PHYSICAL DETERIORATION IN DUNDEE[33]
| Age. | Height. | Weight. | ||
| Dundee. | Normal. | Dundee. | Normal. | |
| Inches. | Inches. | Lbs. | Lbs. | |
| 11 to 12— | ||||
| Boys | 50.0 | 53.5 | 62.8 | 72.0 |
| Girls | 51.5 | 53.0 | 63.0 | 68.1 |
| 14 to 15— | ||||
| Boys | 54.0 | 59.0 | 70.5 | 92.0 |
| Girls | 55.7 | 59.7 | 77.5 | 96.1 |
Speaking of the deaths from phthisis and diseases of the lungs in Belfast, Dr Whitaker, Medical Officer of Health for that city, says in his report for 1902: "Of the 2,911 deaths reported from these causes, 1,779 were attributed to diseases of the respiratory organs and 1,132 to phthisis. It is therefore evident that these diseases caused upwards of one-third of the mortality in our midst. This is not to be wondered at when we remember the nature of the occupations in which so many of our people are engaged and the unhealthy surroundings which environ them."[34]
The truth is that many thousands of the deaths which occur in the United Kingdom every year are really caused by "diseases of occupations," and that to the thousands of deaths must be added hundreds of thousands of cases of direct injury to health arising from work in unhealthy and insufficiently controlled factories and workshops.
Death, injury and disease have thus been administered to our industrial population for several generations. To-day, conditions are better than of old, but they are still so bad that to speak of improvement is to indict the past as black indeed. Against the fact that industrial hygiene has improved, must be set the grave consideration that it is in part an enfeebled people which is now provided with a slightly better environment. We have effectually degraded no small proportion of the race; the present measures of industrial control are not strong enough to restore it.
[31] Since these pages went to press, another large scale disaster at Bolton has killed over 300 miners.
[32] See Mr Fenwick's Return "Mines (Fatal Accidents)," No. 140. 1905.
[33] Annual Report on Factories and Workshops, 1900, page 336.
[34] This and many other cognate facts were quoted by Mr Leonard Ward in his paper on Industrial Occupations read to the Royal Statistical Society on May 16th, 1905.