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be carefully studied, so that no harassing tasks, 
either physical or mental, should be imposed 
upon him. Dr. Lankester, of London, says :— 
' I find that there is in this metropolis a sacrifice 
of a thousand lives annually through the practice 
of keeping shops open for a greater number of 
hours than the human constitution can bear. 
But this is not all. Where a thousand persons 
die annually from this cause, there are at least 
eight thousand whose health suffers from it.’ 
In this, as in many other forms of employment 
throughout the country, the more delicate and 
sensitive strength of the woman is largely over 
taxed.^ A great many of our tradesmen and 
1 The following is extracted from a letter from one of the 
girls in a fashionable millinery establishment in the West-End 
of London, which appeared in the St ^ame^s Gazette^ March 24, 
1884 :— 
‘ I don’t know how it may be in some of the large places 
where a great number of young ladies are employed ; but this 
is what it is at Mdme. Célimène’s. We have to begin work at 
eight every morning ; and we go on till eight at night, without 
any stopping except for our meals. We are supposed to have 
two hours for these ; but in the season, when we are all busy 
and have more orders than we can get through, we often don’t 
have as much as an hour for all our meals together. Of course 
that is against the law, as we all know, because a printed copy 
of the Factory Act hangs up on the wall of the work-room ; and 
we can’t very well help seeing it, because it is the only orna 
ment there, except some bundles of silk and thread and a good 
many fly-marks. But it does not do us much good to know