Document 3NGjYqoKKXdVNLE0XqwdxEjm3

FILE NAME State of the Art Literature SAL DATE 1902 DOC SAL002 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Book Excerpt - Dangerous Trades (< . 4 ~ le 3 DANGEROUS TRADES THE HISTORICAL SOCIAL AND LEGAL ASPECTS OF INDUSTRIAL OCCUPATIONS AS AFFECTING HEALTH BY A NUMBER a | _ OF EXPERTS EDITED MEDICAL BY THOMAS EXPERT ON THE WHITE OLIVER OLIVER M.A. M.D. F.R.C.P. LEAD DANGEROUS TRADES POTTERY AND LUCIFER MATCH COMMITTEES OF THE HOME OFFICE; PROFESSOK | ' = - FS S. K a a = = Br ke. i | WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 1 % S wa bas? - ind a meres conte S we , . ' 7 ; iv , - o2 3 NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & CO LO LONDON NLD ONDON ON JOHN MURRAY 1902 eS an ats 3m weedy >t Tae re ret AAS, a - atts eee : a pk aos ge w. yu . Hi R * rh ace: oe 3 Char SOCIAL ILLS AND THEIR AMENDMENT 25 25 . 7 ee ee te =< health The change cannot be accounted for completely either by change in the methods and organisation of industry or by increased knowledge medical economic or social Nor can the increased increased breadth of conception be attributed solely to that intensity and quantity of human suffering which inevitably accompanied concentration and growth of industry In all ages there have been physical m^ral and economic evils which fell to the lot of the labourer probably differing from time to time on the whole more in degree than in kind and doubtless felt at each stage by the sufferers and sometimes by onlookers with an intensity which relatively was great and which with adequate discernment of a remedy and the duty or expedience of applying it would have led to legislative action In the great civilisations of antiquity whether in the East West or in Europe generally there was sufficient of the forces of labour to produce the intensest cfoonrcmesntorfatitohne maladies classed by Pliny as the discases of slaves Some of the most injurious processes known to us now are extremely ancient To mention but a few lead and quicksilver mining the potters craft and the textile processes of preparing and weaving asbestos and flax The long history in another department of social ills of (ied legislation and organised guild efforts for protection of buyers from dishonest manufacture and dishonest trading in adulterated ( products or again of efforts to regulate supply of labour and to enforce honest service from workers affords many illustrations the action that could be taken in Middle Age and Renaissance > Europe where an evil was both recognised and also believed to be remediable It is to be noted how few the indications are that the strivings after social improvement of handicraftsmen and labourers were in those times inspired by any clear vision of on AM, the physical safety and health of individuals as part of the well- being to be sought Illustrations might indeed be gathered from records of craft guilds and municipal organisations of provisions and regulations that tended to results similar to those expressly aimed at by modern sanitary regulations This is especially true of England where the masses of manual workers came earlier than in other countries of Modern Europe to comparative physical comfort We must however avoid the mis- take of reading into past events however interesting ideas that are consciously at work in practical affairs only in our own wer tinies a ae Sex4 + Fades Kd