All these regulations, with the medical attendance for the purpose of prevention, would be greatly below any charge of insurance to the individual workman for procuring medical attendance and remedies when thrown out of work by sickness.
In some of the trades, scattered instances of attention to cleanliness and measures of prevention are found: for example, amongst the journeymen painters. In answer to a question put by Dr. Mitchell to Mr. Tomlins, the clerk to the Painters’ Company, whether painters suffer so much as formerly from the disease to which they are peculiarly liable, the clerk says,—
“Not so much as formerly. This has been ascertained by a charity administered at Painters’ Hall to men labouring under sickness. The men are now more attentive to cleanliness. Formerly they would throw their clothes on their beds and go to their meals without washing their hands. A large proportion of the journeymen now carry a workingdress to their job with them, and when they quit work at night they exchange and put on clean clothes which are free from paint. This applies more particularly to the westward of Temple Bar. One master-painter of my acquaintance, Mr. Thornton, of Doctors’ Commons, keeps a pail of solution of potash in his shop, in which the men wash their hands, and which takes off every particle of paint; and it is worthy of remark that only two men in 20 years have been afflicted with paralysis in his employ. This is taken from 15 men constantly employed on an average for seven years.”
It will suggest itself that another generation of workpeople, and their premature sickness and death, ought not to pass away leaving this practice confined to the painters to the west of Temple Bar, and leaving the beneficent expedient exclusively to the shop of Mr. Thornton, of Doctors’ Commons.
In connexion with the instance of the painters, I may give the following from Mr. James Gibbins, a manufacturer of colours at the Mile-end road. He was asked—“Are there any peculiar hazards to health connected with the trade?” He replies,—
“Arsenic and lead are employed in making colours, and hence injury does arise, but such need not necessarily be the case; but although water, towels, and soap are placed at the use of the men, there is no persuading them to be habitually cleanly. After making or grinding colours, they will not take the trouble to wash their hands, but merely wipe them a little on their clothes, and then will take their bread and meat, by which particles are carried off into the stomach. It is impossible to persuade the men to be more cautious. The lead is much more in use than the arsenic, and on the whole does more harm, as the men are more on their guard against the arsenic.”
The prevalent impression upon such instances would be expressed by such phrases as, “If men will be so careless, there is no help for it; they must take the consequences:” but they only take a part of the consequences—the sickness; the main part of the consequences are taken by others, especially if they are married, when the premature widowhood and orphanage are sustained by the wife and children, who are maintained at the expense of the relations or of the public. This recklessness is however the result of neglected education, of which the workmen are the victims, and for measures of beneficence such workmen are to be regarded and treated as children, for they are children in intellect. An instance of a beneficial measure of compulsory prevention taken by some employers of labour is mentioned by Mr. John Kennedy, jun., in a report on the condition of some classes of workpeople examined under the Commission of Inquiry into the Employment of Children, not included in the regulations of the Factory Act. Some workmen employed in “Kyanizing” wood became frequently ill from the fumes created in the process, to which fumes they unnecessarily exposed themselves. Admonitions to care were found to be of no avail, and the employer at length gave notice that he would discharge entirely from employment the first that was attacked with the peculiar illness produced by the fumes of the metal. This threat was acted upon, and no other cases of illness afterwards occurred.
In France, where the diseases by which the working classes are afflicted have been investigated by those medical men who have given their attention to the improvement of the public health, the general conclusion has been established of the futility of leaving protective measures to the voluntary adoption of the individual workman. In the course of one of his reports, M. Duchâtelet observes, that—
“It appears certain that the greatest part of the attacks of asphyxia which have taken place in the sewers have arisen from the traps being closed. I know that it is now enjoined on the workmen to open these traps while they are at their labour. But do they do this? Assuredly not in by far the majority of cases. Is it not a maxim to render independent of the will and superintendence of men, and above all of workmen, everything which appertains in a notable manner to their preservation? In the grave and learned discussions which have occupied this year (1824) the Academy of Sciences, on the means of preventing the dangers arising from steam-engines, not only all the members of the Commission, but the entire Academy, have been unanimous on the necessity of rendering independent of the workmen the direction of the level of the water in the boilers, and the tension of the steam. It evidently appeared that on this depended the solution of the problem. The same thing is now discussing on the subject of lighting by hydrogen gas.”
I will further adduce parallel examples, drawn from experience, in respect to the condition of the working population in France. It is contained in a treatise by M. Emile Beres, on the Means of Ameliorating the Condition of Artisans:—