The greater part of the evidence considered in this report was based on opinions derived from personal observations with very little scientific and no statistical groundwork. The complete report leaves us with a fairly accurate picture of the conditions under which a large proportion of the adolescent workers of the country are employed, with some general notions as to how these conditions react on their health and physique. Exact conclusions as to the particular effects of the conditions of labour cannot be obtained, as no records dealing with the health of girls in factories are in existence. The impossibility of securing scientific and reliable data was apparent at an early stage of the inquiry, but it was felt that by reviewing the conditions of adolescent labour and by noting general tendencies the way might be cleared for further investigation on a more scientific basis.

It is now generally recognised that "fatigue has a larger share in the promotion and permission of disease than any other causal condition," and as adolescents need a sufficient reserve of energy to maintain growth as well as health, it is obvious that conditions of work that exert no injurious effect on adults may be unduly fatiguing for juvenile workers with their twofold need. Consequently the best criterion for judging the effects of industry on the health of adolescent girls will be based on observations as to the incidence of fatigue with different industrial occupations.

The presence of fatigue among girl workers has been frequently noted in the course of the investigation, but in every case the evidence is deduced merely from the observations of those in contact with the girls or from the testimony of the girls themselves. Physiological research has conclusively proved that subjective sensations are not a measure or even an early sign of fatigue, and that real or objective fatigue is shown and is measurable only by the diminished capacity for performing the act that caused it. Considerable attention has been devoted to the subject of industrial fatigue during recent years, and various tests for the detection of latent fatigue have been employed. Measurement of the output of work gives the most direct test of fatigue provided allowance is made for all variable factors except the worker's changing capacity. In addition, the observation of certain secondary symptoms supplies a useful index to the degree of fatigue which work induces. Lack of co-ordination, one of the earliest manifestations of nervous fatigue, results in increased accidents. The accident rate in factories tends to be 25 to 55 per cent higher for boys and girls than for men and women. In 1912 there were 4914 accidents to female young persons in factories and workshops.[14] Much light might be thrown on the presence of fatigue amongst industrially employed girls by records of the accident rates in factories, corrected with reference to the hours and conditions of labour and to the speed of work as shown by the output curves.

Laboratory tests for the detection of accumulated fatigue have not sufficiently justified the trouble they involve, but observations as to complex reaction time with letter or colour tests, determination of acuity of auditory and visual sensations, and records of the systolic blood-pressure may be found to serve as an index to the incidence of fatigue when other methods are not applicable.

There is no need to amplify these points. It only remains to suggest that inquiry on such lines be applied to groups of adolescent workers to discover the extent to which industrial fatigue may be under-mining the health and physique of growing girls.

It was stated above that the absence of accurate data in the shape of records of the health of industrially employed girls made it impossible to arrive at any exact estimate of the effects of such work, but the sickness returns of industrial Insurance Societies must have been accumulating a vast mass of evidence as to the particular ailments and diseases to which employed girls are especially liable, so that an examination of these records may be extremely enlightening.

The secretary of the Insurance Section of the Northern Counties Weavers' Amalgamation informed us that at the present time the sickness returns of this Association are not tabulated according to ages, but that such tables could be obtained from the local Unions and a complete estimate made if the need be proved. One Weavers' Society, the Nelson and District Weavers' Insurance Society, No. 1882, which is outside the Amalgamation, does indeed tabulate its records according to ages, but the total number of women and girls in this society reaches only 5982, so that far-reaching conclusions cannot be drawn from its experience. Unfortunately not all the members of the Trade Union are in the Insurance section of their Society for the National Insurance Benefit, but many belong to such Approved Societies as the Prudential, the Blackburn Unity, etc., so that evidence from these sources cannot be regarded as entirely conclusive. Nevertheless, were such data available for purposes of comparison between one industry and another, considerable evidence as to the particular effects of different industries might be obtained.

During adolescence the plasticity of the human organism makes it more easily affected by external factors. Chief among the external influences which may disturb normal development are the attitudes, postures, and movements which industrial work involves. If these are cramped and constrained the healthy action of the heart and lungs and their natural development may be retarded, while if excessive muscular strain, such as that resulting from heavy lifting or prolonged standing, is experienced, active injury to vital organs may be brought about, and similarly these factors and the demands which excessive fatigue due to long hours, etc., makes on the growing organism may result in stunted growth and abnormal development. Information on these lines can only be obtained by detailed anthropometric and medical examination, and would have to be carried out on a large scale if the datum is to be of any value. But the material so collected would be the most reliable index of the effect of industry on health and physique, and if comparison be made between industrially employed and unoccupied girls by examination of different groups the final results would be invaluable. Such an inquiry might be carried out by medical women and anthropometric investigators in specific industries throughout the country. The exact conditions of the work, number of hours worked, etc., would have to be observed, and a record made of the history as well as the present physical condition of each girl examined. If groups of girls aged between 14 and 20 from different industries are thus examined, comparison can be made by similar examination amongst girls attending secondary schools. In districts like north-east Lancashire, where the pupils of the secondary schools are drawn from the same class and from the same type of home as the majority of the operatives, the exact influence of industrial work will be more accurately gauged than where the home environment differs in the two groups.

An inquiry based on methods such as these would be of vast national importance. What is needed is exact scientific information available for the guidance of those responsible for the organisation of adolescent labour, and, more important still, as a basis for new regulations controlling the extent and conditions of this labour.

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