Sanitary Police in Germany. Extracts from Professor_
MOHL.

It is one important duty of a State to provide abundant supplies of water for its people; and this duty is based on the impossibility, in many cases, for individuals by their own exertions to procure even the barest necessary quantity of water, and also that it requires much skill to distinguish that which is of a good quality from that which is injurious. The State ought, therefore, to provide water of the best quality in sufficient abundance, and to arrange also for its most extensive distribution: this is often attended with great difficulties and with much expense, if the district is naturally ill-supplied with springs of water; or where a town, being large, requires more water than its own surface springs, or those of the immediate neighbourhood, can supply. Without maintaining that the example given us by ancient nations, of munificent expenditure in the laying out of aqueducts, &c., is one which we, therefore, are obliged to follow, yet it may be demanded of the State, that it should provide water, at least so far as the absolute wants of life require, by aqueducts or pipes, or at least by cisterns, laid down at the public expense. For the sake of the poorer classes, it does not seem advisable that this duty should be handed over to a private company.[60]

An injudicious economy on this point affects most injuriously the habits of cleanliness, and consequently the health of the lower classes. Water is properly distributed when every district is provided with an abundance of springs or wells. Loss of time, danger of fire, difficulties in the time of contagious diseases, are the consequences of the wells being few in number, even though each one should furnish a large stream of water.

It is a well-known fact, that locality has a great effect on the life and health of the inhabitants, and especially according as it offers the means of proper circulation of air or not. Thus, elevated situations are generally more healthy than places shut in by hills. In towns, those parts which are traversed by broad streets, are always more healthy than those which are so closely covered with houses as never to be properly ventilated, or where the sun can never penetrate to dry up the moisture; but an ill-drained situation is the most injurious to health.

The healthiness of a whole town is often essentially improved by the formation of a single sewer or drain: in other places, it requires very extended operations to produce the same effect. We may include amongst the various influences, the ditches surrounding the cities filled with stagnant water; by draining these, not only a purer air is gained, but also a fertile piece of land. It ought to be remarked here, however, that this work of draining water, and the removal of the mud, ought to be done in the cold season; if not, dangerous fevers will in all probability be the consequence.

The foul air arising from marshy land, when that is necessary, as in the cultivation of rice, is an evil for which there is no remedy.[61]

Another means of improving the healthiness of a town, is by proper attention to the breadth, and to the direction of the streets in all the new quarters of the town. The streets ought to intersect, each other at right angles, and not at too great distances: the direction of the streets, also, should not run due north and south, as in that case the streets lying parallel in one direction, would be scorched by the sun, and without any shade during mid-day; whilst the streets running at right angles to these, would never be warmed by a ray of sunshine.

The health of towns would also be much improved by the prohibition of all cellars as dwelling-houses, by legislative enactments as to the elevation of the ground-floor of dwelling-houses above the level of the streets, also as to the construction of proper conveniences attached to dwelling-houses; and by regulations with regard to the proper size of windows: also by regulations regarding the strictest cleanliness of the streets, as this is more important in its effects on the health generally, than even the situation of a town, or attention to its mode of building. By attention to it, Holland is inhabitable; by the neglect of it, Cairo and Constantinople are the very hot-beds of the plague.

The first means to attain this cleanliness is by a proper paving of all the streets, in order to lay the district dry. Without this, the streets are either a stream of mud, or a sea of dust; in both cases equally injurious to the health. It is often expensive to get a hard material for the purpose of pavement; but when obtained, the expense of keeping it in repair is much less. When it is possible, the streets should be kept clean, by turning on them a stream of water,—the drains being always kept well open to receive it afterwards. Every inhabitant should be obliged to keep the portion of the street clean before his own door. The refuse of the town ought to be conveyed away, at the expense of the town, to some part of the country, removed from all dwelling-houses.

22.—_A Report on the Statements of Dr. Mauthner regarding the Cotton
Manufactures, given at the Monthly Meeting on the 2nd of November, 1841.
By_ Herr L. M. VON PACHER.

At the meeting of the 7th of June, Dr. Mauthner sent in a report on the condition of the children employed in the cotton-works, in which he gave an exposition of the evidence, partly of his own experience and partly on the reports of others, of the moral and physical evils which the various branches of manufacture bring with them, and proposals were put into the hands of the owners of the mills for preventing the evils so strongly denounced.

The learned meeting determined to appoint a special commission to inquire into so grave and important a matter. This body held its first meeting on the 29th of July, at which our much-esteemed chairman presided, and I had the honour to be commissioned to inquire into that part of the report of Dr. Mauthner which treats more particularly of the effects of the cotton manufactures.

Before I enter upon the discussion on the special points of inquiry, permit me to lay before you a few general remarks on the nature of our inquiry, and of the condition of the people employed in the cotton-works, more particularly of Lower Austria. It must first be conceded that the condition of the children working in the factories is closely connected with the condition of the rest of the working population, and cannot be considered separately. Our president felt the necessity of considering them in connexion throughout the various parts of the inquiry which he had proposed to himself; and, before the commencement of our inquiry, it was generally agreed that our attention should extend also to the condition of the adult workpeople.

We could not conceal from ourselves that we were undertaking a subject at once the most important and the most delicate,—an inquiry which might disclose to the general public that the unhappy signs of the times were to be seen in our affairs, and which also, without cause, might alarm a very excitable class as to their own condition. English and French journals are full of the most striking descriptions of the physical and moral evils of the manufacturing population; and not without ground, as we learn from the various commissions of inquiry appointed by the respective governments. With your permission I will quote a passage from a report which the Commission de l’Intendance Sanataire du Nord drew up in the year 1832, and which unfortunately has not been found exaggerated even in later periods. It is word for word as follows:—

“No one without personal inspection can form any conception of the dwellings of our workpeople: the neglect in which they live brings evils with it which makes their misery unbearable, indeed almost fatal. Their poverty, by the negligence and demoralization which produces it, becomes almost destructive. In their dark cellars, in their cellar-like rooms, the air is never changed; it is perfectly poisonous. The walls are covered with filth. If a bed is ever found, it is always filthy, and made up of foul and rotten straw. It is covered with a coarse and dirty rag, the colour or material of which can hardly be distinguished; it is a miserable threadbare coverlet. The dirty and worm-eaten pieces of furniture and utensils are thrown about without any order; the closed windows scarcely allow any light to pass through their smoky panes, many of which are stuffed with paper, and (it will hardly be credited) they not unfrequently nail the window fast in order that it may run no risk of being broken in the opening and shutting of it. The floors of their houses are dirtier than the rest of the house, covered with ordure, ashes, rotten straw, and all that has been brought in from the filthy streets outside; it is a receptacle for every kind of vermin. The air is no longer fit to breathe; one feels in these abodes stunned with an overpowering and horrible stench, a smell of excrement, filth of every kind, and of human beings. And the inhabitant of these abodes, in what state is he? His clothes are in rags, and tossed on. His hair has never known a comb, and is covered with the material with which he is working; and his skin, though filthy, is yet distinguishable on his face, but on the other part of his body, concealed by his rags, there are accumulations of every kind. Nothing is so fearfully dirty as the old and wrinkled of these demoralised creatures. Their abdomens distended, their limbs distorted, their backs bent forward, their legs twisted, their necks scarred and full of swellings, their fingers festered, their joints swollen and weak, and, lastly, these unfortunate creatures are tormented, we may say eaten up, with vermin of all kinds.”

These descriptions were given by M. de Chambert, Boglli, Brigaudet, Kulman, and Themistocles Lestibuwers. I shall be excused for having given this long and disgusting extract, as it shows clearly what was the state and the evils which could call forth those general and loud complaints, and which made it a duty for government to take the matter into consideration. The whole picture is too wretched to be brought into the most distant comparison with the condition of the poorest of our workpeople, who are in general well fed and decently clothed, and show in the furniture of their cleanly-kept houses the fruits of their small earnings. They, together with their children, enjoy excellent health, and in general deserve the character of being a sober, industrious, orderly, tractable, and attached class. But a large population of workpeople, living entirely on the daily labour of their hands, wanting many things in external circumstances which, to the eye accustomed to luxury and abundance, are considered indispensable, under the continual pressure of strict regulations and continuous labour, is not a very enviable picture to the superficial observer, and often gives occasion to many unfounded lamentations and ill-timed apprehensions, if not to one-sided measures, which are, however, powerless against the stern necessity of supporting thousands of human beings, which are disturbing when they shake the established order of things, and are destructive when they make a happy and quiet class of workpeople discontented with their lot.

The cotton-works in Lower Austria, which are almost all situated within a circle of a few miles around Vienna, employ about 10,000 hands, for whose accommodation solid and roomy dwellings have been erected for the most part at the same time as the works were established.

Most of the mills have not only a considerable number of dwellings for the married workers, but large, separate sleeping-rooms for the unmarried of both sexes, which are provided with beds, and lighted and warmed at the expense of the mill. When the larger and older mills were built, there was erected for the boys and girls a so-called children’s house, in which, at that time, the children were provided at the expense of the mill with food, clothes, and instruction, and who were bound by certain regulations issued by the government, and were placed under the inspection of the respective clergyman and physician of the district. After the works were extended, they found they were obliged to give up these institutions; and they now drew the requisite number of hands, partly from the descendants of their own people, and partly from the children of the country people, who, in the course of time, becoming informed as to the condition of the children in the factories, send their own children after they are too big for home employment and to go to school, to work in the mills for a certain number of years; after which, however, they generally return to their agricultural labour. On the confines of Hungary, on a Sunday evening, hundreds of young, robust, and healthy workpeople, carrying with them the provisions for the week, may be seen coming to the mill, whence, on the Saturday evening, they may be seen going in merry groups carrying their wages back to their own homes. For these, and all who do not live with their parents, decent and proper rooms are provided, sometimes in that which used to be the children’s house, or in other places equally under inspection.

The employment in cotton mills, and more especially of the children, requires attention, and a certain quickness or sleight of hand more than any bodily exertion. The whole of the hands are employed in roomy and light apartments, which in summer are well ventilated, and in winter warmed with great regularity, and there is nothing in the material, nor in the processes of the manufacture, which can be injurious to the health. The hours of work, which are generally from four to five in the morning to seven or eight in the evening, are interrupted by three meal-times; and on Saturday the mill is closed from three to four hours earlier. The weekly wages of boys and girls are from 3 to 5 florins, and those of the adults from 6 to 18, besides a house free; and it is not only sufficient for their wants, but gives them also the means of laying by a little saving, examples of which are not unfrequent.

Under these circumstances the health is not, and cannot be, anything else than extremely good; the large number of old who are still robust and in employment, the experience and evidence of all the physicians who practise amongst the mill population, the result of the reports of the district physician, but above all, the healthy state they were in during several epidemics, and also the small proportion of deaths as seen in the parish register, all afford the most striking evidence of the fact of their healthiness. Every noxious circumstance must undoubtedly bear with it the traces of its evil; street riots, mobs of workpeople, and excesses of all kinds, breaches of the law and criminal acts, numerous and open concubinage, large numbers of illegitimate children (in many manufacturing towns amounting to one-fourth of the whole births), and, lastly, the large numbers of entirely destitute and disabled workpeople who seek for assistance from the parish and from all charities; these are the melancholy signs which mark in England and France the state of the manufacturing population.

In the course of 40 years, during which the Austrian manufactures have arisen so near to the capital, and have been well watched by the police, such moral and physical deterioration of so large a population could not have escaped notice; but I ask where are those incontrovertible signs which an hospital or a workhouse more frequently attended or applied to by the mill population than by any other poor class of the community would be? where are those prevailing diseases? where is the increased mortality? and, lastly, where are the traces of moral and mental degradation? Certainly it would be unjust to throw the stone at those who have linked with the unavoidable demands of business circumstances which might be measured by the scale of a more fortunate and independent existence.

Dr. Mauthner states, “that the weakness of the body and constitution of the children employed in the great cotton-works in the neighbourhood is very striking.

“1st. That the race of men employed in those establishments is much less robust than that of the peasantry of the neighbouring villages.

“2nd. That bauchscropheln and scrophuleuse consumption are not uncommon; that inflammatory diseases are very rare.

“3rd. That premature old age and early death is the common fate.”

Even supposing that since the establishment of the spinning-works there could have been created a peculiar race of people, still the supposition could not prove more than that the constitution of the workers had been modified by their employment and their mode of living, since experience shows that the duration of life is not shorter than that of the other working classes.

2dly. That the above-mentioned diseases principally affect children of the earliest age, the former about the fifth year, the last about the seventh year; and that it is to be premised that the children who never work in the mill before their ninth year, come sometimes with the disease already developed upon them. The children of the mill hands are, indeed, less attacked by this disease than the children of the poor agricultural labourer, because they are generally better housed and clothed than these. That inflammatory diseases seldom appear is no sign of a weak constitution, since, on the one hand, these seldom appear amongst children; and, on the other hand, they do show themselves amongst the adults, whenever there are external influences and inducing circumstances to produce them; and all the physicians practising in the cotton-works agree in stating that, with the exception of rheumatic affections, there are no peculiar forms of disease amongst the cotton-spinning population.

3rdly. As to the statement of premature old age and early deaths, it is one which is contradicted by all the experience of half a century. The registers of deaths made by the clergymen of the parishes give the most exact information as to the proportion of deaths. The results of these are,

1st. That the number of deaths, especially amongst the manufacturing people, is proportionally less than amongst the agricultural labourers;

2nd. That, as amongst other classes, the deaths are the most numerous of children under two years;

3rd. That between the age of 12 and 16 there are the fewest deaths;

4th. That there are a great many between 60 and 70.

The means proposed by Dr. Mauthner for obtaining a better physical and moral state are,

1st. Shortening the hours of labour;

2ndly. Interrupting the hours of labour by school instruction: on both which points there could be no discussion, since these are already provided for by the law.

With regard to the long working hours, which certainly appear very oppressive to the unemployed spectator, long habit has accustomed the workers to them, and they do not produce any perceptible injury, more especially as the people are paid in proportion to the time they are employed. It is to be remembered that there remain eight hours for rest, none of which are spent in going and coming to their homes, as is the case in other countries, as, for instance, in Mulhausen, where one-third of the workers live from one to two miles from the mill.

It is not during the hours of well-regulated and orderly employment that there is any danger of demoralization, but during the leisure hours. Villermé, in his valuable work on the _Etat Physique et Morale des Ouvriers_, states that the moral and physical deterioration of the manufacturing class in Rheims, where they only work from 10 to 12 hours, is most striking. The hours of work being ended, the people fill the taverns and the streets with prostitutes, whilst the workers from the numerous manufactories of Sedan, who work 15 hours, are sober, moral, and orderly. He mentions also that few manufactories employ so many robust hands as the spinning works at Sedan.

3dly. To employ more than one spinner to attend to a new spinning machine which turns a greater number of spindles.

It would in general be well to trust to the manufacturer the number of workers he should employ, as his interest compels him to use a requisite number of hands. In this particular case it ought to be stated that, owing to the progress of machinery, the spinner having 800 or 1000 spindles has less labour than formerly, when he had only 300 spindles to attend to.

4thly. That the children, and mill hands generally, should be kept in good order, by sick funds and savings’ banks.

In most works there is established a kind of sick fund, to which each hand contributes weekly from 1 to 2 _kr._ for every guilder they earn; or there are voluntary contributions to those who are invalided; or, lastly, when they receive medical advice gratis, they have this fund to expend in medicines. If this fund is sufficient to assist the sick, it is not enough to support those in old age, and they must of necessity depend on that help which they are entitled to as being the fathers of families; and indeed every country mill can count many families amongst the workers in which an aged father or mother is supported by their children.

The formation of regulations, binding on all and applicable to all cases, as to the employment of children in mills, together with all other regulations which affect the internal arrangements of a manufactory, is incontestibly attended with many difficulties, and indeed one might say with insuperable obstacles. French legislation has employed itself three years with this object. The law has appeared, and we have read it in our public journals. In the leading principles it does not seem to contain anything but what has been in practice in Austria for many years, though of our proceedings in regard to minute details may be said what the minister of finance prognosticated in the Chamber of Peers on the 31st May, 1837, when he said, “At different times government has felt the necessity of a similar law. It has occupied itself with it, and made every inquiry on the subject, but the law itself presents extreme difficulties: many countries have attempted one; England has even passed a law on this subject, but it is not observed.”

The interests of the children, it is repeated, have been protected by the regulations issued by the government of Lower Austria, the last of which were issued on July 16, 1839. For the moral and mental development of the labourer in general there is only one great panacea: this lies in the extension of trade, in the security and steadiness of employment, and in the power of the labourer to maintain himself and his children comfortably and respectably with the work of his own hands.

It is to be hoped that our manufacturers will progress in the gradual and prudent course which is equally removed from stupid and blind adherence to old things, as from the spirit of hasty imitation and the headlong pursuit of novelties. We shall then not have to fear the creation of a dissolute and depraved class of workpeople, as we see in other countries. For the rest, trust to the wise care of our government—trust to the sound sense and excellent disposition of our labourers—and, above all, trust something to the humanity and to the opinions of the manufacturers of Austria themselves.

_Remarks on the Cotton Manufactory in Schwadorf._

There is here, under the superintendence of the master of the works, a sick-fund for the workpeople, to which every man, woman, and child together must contribute 1½ _xr._ kreutzer for every guilder they receive in wages; for this they obtain not only for themselves, but also for the members of their families who do not come to the mill (such as the little children and the mothers), gratuitous medical advice and medicines; and, further, the _men_, when they are prevented from coming to the mill by sickness, receive a 12–kreutzer per day.

The number of hands is on an average 170 men, 220 women and adult girls, and 100 children; total, 550 individuals.

The amount of contribution to the relief-fund was, in

1839 f.380·4 per day 62 _xr._
1840 f.410·56 per day 67 _xr._

Though on an average from five to six men of the 170 employed are prevented from coming to their work, yet of these there are _four_ who have received support from the fund, on account of the infirmities of age and incurable diseases, for many years; so that, on an average, there is only from one to two who are prevented from coming to their work by sickness.[62] A part of the above-mentioned 550 mill hands live in the adjacent district; these, when they cannot come to the medical man belonging to the factory, are attended by the surgeon of the district; but then, on the other hand, there must be set against these the members of the families who do not work at the mill, as above-mentioned, and which are about equal in number. Indeed, the number of those coming for medical advice of the factory physician, and to which the following tables relate, may be from 600 to 700. The total population of Schwadorf is about 1700, of which, on an average of the last 10 years, according to the parish register, 62 died annually. Of these, according to the register kept by the factory physician, only 13, on an average, were from the mill population; at least, as it appears in the last seven years, during which the present physician has attended.

Attended. Died.
1834 1211 23 (N.B. Cholera.)
1835 852 10
1836 653 15
1837 540 14
1838 394 12
1839 298 6
1840 345 10
———— ——
4293 90
———— ——
Average 617 13

A Special View of the state of Sickness in the years 1839, 1840.

┌─────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Diseases. │ Treated. │ ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┤ │ │ 1839. │ 1840. │ ├─────────────┼────┬──────┬─────────┬──────┼────┬──────┬─────────┬──────┤ │ │Men.│Women.│Children.│Total.│Men.│Women.│Children.│Total.│ ├─────────────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┤ │Inflammation │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ and │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ consumption│ 10│ 17│ 10│ 37│ 35│ 19│ 10│ 64│ │Nervous fever│ 19│ 4│ │ 23│ 8│ 9│ │ 17│ │Diseases of │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ the first │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ class │ 23│ 25│ 7│ 55│ 34│ 18│ 19│ 71│ │Chronic │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ disease of │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ the skin │ 15│ 11│ 5│ 31│ 12│ 9│ 14│ 35│ │Bleeding and │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ other │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ cleansings │ 5│ 16│ 3│ 24│ 3│ 13│ │ 16│ │Swelling of │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ the │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ scutiformed│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ glandule │ │ 10│ │ 10│ │ 6│ │ 6│ │Consumption │ │ 2│ │ 2│ │ 2│ │ 2│ │Spasms or │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ convulsions│ │ 15│ 6│ 21│ 1│ 10│ 10│ 21│ │Green │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ sickness │ │ 20│ │ 20│ │ 30│ │ 30│ │Rheumatism │ 5│ 7│ │ 12│ 4│ 6│ │ 10│ │Worms │ 3│ 2│ 22│ 27│ │ 3│ 20│ 23│ │Water in the │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ head │ │ │ 4│ 4│ │ │ 14│ 14│ │Scrofula │ │ │ 2│ 2│ │ │ 3│ 3│ │Sundries │ 5│ 11│ 2│ 18│ │ 20│ │ 20│ ├─────────────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┤ │ Total │ 83│ 143│ 70│ 298│ 100│ 145│ 100│ 345│ └─────────────┴────┴──────┴─────────┴──────┴────┴──────┴─────────┴──────┘

┌─────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Diseases. │ Deaths. │ ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┤ │ │ 1839. │ 1840. │ ├─────────────┼────┬──────┬─────────┬──────┼────┬──────┬─────────┬──────┤ │ │Men.│Women.│Children.│Total.│Men.│Women.│Children.│Total.│ ├─────────────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┤ │Inflammation │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ and │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ consumption│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Nervous fever│ │ │ │ │ 1│ │ │ 1│ │Diseases of │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ the first │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ class │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Chronic │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ disease of │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ the skin │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Bleeding and │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ other │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ cleansings │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Swelling of │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ the │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ scutiformed│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ glandule │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Consumption │ │ 2│ 1│ 3│ │ 2│ 1│ 3│ │Spasms or │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ convulsions│ 1│ │ 1│ 2│ │ │ 2│ 2│ │Green │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ sickness │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Rheumatism │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Worms │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Water in the │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ head │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 3│ 3│ │Scrofula │ │ │ 1│ 1│ │ │ 1│ 1│ │Sundries │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├─────────────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┤ │ Total │ 1│ 2│ 3│ 6│ 1│ 2│ 7│ 10│ └─────────────┴────┴──────┴─────────┴──────┴────┴──────┴─────────┴──────┘

Although the number of deaths only includes those who lived in the village of Schwadorf itself, yet under the “treated” are included also all those from the neighbourhood whose illness was not too great to prevent them coming to Schwadorf for medical advice. It further ought to be remarked upon the apparently large number of cases of sickness, that as the people have medical advice and medicine gratis, that they come for it on the slightest illness, and the more so as not only the master of the works but also the physician encourages them as much as possible to do so, convinced that in most cases, by timely aid, more serious illnesses are prevented. Lastly, it is to be understood that these memoranda or notices have not been made for any special object, but only for our own information.

_Remarks on the Factories in Neunkirchen._

1. _Screw Works._ There exists in connexion with this mill a sick-fund, in which, however, the hands dwelling out of Neunkirchen do not participate. Those who live in Neunkirchen pay to this fund weekly 1 _xr._ for every guilder they earn as wages. They receive for this medical advice and medicine gratis; and if they cannot come to work, the following relief, namely, (those under Wr. Wf. fl. 4½ weekly wages have nothing)

From fl. 4½ to 6 daily 20 _xr._ W. W.
6 to 9 daily 24 _xr._ W. W.
Over 9 daily 30 _xr._ W. W.

Those Croatians who live in their houses do not receive any quota from the sick-fund, but are, of course, attended. As to those who are out of the district, they also receive medical advice gratis, if they can come to the factory physician, even though they do not contribute to the sick-fund. Only few have families, but these also, in case of sickness, receive medical assistance.

The number of hands varies considerably from 200 to 300; on an average about 250; of these may be,

Men and adults 180
Women 20
Children from 13 to 17 years 50

The total contribution to the relief-fund was, in the

Year 1839, W. W. fl. 190·48, or 31 _x._ per day.
1840, W. W. fl. 250·50, or 41 _x._ per day.

Also on an average one or two individuals could not work on account of illness.

To both the spinning works of Herrn von Eltz and Herrn Roulet there is attached a sick-fund, the exact rules of which I am not acquainted with. In the print-works of Dubois, Dupasquier, and Co., the printers have a sick-fund amongst themselves, out of which the hands in work assist those who are unable to work, according to the circumstances. Since the hands in the screw-works are not, like the spinners, a steady, fixed class of workers, but a more fluctuating class, since it often happens that members of the same family are employed in different factories, and it is difficult to separate into heads the number of individuals who have received medical aid; the annexed table for 1840 will give a tolerably correct view of the state of sickness in the various works, only with regard however to the numbers working, leaving the other members of the family out of consideration. It is to be observed here, that the physician by whom these statements have been drawn up is appointed exclusively to the screw-works and the two spinning manufactories. The hands from the print-works go also to other physicians, of whom there are several in Neunkirchen; hence is explained the apparently small number of persons from the print-works who have received medical aid from him.

Screw works of Spinning works of Print works of Von
Brevillier and Co. Frid. Eltz and Dubois,
Carl Roulet Dupasquier, and
together. Co.

───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
About 180 men 160 men 180 men
20 women 200 women 90 women
50 children 150 children 90 children
——— ——— ———
250 persons. 510 persons. 360 persons.

In 1840,
having
received
medical
treatment:

Catarrh 14 30 8 Rheumatism. 88 40 20 Gastric 12 25 4 Intermittent 5 16 3 fever Nervous fever 3 10 3 Inflammations 16 36 10 Various 17 36 8 diseases Scrofula 0 8 0 Accidents 7 12 4 ——— ——— ——— 92 213 60

Deaths in the screw works 1 man, tubercles in the lungs.
Deaths in the screw works 1 man, inflammation of the lungs.
Deaths in the spinning works 1 man, tubercles in the lungs.
Deaths in the print works 1 man, apoplexy.
Deaths in the print works 1 man, fatal accident.
—
5 men.

A Tabular View of the Deaths in the various Spinning Manufactories, as a
means of comparing them with the Deaths occurring in the rest of the
Population, taken from the Registers of Deaths in the under-mentioned
Parishes.

┌───────┬───────────┬───────────┬───────┬──────────┬───────────┐ │ │ │ Total │ │Proportion│ Spinning │ │ Year. │ Parish. │Population.│Deaths.│of Deaths │ Works. │ │ │ │ │ │per Cent. │ │ ├───────┼───────────┼───────────┼───────┼──────────┼───────────┤ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├───────┼───────────┼───────────┼───────┼──────────┼───────────┤ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1840 │Günselsdorf│ 1,500│ 48│ 3.2│Teesdorf │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1840 │Pottendorf │ 4,000│ 157│ 4.0│Pottendorf │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1840 │Pottenstein│ 3,000│ 111│ 3.7│Fatnafeld │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 10 │Schönau │ 860│ 354│ 4.1│Schönau │ │ years │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 10 │Sollenau │ 750│ 288│ 3.8│Sollenau │ │ years │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ The │ │ │ │ │ │ │average│Schwadorf │ 1,700│ 62│ 3.7│Schwadorf │ │ of 7 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ years │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │Steinabürkl│ 640│ 33│ 2.5│Steinabürkl│ │2 years│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │Teresimfeld│ 1,200│ 78│ 3.3│Felydorf │ │2 years│ │ │ │ │ │ ├───────┼───────────┼───────────┼───────┼──────────┼───────────┤ │ │ Total │ 13,650│ 1,131│ 3.8│ │ └───────┴───────────┴───────────┴───────┴──────────┴───────────┘

┌───────┬───────────┬───────┬──────────┬──────────────────────────────┐ │ │ Mill │ │Proportion│ Age of Death of the Mill │ │ Year. │Population.│Deaths.│of Deaths │ Population. │ │ │ │ │per Cent. │ │ ├───────┼───────────┼───────┼──────────┼──────┬───────┬───────┬───────┤ │ │ │ │ │Under │Between│Between│Between│ │ │ │ │ │ 3 │3 and 6│6 and 9│10 and │ │ │ │ │ │years.│years. │years. │ 14 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │years. │ ├───────┼───────────┼───────┼──────────┼──────┼───────┼───────┼───────┤ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1840 │ 700│ 21│ 3.0│ 9│ │ │ 1│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1840 │ 1,200│ 42│ 3.5│ 13│ 4│ 3│ 3│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1840 │ 500│ 19│ 3.8│ 11│ 1│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 10 │ 300│ 132│ 3.4│ 46│ 6│ 5│ 23│ │ years │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 10 │ 360│ 115│ 3.2│ 59│ 1│ 8│ 5│ │ years │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ The │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │average│ 550│ 13│ 2.3│ │ │ │ │ │ of 7 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ years │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │ 394│ 16│ 2.0│ 13│ │ 1│ │ │2 years│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │ 700│ 28│ 2.0│ 19│ │ │ 2│ │2 years│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├───────┼───────────┼───────┼──────────┼──────┼───────┼───────┼───────┤ │ │ 4,704│ 386│ 3.3│ 170│ 12│ 17│ 34│ └───────┴───────────┴───────┴──────────┴──────┴───────┴───────┴───────┘

┌───────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ Year. │ Age of Death of the Mill Population. │ │ │ │ ├───────┼───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┤ │ │Between│Between│Between│Between│Between│Between│Between│ │ │15 and │19 and │26 and │32 and │38 and │41 and │45 and │ │ │ 18 │ 25 │ 30 │ 36 │ 40 │ 44 │ 47 │ │ │years. │years. │years. │years. │years. │years. │years. │ ├───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┤ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1840 │ 1│ │ │ 2│ 1│ 1│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1840 │ 5│ 6│ 4│ 1│ 1│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1840 │ 3│ │ │ 1│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 10 │ 7│ 12│ 2│ 4│ 2│ 5│ 4│ │ years │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 10 │ 5│ 6│ 3│ 5│ 2│ 2│ 6│ │ years │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ The │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │average│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ of 7 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ years │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │ │ │ 1│ │ │ │ │ │2 years│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │ │ 1│ 2│ 2│ │ │ │ │2 years│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┤ │ │ 21│ 25│ 12│ 15│ 6│ 8│ 10│ └───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┘

┌───────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ Year. │ Age of Death of the Mill Population. │ │ │ │ ├───────┼───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┤ │ │Between│Between│Between│Between│Between│ │ │50 and │55 and │60 and │65 and │70 and │ │ │ 54 │ 58 │ 64 │ 68 │ 75 │ │ │years. │years. │years. │years. │years. │ ├───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┤ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1840 │ 1│ 1│ 2│ 1│ 1│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1840 │ 1│ │ │ │ 1│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1840 │ │ │ │ 1│ 2│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 10 │ 3│ 2│ 4│ 4│ 3│ │ years │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 10 │ │ 3│ 6│ 2│ 2│ │ years │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ The │ │ │ │ │ │ │average│ │ │ │ │ │ │ of 7 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ years │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │ │ │ 1│ │ │ │2 years│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │During │ 1│ │ 1│ │ │ │2 years│ │ │ │ │ │ ├───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┤ │ │ 6│ 6│ 14│ 8│ 9│ └───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┘

23.—_Typhus Fever, the vast amount of, produced among the Poor of
Liverpool from want of Ventilation and Cleanliness._

The typhus, or low contagious fever, prevails in all large cities and towns to a degree that those are not aware of who have not turned their attention to the subject, or whose occupations do not lead them to mix with the labouring poor. In Liverpool it has been supposed that this disease is seldom to be met with; and it is certainly true, that the upper classes of the inhabitants are not often subjected to its ravages. When the extent to which it is constantly present among the poor shall be proved by authentic documents, this circumstance will serve to demonstrate the narrow sphere of the contagion, and to show how much it is within the limits of human power to lessen the frequency of the disease.

Of the inhabitants of Liverpool, it is ascertained that about 9500 live in cellars underground, and upwards of 9000 in back houses, which in general have an imperfect ventilation, especially in the new streets on the south side of the town, where a pernicious practice has been introduced of building houses to be let to labourers, in small confined courts, which have a communication with the street by a narrow aperture, but no passage for the air through them. Among the inhabitants of the cellars and these back houses the typhus is constantly present; and the number of persons under this disease that apply for medical assistance to the charitable institutions, the public will be astonished to hear, exceeds, on an average, 3000 annually. For the ten years preceding 1797, there were, on an average, 119 patients ill of fever constantly on the books of the dispensary. Of convalescents, unfit for labour, the average number will be nearly as great. Thus, in Liverpool, 240 of the poor may be considered as constantly rendered incapable of earning their subsistence by this single disease; and as the poor seldom lay up any part of their earnings for a season of sickness, the expense of their maintenance must, in one form or other, fall on the public. If we take this as low as 10_l._ for each, it will amount to 2400_l._ annually.