from 8d, to 1s. per day; baths and wash-houses can be used at a small charge; a medical man calls every morning, paid by a mutual benefit society established amongst themselves, while a musical association of eighty of the tenants contributes to the general enjoyment. The picture is so charming that were it merely of what might be, many would hesitate to admit the probability of its realisation; but when we find that it represents what has been going on for four years, all must admit that it deserves, at any rate, to be further examined. It has been suggested that a deputation of members of the Association, who would make a journey to Guise and report fully the result of their investigation and inquiry, would do good, should their report confirm the truth of the statements that have reached us, by leading to the formation of similar establishments in this country. Meanwhile, let us do honour to the noble endeavour of M. Godin-Lemaire to elevate the condition and promote the well-being and happiness of those who, by the right discharge of their duties, contribute in their turn to his own prosperity.

This Department considers the various questions relating to Public Health; it collects statistical evidence of the relative healthiness of different localities, of different industrial occupations, and generally of the influence of external circumstances in the production of health or disease; it discusses improvements in house-construction (more especially as to the dwellings of the labouring classes), in drainage, warming, ventilation; public baths and washhouses; adulteration of food, and its effects; recreation and amusement; the functions of Government in relation to public health; the legislative and administrative machinery expedient for its preservation; sanitary police, quarantine, &c. ; poverty in relation to disease; and the effect of unhealthiness on the property of places and nations.

SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.

THE following special questions were discussed in this Depart

ment:

"In what way can the unnecessary Exposure of Workmen to dangers of Life or Health be best avoided, especially in Collieries, Mines, and Manufactories? "

"What are the best means, of preventing the spread of Contagious Diseases?"

"To what extent can the Contamination of Air in Towns be diminished, and by what means?"

In addition to the papers printed in the foregoing pages, the following were read in the Department :

"In what way can the Unnecessary Exposure of Workmen to dangers of Life or Health, be best avoided especially in Collieries, Mines, and Manufactories? By W. T. Maddison.

"The Cattle Plague." By Professor Gamgee.

"The Use of Dry Surface Earth as a deodoriser, and in the removal of excrementitious matter, preventing and diminishing the Contamination of Air in Towns." By the Rev. Henry Moule.

"On Warming and Ventilation." By W. Corbitt.

"The United States Sanitary Commission." By the Rev. W. H. Channing.

"On Criminal Infant Mortality." By W. E. C. Nourse, F.R.C.S. "Home for Destitute Women and Children."

W. W. Malet.

By the Rev.

"A few thoughts on Infanticide." By M. A. Baines.

"The late Dr. Carson's Method of Slaughtering Animals for the Food of Mankind." By P. M. Carson.

"On the moral treatment of Insanity." By J. A. Blake, M.P.

UNHEALTHY OCCUPATIONS.

"In what way can the unnecessary exposure of Workmen to dangers of Life or Health be best avoided, especially in Collieries, Mines, and Manufactories ?"

IN

N addition to the papers by Mr. Holland and Mr. Hall, printed at p. 377, 382, Mr. William Baker gave an account of the Sheffield Lead Works, employing forty men and twenty women. following is an abstract of his paper :

The

The separate departments are the following:-1. Lead Refining; 2. White Lead; 3. Red Lead; 4. Paint Grinding; 5. Cooperage, 1. Refining Lead.-Two men are constantly employed; sometimes four. Their work consists in transferring the lead from one pan to another. The lead is not kept at a high temperature, and with ordinary care in removing the dross these men need not be exposed to any dust of oxide. The refining house is spacious and well ventilated. The men employed exclusively in this department do not appear to suffer in any degree from lead poisoning, although, of course, subject to the atmosphere of the white lead department, immediately

contiguous, and through which they may pass during the day. One man thus employed has lived in a house in the yard for many years. 2. White Lead.-The chief number of men, and all the women except one, are employed in this department. When the carbonate of lead is taken off the beds, which is done by hand, it is immediately wetted and crushed under rollers, supplied with a shower of water, and the white lead pulp, after settling, is transferred to the drying stones. Cleanliness is enforced as much as possible on this class of workpeople, and it is found the more intelligent, who generally pay more attention to this matter, do not suffer so much as the ignorant and dirty. Attempts have been made to provide respirators to be used when the dry lead is being packed, but the workmen invariably frustrate these good intentions.

3. Red Lead.-Three men and one woman are employed. Although the red lead dust thickly covers the walls about the factory, these men do not suffer in any degree to be compared with those in the white lead department. The insolubility of red lead may to some extent explain this result.

4. One and sometimes two men are employed in Paint Grinding, where the dry white lead is mixed with oil. A steady, cleanly man may work a great many years without suffering materially from lead poisoning in this department. It has been observed that, when attacked with lead sickness, the seat of pain or disorder is more frequently in the head, although paralysis of the hands also super

venes.

5. The Coopers necessarily are exposed to dust in heading up dry white lead casks and repairing old ones, but they also suffer in a less degree than the white lead workpeople. It is found that some constitutions become acclimatised better than others, and two men are now employed who have been in the lead works 30 years; others have been 6, 8, and 12 years respectively. The present foreman has been in the place for 24 years without having suffered from a direct attack of lead poisoning. The men are freely supplied with the common remedies, but are always urged to put themselves under medical care, which is provided by the firm, and they receive a weekly gratuity while on the sick list. A daily allowance of a pint of beer is served out in the morning and afternoon. A new hand coming to work in the white lead department will be taken with lead sickness in about 4 or 6 months' time on an average, but often in 12 or 13 weeks.

Mr. MADDISON read a paper on the Condition of Coal Miners, in which he urged the importance of intelligence among the workpeople themselves, and the necessity for teaching them the principles and use of the safety-lamp. He threw upon the owners of mines the onus of providing the best possible machinery of every kind and of keeping it in working order, and suggested that the inspectors of mines should examine the boys as inspectors of factories do, in order to secure their education under the Act. Efficient managers and strict discipline were also required.

DISCUSSION.

Mr. EDWARD SMITH: I have great pleasure in responding to the call of the chairman to say something on this very important subject. As, however, there are some strangers present, who may not know with what authority I speak on the subject, I may mention, in starting, that I have been for 20 years the owner of grinding-wheel property, and during that time have been daily in the habit of going among that class of men. I can, therefore, from personal observation, speak to the accuracy of all those things which Dr. Hall has so graphically described; in fact, I may say that he has not painted half the evils of the system. When I first became acquainted with the work I went in among the grinders, and had a great deal of conversation with them. Now and then I would go into the fork-grinding halls, where the air was so loaded with dust and steel particles, that as soon as I opened the door I began to cough, and I have said to the men, "What are you doing, living in such an atmosphere as this?" and throwing away your lives. The men took in very good part all that I said, but the question arose-What is to be the remedy? That was the real difficulty. Now I very much approve of Dr. Hall's suggestion, that there should be a classification of the grinders. Dry grinders should never be allowed to work in the same room with other workmen; and I should very much wish to see a limitation of the age at which boys go to the trade, whether it be dry or wet grinding. It is not necessary, for the gaining of skill in grinding, that they should go when very young to commence their apprenticeship; and the reason of their being sent at so early an age, in the great majority of cases, is that it is a convenience to the father. I would, therefore, have a limitation of the age at which boys should begin to work. The limit might vary according to the class of work to be done; but at all events I would have the limit fixed high enough. Grinding is not a trade that must necessarily be learned young; and boys can begin it later in life than some other occupations. Then, again, I think that some arrangement might be made for enforcing the use of fans. There was an idea which, I think, was a mistake, that it was the metallic particles that did the mischief to the grinders; and there was a metallic apparatus suggested for catching, at the mouth, these particles, but I believe it is not so much the iron as the sand-dust from the stones that gets into the lungs. "Well," I said to the men, "this is not an atmosphere for you to live in. What are you to do? You must get fans, and you must insist on their being used." "Oh," was the reply," we should only be too glad, but we poor fork-grinders cannot afford it. We are run down in price, and we have not money enough to buy fans." "Well," I said, "if you are in earnest I will show you what I feel in the matter. If you will promise that you will keep them in order, I will put up a fan at every trough, and they won't cost you a shilling of expense." Well, I got the fans fitted up, but when I entered the room about a month afterwards, I found two or three of them not working, but in a dilapidated condition, and the dust was as bad as before. "Well," I said, "you promised that you would keep the fans all right and in working order; have you done it?" One man turned round and blamed the lad behind him, and began to scold him for his neglect, but I could see the real fact was that the men did not want to use them. Another man said they could not get the use of them without much bother; he said the fans required to be altered every time they shifted the stone. I think it would be well if the racing of the stone were limited to a certain time of the day-say before breakfast in the morning-and that the employment of fans should be enforced. But I admit that there would be great difficulty here. I admit that, whatever regulations might be made, it would be very difficult to get the men to carry them out. Masters might by law be compelled to put up fans, but they could not see that they were used. To do this would require a policeman in every room, and I would not envy that man his post, for I am sure he would have very warm work of it among a set of grinders. I believe, however, that if the great injury to life and health, resulting from the present system, were brought properly before the men, and their wives and families, they might come to some agreement among themselves, and have it established as one of

the regulations of their trades' unions, that any man found working without a fan should be subjected to a heavy penalty. I believe that would be the only effectual way of correcting the mischief; and that is the main point on which I differ from Dr. Hall. I think that the idea of getting masters to enforce on the men the use of fans is not practicable. The masters cannot enforce the use of them; but the men may do so of themselves by means of their trades' unions. The use of fans is becoming more and more necessary. We have great changes taking place which are bringing a great number of workpeople from country places. My family was connected with the erection of the first steam-grinding establishment. These changes brought down many people to Sheffield who were formerly in airy situations in the country, where they had good health; but, coming into the close work of the town, they have become accustomed to town habits, and to town intemperance, which I believe after all is the greatest evil that afflicts the grinder. If I were asked my opinion, whether most men met their death through the practice of dry-grinding or through the beershop, I would say it was by the beershop that certainly the greatest number was carried off.

Mr. JOHN WILSON, grinder: I believe that there are many difficulties in the way of enforcing the regulations suggested by Dr. Hall. I believe there would be great practical difficulties in the classification of the grinders. You might have wet grinders all working together, and yet find great difficulty in the way of promoting ventilation; and I believe that the classification of the grinders would involve the re-modelling of some of the largest works in the town. The fact is, that while one man, whose work involves a good deal of physical exertion, may be able to keep himself very warm, another, whose work is a deal lighter, may be getting very cold, from the means used for ventilation, and which are supposed to be for the preservation of health. One class of workmen, in fact, might be starving from cold, while those in the other classes were working in a state of perspiration. The man who is working at a heavy job is nearest to the fire, and is therefore hotter than some of his neighbours; hence the difference of opinion as to the means that should be adopted for the purpose of ventilation. There is no doubt about this, that the grinders are not so amiable to each other, or so amenable to the rules of civilised life, as they might be. Some will have their windows to remain open, and others will have them shut; and these differences of opinion prove very annoying on many occasions. A grinder holds, that his employer has no more right to come into the place where he works, than he (the employer) bas to come into that grinder's own private house, and dictate as to what he shall do in it. Then, as to the fans, there is great difficulty in keeping them in working order. When Messrs. Rogers and Sons built the wheel at which I work, they put in what were considered model fans; but they were soon out of order. The success of fans does not depend upon the money they cost, but on the principle upon which they are constructed. I repeat, that there are difficulties surrounding the question, but I am not sure that the best way is not to leave it to the settlement of the grinders themselves. I know that there are many grinders much older than what is called the average age, and who have worked continuously at their trade; but these are the steady men, and I entirely repudiate the notion that the drunken grinders are the longest livers. The thing is preposterous, and contrary to the facts. I don't think it is necessary for the men to get drink in order to prolong their lives; and I do not admit that there is anything of a low physical type in the grinder. The sports of the Sheffield Football Club were contested by all the cricket and athletic clubs of the town and of the neighbourhood for 50 miles round, and the man who won the prize on the last occasion, for vaulting over a string at a great elevation, was a grinder. At the athletic sports connected with the establishment at which I work (Messrs. Rodgers), the prizes for the 600 yards and the 300 yards races, the running leap and the veteran handicap, were all won by grinders. I am myself 44 years of age, and have been employed 33 years in a grinding-wheel, and I have never yet felt any great difficulty in going up hill. Every time I go to work, I have to go up 43 steps, and I can ascend them as quickly as most men of my age, whether grinders or not. In the hull in which I work we have no