206 DR. R. WILSON ON THE COAL MINERS 
finished, if in the fore-shift, he goes to bed, his wife hands him 
his pipe lighted, and in a few seconds he is fast asleep. The 
back-shift men dress after dinner, and employ themselves as 
their fancy leads them. Quoits, bowling, and ball-playing are 
their out-door games; cricket, wrestling, and jumping are seldom 
practised. A species of pitch and toss called ‘‘scouling,” is 
their great gambling game. ‘Their house games are whist, 
draughts, and dominoes. Whatever amusement or subject they 
take up, it is stuck to perseveringly. They are very matter-of- 
fact, and have considerable powers of concentration. Every 
available piece of ground near the villages is converted into a 
garden, and almost every cottage has one attached to it. Some 
keep poultry, and most feed pigs. They cure their own bacon 
with great success. Their bread home-made. Two kinds are 
used by them—white and brown; “spiced wigs’ prevail on 
Sundays, and the “singing hinny” makes its appearance on 
grand occasions. Great excesses are still prevalent on the pay 
Friday and Saturday nights. Ale is the liquor chiefly drunk. 
But no matter what excesses a man may commit on the pay 
week end, he must be at his post on the Monday following, or 
run the risk of being discharged; so that the habitual drunkard 
is sure to lose his employment. In all my experience among 
them I have never known a case of dipsomania, nor have I had 
to treat a single case of delirium tremens: this is more than 
I can say for many other callings. By the rules of their 
benefit societies no one, while receiving sick money, is allowed 
to frequent public-houses, he is not to be out later than 
nine o'clock in summer, and seven o’clock in winter, and he 
cannot leave home without the sanction of his medical atten- 
dant. Men who are injured while at work in the pit get a 
weekly allowance of five shillings from the owners of the colliery. 
This is called ‘‘ smart money.” 
We have now to inquire what there is in all this to modify 
or destroy vital action. Having procured from the Registrar- 
General a copy of the sanitary statistics relating to miners— 
submitted to the International Statistical Congress—I find 
in a table contained in that document of the aggregate number 
