I have obtained through Mr. Baker, of Leeds, who, as superintendent of factories, has had good means of making an accurate comparison, the following contrast of the results as shown in the state of mortality amidst the population of two contiguous manufacturing districts employed in similar proportions in the same description of work, and differing only in the state of the atmosphere in which they lived. The districts are the townships of Great Bradford and Horton, in Yorkshire, both in the parish of Bradford, and contiguous, differing only in elevation and atmospheric influence.
“The town of Bradford lies in a hollow formed by the high land of the surrounding country, a part of which forms the township of Horton, and both populations, in about an equal ratio, are employed in worsted-mills, built about the same period of time, in the same kind of architecture, with the same appliances for ventilation and purification in every respect, differing only in comparison as to numbers both of population and mills.
| Population. | Births. | Deaths. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bradford | 34,560 | 1 in 25·8 | 1 in 37·3 |
| Horton | 17,618 | 1 in 28·0 | 1 in 47·0 |
“The difference between the two localities will at once be seen, and can only be accounted for by the difference in atmospheric influences, the former population being resident in ill-conditioned dwellings, without sufficient ventilation; the latter residing in localities which, though undrained in many instances, are yet open to pure air and breezes which never reach the town without the most perfect contamination.”
Dr. Barham mentions, as an example of the benevolent foresight which economizes the strength and life of workmen, and perceives that there is a profit as well as humanity in so doing, that at Tresavean, a great copper mine in Gwennap, as a substitute for the ladders, before universal, machinery has been erected for the raising and lowering of the miners. This, he states, will be effected at the cost of 2000l. at the least, but this sum, it is calculated, will soon be repaid by the saving of the time and fatigue of the men.
Such evidence as that above given, and as will be submitted in other instances, will leave little doubt that, by a combination of practicable sanitary regulations comprehending the economy of the residence as well as the place of work, the enormous suffering and waste of life which at present depresses large masses of the working population may be rendered comparatively inconsiderable. The amount of such depression on the mining population, in making it consist of young persons and more transient, is marked in a return prepared by Mr. R. Lanyon, the medical practitioner acquainted with the locality, and which was read at the Polytechnic Society in Cornwall.
On examining the ages of 2145 men engaged in mining, it was found that their average age was 30 years, and that the average period they had been engaged in work was 15 years. On examining the condition of 1033 men, artisans, agricultural labourers, living and working in the vicinity, it was found that their average age was 40 years, and that their average period of work then completed was 25 years. Of the mining population one-third only had reached 50 years of age, whilst of the non-mining population one-third had attained 70 years of age.
I might submit these two examples, the one as a young and comparatively weak population, the other as a comparatively mature and strong population. The adult mining population of 30 years of age is not, I apprehend, a population advancing to a further stage of maturity, but one kept down by noxious agencies and premature mortality to that limit of age, with no chance for them or for other generations to pass beyond it whilst in this employment, except through the operation of sanitary measures in removing the causes of depression.
The difference in the proportions of ages between a depressed and unhealthy and a comparatively long-lived and strong population, is shown in the following comparative view of the ages of the miners and of the 1033 non-mining labourers who were living and working:—
| 30 Years of Age and under 40. | 40 Years and under 45. | 45 Years and under 50. | 50 Years and under 55. | 55 Years and under 60. | 60 Years and under 70. | 70 Years and under 80. | 80 Years and upwards. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miners | 1651 | 772 | 377 | 239 | 125 | 56 | 29 | 1 | |
| Labourers | 1033 | 695 | 422 | Not given. | 284 | Not given. | 144 | 48 | 7 |
| Per cent. | Per cent. | Per cent. | Per cent. | Per cent. | Per cent. | Per cent. | Per cent. | ||
| Miners | 47 | 23 | 14 | 7½ | 3½ | 1½ | |||
| Labourers | 67 | 41 | 27 | 14 | 4½ | ½ | |||