decidedly ugly in the whole development of the figure.
But apart from all these diseases and malformations,
the limbs of the operatives suffer in still another
way. The work between the machinery gives rise
to multitudes of accidents of more or less serious
nature, which have for the operative the secondary
effect of unfitting him for his work more or less
completely. The most common accident is the squeezing
off of a single joint of a finger, somewhat less common
the loss of the whole finger, half or a whole hand,
an arm, etc., in the machinery. Lockjaw
very often follows, even upon the lesser among these
injuries, and brings death with it. Besides
the deformed persons, a great number of maimed ones
may be seen going about in Manchester; this one has
lost an arm or a part of one, that one a foot, the
third half a leg; it is like living in the midst of
an army just returned from a campaign. But the
most dangerous portion of the machinery is the strapping
which conveys motive power from the shaft to the separate
machines, especially if it contains buckles, which,
however, are rarely used now. Whoever is seized
by the strap is carried up with lightning speed, thrown
against the ceiling above and floor below with such
force that there is rarely a whole bone left in the
body, and death follows instantly. Between June
12th and August 3rd, 1843, the Manchester Guardian
reported the following serious accidents (the trifling
ones it does not notice): June 12th, a boy died
in Manchester of lockjaw, caused by his hand being
crushed between wheels. June 16th, a youth in
Saddleworth seized by a wheel and carried away with
it; died, utterly mangled. June 29th, a young
man at Green Acres Moor, near Manchester, at work
in a machine shop, fell under the grindstone, which
broke two of his ribs and lacerated him terribly.
July 24th, a girl in Oldham died, carried around
fifty times by a strap; no bone unbroken. July
27th, a girl in Manchester seized by the blower (the
first machine that receives the raw cotton), and died
of injuries received. August 3rd, a bobbins
turner died in Dukenfield, caught in a strap, every
rib broken. In the year 1843, the Manchester
Infirmary treated 962 cases of wounds and mutilations
caused by machinery, while the number of all other
accidents within the district of the hospital was
2,426, so that for five accidents from all other causes,
two were caused by machinery. The accidents
which happened in Salford are not included here, nor
those treated by surgeons in private practice.
In such cases, whether or not the accident unfits
the victim for further work, the employer, at best,
pays the doctor, or, in very exceptional cases, he
may pay wages during treatment; what becomes of the
operative afterwards, in case he cannot work, is no
concern of the employer.
The Factory Report says on this subject, that employers must be made responsible for all cases, since children cannot take care, and adults will take care in their own interest. But the gentlemen who write the report are bourgeois, and so they must contradict themselves and bring up later all sorts of bosh on the subject of the culpable temerity of the operatives.