the _impasse_ which forces
problems of town poverty and incapacity ever more prominently upon the
social reformer.

In dealing with the diseases of occupations, Dr. Arlidge says, "It is
a most difficult problem to solve, especially in the case of an
industrial town population, how far the diseases met with in it are
town-made and how far trade-made; the former almost always
predominate."[280]

It is not indeed possible to clearly distinguish the two classes of
effects. Since machinery makes the industrial town, it makes it as a
place to work in and a place to live in, and though certain trade
conditions will operate more directly upon the inhabitants as workers,
their effects will merge with and react upon the life-conditions of
the town. The special characteristics of town work which cause
ill-health and disease are--

(_a_) The predominance of indoor occupations, involving
unwholesome air.

(_b_) The sedentary character of most work in factories or
workrooms, or otherwise the lack of free play of physical
activities.

(_c_) The wear and tear of nerve fibre (_e.g._, in
boiler-making, weaving sheds, etc.).

(_d_) The wearisome monotony and lack of interest attending
highly specialised and sub-divided machine-industry, producing
physical lassitude.[281]

(_e_) Injuries arising from dust fumes, or other deleterious
matter, or from the handling of dangerous material or tools.

Much valuable work has been done of recent years by French, German,
and English physicians and statisticians, throwing light upon the
specific diseases appertaining to various industries, and giving some
measurement of their extent. But though certain specifically
industrial qualities have a considerable place in swelling the
mortality of towns, Dr. Arlidge is fully justified in his opinion that
in industrial centres more of the diseases are town-made than
trade-made. The statistics of infant mortality are conclusive upon
this point. In comparing the death-rates for town and country, the
difference is far wider for children below the industrial age than for
adults engaged in industrial work. Mr. Galton has calculated that in a
typical industrial town the number of children of artisan townsfolk
that grow up are little more than half as many as in the case of the
children of labouring people in a healthy country district.[282] The
figures quoted above from M. Levasseur relating to France point