223 



the most unhealthy town in England. While again Clifton 

 has only 1,713 persons to the mile, and yet its mortality is as 

 great as Bradford, viz., 2.4 per cent., which is very densely 

 populated. 



The trades and occupations of each district are also, within 

 certain limits, perturbing causes; for not only do the different 

 employments exert a material influence upon health, but their 

 prosperous or adverse states do so likewise. The grinders of 

 Sheffield amount only to 3,000, and, therefore, their numbers 

 do not influence the rates so much as might be supposed. (See 

 Dr. Calvert Holland.) It is, however, a most appalling fact, 

 from inquiries made in 1822 respecting the phthisis of the 

 grinders of Sheffield, that out of 2,500 grinders, there were 

 not more than 35 who had arrived at the age of 50 ; and not 

 double that number who reached the age of 45 ; and that out 

 of 80 fork-grinders, exclusive of boys, there was not a single 

 individual 36 years old. Sir Arnold Knight, who has written 

 an account of the grinders' asthma {in the North of England 

 Medical and Surgical Journal, p. 89,) concludes by asking, 

 " Might not criminals, who have grossly violated the laws of 

 their country, be condemned for life to fork-grinding, as for 

 minor ofi'ences they are sentenced to the tread-mill?" It 

 appears, however, that in the years 1839, 1840, and 1841, 

 the average age of all who died above 21, engaged in the 

 manufactures of Sheffield, was 48 ; i. e. without gentry and 

 tradesmen, with them 52 ; and that the average age of fork- 

 grinders was 48 years, — other grinders 44.09. 



It does not, however, appear, during the same three years, 

 that the rate of mortality of the persons connected with the 

 manufacture of woollen cloths in the Huddersfield Union, are 

 very different from the trades of Sheffield. The average 

 age of all who die is 46, and, therefore, less than the artisans 

 of Sheffield. The average age in the Society of Friends 

 for 1841, 1842, and 1843, of those who died above 20 years. 



