ult male spinners are pale and thin, suffer from
capricious appetite and indigestion; and as they are all trained in
the mills from their youth up, and there are very few tall, athletic
men among them, the conclusion is justified that their occupation is
very unfavourable for the development of the male constitution;
females bear this work far better." (Very naturally. But we shall
see that they have their own diseases.)

So, too, Power: {157a}

"I can bear witness that the factory system in Bradford has engendered
a multitude of cripples, and that the effect of long continued labour
upon the physique is apparent, not alone in actual deformity, but
also, and much more generally, in stunted growth, relaxation of the
muscles, and delicacy of the whole frame."

So, too, F. Sharp, in Leeds, the surgeon {157b} already quoted:

"When I moved from Scarborough to Leeds, I was at once struck by the
fact that the general appearance of the children was much paler, and
their fibre less vigorous here than in Scarborough and its environs. I
saw, too, that many children were exceptionally small for their age. I
have met with numberless cases of scrofula, lung trouble, mesenteric
affections, and indigestion, concerning which I, as a medical man,
have no doubt that they arose from mill work. I believe that the
nervous energy of the body is weakened by the long hours, and the
foundation of many diseases laid. If people from the country were not
constantly coming in, the race of mill-hands would soon be wholly
degenerate."

So, too, Beaumont, surgeon in Bradford:

"To my thinking, the system, according to which work is done in the
mills here, produces a peculiar relaxation of the whole organism, and
thereby makes children in the highest degree susceptible to epidemic,
as well as to incidental illness. I regard the absence of all
appropriate regulations for ventilation and cleanliness in the mills
very decidedly as the chief cause of that peculiar tendency or
susceptibility to morbid affections which I have so frequently met in
my practice."

Similar testimony is borne by Dr. Ray:

(1) "I have had opportunity of observing the effects of the factory
system upon the health of children under the most favourable
circumstances (in Wood's mill, in Bradford, the best arranged of the
district, in which he was factory surgeon). (2)