356 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 



England," has given a later and fuller account, perfectly 

 agreeing with Mrs. Mallet's statements published three 

 years earlier; and notwithstanding the abuse and denials 

 by interested parties, all his essential facts are fully 

 borne out by the quotations he now gives in an Appen- 

 dix, from the reports of several committees, select or 

 departmental, which have enquired into the various 

 trades he has described, together with the evidence from 

 coroners' inquests and other sources. Anyone who 

 reads this Appendix alone will be thoroughly convinced 

 of the terrible amount of human suffering and of death 

 resulting from the " dangerous trades " of England, 

 though their total amount can never be fully realized. 



And the whole of this destruction of human life and 

 happiness is absolutely needless, since many of the 

 products are not necessaries of life, and all without ex- 

 ception could be made entirely harmless if adequate 

 pressure were brought to bear upon the manufacturers. 

 Let every death that is clearly traceable to a dangerous 

 trade be made manslaughter, for which the owners, or, 

 in the case of a company, the directors, are to be pun- 

 ished by imprisonment, not as first-class misdemeanants, 

 and ways will soon be found to carry away or utilize the 

 noxious gases, and provide automatic machinery to carry 

 and pack the deadly white lead and bleaching powder; 

 as would certainly be done if the owners' families, or per- 

 sons in their own rank of life, were the only available 

 workers. 



Even more horrible than the white-lead poisoning is 

 that by phosphorus, in the match-factories. Phosphorus 

 is not necessary to make matches, but it is a trifle cheaper 

 and a little easier to light (and so more dangerous), and is 



