‘Child workers, the body and the industrial workplace in Britain, 1780-1850’
Peter Kirby (Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare, Glasgow)
Before the mid-nineteenth century, ideas about the relationship between the human body
and the industrial workplace were rooted largely in theoretical medical opinions and were
rarely informed by empirical observation. Most early medical commentaries on the ailments
of industrial occupations were influenced profoundly by the theories of early authorities
such as Ramazzini who ascribed workplace ailments to influences such as harmful vapours,
raw materials and unfavourable ergonomics. Medical witnesses to early industrial inquiries
seized upon ergonomics to explain skeletal deformities amongst child workers in factories. It
was argued that unusual postures and long periods of standing in factories led to
widespread skeletal distortion and disabilities. In coalmining, widespread short stature and
distinctive body shapes were ascribed similarly to constrained working positions and the
influence of heredity. This public lecture discusses how industrial influences upon physical
growth and development were reported in the early nineteenth century and suggests that
the high profile given to medical diagnoses at the early industrial inquiries served to divert
attention from more tangible causes of industrial ill-health and injury.