TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 173 



able number. The paper concludes with a statement of the means which the author 

 considers are calculated to reduce disease to a minimum and improve the comfort 

 and condition of the operative : — 1st. Increased provision for ensuring full ventila- 

 tion of the different apartments, whereby an equal temperature and the freest change 

 of atmosphere would be obtained without being subject to the control or whim of 

 the operative. Horizontal shafts, communicating with a large air-expelling fan, were 

 recommended as absolutely necessary for the brackling and carding apartments ; the 

 opening of the sashes when required should be regulated en masse, and not, as at 

 present, here and there, whereby drafts and minor currents are produced. 2nd. To 

 prevent the entrance of the flax and tow particles into the respiratory passages, some 

 means, acting like the ordinary respirator or the natural moustache, is imperatively 

 required. 3rd. In order to counteract the injury to the young spinners consequent 

 upon the present mode of conducting the employment, a suitable mill-dress, to be 

 put on on entering the factory, would be most desirable ; during work, the outer 

 ordinary clothing might be hung up in a dry room, to be resumed at the close. 4th. 

 It would be the interest as well as duty of the employer to encourage all proper means 

 of enabling the operatives to spend their evenings in a manner calculated to improve 

 their mental condition, and thus rendering them more disposed to view their position 

 in a true light, and to give freely and fully a fair day's work for a fair day's wage. 

 By refining the taste, the operative becomes armed with a counteracting power 

 against the degrading though seductive attractions of vicious habits, and the employer 

 receives the benefit with interest in the better fulfilment of the operatives' duty, and 

 the greater degree of confidence which becomes established between them. 



Juvenile Delinquency — iis Principal Causes and Proposed Cure, as adopted 

 in the Glasgow Reformatory Schools. By the Rev. A. K. M'Callum, 

 M.A., Governor of the House of Refuge, Glasgoiv. 



In the outset, the writer showed that crime being one of the social problems of 

 the age, in order to diminish the number of our criminals, we must begin bv the 

 reformation of our youthful offenders. He then enumerated in detail the causes of 

 juvenile delinquency in Glasgow. The principal of these were — 



I. Depraved Parental Influence. — He represented the disastrous effects of intem- 

 perance upon the family, and showed that the child is led by the profligate example, 

 and sometimes precept, of his parents, to the commission of crime, and is thus 

 brought under the lash of the law. He found, out of 286 boys now in the House 

 of Refuge, 72 who attribute their fall either directly or indirectly to the bad conduct 

 of their parents. He mentioned, as another prolific source of crime — 



II. Corrupting Associates. — He stated that there are hundreds of adepts in vice 

 throughout the city who make it their business to inveigle young persons, and com- 

 pel them by threats, or encourage them by rewards, to steal. That these young 

 victims, however, soon set up for themselves, and carry on their depredations on 

 their own account. That the number of youths corrupted in this way annually is 

 very great ; and that all public works, and society in general, are heavy sufferers. 

 That these are chiefly young persons inured to crime by repeated recommittals to 

 our gaols ; and that, among the boys of the House of Refuge, there were 152 who 

 trace their ruin principally to these bad companions. 



III. Wee Pawns and Marine Stores were another source of evil. They are the 

 favourite haunts of the beggar, the thief, the drunkard, and the juvenile delinquent, 

 from the universal nature of the articles they receive. That the young person was 

 confirmed in his nefarious traffic from the facilities afforded by these places for the 

 disposal of his booty. That the whole system of pawnbroking houses should 

 be thoroughly revised, and a severe penalty inflicted on any one who received 

 articles from young persons under any pretence whatsoever. He stated that — 



IV. Shows and Minor Theatres were, beyond comparison, the most prolific 

 sources of juvenile crime. That these places are whirlpools, into which, when our 

 youth are once drawn, their destruction is almost inevitable. The writer himself 

 visited some of these places in company with two officers, kindly furnished by the 

 Superintendent of Police. The scene he witnessed will not bear description. From 



