TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 747 



life, its eflFects are less pronounced than sedentary work, statistics clearly proving 

 that the comparative mortality figure of the latter, as illustrated by numerous 

 trades, is considerably greater than that of active and strong muscular exertion. 



Moreover, apart from physical toil, there are a multitude of collateral and 

 accidental conditions of employment of great influence upon capability for labour, 

 and which call for examination when data for limiting the extent and duration are 

 searched for. Among such are the situation of work, whether in the open country 

 or in a town ; whether above or beneath the surface of the ground ; and, in connec- 

 tion with these circumstances, the existence of darkness, of foul air, or noxious 

 fumes, of the presence of dust, whether poisonous or not, of elevated temperature, 

 or of highly increased atmospheric pressure. With reference to mining, in which 

 many unfavourable conditions enter, it seemed desirable that the hours of labour 

 be shortened. Nevertheless, were the evidence of the production of a high death- 

 rate to be accepted as the criterion for curtailing working hours, mining would 

 not challenge the first place, but be surpassed by several other occupations, and 

 especially by the manufacture of cutlery and of pottery. In demonstrating the in- 

 fluence of incidental conditions of work upon the sources of data, illustrations were, 

 for the most part, drawn from the character of mining operations. 



To guard against misunderstanding, the writer called attention to the fact that 

 the remarks made applied to adults ; and that, in the case of children, distinct data 

 for limiting labour existed in imperfect development and advancing growth in 

 body and mind — data, indeed, rightly used in framing the restrictions of the Fac- 

 tory Acts. 



Lastly, whilst admitting the existence of trades presenting conditions of labour 

 seriously prejudicial to health and life, and calling, in consequence, for some limi- 

 tation of the hours and extent of labour, he deprecated general interference by 

 legislative enactments with the freedom of men in the pursuit of their selected 

 trades, as being prejudicial to enterprise and to the manufacturing interests of the 

 country, and also as destructive of individual responsibility, and of the feeling of 

 independence, by replacing the natural law of self-preservation by State nursing. 



2. The Cure of Consumption in its Economic Asj^iect. 

 Bi/ G. W. Hambleton. 



3. The Increase of Food and Populatio7i. JBy W. E. A. Axon. 



4. Le Play's method of Systematic Observation. By F. Aubuetin. 



5. Recent Changes in the Bistrilution of Population in England and Wales. 

 By Edwin Oannan. 



The rough-and-ready method of describing the great change which has taken 

 place in the distribution of the population of England and Wales during the present 

 century is to say that the North has enormously increased in comparison with the 

 South. It is more accurate to say that the tendency. of the increasing population 

 has been to mass itself more and more in six comparatively small areas, viz., London, 

 Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, Staffordshire with Birmingham, the 

 county of Durham with Newcastle, Tynemouth, and Middlesbrough, and, lastly, 

 Glamorgan. 



Of these six localities Glamorgan only is shown by the Preliminary Report of 

 the Census of 1891 to be gaining on the rest of the country as fast as ever. The 

 rate of gain on the part of the Durham district, Lancashire, the West Riding, 

 and the Staffordshire district shows so great a decline that it seems likely to dis- 

 appear entirely before long. The gain of London has also somewhat diminished, 

 but is still very great if all the suburban country be included. 



