hood on the one
hand and premature age on the other, that period of life in which the
human being is in full possession of his powers, the period of manhood,
is greatly shortened, while the length of life in general is below the
average. This, too, on the debit side of the bourgeoisie's reckoning!

All this deals only with the average of the English coal mines. But
there are many in which the state of things is much worse, those, namely,
in which thin seams of coal are worked. The coal would be too expensive
if a part of the adjacent sand and clay were removed; so the mine owners
permit only the seams to be worked; whereby the passages which elsewhere
are four or five feet high and more are here kept so low that to stand
upright in them is not to be thought of. The working-man lies on his
side and loosens the coal with his pick; resting upon his elbow as a
pivot, whence follow inflammations of the joint, and in cases where he is
forced to kneel, of the knee also. The women and children who have to
transport the coal crawl upon their hands and knees, fastened to the tub
by a harness and chain (which frequently passes between the legs), while
a man behind pushes with hands and head. The pushing with the head
engenders local irritations, painful swellings, and ulcers. In many
cases, too, the shafts are wet, so that these workers have to crawl
through dirty or salt water several inches deep, being thus exposed to a
special irritation of the skin. It can be readily imagined how greatly
the diseases already peculiar to the miners are fostered by this
especially frightful, slavish toil.

But these are not all the evils which descend upon the head of the coal
miner. In the whole British Empire there is no occupation in which a man
may meet his end in so many diverse ways as in this one. The coal mine
is the scene of a multitude of the most terrifying calamities, and these
come directly from the selfishness of the bourgeoisie. The hydrocarbon
gas which develops so freely in these mines, forms, when combined with
atmospheric air, an explosive which takes fire upon coming into contact
with a flame, and kills every one within its reach. Such explosions take
place, in one mine or another, nearly every day; on September 28th, 1844,
one killed 96 men in Haswell Colliery, Durham. The carbonic acid gas,
which also develops in great quantities, accumulates in the deeper parts
of the mine, frequently reaching the height of a