534 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE, 



Chairman. — Has the hand sewing been improved by the sewing, 

 machines ? 



Mrs. Bush. — There is so much attention now paid to sewing 

 machines that hand sewing is not done as well as usual. I have 

 girls employed who have always been accustomed to hand sew- 

 ing, but since they began to use sewing machines I could not 

 induce them to return to hand sewing. I have run a machine 18 

 to 20 hours and was not as tired as I would be after five hours 

 hand sewing. Hand' sewing has a tendency to cause consumption. 

 In fine sewing two bobbins will last a girl a day. 



Mr. Garvey. — Great injury is done to the teeth by hand sew- 

 ing, on account of the enamel being knocked off in biting the 

 ends of the thread. 



The Chairman. — Swallowing the ends of the thread was an- 

 other injury. 



Dr. Gardiner, of the New York Medical College. — Within the 

 last two or three years I have paid a great deal of attention to 

 sewing machines. K they kill one woman in ten, or maim one in 

 five, causing them to be unhealthy, they are an evil. It has been 

 stated that they have caused rheumatism, and after some exam- 

 ination into the matter I have found that they do. It is, how- 

 ever, only produced by the first couple of days use. It is also 

 stated that the use of the machine has caused the women of the 

 present day to degenerate from what they were formerly. I do 

 not think this is so, I have found in one place in this city that 

 the work girls could not drive Singer's machines a sufiicient num- 

 ber of revolutions a minute to make a "paying" speed. On vis- 

 iting Douglass & Sherwood's and other manufactories I have been 

 told that the girls were benefited by the use of the sewing ma- 

 chine instead of otherwise. Girls, who have been accustomed to 

 hand sewing and left it to work on machines have become healthy. 

 All organs increase by use, and diminish by disuse. The hands 

 and feet of the right side are generaTly larger than those of the 

 left. I have found, on inquiry, that the average absence out of 

 100 girls employed upon heavy work with Singer's machine in 

 one factory from all causes to be only three a day, yet, the driv- 

 ing of these machines requiring great muscular power did not 

 produce any disease. I have inquired of physicians who have 

 attended the lower class of sewing girls and have been told by 

 them that the use of the machine does not produce disease. 

 Their testimony corroborates my observations made during many 



