earning children of the same age. To be sure neither section of children, wage-earning, nor non-wage-earning can be said to have much or varied free hand labour, for even in schools the hand is still apt to be rather severely snubbed. But in most schools, and certainly in those that have manual centres, the hand has more exercise than has that of the message boy.[1] And the majority (though not all) of London children who earn wages are messengers of some kind, and earn their money by going errands.
Dr. Thomas divides the wage-earning boys of London into four classes viz. newsboys, milkboys, boys employed by shopkeepers and small tradesmen, and barbers' boys. Four hundred boys were selected by the teachers in fourteen boys' schools widely scattered over London. Each boy was examined and notes taken on the state of his health —that is, of the existence, not of stupidity in the first place, but of anæmia, severe nerve signs, deformities, and severe heart signs.
In so far as the general health of the average
- ↑ It has more varied exercises too than has the hand of the child who enters a mill. For though a doffer or factory child does use his hand all day long, it is but a very small group of muscles that is brought into activity.
