ning sewing-machines. I am told by the head of a large manufactory of ladies' dresses that the machines do one-third more work than when run by the foot; and that the girls will work for less wages when steampower is used.

Those who use the voice a great deal in public speaking and singing are apt to suffer from the strain. The most common affection is follicular pharyngitis, or "clergyman's sore-throat." Much of this trouble is unnecessary, strictly speaking, or could be remedied if the right steps could be taken. The voice ought not to be used for continued and difficult efforts, unless the possessor is in good health and strength. It ought not to be used in the crude, ignorant, and even unintentionally "affected" manner which is often heard, and which fatigues the throat without need. The services of a competent teacher in elocution are to be desired, not so much for rhetorical purposes as for training in the right way to work with the vocal organs. And by way of support, a little gymnastics, for developing the chest, shoulders, and abdomen, may properly accompany the process of developing the voice, in some cases.

This is a fit place for a brief mention of the injurious effects of protracted labor in one position. Shoemakers and tailors, owing to their constrained attitudes, and the bad air of their shops, become dyspeptic, anæmic, and consumptive, and do a great

deal more thinking than is good for them. The sedentary life of literary people and clerks is apt to affect them similarly.

Persons who stand all day at their work, as salespeople and hair-dressers, are apt to have pains in the soles of their feet, which may sometimes be relieved by a well-shaped steel-shank to the shoe. Varicose veins of the lower limbs, and uterine irregularities, are also caused by standing. It is a truly inhuman thing to require girls and women to remain on their feet all day, without regard to the presence or absence of customers - an inhumanity that we are glad to believe is diminishing.

A

CHAPTER IV.

INJURIES FROM ACCIDENTS.

VERY considerable number of accidents are caused every year by machinery used in manufacture. In England, in 1875, 2.6 persons in every 1000 factory-hands were injured in this way. In the United States there were 420 reported deaths caused by machinery in 1870, and the number of injuries was of course very much greater.

The English Factory Act appoints inspectors, who must not be interested in or connected with factories in any other way, and who are invested with the necessary powers for carrying the act into effect.

Some of the provisions of the act are here given, from an abstract published in Professor William Watson's paper in the Journal of Social Science, No. XI.

Certain portions of a mill, as hoists, fly-wheels, wheel-races, mill-gearing, vats, etc., are required to be fenced, and whenever the machinery, by reason of its character or situation, is, in the opinion of the inspector, likely to cause accidents to the workpeople, he is to serve on the occupier a notice

requiring him to fence the part of the machinery which he deems to be dangerous. The occupier may, by serving a requisition on the inspector within. seven days of the receipt of the notice, refer the matter to arbitration.

A child (under fourteen) is not allowed to clean any part of the machinery of a factory while in motion. A young person (from fourteen to eighteen) or woman (over eighteen) is not allowed to clean such part of the machinery as is mill-gearing, while the same is in motion. A child, young person, or woman is not allowed to walk between the fixed and traversing part of any self-acting machine while the same is in motion.

Accidents causing death, or disabling the person more than forty-eight hours, must be reported to the inspector and visiting surgeon by the occupier of the factory or workshop. The surgeon is to examine at once the nature and cause of the accident, and report to the inspector within twenty-four hours.

Neglect to keep a factory or workshop in conformity with the act is punishable by a fine not exceeding £10; and the court (of summary jurisdiction) may inflict a fine, not exceeding £100, for the benefit of the injured person or his family, or otherwise, in case of death or injury in consequence of neglect to fence machinery as required.

Professor Watson, in the same paper, gives a very

interesting account of an Association for the Prevention of Factory Accidents, existing at Mulhouse, in Alsace. It consists of twenty-four members, comprising mill-owners, superintendents, manufacturing engineers, foremen, and workmen chosen by the Industrial Society of the city, with the aid of the workmen. The Association offers arbitration, in cases of claims for damage, and uses various means for spreading a knowledge of the dangers and their remedies. At the Paris Exposition of 1878, they exhibited twenty-seven examples of contrivances adapted to prevent very severe accidents such as commonly occur, especially from belts, shafts, pulleys, wheels, and circular-saws. It would be well if our employers of labor in large manufacturing centres, such as Philadelphia, Fall River, Lowell, etc., would imitate this humane example.

Railway accidents may be properly mentioned in this place, for they affect the employés in vastly greater proportion than the passengers. For instance, in France, from 1854 to 1869, the number of travellers killed and wounded on railroads was 2,832; but that of employés was 11,908. If we consider how few men are required to run a train carrying hundreds of passengers, we cannot help being struck with the great disproportion.