Michael
Ward
was a doctor in Manchester
for thirty years. Dr. Ward was interviewed by Lord Kenyon's House
of Lords Committee on 25th March, 1819.
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Dr. Michael Ward was interviewed by Lord
Kenyon's House of Lords Committee
on 25th March, 1819.
Question:
Give the committee information on your knowledge of the health of
workers in cotton-factories.
Answer: I have had frequent opportunities of seeing people coming
out from the factories and occasionally attending as patients. Last
summer I visited three cotton factories with Dr. Clough of Preston
and Mr. Barker of Manchester and we could not remain ten minutes in
the factory without gasping for breath. How it is possible for those
who are doomed to remain there twelve or fifteen hours to endure it?
If we take into account the heated temperature of the air, and the
contamination of the air, it is a matter of astonishment to my mind,
how the work people can bear the confinement for so great a length
of time.
Question: What was your
opinion of the relative state of health between cotton-factory children
and children in other employments?
Answer: The state of the health of the cotton-factory children is
much worse than that of children employed in other manufactories
Question: Have you any further
information to give to the committee?
Answer: Cotton factories are highly unfavourable, both to the health
and morals of those employed in them. They are really nurseries of
disease and vice.
Question: Have you observed
that children in the factories have particular accidents?
Answer: When I was a surgeon in the infirmary, accidents were very
often admitted to the infirmary, through the children's hands and
arms having being caught in the machinery; in many instances the muscles,
and the skin is stripped down to the bone, and in some instances a
finger or two might be lost. Last summer I visited Lever Street School.
The number of children at that time in the school, who were employed
in factories, was 106. The number of children who had received injuries
from the machinery amounted to very nearly one half. There were forty-seven
injured in this way.
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