392 BIOLOGY AND HUMAN LIFE 



291. First aid. Lender the most favorable conditions it is 

 impossible to eliminate all accidents. Even in an office or a 

 school, where the dangers are not great, accidents will happen, 

 as the proverb says of the best-regulated families. People fall 

 through a misstep, they cut and bruise themselves, something 

 breaks loose and strikes a person, and so on. Every plant that 

 has a considerable number of people working in it should be 

 prepared to deal with minor accidents until medical aid can be 

 obtained. Every modern industrial plant is indeed equipped 

 with first-aid appliances and has always at call a nurse or some 

 other person trained to meet emergencies that involve bodily 

 injury. In larger plants, especially in those which employ heavy 

 machinery or materials or high-power appliances, and in which 

 danger from accidents is accordingly greater, there are well- 

 equipped dispensaries and hospitals. 



292. Women and children in industry. Within the last few 

 generations the whole character of industry has changed radi- 

 cally. As a result (i) many industrial occupations requiring 

 comparatively little skill or physical strength became open 

 to women and children; (2) many products formerly made 

 at home came to be more cheaply made in the factories. Chil- 

 dren, kept for long hours at monotonous tasks, grew up into 

 ignorant and incompetent adults, worth no more as wage- 

 earners than children. Women had to get such work as they 

 could to help out in the family income. Children and homes 

 were neglected, and general deterioration of the working popu- 

 lation gradually set in. This condition became alarming in 

 England, and royal commissions appointed to study the prob- 

 lem recommended various improvements ; but their recom- 

 mendations met with stubborn resistance. On the one hand, 

 employers objected to the interference of government in what 

 they considered their private business. On the other hand, 

 many workers felt that regulation was also an interference with 

 their liberty, their right to work wherever they liked, as long 

 hours as they liked, and so on. Steadily, however, improve- 

 ments were brought about, partly through legislation, partly 



