PROCEEDINGS OF THE rCLYTECHXIC ASSOCIATION'. 535 



yeafs experience in the treatment of female diseases as a spe- 

 cialty. All organs gain strength from the use of the adjacent 

 members. Those who have a weakness in certain abdominal or- 

 gans can strengthen them by the use of the machine. Amaurosis 

 of the eye is caused by hand sewing. Hand sewing requires a 

 constant application of the eye, but this is obviated by the ma- 

 chine. To do the bosom work of shirts by the machine does not 

 require close attention. I have made enquiries of all the oculists 

 of standing in the United States, if amaurosis is caused by sew- 

 ing machines, and was told by them that no disease has ever been 

 caused by them where it did not exist before. It also has been 

 stated that the lint flying up from a machine is injurious to the 

 eye. Dr. Bethune of the Massachusetts Charitable Eye Infirmary, 

 Boston, is in favor of sewing machines and does not think they 

 are at all injurious to the eye. Those interested in this branch 

 of the subject are referred to a paper read by me to the New 

 Yerk Academy, and published in its Bulletin, and also in the 

 Medical Times, December 15 and 22d, on the " Hygiene of the 

 Sewing machine." 



Chairman (to Mrs, Bush), — In working all cotton and linen 

 goods do you use them with the starch taken out or as you buy 

 them ? 



Mrs. Bush. — As we buy them. 



Mr. Young was of opinion that in the end more time would be 

 required to earn a living by the sewing machine than was taken 

 formerly by the hand sewing. He had a daughter who worked a 

 sewing machine and she had to work very hard to earn four dol- 

 lars a week. 



Dr. Gardner, — The introduction of the sewing machine has 

 enabled work to be so classified that instead of a girl having to 

 work at home in a close room she has to walk several miles to 

 and from her work, which is conducive to health. 



The Chairman related an anecdote of a gentleman who had in- 

 quired into the average length of life in his district, and he found 

 that the woman who kept no servant lived the longest, she who 

 kept one the next, and so on. Any vigorous work that causes 

 employment to both hands and feet is conducive to health. All 

 my enquiries have tended to prove that the sewing machine is a 

 blessing. Good work can be done as well by sewing machines as 

 by hand. Singer's, Grover & Baker's, and Wheeler & Wilson's, 



