Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-08-24
UnheaIthiness Of Certain Trades,

DIR. Chambers read a paper the other day
before the Society of Arts, on industrial pa.
biology. Here is an extract Of much interest:
"There are two coalwhippers at time Of
commercial crisis in the coal trade; fewer
hands are wanted one gets turned out OF work,
lad the other is kept on. In six months time
the one out Of work is starving, because he was
50 weakened by temporary want of food that
he was not fit for employment when he could
get it. 1t is the business Of the political econ
1mist to remedy commercial crises. The other
man has worked as hard as possible in the way
you know these fellows are engaged, throwing
heir whole weight on to a rope for ten or
twelve hours day; it is, | believe, the most
wasteful, unscientiGc, and pernicious expendi-
ture of human muscle that ever was devised.
The consequence is that his heart cannot stand
il, the fbres are continually strained with these
continued violent jerks, and the organ becomes
diseased. After tedious illness the indus
trious, well.paid man dies at forty. Here it is
that industrial pathology comes into play. It
is the duty of that science to find out why such
and such labor is injurious in special manner,
and to suggest remedy.
In the instance quoted above, it is the sud-
den jerk which is the cause Of the injury to the
circulation. Again, painters are liable to colo
introduce a substance equally convenient, in
the shape Of white zinc or other substitutes.
Tailors sit all day in a confined atmosphere,
with the legs crossed and the spine bowed 80
that neither the ribs nor the digestive organs
have room to act. The consequence, of course,
is, that the stomach and bowels become disor-
dered, the spine twisted, the gait shambliug,
and the power of taking the exercise necessir ~
TO health oblitcrated. Ii an artist wants TO
represent starving he takes tailor as his
model; If plump rosy man were to tell you
he was iourneyman tailor, you would not al.
low such an evidently inexperienced workman
to mend your coat. With life embittered
with Indigestion, what wonder that tailor
takes to opium, gin, and tobacco the only
things that make existence endurable? The
crossedlegged position is assumed because in
the ordinary sitting posture the heavy cloth
could not be held near enough to the eye.
The problem is to invent some sort OF table
that would be equally convenient.
-Shoemakers and bootmakers suffer equally
from constrained position, and also from tho
pressure Of the last against the stomach.
Heartburn and painful digestion are so CON-
mon, that a certain pill in the Pharmacopeia
the Pilula Sargapeni Comp.) is called cob
ler's pill. Looking.glass makers and water
gilders are constantly coming into hospitals for
mercurial paralysis, and when they go out of
the hospital they are not fit for much else than
the workhouse. There are two ways Of remc-
dying this: one is to give them some protec-
ton against the poisonous fumes; aud tie
other is to improve and cheaper rival mode s
of gliding and silvering, in which mercury is
not used. Washerwomen constantly suffer
from varcose veins and other mechanical dis
orders aris,ng from the standing posture. 1t
is the business OF industrial pathology to devise
a chair in which they can work as at present,
or else to discover some mode OF doing the
same thing by the agency of mechanics, viii,
is now done Immediately by the unaided body
to wear out mechanism instead of muscle,
iron instead of energy.