quences, I venture to affirm, would be the same in both cases. I have also observed, that where seats are provided, and extra hands kept, so as to give the children time to rest occasionally, (as in the worsted mill of Messrs. Wood and Walker, of Bradford,) there are no cripples made.
In order to make myself acquainted with the number of cripples in Macclesfield, where silk manufacture is carried on to a very great extent, we had a census taken; and in this town, with a population of 24,000, 197 bad cases were found.
Deformities and diseases of the spine are a very common consequence of working in factories. I have never seen any instances of deformities of the arms, because these limbs have not to sustain the weight of the body. But even the arms share in the general weakness and debility arising from factory labor.
One evil arising from the bending and curving of the limbs, is the state of the blood vessels; for if the bones go wrong, the blood vessels must go wrong also. Nature has provided a beautiful contrivance for propelling the blood to every part of the human frame. This is done in a well-formed person with perfect ease, without any appearance of difficulty whatever. But it is not so with factory cripples. The blood lodges, as it were, in crannies and corners, and the apparatus for forcing it along, instead of being stronger, as in their case required, is weaker, in consequence of the weak state of the body. Hence we find that friction, with hair gloves, in many cases is absolutely necessary.
Females suffer greatly in after life, especially in the all-important operation, arising from the malformation of the bones of the pelvis, while standing at the frames when young.
