The National Register.
London, England, 1816-10-14 00:00:00

lIUCSC 01 COMSIONA

AcTl.lllO COOPER, VokrAird in and exanthird.
Vali are be proft.tviati a noirgeon?--Yea.
Yon have Lad very great experience in your profession ?
Ye..

1t what a ve trie!t• henith.
Irc athaiitt 41,,.:c labour (Jr thirteen hour:4 pen' thy
think nl nn etr,,.
. . . . .

,„.
What is the length of the day that van won't' recommend?
—UIIOO 0 sabjccl of this kind one tme-t ssuzsv- Or upon general
principles. As it has been already stated, for the preserva•
Lion of health, three things are certainly nee:votary—air. exer-
cise, au.l ..... trishment ;and I conceive that if a child has not
a due prupoi lion or exercise, if it is confiaell for a grtAt num-
ber of Mona in air of a certain tempi.' attire. and if it ban not
a propel proportion anon; ishmeut, it cannot list in health.
yon not think that the labour many child ell in manu-
factories undo •go, is of ilsrlf sufficieut exere.se to answer the
purposes of health?—Not if it is in a evatimA situation.
Do you think that children of firm sesto to ten years of
age eau be employed more than ten houri per day, without
huttry to their health ?, I think awl.
Wls it do you consider to be the effect upon the develop-
meut and growth of the bodies of Itildt en tuna six to tell
yews of age, if so many hours contioemeot urc imposed !woo
them?--The result of coutinement, commonly, is nut only to
stunt the growth, hut to produce deformity t and to that point
I can answer from a good deal of c•perienee, that AP mit y is
a common consequence of esoviderable confinement.
What would you consider to be that effect upon the mental
faculties of children so young, when, in addition to the farts
already stated, the attention is convtantly fixed and employed
upon one set of objects for days, months, anti years
thing essential, I should think, with respect to mind.
What is your opinion as to the effect of continuing children
of from six to seven yearsof age in mantiftictories, with all the
circumstances attendant, where they work, chiefly s;anding,
from foorteen to fit teen and si,,teen hours a det. —Mut it
antral rery injurious to the general /wells.
Havel-oil had any °ppm (unities of witnessing the state of
health of children employed in Manufactories has c not,
excepting as a visitor in some of the large towns in the nosh.
I have occasionally looked into a manufactory, but I have no
experience respecting it. •
Have you observed, in the eonnlenance of any such chil-
dren, any appearance of want of health'—lt is now too long
since I ha i an oppottunity of visiting a manufactory fur me
to speak decidedly about it.
Have YOU, in yoor intercourse with other practioners, ever
heard of any detriment, in point of health, being sustained
by children employed in manufactories, or any diseases aris-
ing therefrom ?—I cannot say positively that I eau apply au
answer to that question. I understand the yiestion toil I
have not had sufficient experience of children being aolight
directly froin manufactories to state positively that the dis-
ease was the result of that eon 'nynient.
Which do you think the most , cejudieial to children, an oc-
cupation which make+ the eltildreo always in motion, or the
occupations which ar•• sedautars • --That depends on the time
that they are employed i,jr,,goriployed for a short time, it would
he best they should he saiTs.,/trelse; but if for a great her
of hours, it would be_netker bctler for them that they should
not be in motion.

Has the state of health cf the tailors in London come under
your obsery ition ?—Certainly our hospital patients arc uf all
description, anal among others of those.
Has it come nutlet s our ob,ervatiutt that they are uncom-
monly unhealthy ?-10 ai question of this description I can
only answer thus, that unitornth• i have observed, that if dill-
dren tire much confined, their health is never strong ; a per-
son who is full-grown certainly saltless trout a sedentary mode
oilier as well as a child.

Von conceive, that the manufacture of sugar of lead is un-
healthy ?—Certainly.
Perhaps more so than most other employments think
more so than any, except where arseLic is one of the subjects
of manufaetitre, as In making sonic colour.
Do you know of any law to restrain children from going to
such manufaetories?—Ves,l think there is a Irw.
If, in a factory where the 111111111tV of persons employed in
1813 was 879, the deaths were only two ; and in the same far-
tory in 1812, the number being 891. there were only two
deaths among them ; and in 1811, the number being b 73,
there were only three deaths among them, would you not con
ceive that such a proportion of deaths fur three years toge-
ther were pretty good evidence of the healthiness of that ma-
nufactory r—lt is anextrao•dinary small proportion of deaths.
Then that would lead you to suppose that that employment,
whatever it was, would be healthy ?—Certaduly 1 should say
that those children have not suffered from the employment.
Then such facts, in your judgment, would be decisive
against any general reasoning upon the sobjeet ?—I can only
answer as I previously did, that I think the proporlion of
deaths is very small, arid to me extraordinary.
Suppose a factory should be so free from mortality for a
few years with the employment already stated, may not the
constitution of the children be injured by that confinement,
though death has not enstred?—Yes; I conceive that diseases
may be founded in children by that employment, whirls may
not show themselves iii so rapid a manner as to cause disso-
lution for a year o• two, and yet which have their origin in
that employment.
But would not that be shown by the average number of
people in the works, it being supposed that the same people
are empioNed in the works dues not follow that a child
may not be able to work, and yot have a considerable degree
of sicknexi about it.

Would not that be a good evidence of the healthiness of the
employ fur a aeries of yeetrti?—For a set ies of years; but
they way go on for three or four years, and yet have the
foundation of a sickness to de,troy their live..
nut would out that he es in Ute course of ten years
—Certuiuly.