Note 169-3 — Chapter III

Almost every trade predisposes to some special disease. Compare Halfort, Enstehung, Verlauf und Behandlung der Krankheiten der Künstler und Gewerbetreibenden, 1845. Livy, Traité d'Hygiène publique et privée, 1850, II, 755. It has been noticed, in Sheffield, that thoughtless steel polishers look unfavorably on certain new inventions intended to protect workmen against inhaling small particles of stone and iron dust. They dread that if these inventions come into general use, their wages would be lowered in consequence; and prefer a short and merry life to one longer and more quiet.

In places in which nearly all kinds of work are dangerous, the danger cannot of course relatively raise the wages of anyone. Thus, in the Thuringian forest, the wages of the haulers of wood are very low. (Lotz, Revision, III, 151.)