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...return to the dismal topic of infant mortality, the undue proportion of which arises from the neglect of mothers who are compelled to leave their young children at home while they labor in the mill. this i hold to be the blackest blot on the factory system. whether it can be remedied is a question which i will not attempt to answer... the inevitable result of this system is the reckless and almost universal employment of narcotics. first, the child is drugged until it sleeps, and too often it is drugged until it dies. there is a notion abroad that laudanum, as a stimulant, is frequently used by adults in the manufacturing districts instead of spirits. upon this subject i have made enquiries, which have convinced me that the practice, if it exists at all, does so only in exceptional cases. medical men have generally said that little or nothing of the kind came under their observation. druggists are exceedingly shy and reserved upon the whole subject of narcotic dosing, and indisposed to admit that laudanum is commonly given in any cases except those in which it is medically necessary. the truth is, however, that in england opium-eating, or drinking what de quincey calls "laudanum toddy," is an anti-social vice, practised in secret, and of which its practisers are ashamed. the man who thinks no harm of admitting that he takes his glass of wine, or his tumbler of grog, or his pint of porter, will be sorry to make any such confession in favour of preparations of the poppy. if he gets drunk on opium pills, he will keep the failing to himself. in the case of infant drugging, although the subject is generally mentioned with reserve both by those who sell and those who employ the medicine, the practice is too notorious and universal to be for an instant denied. still, says mr. coulthard, writing of ashton, and his experience corroborates my own - "both buyer and seller are aware that they are doing wrong, and try to mystify the facts." the truth is, there is not a more thoroughly household word through the cotton and spinning towns than "godfrey." indeed, just as the gin-loving race of london delight to call their favourite beverage by dozens of slangy affectionate titles, just as there is "cream of the valley," and "regular flare-up," and "old tom," so there is to be found in the druggists' shops in the lower districts here, "baby's mixture," "mother's quietness," "child's cordial," "soothing syrup," and so forth, every one of these lulling beverages being a sweetened preparation of laudanum. in ashton these abominable doses are actually sold at many of the public-houses, and i think it highly probable that the same practice may exist in manchester...
"such preparations are only given, he believed, to enable the mother to work at factory." a small quantity of laudanum is noted as sold for adult consumption, but the proportion is quite trifling. when we take into consideration this horrible system of juvenile "hocussing" - this feeding infants upon loathsome syruppy laudanum rather than their mother's milk - when we duly ponder on the state of filth in which children left insufficiently attended must live (and the nature of the superintendence they receive is well illustrated by the fact already adduced, that more than 4,000 go annually astray and get "lost" in the streets of manchester) - and, finally, when we take into consideration such facts as those stated by the registrar of deansgate, in manchester, when he tells us that, in one district, nearly 200 children died in a year "without any reasonable attempt having been made to save them" - the miserable little wretches having been soothed and stupified in their sickness by opiates - when we endeavour to realise in our minds in its full horror this foul and unnatural state of things, can we feel either shocked or surprised at the deliberate declaration of the registrar, that, in manchester in the course of seven years, there perished 13,362 children, "over and above the mortality natural to mankind!" yes: 13,362 "little children brought up in unclean dwellings and impure streets - left alone long days by their mothers - to breathe the subtle sickly vapours - soothed by opium, a more cursed distillation than hebenon - and when assailed by mortal disease, their stomachs torn, their bodies convulsed, their brains bewildered, left to die without medical aid, which, like hope, should come to all, the skilled medical man never being called in at all, or only summoned to witness the death and sanction the funeral!"
there are two exciting causes for this mass of infantine misery. first, but in a comparatively small degree, the unhealthy state of the houses: secondly and mainly, the neglect and all the concomitant evils consequent upon the mothers of children of tender age passing their days in the mill.
herein - i cannot too often repeat it - lie, in my solemn conviction, the bane and the disgrace of the cotton system. if we are to have any legislative interference in the factories at all, is this not the point to which interference ought to be directed? whether the evil be curable or irremediable, i pretend not to say. i have brought together an array of facts bearing upon it, and i leave those fats to suggest, as different minds may view them, whether or not it would be advisable in factory legislation to make any difference between "women" and the mothers of young children, even to the extent of relaxing the restrictions upon the daily work of the former, if thereby we could increase the time apportionable to the domestic duties of the later.
morning chronicle, thursday, 1 november 1849
"such preparations are only given, he believed, to enable the mother to work at factory." a small quantity of laudanum is noted as sold for adult consumption, but the proportion is quite trifling. when we take into consideration this horrible system of juvenile "hocussing" - this feeding infants upon loathsome syruppy laudanum rather than their mother's milk - when we duly ponder on the state of filth in which children left insufficiently attended must live (and the nature of the superintendence they receive is well illustrated by the fact already adduced, that more than 4,000 go annually astray and get "lost" in the streets of manchester) - and, finally, when we take into consideration such facts as those stated by the registrar of deansgate, in manchester, when he tells us that, in one district, nearly 200 children died in a year "without any reasonable attempt having been made to save them" - the miserable little wretches having been soothed and stupified in their sickness by opiates - when we endeavour to realise in our minds in its full horror this foul and unnatural state of things, can we feel either shocked or surprised at the deliberate declaration of the registrar, that, in manchester in the course of seven years, there perished 13,362 children, "over and above the mortality natural to mankind!" yes: 13,362 "little children brought up in unclean dwellings and impure streets - left alone long days by their mothers - to breathe the subtle sickly vapours - soothed by opium, a more cursed distillation than hebenon - and when assailed by mortal disease, their stomachs torn, their bodies convulsed, their brains bewildered, left to die without medical aid, which, like hope, should come to all, the skilled medical man never being called in at all, or only summoned to witness the death and sanction the funeral!"
there are two exciting causes for this mass of infantine misery. first, but in a comparatively small degree, the unhealthy state of the houses: secondly and mainly, the neglect and all the concomitant evils consequent upon the mothers of children of tender age passing their days in the mill.
herein - i cannot too often repeat it - lie, in my solemn conviction, the bane and the disgrace of the cotton system. if we are to have any legislative interference in the factories at all, is this not the point to which interference ought to be directed? whether the evil be curable or irremediable, i pretend not to say. i have brought together an array of facts bearing upon it, and i leave those fats to suggest, as different minds may view them, whether or not it would be advisable in factory legislation to make any difference between "women" and the mothers of young children, even to the extent of relaxing the restrictions upon the daily work of the former, if thereby we could increase the time apportionable to the domestic duties of the later.
morning chronicle, thursday, 1 november 1849
