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639 Notes, Comments, and Abstracts. CHILD LABOUR IN CHINA. NEWS from China chiefly tells of civil war and opium, .and it is not widely known that within the last 20 years .Shanghai, the chief port for overseas trade with North China, has become a great industrial centre. Factories with modern machinery have been able to draw their labour from a people of whom millions are always living on the border-line of want, and the Chinese guild system, which was a fairly efficient defence against the worst effects of ,economic stress among such a population, has failed to adapt itself to the new order. In the absence of any control there has developed a system in which modern machinery exists alongside conditions like those of the early nineteenth century, without the legislative enactments which are an essential part of Western industrial civilisation. Shanghai is an international settlement governed by an elected -Council in which the British predominate, every non- Chinese citizen being subject to the jurisdiction of his own consular court, whilst the Chinese are provided for by a mixed court in which a native magistrate sits with a foreign assessor appointed by the consuls. The Council has strictly limited powers of making regulations for the government .of the settlement, and under these conditions carries on the government of some 20,000 foreigners and 750,000 Chinese. Perturbed by the state of industrial conditions, the Council -appointed a Child Labour Commission, on which they were fortunate to obtain the services of Dame Adelaide Anderson, formerly H.B.M. Principal Lady Inspector of Factories. ’The reportl of this Commission has attracted notice in this ,country and describes conditions which raise again the question how much other peoples are benefited by the adoption of Western ways. In a match factory " young .children, certainly not more than five years of age, were to be seen working with almost incredible rapidity." In .silk filatures children work, standing, for 12-hour shifts, with not more than an hour off for a meal, and a new form of occupational neurosis is indicated in " a peculiar and rapid up-and-down movement of the body by means of -alternately relaxing and then straightening their knees." Describing conditions during the night shift, the report :says : " Rows of baskets containing babies and children, sleeping or awake as the case may be, lie placed between the rapidly moving and noisy machinery. Young children who are supposed to be working, but who have been over- ,come by fatigue or have taken advantage of the absence of adequate supervision, lie asleep in every corner, some in the - open, others hidden in baskets under a covering of raw - cotton." Sanitary arrangements are bad and accidents .are frequent, whilst the extent of this child labour is shown in a statistical appendix, from which we learn that over 18,000 children under 12 years of age are employed in factories in Shanghai or its immediate neighbourhood. ’Those factories outside the settlement are of course under ’Chinese jurisdiction, and there will obviously be trouble if regulations are applied only to those within the limits of municipal authority. The difficulties of the situation are increased by the various nationalities of the owners of the factories-Chinese, Japanese, British, American, French, Italian, and Portuguese. Shanghai people are proud of their - city and rightly look upon their interpational republic as a model from which the Chinese may learn what is best in Western methods of government. The report of this Com- mission, with its candour in statement and care in con- sidering possible means of action, is an excellent piece of work, and gives assurance that both determination and administrative ability will be applied to the amelioration of the conditions it describes. SPA TREATMENT IN THE BRITISH ISLES. IN these columns last year a plea was entered for a - comprehensive and national policy in regard to British spas which should, in the opinion of some, supply most of the requirements of British patients. Efforts are being made in many directions to develop on scientific lines the resources for treatment which can be obtained within the borders of our shores. Much good work in this direction ’has been done by the British Spa Federation, which now includes nine leading spas, all of which comply with a certain standard, while the courses on medical hydrology which are held annually at the London University give facilities for the systematic training of hydrologist practitioners. The third of these courses will take place during the week beginning April 27th and will include a study tour of Buxton. 1 Reprinted by the Industrial Committee of the National Christian Council, 23, Yuen Ming Yuen Road, Shanghai, China, 1924. In this connexion we congratulate our contemporary the Prescriber on having devoted its March issue to the subject of spa treatment, to which Dr. Fortescue Fox supplies a foreword expressing the conviction, based on " a rather long experience of the spas of many countries," that one especial characteristic belongs to the spas of Great Britain in that they are far more invigorating than conti- nental spas. " Their season," he says, " coincides with the holiday time of our working classes-the manual and intellectual labourers. Indeed, the chief raison d’être of the British spas is, or should be, to provide a pleasant retreatand invigorating cure for jaded and failing workers." This number of the Prescriber is well illustrated, and the articles include notes on old-time bathing at Bath, on treatment by radio-active springs, on the brine treatment at Droitwich, and on the chemistry of the Buxton and Harro- gate waters. There is also a descriptive list of spas in Great Britain, Ireland, and New Zealand. ’ HEALTH CONDITIONS IN HAMPSTEAD. DURING a local health campaign in 1923 Dr. Frank E. Scrase, medical officer of health for the borough of Hamp- stead, read a paper on the Health of Hampstead, Past and Present which has just been published in booklet form following a special resolution of the borough council. A popular and intelligent interest in matters of public health is essential if the campaign against disease is to attain any measure of success, and this publication should certainly help in stimulating such interest. Dr. Charles F. J. Lord, the first medical officer of health for Hampstead, used to complain that he could not make an annual report interesting unless an epidemic occurred, but happily the modern health officer is able to make interesting reading out of a decrease in mortality-rates, as Dr. Scrase has done. After tracing the history of health in Hampstead he goes on to show that the borough can boast a death-rate which is lower than that for England and Wales as a whole, and considerably lower than that for London. The death-rates for certain important diseases, excepting that from cancer, all show a satisfactory decrease within recent years. The infantile mortality-rate for 1922 was the eminently satisfactory figure of 56, but Dr. Scrase insists that this may be lowered still further by attention to the two cardinal principles of breast-feeding and pre-maternity supervision. In the report for the year 1858 Dr. Lord referred to the numerous houses and courts which required thorough eradication : he wrote then " a devastating fire would finally prove a blessing to the parish." Dr. Scrase points out that some of the premises which called for this drastic opinion still exist and still want wiping out. The density of population for the Kilburn Ward is above the average for London, and overcrowding in certain districts is still appallingly pre- valent, so that despite the record for health which Hampstead has attained there still remains plenty of work to be done. A child born in Hampstead to-day can expect 12 more years of life than its grandparents : with further progress along enlightened lines the child of two generations hence may quite well be able to boast as much. HYGROMETRIC TABLES. THE Meteorological Office has prepared a set of hygro- metric tables 1 computed on the basis of Regnault’s formula to replace those, prepared by the late James Glaisher, F.R.S., which have been in use hitherto in this country. Tables based on Regnault’s formula are already in general use in other countries ; this formula, unlike Glaisher’s, can be supported by physical reasoning. The new tables are arranged for temperatures in Fahrenheit degrees and vapour pressures in millibars, and they have been computed for a mean atmospheric pressure of 1000 millibars. They are conveniently arranged to give as rapidly as possible the relative humidities, the vapour pressures, and the dew points corresponding with a given range of temperatures of the dry bulb and of " depressions of the wet bulb," the thermometers being exposed in Stevenson screens. The tables are not suitable for use with thermometers exposed indoors-e.g., in factories or storerooms-unless precautions are taken to secure adequate motion of the air over the thermometers by fanning or otherwise. Systematic errors may also be introduced by the use of the tables in climates where the air is hot and dry and calms are of frequent occurrence. In this country, of course, a "calm" rarely prevails inside a Stevenson screen freely exposed ; under all atmospheric conditions, even on occasions of strong wind in the open because of the nature of the screen, the velocity of the air past the bulbs in the screen is likely to be of the order of that comprised in the group " light airs." It is for such 1 Hygrometric Tables for the Computation of Relative Humidity, Vapour Pressure, and Dew Point from Readings of Dry and Wet Bulb Thermometers Exposed in Stevenson Screens. (M.O. 265.) H.M. Stationery Office. is. 6d.
