368 On the Utility of Early Elementary Instruction 



of Kipon at the same time, the population was 12,131, and the budals were^ 

 180, or one death in 674* But Ripon being subject in a degree at least to 

 t^ie evils of a town, we are required to compare the mortality at Leeds with 

 that of an agricultural district, where the people and their habitations are 

 not crowded. Pickering Lythe returned in 1821 a population of 15,232, and 

 the number of burials 205 1 one death consequently in 74 persons. Taking, 

 then, the mortality at Pickering Lythe as the natural one, there was an ex- 

 cess of 321 deaths in the borough of Leeds in 1821. And allowing for the in- 

 crease of population since that period, we may fairly say that at least 450 

 persons die annually in the borough of Leeds, from the injurious effects of 

 manufactures, the crowded state of population, and the consequent bad habits 

 of life ! We may say that every day of the year is carried to the grave the 

 corpse of an individual whom nature would have long preserved in health 

 and vigour ; — every day we see sacrificed to the artificial state of society one, 

 and sometimes two victims, whom the destinies of nature would have spared." 



'* The destruction of 450 persons year by year in the borough of Leeds 

 cannot be considered by any benevolent mind as an insignificant alFair. 

 Still less can the impaired health, the lingering ailments, the premature de- 

 cay, mental and corporeal, of nine-tenths of the survivors, be a subject of in- 

 difference. Assuredly, an examination into the state of our manufactures 

 has long been demanded, alike by humanity and by science." 

 • " Either diseases are artificially multiplied, or they are not. If inquiry 

 prove the aflfirmative, surely self-interest, as well as benevolence, demands a 

 full investigation into the causes of the evil : — if the negative, we shall rest 

 contented, gratified with the idea that our employments are not baneful, and 

 that the excess of mortality is the infliction of Providence, not the agency 

 of man. 



" Most persons, who reflect on the subject, will be inclined to admit that 

 our employments are in a considerable degree injurious to the health ; but 

 they believe, or profess to believe, that the evils cannot be counteracted, and 

 urge that an investigation of such evil can produce only pain and discontent. 

 From a reference to fact and observation I reply, that in many of our occu- 

 pations, the injurious agents might be immediately removed or diminished. 

 Evils are suffered to exist, even where the means of correction are known 

 and easily applied. Thoughtlessness or apathy is the only obstacle to success. 

 But even where no adequate remedy immediately presents itself, observa- 

 tion and discussion will rarely fail to find one. We might even say, that the 

 human mind cannot be fairly and perseveringly applied to a subject of this 

 kind, without decided effect." 



Mr Thackrah has divided the inhabitants of Leeds and its 

 neighbourhood into four great classes, ^iz. Operatives, Dealers, 

 Master Manufacturers and Merchants, and Professional Men ; 

 and in examining the state of these severally, has adverted to 

 the atmosphere they breathe, the muscular exercise taken, the 

 postures of body maintained, the variations of temperature and 

 humidity to which they are exposed, their diets and habits of 



