Edward
Holme
was
a doctor in Manchester. Dr. Holme was
interviewed by Lord Kenyon's House of Lords
Committee on 22nd May, 1818.
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Edward Holme was interviewed by Lord
Kenyon's House of Lords Committee on 22nd
May, 1818.
Question:
How long have you practised as a physician in Manchester?
Answer: Twenty-four years.
Question: Have you, in Manchester, occasion to visit any public establishments?
Answer: I am physician to the principal medical establishments. The
medical establishments with which I am connected, and have been for
twenty-four years are, the Manchester Infirmary, Dispensary, Lunatic
Hospital and Asylum, and the House of Recovery.
Question: Has that given you opportunities of observing the state
of the children who are ordinarily employed in the cotton-factories.
Answer: It has.
Question: In what state of health did you find the persons employed?
Answer: They were in good health generally. I can give you particulars,
if desired, of Mr. Pooley's factory. He employs 401 persons; and,
of the persons examined in 1796, 22 were found to be of delicate appearances,
2 were entered as sickly, 3 in bad health, one subject to convulsions,
8 cases of scrofula: in good health, 363.
Question: Am I to understand you, from your investigations in 1796,
you formed rather a favourable opinion of the health of persons employed
in cotton-factories.
Answer: Yes.
Question: Have you had any occasion to change that opinion since?
Answer: None whatever. They are as healthy as any other part of the
working classes of the community.
Question: If children were overworked for a long period, would it,
in your opinion as a medical man, affect their health so as to be
visible in some way?
Answer: Unquestionably; if a child was overworked a single day, it
would incapacitate him in a great measure for performing his work
the next day; and if the practice was continued for a longer period,
it would in a certain time destroy his health altogether.
Question: Then you are to be understood, that, from the general health
among the children in the cotton-factories, you should form an opinion
that they were not worked beyond their physical powers?
Answer: Certainly not.
Question: The result of your observation did not indicate any check
of growth arising from their employment.
Answer: It did not.
Question: Would you permit a child of eight years old, for instance,
to be kept standing for twelve hours a day?
Answer: I did not come here to answer what I would do if I had children
of my own.
Question: Would it be injurious to a child, in your judgement as a
medical man, if at the time he got his meals he was still kept engaged
in the employment he was about?
Answer: These are questions which I find a great difficulty in answering.
Question: Who applied to you to undertake the examining of these children
in Mr. Pooley's factory?
Answer: Mr. Pooley.
Question: Suppose I put this question to you. If children were employed
twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen hours out of twenty-four, should
you think that conducive to the health of a delicate child?
Answer: My conclusion would be this: the children I saw were all in
health; if they were employed during those ten, twelve, or fourteen
hours, and had the appearance of health, I should still say it was
not injurious to their health.
Cotton
factories in Union Street, Manchester
(1835)
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