London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1905
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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Deformities.—Wry neck, flat foot, curvature of the spine, tilting of pelvis, unsymmetrical
development.
The extracts from the notes show how the results were tabulated.
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Want offsleep is very prominent in the notes, " boy falls asleep in school," and many of these
children "are got up to work before five in the morning. Many began work at comparatively early ages,
some are noted as beginning at 7, 8 or 9.
The holidays are often made the occasion of overwork. Immediately after the summer holiday
a boy of 12 was seen with marked hysteria, globus hystericus, very emotional, wanting to cry all
the time, marked tremors of the hands, tired and jaded appearance. Enquiry elicited that during
the whole holiday he had been carrying half hundredweight sacks of coal from 8 a.m. till 9 p.m., and
on Saturdays till midnight for two shillings a week.
The notes also show the futility of the work from the point of view of wage earning, "gets a
penny a day," "8 hours hard labour daily (woodchopping) for 2d. a week," "gets up at 5.30 a.m., is
attending hospital for consumption." The majority of the parents did not need the children's wage.
Dividing the boys into three classes according to the number of hours worked weekly the following results in percentages aie obtained:—
| Hours worked weekly. | Actual Number of boys. | Fatigue signs. | Anaemia. | Severe nerve signs. | Deformities. | Severe heart signg. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All school boys of district (workers and non-workers) | 3,700 | - | 25 | 24 | 8 | 8 |
| Working 20 or less hours | 163 | 50 | 34 | 28 | 15 | 11 |
| Working 20-30 hours | 86 | 81 | 47 | 44 | 21 | 15 |
| Working over 30 hours | 95 | 83 | 45 | 50 | 22 | 20 |
This shows that whereas even work of 20 hours or less has an appreciable effect in increasing
the amount of disease there is a very considerable increase in those working over 20 hours.
Since, as will be apparent later, long hours on a Saturday and working during the mid-day interval have special dangers to health, boys working under these conditions have been left out in compiling the following table giving percentages presenting symptoms:—
| Hours worked/weekly. | N umber of boys. | Fatigue. | Anæmia. | Severe nerve signs. | Deformities. | Severe heart signs. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All boys in several schools | 3,700 | — | 25 | 24 | 8 | 8 |
| Under 20 | 98 | 27 | 24 | 19 | 11 | 5 |
| 20-30 | 86 | 82 | 32 | 45 | 14 | 8 |
| Over 30 | 22 | 86 | 41 | 64 | 23 | 18 |
Signs of ill-health in working boys, excluding those working over eight hours on one day or
during the dinner hour.
The elimination of boys working over 8 hours on Saturdays renders the amount of ill-health
amongst those working under 20 hours weekly much less.
Boys working over 8 hours on Saturday, or in dinner hour symptoms again expressed in
percentages:—