nners and doublers. Stuart,
Mackintosh, and Sir D. Barry express themselves in the most vigorous
terms as to the unwholesomeness of this work, and the small consideration
shown by most of the manufacturers for the health of the girls who do it.
Another effect of flax-spinning is a peculiar deformity of the shoulder,
especially a projection of the right shoulder-blade, consequent upon the
nature of the work. This sort of spinning and the throstle-spinning of
cotton frequently produce diseases of the knee-pan, which is used to
check the spindle during the joining of broken threads. The frequent
stooping and the bending to the low machines common to both these
branches of work have, in general, a stunting effect upon the growth of
the operative. In the throstle-room of the cotton mill at Manchester, in
which I was employed, I do not remember to have seen one single tall,
well-built girl; they were all short, dumpy, and badly-formed, decidedly
ugly in the whole development of the figure. But apart from all these
diseases and malformations, the limbs of the operatives suffer in still
another way. The work between the machinery gives rise to multitudes of
accidents of more or less serious nature, which have for the operative
the secondary effect of unfitting him for his work more or less
completely. The most common accident is the squeezing off of a single
joint of a finger, somewhat less common the loss of the whole finger,
half or a whole hand, an arm, etc., in the machinery. Lockjaw very often
follows, even upon the lesser among these injuries, and brings death with
it. Besides the deformed persons, a great number of maimed ones may be
seen going about in Manchester; this one has lost an arm or a part of
one, that one a foot, the third half a leg; it is like living in the
midst of an army just returned from a campaign. But the most dangerous
portion of the machinery is the strapping which conveys motive power from
the shaft to the separate machines, especially if it contains buckles,
which, however, are rarely used now. Whoever is seized by the strap is
carried up with lightning speed, thrown against the ceiling above and
floor below with such force that there is rarely a whole bone left in the
body, and death follows instantly. Between June 12th and August 3rd,
1843, the _Manchester Guardian_ reported the following serious accidents
(the trifling ones it does not notice): June 12th, a boy died in
Manchester of l