The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-11 00:00:00

were ascertained to have occurred between midsum-

mer and the end of November, and those attacked
died at the rate of about 23 per cent. At Manchester
there were probably at least 100 attacks, and 20
deaths in the same period. The existence of typhus
fever was itself sufficient to suggest doubts as to the
success of the measures adopted for the relief of the
distress, and inquiry detected the existence of other
morbid conditions confirming thoie apprehensions.
Some of these conditions consisted of a simple de-
cline from the normal standard of health and
strength, while others constituted positive disease.
The towns visited were Ashton, Blackburn, Bol-
ton, Bury, Charley, Darwen, Manchester, Oldham,
Preston, Salford, Stockport, and Wigan. In all of
these, with the exception of Bolton and Bury, it
was foand that the cotton workers, as a body, had
sustained a loss of strength, colour, and flesh. Uni-
versal emaciation and pallor did not indeed at first
sight strike the visitor, but those who penetrated
to the homes of .the poor observed a wan and hag-
gard look about the people which is not habitual.
The parents had lost their health, and more gene-
rally than the children, and the paleness and ex-
haustion of the mothers, who almost starved them-
selves, were particularly noticeable. At Ashton
women had become weaker in childbirth, and
fainted readily from any excess of haemorrhage at
that time. Many mothers unduly prolonged the
suckling of their children, pleading in excuse that
they could not afford to purchase the food
appropriate to an infant which was being or
had just been weaned. Children had suffered less
in their strength and apparent robustness. Indeed
the substitution of maternal care for the inattention
saki injudicious treatment of hired nursery keepers
had operated favourably upon their health; and
apart from special epidemics the ordinary maladies
of ei'xilelhood were very slightly felt. In Preston,
throughthe summer and autumn diarrhoea was
much mote prevalent than in ordinary years, and
the disease Vas peculiarly untractable. In no other
town was there such an excess, and in Ashton,
Blackburn, BoltOn, Bury, and Stockport there
was less autumnal diarrhoea than usual. Cases

of dysentery, in nd ,great number, but stil
of exceptional frequenCy, occurred at Chorley,
Oldham, Salford, and Wigan. At Ashton
and Chorley diarrhoea had been a constant con-
comitant of measles, but except in those towns no
prevalent disease had been complicated by it. A
tendency to haemorrhage was witnessed in several
towns, and actual scurvy occurred among cotton
workers at Stockport,Preston, Blackburn, and Sal-
ford, In almost all cases the sufferers were women.
A disposition to ulcerate or slough, apparently in
consequence of altered habits and diet, was exhibited!
in one cr t„-vo cases in Blackburn ; and one district
surgeon in M7,.nchester found that all bruises and
Might *wounds were singularly difficult to heal.
Rheumatism was a aid to be particularly common
aulong other places at' Ashton and Wigan. An un-
paralleled quantity of i rcb was observed in Black-
burn, Manchester, Stockino.st, and Salford. Epi-
demic diseases, fostered as th.ciy are by bad diet, bad
air, and want of cleanliness, t'elroish a good index
to an exceptional prevalence of th,,.se agencies. Put-
ting aside sporadic cases the folluOieg complaints
were met with in an epidemic form : —chickenpox
in a part of Manchester ; measles in As:Ntch, Bleck-
burn, Bury, Chorley, Manchester, and to a ;esti extent
in Salford, Preston, and Wigan; whooping_conh in
Chorley, Manchester, Salford, and Stockport; s',nar•
latina in Ashton, Darvven, Manchester, Oldham,
and about October and November in Stockport ;
typhoid rather frequent in Bolton, Bury, Chorley,
Darwen, and Stockport ; true typhus cases were
seen in Preston, Manchester, and Chorley. At
Chorley measles had frequently been complicated
with ophthalmia. ‘Scarlatina, whever it %cured,
was ;listinguished by the extreme degree to vvh;ch it
affected the mucous membranes. Very' bad throats,
with nasal' discharges, and glands in the mlek greatly
swollen, had been commonly observed, and in some
places, as at Wdham, had given a highly fatal cha-
racter to the epidemic. In that town, the
tion of which is 72,23, there were 169 deaths from
scarlatina between niNsummer and the Ist Of
December. Drunkenness with the diseases and
accidents produced by it WOre unequivocally less
prevalent than usual. Only in ganchestar, Salford,
and Wigan, where a large portion of the inlia--
bitants are not engaged in the cotton ,trade, had in-
temperance prevailed to its ordinary extent.
The inquiry of Dr. Buchanan was, 80 we have
hinted, not confined to the diseases which had been
produced or aggravated by distress, but extended to
the more general subject of the income, exrndi-
ture, and the state and habits of the operatives.
As the result of the investigations into the financial
branch of the subject it was found that low health
and actual disease had resulted and would result
from the income of the unemployed being below the
standard that would procure them adequate food.
Actual observation showed that health cannot be
sßpported on an amount of food less than is repre-
l. se;.daby is. 6,J. per head per wegk wholesale, or
last r.t; retail value. In the month of December
all
60`'oreelerage income of the cotton 'workers from
as out
of r nearly 2s. per head per week, but
about per
payments for rent, amouoting to
and sometimerk, for per family, for candles, and
tiry of focd soap, had to be made, the quan-
such as could, procurableball was on the average only
ls. 5d., but which attained at contract prices for
earnretail shops would cost Is. 71d.
From the corn
raenentt of
the distress until No-
vember searce;y more than three quarters of that
rn aouet of food was procurable,
outgoing which Ought nut to
There is one small
o be overlooked
, as it
indicates the clinging to habit, 0
who are suffer* of Prudence on the
part of those severest distress.
ildren in burial
Many of the operatives havtentghtelli:eh.
clubs, and religiouslydischarge thezdinary
weekly payments of a penny per head.
o The poor
are, it is said, best pleased to receive assistance
either in money or in tickets the curseneY
o
which not confined to a particular shop,butthei:
choice in this respecs is hardly a wise one, From
•
prices charged at re.
,
a comparison between the
tail shops and those paid for
articles supplied
101. given in kind
by contract it appears that
is equal to a shilling liven in mohPY• Nor is the
+ l" kind confined
tidvanzage of the system o; redef in
to the question of value. The articles supplied from
the stores of guardians and relief cominitteog are, as
a rule, batter and more pure than those obtainnble
at the shops ; and under such a system the pwr
escape the temptation to unprofitable expenditure
to which when relief is given in money they are too
often disposed to yield.
The nature of the diet of the operatives and its
preparation have, of course, a bearing upon their
nutrition scarcely less important than its amount.
In these respects the poor of Lancashire suffer not
a little in consequence of their previous habits and
their want of knowledge as to how to make the
most of the food which is now procurable. They have
been used to live upon a generous diet, and suffer
Llore from the lack of animal food than if they had
not been accustomed to its liberal use. In prosper-