Page:Labour and childhood.djvu/155

The explosions of rage and despair with which one new machine after another was succeeded became

of the ages of eleven and twelve in the year 1873 as compared with Dr. Arkell's in 1907.

Height in inches.	Public Schools, Country.	Middle Lower Class.	Factories.	Industrial.
60
59
58	Mean height.
57
55	55 inches.
54		54 inches.
53
52			52 inches.
51
50				50 inches.
49
48


Dr. Arkell's Chart for 1907:—

Mean Height of boys of eleven at Secondary Schools		55·5 inches.
	Children of middle and lower middle Class A	53·1 inches.
	Factory hand Class B.	51·8 inches.
	Industrial school Class C.	49·7 inches.

From Dr. Roberts' Table of Weights in 1873 for boys of eleven of Factory hand class 67·7 lb:—

Mean weight of boys in 1907 at eleven from Dr. Arkell's chart.
	Secondary School	70 lb.
	Children of Middle and Lower Middle Class	61·4 lb.
	Factory Class	59 lb.
	Industrial School Class	55·5 lb.

Thus it would appear that the eleven year old child of that very large class of workers who are in regular employment but with small wages has lost in the past thirty years more than 8 lb. in weight, and this serious loss has taken place in spite of the great advance in medical science and the improved sanitation of cities. Thus, the rapid improvement in machinery cannot be said to have brought any very great benefit to them.