WORKERS IN GOLD AND Silver.

Workers in Silver "have different degrees of muscular exertion according to their departments. In the process of casting and moulding, the men have moderate exertion and generally stand. The slight dust which arises from the charcoal or brick-powder, does not produce apparent effect. In the chasing, hampering, mounting, and pumicing, the workmen sit, and are in consequence considerably more affected with disorder of the digestive organs. In the hampering, where they are obliged to lean much forward, the men are decidedly paler than in the mounting, where they sit upright. In the polishing they have an alternation of sitting and active exertion, for while one man turns the wheel to which the brush is affixed, the other holds the article to be polished. The men appear more robust in this, than in most of the preceding departments. Stamping, effected by raising a great weight and then allowing it to fall, is a laborious process. Each man is supposed to lift 30lbs. 500 times a day. In most of the rooms charcoal is burnt, but its gas does not produce a sensible effect, except when the apartments are low and the roofs of the common, instead of the pottery form. The‘blue vapour' in this case affects respiration at the time, and establishes a morning expectoration of mucus. In no department are the men crowded. Workers in gold and silver earn good wages, live well, and are not generally intemperate. In the department of stamping, which occasions profuse sweating, we find the men to take each during the day about three quarts of porter, twice the quantity consumed by individuals in other departments. It does not, however, seem to be injurious. The stampers were the most healthy men in the great London house we examined. In no department did we find aged operatives; but this seems to arise rather from the preference given to young men, as more expert in the improvements of the art, than from any thing baneful in the employ. A master of 12 or 16 working-silversmiths has since informed us that he has two or three between fifty and sixty years of age, and that, on examining a club of 100 men, he found as great a proportion of aged, as town-life commonly exhibits. He makes some general remarks, which I beg to insert in his own words. Their habits are various, say two of every dozen are rather abstemious, taking about a pint of malt liquor per day, and spirituous liquors not once a month, and live regularly; eight of the same number are men who live well the first four or five days in the week, that is, eating meat two or three times a day, and drinking perhaps from two to four pints of beer. They then appear dull and heavy, but in the last two days they study Abernethy,' as we say; take perhaps no meat, and water instead of beer, which makes them as cheerful as possible, aided a little by the idea of being near the eating and drinking days. The remaining two, or one at any rate, is a regular drunkard, taking from four to eight pints of beer per day, and perhaps three or four glasses of spirits in the same time. Some of this class die at 30, but others are in the workhouse, and live to 50 or 60."" 48.

Gold Beaters are employed for about half the day in hammering the metal, and during the remainder, in spreading the gold leaf on paper. Thus there is an alternation of labour and comparative repose. The men enjoy good wages, are healthy and robust.

Jewellers and Workers in Gold are a distinct class from the Silver-workers mentioned above.

"They are subjected, not only to the evils of confinement, but to the effects of gases evolved in the manufacture. These are, the gas from the coke employed, as in collecting the gold from the sweepings of the floor; the gas from the charcoal used in melting; and

the vapour which arises in the process of dry colouring, from the fusion of saltpetre, alum, and common salt. The last produces such distress in the head and nervous system as to make it particularly disliked by the men. Wet colouring, in which mineral acids are used, I believe, is comparatively innoxious. The jewellers' work-rooms are generally crowded, and the atmosphere consequently fouled by respiration, animal effluvia, and the smoke of lamps, as well as by the specific exhalations of the manufacture. Its temperature is generally raised, and in summer the heat is excessive. The labour is light; but the confinement to a leaning posture, with the head much depressed, and the elbows generally Sxed to the sides of the trunk, for ten, fourteen, or sixteen hours a day, is irksome and injurious. Intemperance is general, and dram drinking especially prevalent. The disorders of which jewellers principally complain, are pains and soreness of the chest, disorders of the stomach and liver, and plethoric affections of the head. They enter the employ about 13 or 14 years of age, and are obliged to abandon it generally at 45-50. In an establishment of 37 men, two were under 20 years of age, twelve were between 20 and 30, thirteen between 30 and 40, and nine between 40 and 50; one only had passed the age of 50. An old jeweller is worthless to the art, and seldom indeed to be found. A master observes, that the men drop off from work unperceived and disregarded. I am quite at a loss to know what becomes of them. When they leave off working, they go, and are seen no more. Some, perhaps, become applicants for charities; but so few have I known of the age of 60 or 70, that leaving work, they seem to leave the world as well, a solitary one appearing at intervals to claim some trifling pension, or seek admission to an alms' house."

This is a melancholy, but, I fear, a correct representation of the end of artizans in other manufactures, as well as this, where health is either forgotten, or deliberately sacrificed to lucre, and where this lucre is devoted to intemperance-where the high wages moreover of a baneful employ, afford opportunities of absence from work for hours, or days-and where this absence or interval, instead of being devoted to the refreshment and renovation of the animal frame, harassed and injured by labour, is wickedly perverted to the induction of effects, more baneful than those of any art or occupation." 116.

It is more than probable that a life of active or severe bodily exertion, even when conjoined with temperance, is not so conducive to longevity as a life of ease. Bodily labour appears to induce, with remarkable constancy, a disposition to hypertrophy of the left ventricle of the heart, and alterations of the coats of the arteries. It is not surprising that it should do so, for the circulating system being put to great efforts, is naturally worn out the sooner. But although such a mode of existence might not conduce to absolute longevity, there can be little question that it would allow a fair share of life, and would ensure, until the age of 40 or 50, a robust frame and a

* "Merat speaks of the derochage and the consequent inhalation of gas from the acids as injurious. Beaucoup trouvent la le germ de diverses maladies de poitrine, de la Phthisie meme, ou au moins d'un etat languissant presque continuel."-le teint pale et plombe.' I doubt the production of consumption or other organic disease of the lungs by the inhalation of the gases. Most of these act chiefly on the nervous system, and affect the lungs, only by depressing this system and thus reducing the general health. I can readily suppose a state of great languor, and defective carbonization of the blood, induced by the constant respiration of an atmosphere largely impregnated with gas from a mineral acid; but in this country workmen are not constantly exposed to such annoyance."

strong constitution. We should then possess a sturdy population, and our mechanics would be the raw material of excellent troops and hardy sailors. But this is an ideal picture. Labour there is, but such is society, and such is man, that whilst its injurious effects are developed, its beneficial ones are smothered and destroyed. The artisan, whose ingenuity, or the baneful nature of whose craft procures him high wages, flies to the stimulus of gin -the squalid wretch who labours for 13 hours in the 24 to obtain a pittance of ten shillings per week, has to fight against famine and filth, perhaps in addition to gin. This is probably more numerous than the former class, but whether it be or be not, our manufacturing population is such as we see it in Mr. Thackrah's pages,-on the whole, a wretched and depraved

one.

We have glanced at the workers in mercury, silver, and gold. A more dismal scroll of evils from the agency of lead unfolds itself.

The Manufacturers of White Lead are subjected to its poison, both by the lungs and the skin. The dust and exhalation are most from the white-beds and the packing; little from smelting. There is only stench from the grinding, and neither dust nor smell from the blue-beds. Such at least was the statement of the managers of an establishment at Hull; for we were not permitted personally to inspect the process, though we examined the men. In several departments the heat is such as to produce sweating. Drinking, however, is dess than in many other hot employments, and white-lead preparers are not as a body intemperate. In all departments the men and women are sallow and thin, and complain frequently of head-ach, drowsiness, sickness, vomiting, griping, obstinate constipation, and to these succeed colic or inflammation of the bowels, disorders of the urinary organs, and, finally, the most marked of the diseases from lead, palsy. We observed the muscles of the fore-arm more frequently and sooner to suffer than other parts. The eyes are also affected with chronic inflammation, or reduced nervous power. Persons commence the manufacture about the age of 20; many soon leave from broken health; those who endure the employ do not remain on the average longer than the age of 45, and during one-third of these 25 years, the men are laid up in bed, or decrepid from colic or palsy. The oldest man known in a large establishment at Hull, we found to have attained the age of 54. But he is now unable to work. It is 16 years since he entered the employ, and during this period he has been laid up 28 times from serious disease! Each attack has been worse than its predecessor. He has been on one occasion 19 weeks in bed, with scarcely the power of stirring a limb, and was a month without any evacuation from the bowels. This miserable man is now partially paralytic; he has scarcely any motion in either wrist, and 'his lower extremities are so weakened that he can scarcely trail himself along even with the aid of a crutch. His haggard countenance and emaciated frame give the appearance of the age of 80 rather than of 54.

No person can be a month in the worst department without a serious attack of disease. Drunkards suffer most. One of them was said to have been suddenly seized with violent insanity while packing lead, and to have died soon after. Persons do not work in the lead manufactory more than five days a week on the average; and as no man could be induced to remain in the destructive departments, there is a regular change of duties. Thus, though none are destroyed, all are exposed in turn to the most baneful process.

What means can be used to improve the state of these wretched operatives? Last year I examined with care the agency of white lead, which was said to have been rendered innoxious by a peculiar process. I regret to add, that I cannot support the statement of VOL. XVIII. No 35.

11

the projector. Will any chemical process avail to prevent the poisonous effects of this mineral? Can any substitute be found for its use in our arts and manufactures? For paint, Mr. Parkes, the chemist, recommends carbonate or oxide of zinc, which, if not wholly harmless, is a less noxious substance, and states that, though not quite so white, it keeps its hue longer than the common carbonate of lead. One means, at least, of prevention is quite practicable-cleanliness. The success of this simple measure at one manufactory,* warrants our belief that more than half the diseases of lead preparers would be prevented by washing and brushing the hands and skin whenever they leave work, cleaning the mouth, changing the dress, and the regular use of the bath. A linen dress is also recommended as excluding from the skin much of the dust which would enter through woollen. The rooms in which the processes are carried on, ought of course to be spacious and well ventilated, and there should always be a strong draught through the furnace. A subsidiary chimney, anterior to the ordinary one, is mentioned by Dr. Christison as particularly efficient in carrying off the exhalations from the rakings. Men should never be allowed to take their meals in the workshops. Fatty aliments are recommended as a preservative from the poison of lead." 106.

We see the effects of high temperature in the instance of sugar refiners.

“They are exposed to more heat than almost any class of operatives. The temperature in which they work is 70°, 90°, and sometimes 120°, and that of the stoves is 150, 180°, and often 200. Germans bearing the work better than Englishmen, are almost exclusively employed. Though dressed only in flannel shirts and linen trowsers, they perspire profusely on coming out of the stoves, however, they take care to rub the skin dry. A disagreeable acetous exhalation arises during the process, but does not appear to affect health. The steam also is sometimes so great as to prevent the men seeing each other. A barrel of ale placed in the sugar-house allows free potation; much indeed is taken, from three to four, or even five quarts each per day; but the men do not appear to suffer from this quantity; and drunkenness is rare. They work from three a.m. to three p.m. The labour is great, Sugar-refiners are healthy and remarkably muscular. They never suffer from the complaints commonly termed colds. They are said to be rather frequently affected with hernia, to be subjected to rheumatism, and to be worn out, or die consumptive, generally before they reach the age of 50." 135.

We believe that we have noticed the most interesting portion of the new matter introduced into this edition of Mr. Thackrah's work. It is unnecessary for us to dilate upon its merits, or to recommend professional men to make themselves acquainted with its contents. Setting aside other considerations, it must surely be worthy of a philosophic mind to investigate the

* "In an extensive lead factory in the vicinity of the metropolis, in which the colic peculiar to such places was formerly very prevalent, that disease has become so rare, that medical assistance has not, for some years past, been required. Many have supposed that the fumes of the lead induced the disease; but the remedy was found by tracing the cause to a more direct source. Workmen are seldom very strict in regard to cleanliness. The probability of particles of the mineral being conveyed from the hands amongst the food was suggested, and an order enforced that before any of the workmen should leave the factory to go to meals, their hands should be thoroughly washed, and that nail brushes should be used to prevent any of the lead remaining where it was most likely to adhere. The success of this plan, under strict superintendence, has been complete.-Alcock on the Education of the General Practitioner."

effects of man's pleasures, pains, pursuits upon himself-to study the corporeal consequences of moral and physical impressions-to view society as it is, and not as its tinselled exterior makes it seem-to see civilization in its practical working. A philosophic mind, we say, will be improved by an inquiry so inviting, so replete with interest. How the scene displayed may affect others we do not know, but we own that the sensations excited in our own bosoms have not been those of unmingled pleasure. When we see the starving diseased artisan at his loom or his furnace, we cannot wonder at that troubled aspect which great political questions wear. But this is foreign to the matter. We again recommend the Work to the public, and thank Mr. Thackrah for the valuable instruction we have derived from it.

XI.

A DICTIONARY OF PRACTICAL MEDICINE, &c. &c. By James Copland, M. D. &c. Part I. pp. 336, and p. 16 of Appendix. Oct. 1832.

THE great Dictionary of Medicine in France, consisting of more than 60 volumes was followed successively by other works of a similar kind, though on a smaller scale, and, as was alleged, on a more careful and select plan. Something analagous appears now to be taking place in England. The Cyclopædia of Medicine, a very meritorious work, is now accompanied, rather than followed, by Dr. Copland's Dictionary of Medicine on a smaller scale, or at least in a smaller compass, but from type and page, calculated to compress an immense quantity in a comparatively small space. We have reason to believe that Dr. Copland projected his work, and even issued a prospectus of it among his friends, before the Cyclopædia was undertaken; but the latter, from causes to us unknown, has got the start of the former. We know of no blame that can fairly be attached to either on this account. The editors of the Cyclopædia had a right to come into the field when it . suited themselves, whether there was any other preparing for a similar undertaking or not-and if Dr. Copland has been anticipated in his plans, he cannot blame his more active or more fortunate cotemporaries. But, laying aside all party considerations or literary manoeuvres, which are equally admissible in the cabinet as in the campaign, we believe there is ample field for both candidates in the present competition, and we are sure that the public wil be gainers, whoever may be the victors.

Of Dr. Copland's talents, learning, and industry, there can be no question; and, under such circumstances, it may be a matter of doubt, or at least of discussion, which plan is preferable-that of a single compiler and compilation, or that of a cyclopædia, where each article is the work of an indvidual, whose name is subscribed. The former plan is the more ancient in this country-as may be seen in the Dictionaries of James and Parr; the latter is the modern mode, as exemplified in the three or four dictionaries published, or publishing, in France. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, as we said, on a former occasion, when announcing the Cyclopædia of Practical