Physical efficiency in children / by Sir James Crichton-Browne ; the Presidential Address delivered before the medical section of the International Congress for the Welfare and Protection of Children, held in London on the 15th July, 1902.

  • Crichton-Browne, James, 1840-1938.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physical efficiency in children / by Sir James Crichton-Browne ; the Presidential Address delivered before the medical section of the International Congress for the Welfare and Protection of Children, held in London on the 15th July, 1902. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    blemish the life which they do not destroy. To ward off, restrict and abolish them altogether, is the ultimate aim of preventive medicine. But there is one source of physical impairment in children besides underfeeding to which I would particularly allude, because its influence is direct and obvious, and that is child labour. I do not mean to recall the atrocities that attended the employment of children in factories and mines in bygone times, but I would remind you that there is still danger in putting burdens heavier than they can sturdily bear on young shoulders. The raising of the age for half-timers has been salutary, and the introduction of automatic machinery, the spread ol education, and the force of public opinion are steadily circumscribing this kind of employment ; but it still exists in certain districts, especially in the textile trades, and where it does exists its pernicious consequences are appreciable. Undoubtedly, says Mr. Wilson, one of His Majesty's Inspectors of Factories, factory life, although not specially injurious to workers who have naturally strong constitu- tions, or who commence labour after having reached maturity, never- theless neither fosters growth nor development, and has a distinctly harmful effect on undersized or badly-nourished young persons. Thus I have frequently conversed with full-grown men of 20 years and upwards who do not stand more than 5 ft. or 5 ft. 1 in. in height and who scale less than g st. These men have not the physical strength for heavy manual labour or indeed anv task which demands prolonged effort, but must accept unskilled labourers' wages in mills or factories all their lives. Such wages are very small and quite inadequate to support a wife and family. Mr. Wilson some time ago measured and weighed i6g boys exclusively employed in jute mills in Dundee, and found that at all ages they fell far short of the standards given in Treves's tables. Thus at 11 to 12 years of age the boys measured 4 ft. 2 in. and weighed 62 lb., against 4 ft. 5^ in. and 72 lb. in Treves's tables, showing a deficiency of 3^ in. in height and of 10 lb. in weight ; while at the same age the girls gave 4 ft. 3-^ in. and 63 lb., against 4 ft. 5 in. and 68 lb. in Treves's tables, showing a deficiency of i|- in. in height and 5 lb. in weight. At all ages up to 15 the Dundee children, both boys and girls, were proportionately short of Treves's tables, and their deficiency in weight when compared with American standards was still more remarkable. At 14 to 15 years of age the average Dundee boy weighs 70-5 lb. and the average Dundee girl 77-5 lb., whereas according to Holt's tables at that age the average American boy weighs gy'3 lb. and the average American girl ioo-2 lb. The Dundee deficit is 28 lb. for boys and 22 lb. for girls. Comparing the Dundee children with 53 children—28 boys and 25 girls—employed in flax mills in Brechin, which is a small country town, Mr. Wilson found that the Brechin boys were at all ages from II to 14 on an average 3 in. taller and 12 lb. heavier than the Dundee boys, while the Brechin girls were 1^ in. taller and g lb. heavier than their sisters in Dundee. The poor phvsique of the Dundee children when compared with those of Brechin can scarcely be attributed to