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inches per head. In the United States in 1888 the length of railways open to public traffic was 156,082 miles, and the outlay on construction was calculated at 9,369 millions of dollars. Estimating the population at 60 millions, these figures give 13 feet at a cost of 321. 48. per head, which equal 47 times the length, and 58 times the expenditure per head in India. At this point it is observed the comparison may be permitted to cease, because it would be absurd to imagine conditions in India which could cause the profitable development of railways at the rate maintained during recent years in the United States.

The question arises, however, Have the English done enough in India? The latest records show that the population has increased by 29 millions within the last decade, and it might reasonably be anticipated that increase in the future will be progressive. Accounts show that a reasonable return for railway investments has been obtained, and that the older lines are securing handsome dividends. Experience indicates that the development of Indian railways opens an important field of demand in the iron and steel industries of England, and furnishes a supply of wheat, the price of which competes with America and Russia, so that the cost of bread to the English consumer may be regulated. Experience also shows that railways in India have done much to awaken the people to new lights, and to a sense of new responsibilities which tend to the obliteration of old superstitions and the generation of loyalty towards the central governing power, and of interest in the maintenance of the Empire.

It is true that the Indian currency has depreciated in its comparative value to sterling money of late years, but it is pointed out that similar risks occurred elsewhere, as, for instance, in the Argentine Republic, where the paper dollar depends for its value in relation to gold on the honesty of a nation whose interests seem to be separated widely from the interests of England. Up to the present time practically all railways constructed in India have been obtained by English capital guaranteed to pay a certain percentage by the Secretary of State, and consequently progress has been slow. India is poor, and the trading classes do not accept railway investments; but now that the circumstances of India are known in England, and now that the records show that reasonable returns can be obtained if the railway routes are selected with intelligence, even on the depreciated value of the rupee, because its relative value has only changed in regard to gold, not as regards grain and labour in India, the author suggests the question whether the private enterprise of England cannot lift this burden from off the shoulders of the Government, and be induced to supply capital without the trammels of a Government

contract.

3. Report on the Teaching of Science in Elementary Schools.
See Reports, p. 383.

4. On the Upbringing of Destitute and Pauper Children.
By the Rev. J. O. BEVAN, M.A.

The author touched upon the importance of the subject, having reference to the number concerned and the disadvantages under which they laboured from birth.

He deprecated the massing together in workhouses and district schools.

(a.) For physical reasons.

(b.) For moral reasons.
(c.) For economic reasons.

He then laid stress on

(a.) The evils of the system, especially as affecting girls.

(b.) Recommendation that larger powers be granted to Boards of Guardians as against profligate and drunken parents.

(c.) The provisions of the following Acts:

The Poor Law Act, 1889.

The Prevention of Cruelty to, and Protection of, Children Act, 1889.
The Industrial Schools Acts Amendment Act, 1881.

The writer next touched upon District Schools, and especially Cottage Homes.

I. Advantages. II. Disadvantages.

The following remedies were suggested :—

I. Classification according to character, previous history, and associations.
II. Small homes for incorrigibles and those removed from inimoral sur-

roundings.

III. Boarding-out in every practicable case.

(a.) Finds homes, &c., ready to its hand.

(b.) Brings the child back into family life; interests foster-parents and influential friends in present and future welfare; enables the child to make suitable friendships.

(c.) It is inexpensive.

(d.) It tends to merge the child into the general mass of the population. (e.) It provides for a supply of domestic servants and workers in every branch of industry.

(f) It enables Boards of Guardians to avail themselves of help from Voluntary Committees composed of persons in a good social position.

(g.) It has been adequately tested for many years in the three kingdoms with satisfactory results.

IV. Emigration.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 25.

The following Papers were read :—

1. On the Data Available for Determining the best Limit (physically) for Hours of Labour. By J. T. ARLIDGE, M.D.

The author began by remarking that the great variability in capacity of the human machine forbade the collection of facts, capable of measurement and of statement in a statistical shape, for exact data. Consequently, those sought must be derived from physiological facts and from consideration of the demands upon human vigour made by the several occupations followed.

He treated his subject, therefore, under two heads, according as data are derived from the consideration (A) of the individual worker, and (B) of the work to be performed. The title of the paper confined his remarks to bodily or physical labour, leaving undiscussed the equally distinct labour of the intellect, which happens to be largely ignored in the popular idea of work and working-people.

Individual qualification for work varies in direct relation to (a) innate physical endowments; (B), to the extent of freedom from disease, hereditary or acquired, and from bodily deformity; (7) to original and acquired aptitude for labour; and (8), in some measure, to mental gifts. Idiosyncrasy and racial characteristics are other minor factors determining ability for certain kinds of employment. These diversities in individual capacity for work show the futility of general rules to govern all men's labour.

In the second division of the subject the leading conditions of labour as affecting the construction of data were examined. First of these is the amount of actual bodily effort called for. Though this in great excess is detrimental to health and

life, its effects are less pronounced than sedentary work, statistics clearly proving that the comparative mortality figure of the latter, as illustrated by numerous trades, is considerably greater than that of active and strong muscular exertion.

Moreover, apart from physical toil, there are a multitude of collateral and accidental conditions of employment of great influence upon capability for labour, and which call for examination when data for limiting the extent and duration are searched for. Among such are the situation of work, whether in the open country or in a town; whether above or beneath the surface of the ground; and, in connection with these circumstances, the existence of darkness, of foul air, or noxious fumes, of the presence of dust, whether poisonous or not, of elevated temperature, or of highly increased atmospheric pressure. With reference to mining, in which many unfavourable conditions enter, it seemed desirable that the hours of labour be shortened. Nevertheless, were the evidence of the production of a high deathrate to be accepted as the criterion for curtailing working hours, mining would not challenge the first place, but be surpassed by several other occupations, and especially by the manufacture of cutlery and of pottery. In demonstrating the influence of incidental conditions of work upon the sources of data, illustrations were, for the most part, drawn from the character of mining operations.

To guard against misunderstanding, the writer called attention to the fact that the remarks made applied to adults; and that, in the case of children, distinct data for limiting labour existed in imperfect development and advancing growth in body and mind-data, indeed, rightly used in framing the restrictions of the Factory Acts.

Lastly, whilst admitting the existence of trades presenting conditions of labour seriously prejudicial to health and life, and calling, in consequence, for some limitation of the hours and extent of labour, he deprecated general interference by legislative enactments with the freedom of men in the pursuit of their selected trades, as being prejudicial to enterprise and to the manufacturing interests of the country, and also as destructive of individual responsibility, and of the feeling of independence, by replacing the natural law of self-preservation by State nursing.

2. The Cure of Consumption in its Economic Aspect.
By G. W. HAMBLETON.

3. The Increase of Food and Population. By W. E. A. Axon.

4. Le Play's method of Systematic Observation. By F. AUBURTIN.

5. Recent Changes in the Distribution of Population in England and Wales. By EDWIN CANNAN.

The rough-and-ready method of describing the great change which has taken place in the distribution of the population of England and Wales during the present century is to say that the North has enormously increased in comparison with the South. It is more accurate to say that the tendency of the increasing population has been to mass itself more and more in six comparatively small areas, viz., London, Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, Staffordshire with Birmingham, the county of Durham with Newcastle, Tynemouth, and Middlesbrough, and, lastly, Glamorgan.

The

Of these six localities Glamorgan only is shown by the Preliminary Report of the Census of 1891 to be gaining on the rest of the country as fast as ever. rate of gain on the part of the Durham district, Lancashire, the West Riding, and the Staffordshire district shows so great a decline that it seems likely to disappear entirely before long. The gain of London has also somewhat diminished, but is still very great if all the suburban country be included.

The diminution of loss which counterbalances this diminution of gain is spread over the rest of England. It is greatest in the south-western counties.

Trustworthy statistics as to the comparative growth of urban and rural population, or of large and small towns, seem scarcely obtainable; but there seems no reason to suppose there is any great change in the prevailing tendencies with regard to either of these matters.

The diminishing gain of the manufacturing districts may result from some check being received by the tendency of this country to become weaver and blacksmith for the whole world, or from the proportionate decline which, in the progress of civilisation, inevitably overtakes the industries which supply the necessaries of life as compared with those which supply its conveniences and amusements.

SECTION G.-MECHANICAL SCIENCE.

PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION-T. FORSTER BROWN, Esq., M.Inst. C.E.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 20.

The PRESIDENT delivered the following Address:

I FEEL extremely diffident in assuming the Presidential Chair of Section G at the present meeting of the British Association.

The addresses of my eminent predecessors have, year by year, in the best language, and in the most condensed form, gauged the progress of, and indicated the direction in which, further improvements in mechanical science may be looked for. In so large a field as that of mechanical engineering my somewhat limited knowledge will not admit of my following very closely in their footsteps; but possibly, by tracing the modern practice of this branch as applied to mining operations in Great Britain, I may be able to submit some points of interest to mechanical engineers.

Great progress has been made in mechanical science since the British Association met in the Principality of Wales eleven years ago; and some of the results of that progress are exemplified in our locomotives, marine engineering, and in such works as the Severn Tunnel, the Forth and Tay Bridges, and the Manchester Ship Canal, which is now in progress of construction.

In mining, the progress has been slow, and it is a remarkable fact that, with the exception of pumping, the machinery in use in connection with mining operations in Great Britain has not, in regard to economy, advanced so rapidly as has been the case in our manufactures and marine.

This is probably due, in metalliferous mining, to the uncertain nature of the mineral deposits not affording any adequate security to adventurers that the increased cost of adopting improved appliances will be reimbursed; whilst in coal mining, the cheapness of fuel, the large proportion which manual labour bears to the total cost of producing coal, and the necessity for producing large outputs with the simplest appliances, explain, in some measure, the reluctance with which highpressure-steam compound engines, and other modes embracing the most modern and approved types of economising power, have been adopted.

Metalliferous mining, with the exception of the working of iron ore, is not in a prosperous condition owing to causes to which it is unnecessary to refer; but in special localities, where the deposits of minerals are rich and profitable, progress has been made within a recent period by the adoption of more economical and efficient machinery.

For example, at the Tincroft Tin Mine, in Cornwall, a compound winding plant has been erected by Messrs. Harvey, of Hayle, of which the following are particulars: The high-pressure cylinder is 17 inches in diameter and steam-jacketed, and the low-pressure cylinder is 30 inches in diameter, each having a stroke of 6 feet. A condenser is worked by levers off the crosshead of the low-pressure cylinder. The drum is 8 feet 6 inches in diameter, and of the plain cylindrical type. The engine is fitted with steam reversing gear, and an auxiliary steam valve for

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