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1246 | Voices From the Past American Journal of Public Health | August 2003, Vol 93, No. 8
VOICES FROM THE PAST
fering from precisely the same these maladies disappeared. . . . that from youth up, the opera-
distortions of the spinal columns This long protracted upright po- tive is deprived of all fresh air
and legs . . . and I have often sition, with the bad atmosphere recreation. . . .
been able to observe them prevalent in the mills entails, be- That the growth of young op-
closely. I know one personally sides the deformities mentioned, eratives is stunted, by their work,
who . . . got into this condition a marked relaxation of all vital hundreds of statements testify;
in Mr. Douglas’s factory in energies, and, in consequence, among others, Cowell gives the
Pendleton, an establishment all sorts of other afflictions gen- weight of 46 youths of 17 years
which enjoys an unenviable no- eral rather than local. The at- of age, from one Sunday school,
toriety among the operatives by mosphere of the factories is, as a of whom 26 [who were] em-
reason of the former long work- rule, at once damp and warm, ployed in the mills, averaged
ing periods continued night after far warmer than is necessary, 104.5 pounds, and 20 not em-
night. It is evident, at a glance, and, when the ventilation is not ployed in mills, 117.7 pounds.
whence the distortions of these very good, impure, heavy, defi- One of the largest manufacturers
cripples come, they all look ex- cient in oxygen, filled with dust of Manchester . . . said on one
actly alike. The knees are bent and the smell of the machine oil, occasion that if things went on as
inward and backwards, the an- which almost everywhere at present, the operatives of Lan-
kles deformed and thick, and smears the floor, sinks into it, cashire would soon be a race of
the spinal column often bent and becomes rancid. The opera- pigmies. A recruiting officer testi-
forwards or to one side. . . . tives are lightly clad by reason fied that operatives were little
In cases in which a stronger of the warmth, and would read- adapted for military service,
constitution, better food, and ily take cold in case of irregular- looked thin and nervous, and
other more favourable circum- ity of the temperature; a draught were frequently rejected by the
stances enabled the young opera- is distasteful to them, the general surgeons as unfit. In Manchester
tive to resist this effect of a bar- enervation which gradually he could hardly get men of five
barous exploitation, we find, at takes possession of all the physi- feet eight inches; they were usu-
least, pain in the back, hips, and cal functions diminishes the ani- ally only five feet six to seven,
legs, swollen joints, varicose mal warmth: this must be re- whereas in the agricultural dis-
veins, and large, persistent ulcers placed from without, and tricts, most of the recruits were
in the thighs and calves. These nothing is therefore more agree- five feet eight.
afflictions are almost universal able to the operative than to The men wear out very early
among the operatives. . . . have all the doors and windows in consequence of the conditions
All these afflictions are easily closed, and to stay in his warm under which they live and work.
explained by the nature of fac- factory-air. Then comes the sud- Most of them are unfit for work
tory-work, which is, as the man- den change of temperature on at forty years, a few hold out to
ufacturers say, very “light,” and going out into the cold and wet forty-five, almost none to fifty
precisely by reason of its light- or frosty atmosphere, without years of age. This is caused not
ness, more enervating than any the means of protection from the only by the general enfeeble-
other. The operatives have little rain, or of changing wet clothing ment of the frame, but also very
to do, but must stand the whole for dry, a circumstance which often by a failure of sight, which
time. Any one who sits down, perpetually produces colds. And is a result of mule-spinning, in
say upon a window-ledge or a when one reflects that, with all which the operative is obliged to
basket, is fined, and this perpet- this, not one single muscle of the fix his gaze upon a long row of
ual upright position, this con- body is really exercised, really fine parallel threads, and so
stant mechanical pressure of the called into activity, except per- greatly to strain the sight. . . .
upper portions of the body upon haps those of the legs; that noth- In Manchester, this premature
spinal column, hips, and legs, in- ing whatsoever counteracts the old age among the operatives is
evitably produces the results enervating, relaxing tendency of so universal that almost every
mentioned. This standing is not all these conditions; that every man of forty would be taken for
Opposite: German socialist
required by the work itself, and influence is wanting which might ten to fifteen years older, while philosopher Friedrich Engels
at Nottingham chairs have been give the muscles strength, the fi- the prosperous classes, men as (1820–1895) at the age of 25
introduced, with the result that bres elasticity and consistency; well as women, preserve their ap- in 1845. Photographer unknown.
August 2003, Vol 93, No. 8 | American Journal of Public Health Voices From the Past | 1247
VOICES FROM THE PAST
Friedrich Engels was born on provincial bourgeois hypocrisy in daily suffered by English work-
November 28, 1820, in Barmen, the Rhineland district where he ers—the unsanitary streets of
Germany, into a wealthy family had grown up. densely crowded urban slums,
pearance exceedingly well if they midwives and accoucheurs, and But besides all this, there are lessness—in short, all the symp-
do not drink too heavily. also that they are more liable some branches of factory work toms of asthma, ending in the
The influence of factory to miscarriage. Moreover, they which have an especially injuri- worst cases of consumption. . . .
work upon the female physique suffer from the general enfee- ous effect. In many rooms of the But apart from all these diseases
also is marked and peculiar. blement common to all opera- cotton and flax-spinning mills, and malformations, the limbs of
The deformities entailed by tives, and, when pregnant, con- the air is filled with fibrous dust, the operatives suffer in still an-
long hours of work are much tinue to work in the factory up which produces chest affections, other way. Work among the ma-
more serious among women. to the hour of delivery, because especially among workers in the chines gives rise to multitudes of
Protracted work frequently otherwise they lose their wages carding and combing rooms. accidents of more or less serious
causes deformities of the pelvis, and are made to fear that they Some constitutions can bear it, nature, which have for the opera-
partly in the shape of abnormal may be replaced if they stop some cannot; but the operative tive the secondary effect of unfit-
position and development of away too soon. It frequently has no choice. He must take the ting him for his work more or
the hip bones, partly of malfor- happens that women are at room in which he finds work, less completely. The most com-
mation of the lower portion of work one evening and deliv- whether his chest is sound or mon accident is the crushing of a
the spinal column. . . . That fac- ered the next morning, and the not. The most common effects of single joint of a finger, somewhat
tory operatives undergo more case is none too rare of their this breathing of dust are blood- less common the loss of the
difficult confinement than other being delivered in the factory spitting, hard, noisy breathing, whole finger, half or a whole
women is testified to by several among the machinery. . . . pains in the chest, coughs, sleep- hand, an arm, etc., in the machin-
1248 | Voices From the Past American Journal of Public Health | August 2003, Vol 93, No. 8
VOICES FROM THE PAST
first, the League of the Just, and Science (1878) and Socialism: About the Authors
then into the International Com- Utopian and Scientific (1880), Theodore M. Brown is with the Depart-
munist League. When hopes for which vigorously defended Marx’s ments of History and of Community and
Preventive Medicine at the University of
revolution faded on the Conti- commanding position among radi- Rochester, Rochester, NY. Elizabeth Fee is
nent in the late 1840s, Engels cal political theorists. with the History of Medicine Division, Na-
and Marx moved to England. After Marx’s death in 1883, tional Library of Medicine, National Insti-
tutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
Engels returned to the family Engels served as the premier in-
Requests for reprints should be sent to
business in Manchester while ternational authority on Marx Theodore M. Brown, PhD, Department
Marx lived and wrote in London. and Marxism. In addition to his of History, University of Rochester,
Engels supported Marx with own intellectual and political Rochester, NY 14627 (e-mail:
theodore_brown@urmc.rochester.edu).
money he earned in the textile in- work and other promotional ac-
This contribution was accepted January 5,
dustry; he also continued his own tivities on behalf of Marxism, he
2003.
radical activities. He became completed volumes 2 and 3 of
Marx’s most effective popularizer Das Kapital (1885 and 1894),
References
and propagandist. Indeed, when working from Marx’s notes and 1. Marcus S. Engels, Manchester, and
Marx published volume 1 of Das incomplete manuscripts. Late in the Working Class. New York, NY: W. W.
Norton; 1985:67–130.
Kapital (1859), few could under- life, and despite the advance of
2. Carver T. Engels. New York, NY:
stand it; it was Engels’ reviews of European parliamentary democ-
Hill and Wang; 1981.
the volume in a variety of jour- racy and, with it, of social reform,
3. Ramm T. Engels, Friedrich. In:
nals that presented the “material- Engels still defended the need Sills DL, ed. International Encyclopedia
ist conception of history” and the for continuing the class struggle of the Social Sciences. New York, NY:
“dialectical method” of economic and revolutionary political tac- Macmillan; 1968.
and social analysis with the great- tics. He died in London of cancer
est clarity and persuasiveness. En- in 1895.
gels consolidated Marx’s influence
Theodore M. Brown and
among competing revolutionary
Elizabeth Fee
programs in a variety of works,
most notably in Anti-Dühring:
Herr Eugen Dühring’s Revolution in
ery. . . . Besides the deformed in the body, and death follows is driven off with blows, how they had fallen asleep during
persons, a great number of instantly. . . . they fall asleep over their work their prayers; when one reads all
maimed ones may be seen going A pretty list of diseases engen- nevertheless, how one poor child this and a hundred other vil-
about in Manchester; this one dered purely by the hateful sprang up, still asleep, at the call lainies and infamies . . . how can
has lost an arm or a part of one, greed of the manufacturers! of the overlooker, and mechani- one be otherwise than filled with
that one a foot, the third half a Women made unfit for childbear- cally went through the operations wrath and resentment against a
leg; it is like living in the midst of ing, children deformed, men en- of its work after its machine was class which boasts of philan-
an army just returned from a feebled, limbs crushed, whole stopped; when one reads how thropy and self-sacrifice, while its
campaign. But the most danger- generations wrecked, afflicted children, too tired to go home, object is to fill its purse a tout
ous portion of the machinery is with disease and infirmity, purely hid in the wool of the drying- prix?
the strapping which conveys mo- to fill the purses of the bour- room to sleep there, and could
tive power from the shaft to the geoisie. And when one reads of only be driven out of the factory
separate machines. . . . Whoever the barbarism of single cases, with straps; how many hundreds
is seized by the strap is carried how children are seized naked in came home so tired every night,
up with lightning speed, thrown bed by the overlookers, and that they could eat no supper for
against the ceiling above and driven with blows and kicks to weariness and want of appetite,
floor below with such force that the factory, their clothing over that their parents found them
there is rarely a whole bone left their arms, how their sleepiness kneeling by the bedside, where
August 2003, Vol 93, No. 8 | American Journal of Public Health Voices From the Past | 1249