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Ch. 7 Inferences Based on a Single Sample: Estimation with Confidence Intervals
7.1 Identifying and Estimating the Target Parameter
1 Define Target Parameter

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

Solve the problem.

1) Which statement best describes a parameter?
A) A parameter is a numerical measure of a population that is almost always unknown and must be
estimated.
B) A parameter is a level of confidence associated with an interval about a sample mean or proportion.
C) A parameter is a sample size that guarantees the error in estimation is within acceptable limits.
D) A parameter is an unbiased estimate of a statistic found by experimentation or polling.

2) A study was conducted to determine what proportion of all college students considered themselves as
full-time students. A random sample of 300 college students was selected and 210 of the students responded
that they considered themselves full-time students. Which of the following would represent the target
parameter of interest?
A) p B) μ

3) Parking at a large university can be extremely difficult at times. One particular university is trying to determine
the location of a new parking garage. As part of their research, officials are interested in estimating the average
parking time of students from within the various colleges on campus. Which of the following would represent
the target parameter of interest?
A) p B) μ

Answer the question True or False.

4) For data with two outcomes (success or failure), the binomial proportion of successes is likely to be the
parameter of interest.
A) True B) False

5) For quantitative data, the target parameter is most likely to be the mode of the data.
A) True B) False

7.2 Confidence Interval for a Population Mean: Normal (z) Statistic

1 Understand Confidence Level, Confidence Interval, α

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

Solve the problem.

1) What is zα/2 when α = 0.05?
A) 1.96 B) 2.575 C) 2.33 D) 1.645

2) What is the confidence level of the following confidence interval for μ?

σ
x ± 1.96
n
A) 95% B) 98% C) 99% D) 196%

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3) The registrar's office at State University would like to determine a 95% confidence interval for the mean
commute time of its students. A member of the staff randomly chooses a parking lot and surveys the first 125
students who park in the chosen lot on a given day. The confidence interval is
A) not meaningful because of the lack of random sampling.
B) meaningful because the sample size exceeds 30 and the Central Limit Theorem ensures normality of the
sampling distribution of the sample mean.
C) not meaningful because the sampling distribution of the sample mean is not normal.
D) meaningful because the sample is representative of the population.

4) A 90% confidence interval for the mean percentage of airline reservations being canceled on the day of the
flight is (1.3%, 5%). What is the point estimator of the mean percentage of reservations that are canceled on the
day of the flight?
A) 3.15% B) 1.85% C) 2.50% D) 3.7%

5) A 90% confidence interval for the average salary of all CEOs in the electronics industry was constructed using
the results of a random survey of 45 CEOs. The interval was ($130,852, $147,990). To make more useful
inferences from the data, it is desired to reduce the width of the confidence interval. Which of the following will
result in a reduced interval width?
A) Increase the sample size and decrease the confidence level.
B) Decrease the sample size and decrease the confidence level.
C) Increase the sample size and increase the confidence level.
D) Decrease the sample size and increase the confidence level.

6) Suppose a large labor union wishes to estimate the mean number of hours per month a union member is absent
from work. The union decides to sample 343 of its members at random and monitor the working time of each
of them for 1 month. At the end of the month, the total number of hours absent from work is recorded for each
employee. Which of the following should be used to estimate the parameter of interest for this problem?
A) A large sample confidence interval for μ. B) A small sample confidence interval for μ.
C) A large sample confidence interval for p. D) A small sample confidence interval for p.

7) Explain what the phrase 95% confident means when we interpret a 95% confidence interval for μ.
A) In repeated sampling, 95% of similarly constructed intervals contain the value of the population mean.
B) 95% of similarly constructed intervals would contain the value of the sampled mean.
C) 95% of the observations in the population fall within the bounds of the calculated interval.
D) The probability that the sample mean falls in the calculated interval is 0.95.

8) Parking at a large university can be extremely difficult at times. One particular university is trying to determine
the location of a new parking garage. As part of their research, officials are interested in estimating the average
parking time of students from within the various colleges on campus. A survey of 338 College of Business
(COBA) students yields the following descriptive information regarding the length of time (in minutes) it took
them to find a parking spot. Note that the "Lo 95%" and "Up 95%" refer to the endpoints of the desired
confidence interval.

Variable N Lo 95% CI Mean Up 95% CI SD

Parking Time 338 9.1944 10.466 11.738 11.885

University officials have determined that the confidence interval would be more useful if the interval were
narrower. Which of the following changes in the confidence level would result in a narrower interval?
A) The university could increase their confidence level.
B) The university could decrease their confidence level.

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 9) A retired statistician was interested in determining the average cost of a $200,000.00 term life insurance policy
for a 60-year-old male non-smoker. He randomly sampled 65 subjects (60-year-old male non-smokers) and
constructed the following 95 percent confidence interval for the mean cost of the term life insurance: ($850.00,
$1050.00). What value of alpha was used to create this confidence interval?
A) 0.10 B) 0.05 C) 0.025 D) 0.01

SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.

10) Suppose (1,000, 2,100) is a 95% confidence interval for μ. To make more useful inferences from the data, it is
desired to reduce the width of the confidence interval. Explain why an increase in sample size will lead to a
narrower interval of the estimate of μ.

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

Answer the question True or False.

11) One way of reducing the width of a confidence interval is to reduce the confidence level.
A) True B) False

12) The Central Limit Theorem guarantees an approximately normal sampling distribution for the sample mean
for large sample sizes, so no knowledge about the distribution of the population is necessary for the
corresponding interval to be valid.
A) True B) False

13) Since the population standard deviation σ is almost always known, we use it instead of the sample standard
deviation s when finding a confidence interval.
A) True B) False

14) The confidence coefficient is the relative frequency with which the interval estimator encloses the population
parameter when the estimator is used repeatedly a very large number of times.
A) True B) False

15) The confidence level is the confidence coefficient expressed as a percentage.

A) True B) False

Solve the problem.

16) What is the confidence coefficient in a 95% confidence interval for μ?
A) .95 B) .05 C) .025 D) .475

17) Which information is not shown on the screen below?

A) the confidence level B) the sample mean

C) the sample standard deviation D) the sample size

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2 Calculate, Interpret Confidence Interval

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

Solve the problem.

18) Find z α/2 for the given value of α.
α = 0.14
A) 1.48 B) 1.08 C) 0.14 D) 1.58

19) Determine the confidence level for the given confidence interval for μ.
σ
x ± 1.48
n
A) 86% B) 93% C) 7% D) 96.5%

20) A random sample of n measurements was selected from a population with unknown mean μ and known
standard deviation σ. Calculate a 95% confidence interval for μ for the given situation. Round to the nearest
hundredth when necessary.
n = 100, x = 58, σ = 20
A) 58 ± 3.92 B) 58 ± 3.29 C) 58 ± 39.2 D) 58 ± 0.39

21) A 90% confidence interval for the average salary of all CEOs in the electronics industry was constructed using
the results of a random survey of 45 CEOs. The interval was ($139,048, $154,144). Give a practical interpretation
of the interval.
A) We are 90% confident that the mean salary of all CEOs in the electronics industry falls in the interval
$139,048 to $154,144.
B) 90% of all CEOs in the electronics industry have salaries that fall between $139,048 to $154,144.
C) We are 90% confident that the mean salary of the sampled CEOs falls in the interval $139,048 to $154,144.
D) 90% of the sampled CEOs have salaries that fell in the interval $139,048 to $154,144.

22) A random sample of 250 students at a university finds that these students take a mean of 15.6 credit hours per
quarter with a standard deviation of 2.2 credit hours. Estimate the mean credit hours taken by a student each
quarter using a 98% confidence interval. Round to the nearest thousandth.
A) 15.6 ± .324 B) 15.6 ± .219 C) 15.6 ± .021 D) 15.6 ± .014

23) A random sample of 250 students at a university finds that these students take a mean of 15.4 credit hours per
quarter with a standard deviation of 2.2 credit hours. The 99% confidence interval for the mean is 15.4 ± 0.358.
Interpret the interval.
A) We are 99% confident that the average number of credit hours per quarter of students at the university
falls in the interval 15.042 to 15.758 hours.
B) 99% of the students take between 15.042 to 15.758 credit hours per quarter.
C) We are 99% confident that the average number of credit hours per quarter of the sampled students falls in
the interval 15.042 to 15.758 hours.
D) The probability that a student takes 15.042 to 15.758 credit hours in a quarter is 0.99.

24) The director of a hospital wishes to estimate the mean number of people who are admitted to the emergency
room during a 24-hour period. The director randomly selects 36 different 24-hour periods and determines the
number of admissions for each. For this sample, x = 17.3 and s2 = 16. Estimate the mean number of admissions
per 24-hour period with a 99% confidence interval.
A) 17.3 ± 1.717 B) 17.3 ± 6.867 C) 17.3 ± .286 D) 17.3 ± .660

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25) Suppose a large labor union wishes to estimate the mean number of hours per month a union member is absent
from work. The union decides to sample 406 of its members at random and monitor the working time of each
of them for 1 month. At the end of the month, the total number of hours absent from work is recorded for each
employee. If the mean and standard deviation of the sample are x = 8.1 hours and s = 2.3 hours, find a 99%
confidence interval for the true mean number of hours a union member is absent per month. Round to the
nearest thousandth.
A) 8.1 ± .294 B) 8.1 ± .015 C) 8.1 ± .194 D) 8.1 ± .113

26) Parking at a large university can be extremely difficult at times. One particular university is trying to determine
the location of a new parking garage. As part of their research, officials are interested in estimating the average
parking time of students from within the various colleges on campus. A survey of 338 College of Business
(COBA) students yields the following descriptive information regarding the length of time (in minutes) it took
them to find a parking spot. Note that the "Lo 95%" and "Up 95%" refer to the endpoints of the desired
confidence interval.

Variable N Lo 95% CI Mean Up 95% CI SD

Parking Time 338 9.1944 10.466 11.738 11.885

Give a practical interpretation for the 95% confidence interval given above.
A) 95% of the COBA students had parking times of 10.466 minutes.
B) 95% of the COBA students had parking times that fell between 9.19 and 11.74 minutes.
C) We are 95% confident that the average parking time of all COBA students falls between 9.19 and 11.74
minutes.
D) We are 95% confident that the average parking time of the 338 COBA students surveyed falls between
9.19 and 11.74 minutes.

27) Parking at a large university can be extremely difficult at times. One particular university is trying to determine
the location of a new parking garage. As part of their research, officials are interested in estimating the average
parking time of students from within the various colleges on campus. A survey of 338 College of Business
(COBA) students yields the following descriptive information regarding the length of time (in minutes) it took
them to find a parking spot. Note that the "Lo 95%" and "Up 95%" refer to the endpoints of the desired
confidence interval.

Variable N Lo 95% CI Mean Up 95% CI SD

Parking Time 338 9.1944 10.466 11.738 11.885

Explain what the phrase "95% confident" means when working with a 95% confidence interval.
A) In repeated sampling, 95% of the sample means will fall within the interval created.
B) 95% of the observations in the population will fall within the endpoints of the interval.
C) In repeated sampling, 95% of the population means will fall within the interval created.
D) In repeated sampling, 95% of the intervals created will contain the population mean.

28) A retired statistician was interested in determining the average cost of a $200,000.00 term life insurance policy
for a 60-year-old male non-smoker. He randomly sampled 65 subjects (60-year-old male non-smokers) and
constructed the following 95 percent confidence interval for the mean cost of the term life insurance: ($850.00,
$1050.00). State the appropriate interpretation for this confidence interval. Note that all answers begin with "We
are 95 percent confidence that…"
A) The average term life insurance cost for sampled 65 subjects falls between $850.00 and $1050.00
B) The term life insurance cost of the retired statistician's insurance policy falls between $850.00 and $1050.00
C) The term life insurance cost for all 60-year-old male non-smokers' insurance policies falls between
$850.00 and $1050.00
D) The average term life insurance costs for all 60-year-old male non-smokers falls between $850.00 and
$1050.00

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 29) A retired statistician was interested in determining the average cost of a $200,000.00 term life insurance policy
for a 60-year-old male non-smoker. He randomly sampled 65 subjects (60-year-old male non-smokers) and
constructed the following 95 percent confidence interval for the mean cost of the term life insurance: ($850.00,
$1050.00). Explain what the phrase "95 percent confident" means in this situation.
A) In repeated sampling, the mean of the population will fall within the specified intervals 95 percent of the
time.
B) In repeated sampling, 95 percent of the intervals constructed would contain the value of the true
population mean.
C) 95 percent of all retired statisticians are underinsured.
D) 95 percent of all the life insurance costs will fall within the specified interval.

30) How much money does the average professional football fan spend on food at a single football game? That
question was posed to 60 randomly selected football fans. The sampled results show that the sample mean was
$70.00 and prior sampling indicated that the population standard deviation was $17.50. Use this information to
create a 95 percent confidence interval for the population mean.
17.50 17.50 17.50 17.50
A) 70 ± 1.645 B) 70 ± 1.960 C) 70 ± 1.833 D) 70 ± 1.671
60 60 60 60

SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.

31) How much money does the average professional football fan spend on food at a single football game? That
question was posed to 40 randomly selected football fans. The sample results provided a sample mean and
standard deviation of $11.00 and $2.80, respectively. Find and interpret a 99% confidence interval for μ.

32) To help consumers assess the risks they are taking, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) publishes the
amount of nicotine found in all commercial brands of cigarettes. A new cigarette has recently been marketed.
The FDA tests on this cigarette yielded a mean nicotine content of 24.5 milligrams and standard deviation of 2.3
milligrams for a sample of n = 82 cigarettes. Find a 95% confidence interval for μ.

33) The following data represent the scores of a sample of 50 randomly chosen students on a standardized test.

39 48 55 63 66 68 68 69 70 71
71 71 73 74 76 76 76 77 78 79
79 79 79 80 80 82 83 83 83 85
85 86 86 88 88 88 88 89 89 89
90 91 92 92 93 95 96 97 97 99

a. Write a 95% confidence interval for the mean score of all students who took the test.
b. Identify the target parameter and the point estimator.

34) Suppose that 100 samples of size n = 50 are independently chosen from the same population and that each
sample is used to construct its own 95% confidence interval for an unknown population mean μ. How many of
the 100 confidence intervals would you expect to actually contain μ?

35) A random sample of n = 100 measurements was selected from a population with unknown mean μ and
standard deviation σ. Calculate a 95% confidence interval if x = 26 and s2 = 16.

36) A random sample of n = 144 measurements was selected from a population with unknown mean μ and
standard deviation σ. Calculate a 90% confidence interval if x = 3.55 and s = .49.

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 37) A random sample of 80 observations produced a mean x = 35.4 and a standard deviation s = 3.1.

a. Find a 90% confidence interval for the population mean μ.

b. Find a 95% confidence interval for μ.
c. Find a 99% confidence interval for μ.
d. What happens to the width of a confidence interval as the value of the confidence coefficient is increased
while the sample size is held fixed?

7.3 Confidence Interval for a Population Mean: Student's t-Statistic

1 Compare t-Distribution to Normal Distribution

SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.

Solve the problem.

1) Suppose you selected a random sample of n = 7 measurements from a normal distribution. Compare the
standard normal z value with the corresponding t value for a 90% confidence interval.

2) Suppose you selected a random sample of n = 29 measurements from a normal distribution. Compare the
standard normal z value with the corresponding t value for a 95% confidence interval.

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

3) An educator wanted to look at the study habits of university students. As part of the research, data was
collected for three variables - the amount of time (in hours per week) spent studying, the amount of time (in
hours per week) spent playing video games and the GPA - for a sample of 20 male university students. As part
of the research, a 95% confidence interval for the average GPA of all male university students was calculated to
be: (2.95, 3.10). Which of the following statements is true?
A) In construction of the confidence interval, a t-value with 19 degrees of freedom was used.
B) In construction of the confidence interval, a t-value with 20 degrees of freedom was used.
C) In construction of the confidence interval, a z-value was used.
D) In construction of the confidence interval, a z-value with 20 degrees of freedom was used.

2 Use t-Distribution

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

Solve the problem.

4) Find the value of t0 such that the following statement is true: P(-t0 ≤ t ≤ t0 ) = .99 where df = 9.
A) 3.250 B) 2.2821 C) 2.262 D) 1.833

5) Find the value of t0 such that the following statement is true: P(-t0 ≤ t ≤ t0 ) = .95 where df = 15.
A) 2.131 B) 1.753 C) 2.602 D) 2.947

6) Find the value of t0 such that the following statement is true: P(-t0 ≤ t ≤ t0 ) = .90 where df = 14.
A) 1.761 B) 1.345 C) 2.145 D) 2.624

7) Let t0 be a specific value of t. Find t0 such that the following statement is true:
P(t ≥ t0 ) = .025 where df = 20.
A) 2.086 B) -2.086 C) 2.093 D) -2.093

SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.

8) Let t0 be a particular value of t. Find a value of t0 such that P(t ≤ t0 or t ≥ t0 ) = .1 where df = 14.

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 9) Let t0 be a particular value of t. Find a value of t0 such that P(t ≤ t0 ) = .005 where df = 9.

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

10) Private colleges and universities rely on money contributed by individuals and corporations for their operating
expenses. Much of this money is invested in a fund called an endowment, and the college spends only the
interest earned by the fund. A recent survey of eight private colleges in the United States revealed the
following endowments (in millions of dollars): 64.5, 55.1, 232.8, 496.1, 127.6, 186.4, 104.7, and 212.2. What
value will be used as the point estimate for the mean endowment of all private colleges in the United States?
A) 184.925 B) 1479.4 C) 211.343 D) 8

11) Fifteen SmartCars were randomly selected and the highway mileage of each was noted. The analysis yielded a
mean of 47 miles per gallon and a standard deviation of 5 miles per gallon. Which of the following would
represent a 90% confidence interval for the average highway mileage of all SmartCars?
5 5 5 5
A) 47 ± 1.761 B) 47 ± 1.345 C) 47 ± 1.753 D) 47 ± 1.645
15 15 15 15

12) How much money does the average professional football fan spend on food at a single football game? That
question was posed to ten randomly selected football fans. The sampled results show that the sample mean
and sample standard deviation were $70.00 and $17.50, respectively. Use this information to create a 95
percent confidence interval for the population mean.
17.50 17.50 17.50 17.50
A) 70 ± 2.228 B) 70 ± 1.960 C) 70 ± 1.833 D) 70 ± 2.262
60 60 60 60

3 Calculate, Interpret Confidence Interval

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

Solve the problem.

13) You are interested in purchasing a new car. One of the many points you wish to consider is the resale value of
the car after 5 years. Since you are particularly interested in a certain foreign sedan, you decide to estimate the
resale value of this car with a 99% confidence interval. You manage to obtain data on 17 recently resold
5-year-old foreign sedans of the same model. These 17 cars were resold at an average price of $12,380 with a
standard deviation of $800. What is the 99% confidence interval for the true mean resale value of a 5- year-old
car of this model?
A) 12,380 ± 2.921(800/ 17) B) 12,380 ± 2.898(800/ 17)
C) 12,380 ± 2.575(800/ 17) D) 12,380 ± 2.921(800/ 16)

14) You are interested in purchasing a new car. One of the many points you wish to consider is the resale value of
the car after 5 years. Since you are particularly interested in a certain foreign sedan, you decide to estimate the
resale value of this car with a 90% confidence interval. You manage to obtain data on 17 recently resold
5-year-old foreign sedans of the same model. These 17 cars were resold at an average price of $12,320 with a
standard deviation of $600. Suppose that the interval is calculated to be ($12,065.92, $12,574.08). How could we
alter the sample size and the confidence coefficient in order to guarantee a decrease in the width of the interval?
A) Increase the sample size but decrease the confidence coefficient.
B) Increase the sample size and increase the confidence coefficient.
C) Keep the sample size the same but increase the confidence coefficient.
D) Decrease the sample size but increase the confidence coefficient.

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15) How much money does the average professional football fan spend on food at a single football game? That
question was posed to 10 randomly selected football fans. The sample results provided a sample mean and
standard deviation of $19.00 and $2.95, respectively. Use this information to construct a 98% confidence
interval for the mean.
A) 19 ± 2.821(2.95/ 10) B) 19 ± 2.764(2.95/ 10)
C) 19 ± 2.718(2.95/ 10) D) 19 ± 2.262(2.95/ 10)

16) A marketing research company is estimating the average total compensation of CEOs in the service industry.
Data were randomly collected from 18 CEOs and the 90% confidence interval for the mean was calculated to be
($2,181,260, $5,836,180). Explain what the phrase "90% confident" means.
A) In repeated sampling, 90% of the intervals constructed would contain μ.
B) 90% of the population values will fall within the interval.
C) 90% of the sample means from similar samples fall within the interval.
D) 90% of the similarly constructed intervals would contain the value of the sample mean.

17) A marketing research company is estimating the average total compensation of CEOs in the service industry.
Data were randomly collected from 18 CEOs and the 98% confidence interval for the mean was calculated to be
($2,181,260, $5,836,180). What additional assumption is necessary for this confidence interval to be valid?
A) The population of total compensations of CEOs in the service industry is approximately normally
distributed.
B) None. The Central Limit Theorem applies.
C) The sample standard deviation is less than the degrees of freedom.
D) The distribution of the sample means is approximately normal.

18) A marketing research company is estimating the average total compensation of CEOs in the service industry.
Data were randomly collected from 18 CEOs and the 97% confidence interval for the mean was calculated to be
($2,181,260, $5,836,180). What would happen to the confidence interval if the confidence level were changed to
95%?
A) The interval would get narrower.
B) The interval would get wider.
C) There would be no change in the width of the interval.
D) It is impossible to tell until the 95% interval is constructed.

19) A computer package was used to generate the following printout for estimating the mean sale price of homes
in a particular neighborhood.

X = sale_price

SAMPLE MEAN OF X = 46,400

SAMPLE STANDARD DEV = 13,747
` SAMPLE SIZE OF X = 15
CONFIDENCE = 98

UPPER LIMIT = 55,713.8

SAMPLE MEAN OF X = 46,400
LOWER LIMIT = 37,086.2

At what level of reliability is the confidence interval made?

A) 98% B) 2% C) 49% D) 51%

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20) A computer package was used to generate the following printout for estimating the mean sale price of homes
in a particular neighborhood.

X = sale_price

SAMPLE MEAN OF X = 46,600

SAMPLE STANDARD DEV = 13,747
SAMPLE SIZE OF X = 15
CONFIDENCE = 90

UPPER LIMIT = 52,850.6

SAMPLE MEAN OF X = 46,600
LOWER LIMIT = 40,349.4

Which of the following is a practical interpretation of the interval above?

A) We are 90% confident that the mean sale price of all homes in this neighborhood falls between $40,349.40
and $52,850.60.
B) We are 90% confident that the true sale price of all homes in this neighborhood fall between $40,349.40
and $52,850.60.
C) 90% of the homes in this neighborhood have sale prices that fall between $40,349.40 and $52,850.60.
D) All are correct practical interpretations of this interval.

21) A computer package was used to generate the following printout for estimating the mean sale price of homes
in a particular neighborhood.

X = sale_price

SAMPLE MEAN OF X = 46,600

SAMPLE STANDARD DEV = 13,747
SAMPLE SIZE OF X = 15
CONFIDENCE = 95

UPPER LIMIT = 54,213.60

SAMPLE MEAN OF X = 46,600
LOWER LIMIT = 38,986.40

A friend suggests that the mean sale price of homes in this neighborhood is $44,000. Comment on your friend's
suggestion.
A) Based on this printout, all you can say is that the mean sale price might be $44,000.
B) Your friend is wrong, and you are 95% certain.
C) Your friend is correct, and you are 95% certain.
D) Your friend is correct, and you are 100% certain.

22) To help consumers assess the risks they are taking, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) publishes the
amount of nicotine found in all commercial brands of cigarettes. A new cigarette has recently been marketed.
The FDA tests on this cigarette yielded mean nicotine content of 28.4 milligrams and standard deviation of 2.2
milligrams for a sample of n = 9 cigarettes. Construct a 98% confidence interval for the mean nicotine content of
this brand of cigarette.
A) 28.4 ± 2.124 B) 28.4 ± 2.069 C) 28.4 ± 2.253 D) 28.4 ± 2.194

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 23) Private colleges and universities rely on money contributed by individuals and corporations for their operating
expenses. Much of this money is invested in a fund called an endowment, and the college spends only the
interest earned by the fund. A recent survey of eight private colleges in the United States revealed the
following endowments (in millions of dollars): 60.2, 47.0, 235.1, 490.0, 122.6, 177.5, 95.4, and 220.0. Summary
statistics yield x = 180.975 and s = 143.042. Calculate a 99% confidence interval for the mean endowment of all
private colleges in the United States.
A) 180.975 ± 176.955 B) 180.975 ± 189.173 C) 180.975 ± 169.672 D) 180.975 ± 181.387

24) An educator wanted to look at the study habits of university students. As part of the research, data was
collected for three variables - the amount of time (in hours per week) spent studying, the amount of time (in
hours per week) spent playing video games and the GPA - for a sample of 20 male university students. As part
of the research, a 95% confidence interval for the average GPA of all male university students was calculated to
be: (2.95, 3.10). The researcher claimed that the average GPA of all male students exceeded 2.94. Using the
confidence interval supplied above, how do you respond to this claim?
A) We are 95% confident that the researcher is correct.
B) We are 100% confident that the researcher is incorrect.
C) We are 95% confident that the researcher is incorrect.
D) We cannot make any statement regarding the average GPA of male university students at the 95%
confidence level.

25) An educator wanted to look at the study habits of university students. As part of the research, data was
collected for three variables - the amount of time (in hours per week) spent studying, the amount of time (in
hours per week) spent playing video games and the GPA - for a sample of 20 male university students. As part
of the research, a 95% confidence interval for the average GPA of all male university students was calculated to
be: (2.95, 3.10). What assumption is necessary for the confidence interval analysis to work properly?
A) The Central Limit theorem guarantees that no assumptions about the population are necessary.
B) The population that we are sampling from needs to be a t-distribution with n-1 degrees of freedom.
C) The sampling distribution of the sample mean needs to be approximately normally distributed.
D) The population that we are sampling from needs to be approximately normally distributed.

SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.

26) You are interested in purchasing a new car. One of the many points you wish to consider is the resale value of
the car after 5 years. Since you are particularly interested in a certain foreign sedan, you decide to estimate the
resale value of this car with a 95% confidence interval. You manage to obtain data on 17 recently resold
5-year-old foreign sedans of the same model. These 17 cars were resold at an average price of $12,700 with a
standard deviation of $700. Create a 95% confidence interval for the true mean resale value of a 5-year-old car
of that model.

27) A marketing research company is estimating the average total compensation of CEOs in the service industry.
Data were randomly collected from 18 CEOs and the 97% confidence interval was calculated to be
($2,181,260, $5,836,180). Give a practical interpretation of the confidence interval.

28) A marketing research company is estimating the average total compensation of CEOs in the service industry.
Data were randomly collected from 18 CEOs and the 95% confidence interval was calculated to be
($2,181,260, $5,836,180). Based on the interval above, do you believe the average total compensation of CEOs in
the service industry is more than $1,500,000?

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 29) A computer package was used to generate the following printout for estimating the mean sale price of homes
in a particular neighborhood.

X = sale_price

SAMPLE MEAN OF X = 46300

SAMPLE STANDARD DEV = 13747
SAMPLE SIZE OF X = 25
CONFIDENCE = 90

UPPER LIMIT = 51003.90

SAMPLE MEAN OF X = 46300
LOWER LIMIT = 41596.10

A friend suggests that the mean sale price of homes in this neighborhood is $42,000. Comment on your friend's
suggestion.

30) The following random sample was selected from a normal population: 9, 11, 8, 10, 14, 8. Construct a 95%
confidence interval for the population mean μ.

31) The following sample of 16 measurements was selected from a population that is approximately normally
distributed.

61 85 92 77 83 81 75 78
95 87 69 74 76 84 80 83

Construct a 90% confidence interval for the population mean.

7.4 Large-Sample Confidence Interval for a Population Proportion

1 Determine if Assumptions are Satisfied

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

Solve the problem.

1) A marketing research company is estimating which of two soft drinks college students prefer. A random
sample of 157 college students produced the following confidence interval for the proportion of college
students who prefer drink A: (.344, .494). Is this a large enough sample for this analysis to work?
^ ^
A) Yes, since both np ≥ 15 and nq ≥ 15.
B) Yes, since n = 157 (which is 30 or more).
C) No.
D) It is impossible to say with the given information.

2) A marketing research company is estimating which of two soft drinks college students prefer. A random
sample of 341 college students produced the following 95% confidence interval for the proportion of college
students who prefer one of the colas: (.341, .451). What additional assumptions are necessary for the interval to
be valid?
A) No additional assumptions are necessary.
B) The sample proportion equals the population proportion.
C) The sample was randomly selected from an approximately normal population.
D) The population proportion has an approximately normal distribution.

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 3) What type of car is more popular among college students, American or foreign? One hundred fifty -nine
college students were randomly sampled and each was asked which type of car he or she prefers. A computer
package was used to generate the printout below for the proportion of college students who prefer American
automobiles.

SAMPLE PROPORTION = .396226

SAMPLE SIZE = 159

UPPER LIMIT = .46418

LOWER LIMIT = .331125

Is the sample large enough for the interval to be valid?

^ ^
A) Yes, since np and nq are both greater than 15.
B) Yes, since n > 30.
C) No, the sample size should be at 10% of the population.
D) No, the population of college students is not normally distributed.

4) A study was conducted to determine what proportion of all college students considered themselves as
full-time students. A random sample of 300 college students was selected and 210 of the students responded
that they considered themselves full-time students. A computer program was used to generate the following
95% confidence interval for the population proportion: (0.64814, 0.75186). The sample size that was used in this
problem is considered a large sample. What criteria should be used to determine if n is large?
A) If n > 30, then n is considered large.
^ ^
B) Both np ≥ 15 and nq ≥ 15.
C) If n > 25, then n is considered large.
D) When working with proportions, any n is considered large.

SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.
^
5) For n = 40 and p = .35, is the sample size large enough to construct a confidence for p?

^
6) For n = 40 and p = .45, is the sample size large enough to construct a confidence for p?

^
7) For n = 800 and p = .99, is the sample size large enough to construct a confidence for p?

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

Answer the question True or False.

^
8) The sampling distribution for p is approximately normal for a large sample size n, where n is considered large
^ ^
if both n p ≥ 15 and n(1 - p ) ≥ 15.
A) True B) False

9) When the sample size is small, confidence intervals for a population proportion are more reliable when the
population proportion p is near 0 or 1.
A) True B) False

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2 Construct, Interpret Confidence Interval

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

Solve the problem.

10) A marketing research company is estimating which of two soft drinks college students prefer. A random
sample of n college students produced the following 99% confidence interval for the proportion of college
students who prefer drink A: (.265, .545). Identify the point estimate for estimating the true proportion of
college students who prefer that drink.
A) .405 B) .14 C) .265 D) .545

11) What type of car is more popular among college students, American or foreign? One hundred fifty -nine
college students were randomly sampled and each was asked which type of car he or she prefers. A computer
package was used to generate the printout below for the proportion of college students who prefer American
automobiles.

SAMPLE PROPORTION = .394141

SAMPLE SIZE = 159

UPPER LIMIT = .464240

LOWER LIMIT = .331153

What proportion of the sampled students prefer foreign automobiles?

A) .605859 B) .394141 C) .464240 D) .331153

12) What type of car is more popular among college students, American or foreign? One hundred fifty -nine
college students were randomly sampled and each was asked which type of car he or she prefers.. A computer
package was used to generate the printout below of a 90% confidence interval for the proportion of college
students who prefer American automobiles.

SAMPLE PROPORTION = .396

SAMPLE SIZE = 159

UPPER LIMIT = .472

LOWER LIMIT = .320

Which of the following is a correct practical interpretation of the interval?

A) We are 95% confident that the proportion of all college students who prefer American cars falls between
.320 and .472.
B) We are 95% confident that the proportion of the 159 sampled students who prefer American cars falls
between .320 and .472.
C) 95% of all college students prefer American cars between .320 and .472 of the time.
D) We are 95% confident that the proportion of all college students who prefer foreign cars falls between .320
and .472.

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13) What type of car is more popular among college students, American or foreign? One hundred fifty -nine
college students were randomly sampled and each was asked which type of car he or she prefers. A computer
package was used to generate the printout below of a 90% confidence interval for the proportion of college
students who prefer American automobiles.

SAMPLE PROPORTION = .396

SAMPLE SIZE = 159

UPPER LIMIT = .460

LOWER LIMIT = .332

Based on the interval above, do you believe that 21% of all college students prefer American automobiles?
A) No, and we are 90% confident of it. B) Yes, and we are 100 %sure of it.
C) Yes, and we are 90% confident of it. D) No, and we are 100% sure of it.

14) A newspaper reported on the topics that teenagers most want to discuss with their parents. The findings, the
results of a poll, showed that 46% would like more discussion about the family's financial situation, 37% would
like to talk about school, and 30% would like to talk about religion. These and other percentages were based on
a national sampling of 512 teenagers. Estimate the proportion of all teenagers who want more family
discussions about school. Use a 90% confidence level.
A) .37 ± .035 B) .37 ± .002 C) .63 ± .035 D) .63 ± .002

15) A newspaper reported on the topics that teenagers most want to discuss with their parents. The findings, the
results of a poll, showed that 46% would like more discussion about the family's financial situation, 37% would
like to talk about school, and 30% would like to talk about religion. These and other percentages were based on
a national sampling of 549 teenagers. Using 99% reliability, can we say that more than 30% of all teenagers
want to discuss school with their parents?
A) Yes, since the values inside the 99% confidence interval are greater than .30.
B) No, since the value .30 is not contained in the 99% confidence interval.
C) Yes, since the value .30 falls inside the 99% confidence interval.
D) No, since the value .30 is not contained in the 99% confidence interval.

16) A random sample of 4000 U.S. citizens yielded 2280 who are in favor of gun control legislation. Find the point
estimate for estimating the proportion of all Americans who are in favor of gun control legislation.
A) .5700 B) 2280 C) 4000 D) .4300

17) A random sample of 4000 U.S. citizens yielded 2250 who are in favor of gun control legislation. Estimate the
true proportion of all Americans who are in favor of gun control legislation using a 95% confidence interval.
A) .5625 ± .0154 B) .5625 ± .4823 C) .4375 ± .0154 D) .4375 ± .4823

18) A university dean is interested in determining the proportion of students who receive some sort of financial
aid. Rather than examine the records for all students, the dean randomly selects 200 students and finds that 118
of them are receiving financial aid. Use a 90% confidence interval to estimate the true proportion of students
who receive financial aid.
A) .59 ± .057 B) .59 ± .002 C) .59 ± .398 D) .59 ± .004

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Other documents randomly have
different content
 MORTALITY IN TRADES AND
PROFESSIONS.
It is but natural to suppose, that in such a busy hive of industry as
England, where so large a proportion of the population—at least
one-half—is engaged in the prosecution of arts and manufactures,
that the effects of unceasing toil, and the debilitating influences of
many employments, will have a certain effect upon the health and
longevity of the artisan. We cannot pit the tender muscles of the
child against the senseless energy of steam, without producing a
strain upon the vital principle of the workers which must be highly
injurious to it. We cannot consign a population as large as that of
many German States to live perpetually in the bowels of the earth,
without being prepared for an increased death-rate. The hundreds of
diverse manufactures and handicrafts, which make the land hum
with labour, must all be prosecuted under circumstances more or
less inimical to perfect health. If we take the agricultural labourer of
the better class, whose daily toil is performed under the roof of
heaven, it must be clear that all trades which pursue their
monotonous vocations in the crowded workshops of crowded cities,
in constrained attitudes, and subject to debilitating emanations,
must, to a certain extent, fall short of his standard of health.
Nevertheless, we do not think the public are prepared for the state
of things which a close examination of the sanitary condition of
certain portions of the working population divulges. Accustomed to
be furnished with all the appliances of easy life and luxury, the great
middle and upper classes have never perhaps given a thought as to
the manner in which these wants and appliances are supplied.
Accustomed to sip the honey, it never strikes us that perhaps its
product involves in some cases the life of the working-bee. Yet the
lady, who, from the silken ease of her fauteuil, surveys her drawing-
room, may learn a lesson of compassion for the poor workman in
nearly every article that lies before her. Those glazed visiting cards,
if they could speak, possibly could tell of the paralyzed hand that
made them; that splendid mirror, which lights up the stately room,
has, without doubt, reflected the trembling form of the emaciated
Italian artificer poisoned with mercurial fumes; those hangings, so
soft and delicate, may have produced permanent disease to the
weaver, whose stomach has been injured by its constant pressure
against the beam; the porcelain vase on the bracket has dragged the
“dipper’s” hand into a poison that, sooner or later, will destroy its
power, and, may-be, produce in him mania and death; nay, the very
paper on the walls, tinted with all the vernal brightness of spring,
has, for all we know, ulcerated with its poisonous dust the fingers of
the hanger. The history of the manufacture of almost every article of
elegance or virtù would disclose to us pictures of workmen
transiently or permanently disabled in the production of them. All
this suffering—much of it totally preventible—goes on without
complaint, the workman falls out of the ranks, and another instantly
takes his place, to be succeeded perhaps by a third. We are
convinced that such a waste of health and life could not be endured,
if the public were fully alive to the magnitude of the evil; for this
reason we shall endeavour, in the following essay, to give a true
picture of what may, perhaps, without pedantry, be termed the
pathology of industrial occupations and professions in this country.
Foremost among those artisans who suffer from the inhalation of
dust and other gritty particles given off in the pursuit of their
employment are the grinders of Sheffield. Dr. J. C. Hall, in a series of
papers published lately in the British Medical Journal, draws a picture
of the condition of these unfortunate men, which is indeed appalling,
and without doubt gives them the bad pre-eminence of pursuing the
most deadly trade in existence. Grinding is divided into dry, wet, and
mixed; that is, the various articles of steel turned out of the cutler’s
shop of Sheffield are subjected to the stone entirely dry, revolving in
water, or to processes involving both methods. Of the three, the
former is by far the most deadly: forks, needles, brace-bits, &c., are
ground entirely on the dry stone, and the amount of finely-divided
metal dust and siliceous grit given out in the process may be
imagined, when we state that a dozen of razors, weighing 2lb. 4oz.
as they come from the forge in the rough, lose in the process of
“shaping” on the dry stone, upwards of five ounces, and the stone
itself, seven inches in diameter, would be reduced one inch. To
receive the mixture of stone and steel thus rapidly given off, the
position of the grinder is but too convenient; straddled across his
“horsing,” as the frame in which the grindstone revolves is called,
with his knees bent in an acute angle, his body inclined forwards,
and his head hanging over the work, his mouth is brought into fatal
contact with the poisonous dust, and his eyes with the rush of the
sparks. Fork-grinding is performed entirely on the dry stone, and
consequently it is the most deadly occupation pursued in Sheffield.
About 500 men and boys are at present devoting themselves to
destruction during the period of early manhood, for the benefit of
the users of steel forks. “The silver fork school” imagines perhaps
that these vile appliances have long been banished to the same
limbo as snuffers, and will be surprised to learn that more steel forks
than ever are thus fashioned in Sheffield, and the poor grinder, as he
receives into his lungs the products of the fashioning, in his own
person exemplifies the awful passage in the burial-service—“dust to
dust”—as the disease thus induced cuts him off at the average age
of twenty-nine years! “I shall be thirty-six years old next month,”
remarked a grinder, pathetically, to Dr. Hall, “and you know, measter,
that’s getting a very old man in our trade.” Another operation,
almost as deadly as fork-grinding, is that of “racing the stone.” These
grindstones are but roughly reduced to the circular form by the
quarry men, and the grinder undertakes the business of reducing
and removing all their asperities, which he does by revolving them
against a piece of steel—a tremendous dust being given off in the
process. In wet grinding, which is employed in the manufacture of
saws, files, sickles, table-knives, and edge-tools, comparatively little
dust is made, and in these employments the grinders enjoy
comparatively longer life; their average age ranging from thirty-five
to forty years. In addition to the destructive effects of these particles
of metal and stone upon the delicate membrane of the lungs, the
dry-grinder is subjected to serious injury of the eyes from the red-
hot particles of steel thrown off in the shape of sparks. The more
careful of the workmen protect themselves from the danger,
however, by wearing large spectacles of ordinary window glass.
These spectacles, when they have been in use a little time, give
practical evidence of their utility, for on examining them they are
found to be speckled all over with the particles of steel, which, when
red-hot, become embedded in the glass.
In the rough nomenclature of the trade, the disease which thus early
destroys the fashioner of forks and needles is termed the grinder’s
rot. The lung, when examined after death, looks as though it had
been dipped in ink, and the texture, instead of exhibiting the usual
spongy character of that organ when in health, cuts like a piece of
india-rubber! The colour and the solidification of the dry-grinder’s
lung is owing to the chronic inflammation to which it has been
subjected by the presence from an early age of irritating particles of
steel and stone within its finest air passages. But why dry-grind at
all, the reader will involuntarily exclaim, if the wages of the
occupation are death? The grinder replies, that there are certain
operations which cannot be done on the wet stone; giving the
rounded back to razors, technically called “humping,” and the
rounded side to scissors, are quoted as examples. The pressure
during the process of shaping is so great, that the rolling friction
would speedily make the stone wear, and the workman would be
unable to hold the blade upon it. Then, again, we may ask, where is
the necessity for this rounded form—would the shaver on a cold
morning care a jot whether his razor had a round or a square back?
Would the lady, as she manipulated her lace-work with her scissors,
hesitate to accept a three-sided scissor-leg in place of a half-round
one, if she knew that the difference involved the life of a fellow-
creature? Yet such trifling differences as these between round and
flat, stand in the way of the health or misery of an entire class of
workers! We give a list of the average duration of life of artisans in
steel in Sheffield:—Dry-grinders of forks, 29 years; razors, 31 years;
scissors, 32 years; edge-tool and wool-shears, 32 years; spring-
knives, 34 years; table-knives, 35 years; files, 35 years; saws, 38
years; sickles, 38 years—the ascending longevity being in proportion
to the amount of water used on the stone, and to the greater
amount of adult labour employed; such articles as saws, sickles, and
tools are happily too heavy to be manipulated by the children
employed, and thus early diseased in the manufacture of the lighter
articles.
The only relief to be gathered from this dismal picture of wasted life,
is the fact that things are not so bad as of old. By means of greater
speed being given to the stone, many articles, such as pen and
pocket-knives, are now ground with a wet stone that formerly were
ground with the dry; and happily much of the dust has been
abolished in the best shops, such as that of Messrs. Rodgers, by the
introduction of fans on the principle of a winnowing-machine, which
blows the dust and grit as it comes from the grindstone clear away
through a flue placed in connection with the chimney. This fan is,
however, only partially used; the grinders themselves, whom they
are intended to benefit, complaining that the “trade is bad enough
as it is, and if men lived longer, it would be so over-full that there
would be no such a thing as getting a living:” the same spirit
rejected Mr. Abraham’s mask of magnetized wire, invented many
years ago for the same object. There can be no doubt, however, that
intelligence should rule in this matter, and that the Legislature
should make it a fineable offence to work a dry stone without a fan,
just as it is to work dangerous machinery without guards; for where
one life is lost by neglect in the latter case, thousands sink into a
premature grave in the former. Grinders, wet or dry, may also
protect their lungs, in a most remarkable manner, by simply allowing
the beard and moustache to grow. The hirsute appendages of the
upper lip and chin are Nature’s respirators, and it has been observed
that those men who have allowed her in this respect to have her
way, have discovered that she is somewhat wiser than fashion or
popular usage.
Of those artisans exposed to irritating dust, probably miners take the
second place after the miserable dry grinders. If we investigate the
condition of these men, we are immediately struck with the
lamentable conditions under which they labour, and astonished at
the endurance and patience with which they submit to toil to which
that of the well-fed, well-housed felon is pleasant pastime. There are
at present upwards of 300,000 human beings acting the part of
gnomes for the good of the community at large, entering day by day
into the bowels of the earth, and emerging in the evening. Of
human life they see as little as the train of black ants we watch
emerging from their holes in the ground. Yet the miner is the
industrial Atlas of England. Were he to cease to labour, this busy
hive of men would speedily be hushed, and the giant limbs of
machinery, which now do the drudgery of the world, become as still
as the enchanted garden of the fairy tale ere the advent of the
prince. Without the coal and the iron, the copper and the tin, they
toilfully evolve from vast depths, England would be but a third-rate
power. A life so cheerless, and yet so useful—nay, essential, to our
national existence—should at least receive at the hands of the
Government every protection that can be thrown around it; yet, if
we follow the miner into his gallery and working cell, we are amazed
at the dangers and the difficulties which are needlessly thrust upon
him in the black realm in which he moves and has his being. Let us
take the collier, for example. In many pits in the West of England,
the seams of coal are not more than twenty or twenty-five inches
thick; and inasmuch as the object of the worker is to remove the
coal with as little as possible of the surrounding soil, he often drives
his working to a considerable distance through an aperture not more
than, and often not so much as, two feet high. If our adult male
reader will condescend to squat himself on the floor, à la Turque, say
under the dining-table, for instance, and then picture to himself the
inconvenience of picking with an axe the under side of the prandial
mahogany for twelve hours, he will obtain some slight idea of the
muscular knot into which the poor collier has to tie himself, for the
whole term of his working life, having to use violent exercise
throughout. Can it be wondered at that, under such circumstances,
the Apollo-like form of man becomes permanently twisted and bent,
like the gnarled root of an oak that has been doubled up in the
fissure of some rock? If we look at a collier, we see instantly that his
back is curved, his legs bowed, and the extensor muscles of his
calves withered through long disease. He has knotted himself so
long, that the erect position of his race becomes a punishment to
him. It is credibly related that a number of colliers, having been
sentenced to imprisonment in Wakefield jail, with hard labour, the
only complaint they made was, that they were obliged, whilst at
work, to keep the ordinary posture of rational creatures. But
confined space is only one of the many evil conditions under which
they labour. In the majority of cases the collier works in foul air; for,
notwithstanding all the official inspection, the ventilation of mines is
still execrable. The fire-damp either blasts him into a cinder, or the
choke-damp noiselessly blots out his life. However good, moreover,
the general system of ventilation in a mine, unforeseen accidents will
happen at any moment. The pick of the collier strikes into the gallery
of an old pit, where carbonic acid gas has been gathering perhaps
for a century; and the poisoned air rushes in and does its work in an
instant; or a sudden invasion of carburetted hydrogen, disengaged
by the fall of a mass of coal, meets the miner, who is working,
perhaps imprudently, with a naked candle;—and an explosion follows
which crowds the pit’s mouth with a wailing multitude of newly-
made widows and orphans.
Upwards of 1,500 lives are annually lost, principally through these
causes, and not less than 10,000 accidents in the same period testify
to the dangerous nature of the miner’s occupation, notwithstanding
the strict Government inspection.[50] It is humiliating to know that
England is yet far behind continental nations in her methods of
preventing these dreadful catastrophes. Mr. Mackworth, in his lecture
at the Society of Arts, stated that the mortality from accidents was,
in the coal mines of

Killed Persons.
Prussia 1·89 per 1000 per annum.
 Belgium 2·8 "
England 4·5 "
Staffordshire 7·3 "

This comparison, so humiliating to England, cannot be explained by

the superior adventure of our countrymen, inasmuch as the
production of coal in Belgium is half as much again per acre of the
coal-field as in England. It is not, however, to the dramatic accidents
of coal mines which every now and then startle the community, to
which we wish to draw attention; but rather to the silent progress of
disease, which makes his death so premature, and his life so
miserable. In addition to his cramped condition, whilst at work, his
supply of oxygen is small; for in all probability the air supplied to him
has to circulate many miles through the mine, and to pass over the
excrementitious deposits of man and horse, and the decaying
woodwork of the mine, ere it finally reaches him, in enfeebled
streams, in his solitary working cell. Long deprivation of solar light,
again, tends to impoverish his blood, to blanch him, in short, like
vegetable products similarly deprived of the light of day. It is
through the lungs, however, that the health of the miner is
principally attacked. The air of a coal mine (such as it is) holds a
vast amount of coal-dust in mechanical suspension, and this, as a
matter of course, is constantly passing into the lungs of the miner.
The proof of this is the so-called “black spit” of the collier, which, on
being subjected to the microscope, is found to consist of mucus,
filled with finely divided particles of coal. The permanent inhalation
of such an atmosphere results in what is termed the “black lung.”
The breathing apparatus of the collier becomes clogged, in short,
with coal-dust, and after death it has the appearance of being
dipped in ink. A writer,[51] who has lately investigated this singular
pathological condition, thus gives his experience of two post-mortem
examinations:—
“In each case, the black treacly fluid obtained by thus cutting the
various portions of the lung (more especially the posterior and
inferior portions of the lower lobes), and by slitting up the bronchial
tubes, was evaporated to dryness, and the residuum being broken
up and subjected to a red heat in a porcelain tube retort, behaved
precisely as coal under similar circumstances, i.e. it evolved a
smoke-like gaseous product, which, on being slightly condensed,
deposited hydro-sulphide of ammonium and coal tar, and being thus
purified, burnt in all respects like the well-known compounds of the
two carbides of hydrogen (common gas).”
Dr. Gregory, of Edinburgh, many years since, by destructive analysis,
came to the same conclusion respecting the carbonaceous nature of
this deposit. The presence of this foreign body in the lungs leads to
the whole train of pulmonary diseases. Asthma, bronchitis, and
pneumonia are but too frequent, and we are consequently not
surprised to hear that the aggregate amount of sickness experienced
by this class, for the period of life from twenty to sixty, is 95 weeks,
or 67 per cent, more than the general average.
Rheumatism, leading to heart disease, is another very common
complaint of the miner. Indeed, all the conditions of ill-managed
mines seem ready prepared for the propagation of this disease.
When mines are driven to any considerable depth, the temperature
proportionably increases, and 80 degrees of Fahrenheit is a common
temperature at the end of workings, all the year round. After
exposure to this oppressive atmosphere during the whole day, the
collier perhaps suddenly emerges into the open air at the pit’s
mouth, vitally depressed by his prolonged exertion, when the bitter
wind is shaving the surface of the earth at a temperature much
below freezing point. In the coal-field stretching from Valenciennes
to Aix-la-Chapelle, the mines are made conspicuous a long way off
by the presence of huge buildings, which enclose the machinery and
the top of the pit. In these buildings apartments are prepared in
which the colliers change their clothes before and after labour, and
wash themselves in baths filled with hot water from the steam
waste-pipe. The importance of this sanitary precaution is very great,
inasmuch as colliers, like chimney-sweeps, are subject to a skin
disease, in consequence of the begrimed condition of their skins.
Lady Bassett has established these baths, we understand, at her
mines at Camborne, in Cornwall; but we think that the enforcement
of a sanitary act of such importance should not be left to the
philanthropic tendencies of individuals, but should be required by the
Government. If a provision of this kind were made compulsory, and
stricter legislation with respect to ventilating mines were established,
no doubt a vast amount of disease could be eliminated. It is
estimated that the worst coal mines can be ventilated thoroughly at
a cost of one penny per man per day, and that in well-constructed
furnaces the consumption of one ton of coals per day at the bottom
of an up-cast shaft will enable each collier to cut one ton of coals
more per day with the same amount of exertion. Such being the
case, there can be no excuse for asphyxiating the miners wholesale.
Those proprietors of mines, who are only open to these breeches-
pocket appeals, should know that it is their interest, in a pecuniary
sense, to ventilate well, inasmuch as the preservative effect of pure
air upon the wood brattrices, which form so expensive an item in
mining, effects a saving of 80 per cent.
Our remarks hitherto have been directed entirely to coal mines and
colliers, as these are by far the most extensive industrial occupations
of the kind. The metalliferous mines, such as the tin and copper
mines of Cornwall, and lead mines of Derbyshire, are in pretty much
the same pestiferous condition, but in one particular they are still
more destructive of life than coal mines. In the latter the tired
workman is lifted from the depths of the mines to the surface by a
rope. The Cornwall miner, on the other hand, has to carry his
exhausted body in some cases thousands of feet up a series of steep
ladders to the mouth of the mine. It has been estimated that many
miners have thus to make an exertion every night equal to climbing
to the summit of Cader Idris, and this in an up-cast shaft used for
the extraction of the foul air! The disastrous effect upon the already
weary miner has long been known, yet in only a few of the great
mines of Cornwall has the tireless arm of the steam-engine been
called in to save him from this unnecessary labour. The machinery
used is called a man-machine, and differs entirely from that
employed in coal-pits. In place of a rope, a beam of wood or iron
descends through the whole length of the shaft; this beam, at
regular intervals of ten feet, has little platforms attached to it,
sufficient to afford standing-room to a miner; at the sides of the
shaft are similar platforms, at the same intervals. At every stroke of
the engine the beam ascends or descends through the space of ten
feet, consequently the miner has only to step from the fixed platform
to the moving one to be lifted ten feet every time it ascends. In this
manner as many as a hundred men are lifted at the same time
several thousand feet in a few minutes, without any more exertion
than is necessary to make a few score steps. This curious invention
has materially benefited the miner, and where it is used there is a
manifest absence of the heart disease, induced by the climbing of
interminable ladders placed in an almost vertical position.
Dr. Greenhow, in his report on the prevalence of certain diseases in
different districts of England and Wales, very clearly proves the
deleterious nature of the lead-miner’s employment by the
comparisons he makes between the death-rates of the men and
women of Reeth and Alston, which are purely lead-mining districts.
In the former, the lead-miners die at the rate of 2,037 per 100,000
of all ages, whilst their wives, sisters, and daughters, who are
variously employed, die at the reduced rate of 1,711 per 100,000; in
other words, lead-mining in this one typical district caused an excess
of no less than 3·26 deaths in every 100,000 inhabitants; and if we
make a comparison relative to the prevalence of pulmonary disease
between the two sexes, above the age of twenty, we find the death-
rate of the men is double that of the women. The evil influence of
copper-mining on the male population is not quite so marked, but
still it is apparent enough. Thus, in Redruth, in which this kind of
labour is exclusively carried on, we find that in every 100,000 of
population, 220 males die from pulmonary disease more than
females; and in Penzance, which is exclusively a tin-mining district,
the superior waste of male over female life, in the same population,
of all ages, is 104.
The mason, like the miner, is particularly liable to suffer from the
presence of irritating substances in the lungs. It has been asserted
that in Edinburgh members of the craft rarely live more than fifty
years. This is doubtless owing to the nature of the material they
work upon. There is great reason to suppose that the degree of
damage done to the delicate air-cells of the lung is to be measured
by the nature of the particles inhaled. Thus, the ragged portions of
granite detached by the chisel are much more likely to do harm than
the less irregular dust of the bricklayer. In this manner we can
account for the high rate of mortality said to exist among the
masons of our northern metropolis. The scourers in the potteries
exercise their fearful trade in an atmosphere loaded with pulverised
flints, a mineral dust of the most distressing character: we are not
surprised, therefore, to hear that in this process pulmonary disease
is still more rampant than among the Edinburgh masons, and is little
inferior to that of the dry grinders of Sheffield, who receive into their
lungs jagged particles of steel as well as grindstone dust.[52] It will
be unnecessary to consider all the trades which are affected by dust,
inasmuch as the artisans employed in them are similarly subjected to
pulmonary affections, if not in a like degree. Thus millers are
rendered consumptive and asthmatic by the floating meal of their
mills; snuff-makers by the snuff which pervades the air of their
places of work; pearl-button-makers suffer still more from the same
cause; and the men of Sheffield who haft knives with cocoa-wood or
ebony are affected with a disease exactly like the hay-asthma. The
shoddy-grinders of the West Riding, who grind and break up rags in
a machine called “a devil,” are subjected to what they term the
shoddy fever, in consequence of the devil’s dust given off in the
tearing process. The dressers and preparers of hair, especially of
foreign hair, are speedily broken in health by the dust and stench
produced by their operations.
The evil effects arising from the prosecution of these trades sink into
insignificance, however, when compared with the destruction caused
by the floating fluff of flax-mills. These mills employ children of
tender years, who have to work in an atmosphere loaded with
vegetable particles to such a degree, that in a measure it clouds the
vision. The hecklers are the chief sufferers in this department of
industry, especially the children, who are, many of them, forced to
work the same time as adults—that is, as long as human nature can
possibly hold out. We shall have more to say, however, when we
come to consider the effects of bleaching and dyeing works,
respecting those trades which exhaust the youthful powers of large
portions of the working population, and thus do infinitely more
damage to the race than the more curious diseases of smaller
trades, which may be severe enough, but do not affect more than
infinitesimal portions of the population.
It would be supposed that workers on decomposing vegetable and
animal matter would suffer a sickness and mortality only inferior to
the artisans subjected to the emanations of poisonous metals. A
priori, we should say, for instance, that dustmen, night men, and the
workers in sewers, would be amongst the most unhealthy of the
working classes, and, indeed, routine sanitarians would summarily
tell us that such must be the case. The begrimed and dusty
scavenger, whose very name is a reproach, spends the best part of
his life in clearing away the disgusting refuse of civilization; he has
yet another duty to perform which brings him into still closer contact
with unsavoury emanations. The lay-stall, or scavengers’ yard, is of
course a huge collection of the sweepings of the streets, the refuse
of the markets, and the night-soil and dust of the houses, but it is
not allowed to remain in a fermenting and indiscriminate mass.
Almost as soon as it is deposited, men, women, and boys are
employed to sift and sort the heap; bones, glass, woollen and linen
rags, old iron and other metals, have to be eliminated from the mass
and set aside, and the coals and great cinders are extracted from
the useless ashes by the “hill-men.” It would scarcely be possible to
bring human life into closer contact with filth of every kind than we
find it to be in the workers in these lay-stalls. Yet, strange to say, Dr.
Guy, who has investigated their sanitary condition, finds them to be
among the healthiest of our working population. “They are, with a
very few exceptions,” he tells us, “a healthy-looking, ruddy-
complexioned race;” that is, they wear their natural rouge under
their artificial tint, reversing the more fashionable method of May
Fair.
“One or two boys,” he tells us, “whom I saw at work, would have
been excellent models for the artist.” Our London readers will
perhaps remember to have seen troops of robust and rosy-looking
young women, not perhaps in afternoon toilet, making their way,
about five o’clock, from the Marble Arch across Hyde Park; these are
the “hill-women,” chiefly Irish, trooping home to the rookeries of
Westminster; their appearance quite confirms Dr. Guy’s views as to
the healthful appearance of these workers. The master scavengers,
who live with all their families amid these heaps of dusty desolation,
excite the admiration of this searcher after truth still more; and at
last, breaking out of the calm unimpassioned manner which the
philosophical statist, who deals only with general truths, is wont to
impose upon himself, he thus fairly gives vent to his admiration for
the genus dustman:—
“To conclude this account of the health of this very useful class of
men, I will merely add that the score or so of master scavengers
who were brought together on more than one occasion by the trial
already alluded to (an indictment for nuisance against a lay-stall
keeper), as the origin of these inquiries, are the healthiest set of
men I have ever seen. I do not think, whether in town or country,
such a body of men could be brought together, except by selection;
and it is not going too far to assert of them, that if the comparison
were limited to the inhabitants of London, or our large towns, no
score of selected tradesmen could be found to match the same
number of scavengers brought casually together.”
This is high praise, and doubtless deserved; but few people,
however, would have suspected that Hygeia clasped so closely to her
bosom the grimy scavenger in his filthy frock. Dr. Guy, however,
gives us hard figures for his pleasant flourishes. If we compare the
scavenger with other workmen placed under somewhat similar
circumstances, he rises triumphant over them. Thus whilst the
bricklayer’s labourer, generally a very poor Irishman, it is true,
suffers from fever, a ratio of 35½ per cent., and the brickmaker 21
per cent., the scavenger experiences only 8 per cent. of illness from
the same cause. This result does seem astonishing when we
remember that sanitarians sometimes attribute so much illness to
the presence of a neglected dust-heap; but as Dr. Guy very justly
remarks, those emanations which may prove injurious when
confined within a small space—and our houses, like bell glasses,
cover and keep in numberless impurities—become innoxious when
fully exposed to the air. We suspect, however, that the power of
ashes to absorb noxious emanations of all kinds, is at the bottom of
the striking immunity which the scavenger exhibits from all febrile
complaints. Nightmen and sewer-men, again, are brought into direct
communication with the most disgusting, and as the public are led to
suppose, the most poisonous animal effluvia; they stir in the very
nidus of fever, yet it has been remarked by many observers that they
are singularly exempt from this disease. Sir Anthony Carlisle tells us
that out of fifty men employed in the sewers in his time, only three
had had fever. Thakrah declares that out of eighteen examined by
his assistant, only two had even slight disorders, and they informed
him that appetite was increased by the effluvia; and finally Dr. Guy
tells us that out of thirty-four nightmen examined by him, only one
had had an attack of fever, and he only through being out of work
for three weeks; he suffered, in short, from change of air, and
perhaps want of food. Dr. Guy, in the little pamphlet we have already
quoted from, states a most remarkable fact, illustrative of the
changes of opinion, even amongst medical men, relative to the
effects of snuffing sewer emanations. He says, that a gentleman
who accompanied him in one of his inspections over a scavenger’s
yard, informed him that, “he perfectly well recollects thirty years
ago, when he was a lad, seeing as many as twelve patients directed
by the faculty of that day to walk round the shoots for the night-soil
on his father’s premises; and he appealed for confirmation of this
statement to his brother, who said that he had seen scores of
patients industriously inhaling this curious dose of physic.” Thakrah,
who wrote his celebrated “Treatise on the Effects of Trades and
Professions on Health,” about this period, tells us that the parents of
consumptive youth, in his time, brought them up to the business of
a butcher, in the hope of averting that formidable malady. In
endeavouring to avoid Scylla, they fell into Charybdis, inasmuch as it
is a well-ascertained fact that butchers, although exempt from
consumption and scrofula, are very prone to inflammatory diseases.
They are seldom ill, but when ill, it goes hard with them,—so much
so, that, as a class, these jolly, red-faced men, the very pictures of
their own beef, are but short-lived. The effects of animal
emanations, and the contact of animal substances with the skin in
protecting workmen from consumption, is a very remarkable
circumstance. Tanners constantly at work among tan-pits, are rarely,
we believe, attacked with phthisis; and those artisans in the woollen-
manufacture termed cloth-piecers, whose skins are smeared with oil
in the course of the day, present a remarkable contrast to the
workers in cotton factories,—their flesh being plump and rosy, and
their muscles strong. Mr. Thompson of Perth, who has investigated
this subject, found the weight of one hundred young persons, so
employed, increased in three months 575 lbs., giving an average
increase of 5¾ lbs., and in eight selected cases the gain during the
same brief period averaged no less than 17 lbs. each person. The
beneficial effect of this department of the woollen-manufacture is so
well known, that in Yorkshire the better classes frequently send the
delicate members of their families to the woollen-mills for the benefit
of their health. The application of oil, especially of cod-liver oil, to
the skin, has indeed been recommended to consumptive patients, as
thereby a greater amount of carbonaceous material can be thrown
into the system without deranging it than by any other. After having
drawn attention to so many occupations which are positively
injurious to artisans, it is at least gratifying to be able to point to one
large and rapidly-increasing manufacture which is so clearly
beneficial in its operations upon human health.
There is a class of artisans which suffers from the inhalation of
poisonous matters into the lungs, like the grinders and the masons,
&c., but the foreign matter here presents itself in the form of a
subtle vapour, rather than in that of dust. We little think, when we
strike a lucifer-match,—that incomparable product of civilization,
whose inventor deserves a statue in every capital in Europe,—what
suffering it may possibly have caused in its manufacture. The
composition at the end of a match is composed of phosphorus
combined with oxymuriate of potash and glue, made into a paste,
and kept liquid by being placed over a heated metal plate. Into this
composition the “dipper” dips the bundle of matches, and in doing
so he is forced to inhale the vapour given off, which is strongly
charged with phosphoric acid, the effect of which upon him is
sometimes most disastrous. After a time he experiences most
excruciating pains in the bones of the jaw, but principally in the
lower one; they begin to swell, a purulent discharge takes place,
and, finally, the bone dies and comes away. Mr. Stanley, one of the
surgeons of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, had a patient who thus lost
the whole of the lower jaw. There appears to be considerable doubt
whether the poison acts locally or constitutionally. One would
naturally suppose that if the action were local, it would first take
effect upon the bones of the nose, but, as far as the experience of
surgery goes, the “dipper” always preserves his nose intact. That the
poisonous fumes have a certain constitutional effect, the aspect of
the workman at once declares; cadaverous in complexion, emaciated
to a degree, and painfully nervous, he presents the appearance of a
person suffering from the presence of some irritant poison in the
blood. It certainly is very remarkable that phosphorus, which, in the
form of phosphate of lime, is a very important constituent of bone,
should have such an extraordinary effect upon it when received into
the system in the manner we have described. We are not aware that
this drug, when received into the stomach only, has ever produced
the local effect noticed; but, without doubt, it is the quantity of the
poisonous agent to which the workman is subjected, as he not only
receives the fumes directly into his mouth and air-passages in the
act of “dipping,” but the whole atmosphere of the factory becomes
so impregnated with phosphorus, in consequence of its volatilization
when the process of drying the matches is being proceeded with,
that his clothes even become saturated to such an extent that in the
dark they appear quite luminous. In Vienna, where enormous
numbers of lucifer-matches are made, necrosis of the jaw is of
common occurrence among the workmen; and the German
physicians believe that the disease arises principally in persons of
scrofulous habit, the periosteum or lining membrane of whose bones
are peculiarly liable to take on inflammatory action, the death of the
bone following as a matter of course. If this view of the case be
true, all scrofulous persons should be warned from the employment,
as dangerous, and in all cases employers should adopt every
precaution in their power to prevent the recurrence of such mischief
to the employed. Mr. Stanley says that the oil of turpentine, which is
a solvent of phosphorous, when exposed in saucers, absorbs the
vapour which does so much mischief, and that its employment in a
large lucifer-match factory in the neighbourhood of the London
Hospital was attended with the happiest success. Thus we have
another example of the power of the chemist to make the good
elements of his craft do battle with the evil ones in the cause of
humanity.
Another and more common instance, in which the workman is
sacrificed to luxury, is the case of the water-gilder. The skill of this
artisan is employed in gilding metals, principally silver, by the action
of fire. The metal to be gilded is coated with an amalgam of gold
and mercury, and is then exposed to the fumes of a charcoal fire,
which drives off the mercury, and leaves the gold adherent to the
metal. During the process the fumes of the mercury are inhaled by
the workman, and, indeed, deposit their metalliferous particles over
the entire surface of the skin. The result is, that he speedily
becomes afflicted with mercurial tremor, or, in the language of the
workshop, he gets “a fit of the trembles.” If he proceeds with his
work the tremor rapidly increases. Dr. Watson, in describing a
patient thus afflicted, says:—
“He was led into the room, walking with uncertain steps, his limbs
trembling and dancing, as though he had been hung on wires. While
sitting on a chair he was comparatively quiet,—you would not
suppose that he ailed anything; but, as soon as he attempted to rise
and to walk, his legs began to shake violently with a rapid
movement. He could neither hold them steadily nor direct them with
precision.”
Were it not painful to contemplate, the incoherent muscular action of
workmen thus afflicted would appear ludicrous. In endeavouring to
put his food into his mouth he will sometimes, as in chorea, bob it
against his eye or his cheek; and extreme cases have been known in
which the unfortunate water-gilder thus afflicted has been forced to
take his food like a quadruped. As the disease increases, the
complexion becomes of a brown hue, and presently delirium, and,
lastly, want of consciousness supervenes. To this complexion comes
the water-gilder; and as the silverer of looking-glasses is exposed to
the action of mercury, both by touch and inhalation, the same
effects are produced upon him. If the charming belle, as she surveys
her beauty in the glass, could but for a moment see reflected this
poor shattered human creature, with trembling muscles, brown
visage, and blackened teeth, she would doubtless start with horror;
but, as it is, the slaves of luxury and vanity drop out of life
unobserved and uncared for, as the stream of travellers disappeared
one by one through the bridge of Mirza. Happily, the subtle finger of
electricity has in a measure emancipated the water-gilder from the
horrors of his art. The voltaic battery now deposits the metal without
the intervention of quicksilver, and science has eliminated another of
those destructive agencies which have hitherto afflicted this class of
artisans.
The silvering of mirrors and looking-glasses still remains a dangerous
operation; but there can be no doubt that with properly-constructed
flues the floating metal would be entirely conducted away. Indeed, it
is by the chimney that much of the metal now escapes; for Thakrah
tells us that he has been informed by a manufacturer that from the
sweepings of the chimney on one occasion he had collected twenty
pounds of good quicksilver. Another, and a very manageable
expedient, sometimes resorted to by those exposed to the fumes
and the oxide of mercury, is to cover the mouth with a tube-like
proboscis, which hangs out of the way of the floating metal, and
thus conducts pure air to the operator.
Thakrah tells us that workers in brass also suffer from the inhalation
of the volatilized metal. The brass-melters of Birmingham suffer from
intermittent fever, which they call the brass ague. This malady leaves
them in a state of great debility. The filers of brass, on the same
authority, are subject to a most peculiar affection, like Tittlebat
Titmouse, their hair turning a vivid green. It is supposed that the
copper in the brass-dust combines with the oil of the hair, and thus
an oxide of copper is formed. Coppersmiths are, of course, similarly
affected. Plumbers, whilst casting, are subject to the volatilized oxide
of lead, which in time produces paralysis; and while they are
soldering, many deleterious fumes arise, of a sweetish taste, and of
a highly astringent nature, which often produces violent attacks of
constipation.
But poisonous metals may attack the mucous membrane in the
shape of finely-divided powder used in the arts. There is an
exceedingly beautiful paper, of an apple-green colour, which is often
selected for the coolness and cheerfulness of its appearance. The
writer was himself once deluded by the seductive appearance of a
paper of this description, and had his library furnished with it.
Strange to say, a violent cold seemed to seize every one, even in the
midst of summer, who stopped long in this apartment, especially if
they came much in contact with the walls. On questioning the paper-
hanger the mystery was speedily explained. “I never hang that kind
of paper,” he said, “without getting a bad sore throat and a running
of the eyes. All the trade knows it is good for a cold to have any
dealings with it.” The cheerful green of the paper is nothing less
deadly than the aceto-arsenite of copper, an irritant poison of the
first class. The flock part of the paper contains a large quantity of
pigment in the form of dust, which is of course liable to be detached
from the walls on very slight occasions. It has been erroneously
supposed that the metal must be volatilized by heat ere it can be
separated from the paper; but the action of detachment is
mechanical, and not chemical; the poisonous dust either falls or is
brushed off the wall, and becomes mixed with the ordinary dust of
the room; the lifting of a book, or the displacement of a pile of
papers, proves sufficient to set these particles in motion, and to
bring them in contact with the mucous linings of the eyes, nose, and
throat; hence the violent irritation produced, which similates so
closely the effects of a bad cold in the head. Professor Taylor, the
celebrated medical toxocologist, has moreover proved the presence
of arsenic in the dust fallen from this kind of paper. In a letter to the
Medical Times and Gazette, of January 1st, 1859, he says,—
“I procured from the shop of Messrs. Marratt and Short, opticians,
68, King William Street, London Bridge, a quantity of dust for the
purpose of analysis. The walls of this shop are covered with an
unglazed arsenical paper, and, as I am informed, they have been so
covered for a period of about three years. In collecting this dust
from the tops of the cases containing the instruments, great care
was taken not to touch the walls. The quantity thus collected for
examination amounted to about 450 grains. It was nearly black, and,
under the microscope, appeared to consist of fibres of sooty
particles. It was very light and flocculent. One hundred and fifty
grains of the dust were examined by Reinsch’s process, and enough
metallic arsenic was obtained from it to coat about ten square inches
of copper foil, in addition to a piece of copper gauze. From the latter
deposit, by the application of heat, octahedral crystals of arsenic
were readily obtained. The case had not been dusted for a period of
nine months. Even the dust of instruments locked up in the cases,
which were lined at the back only with the green paper, was found
to be charged with this poisonous pigment. Half a grain of the dust
sufficed to cover pretty thickly with metallic arsenic a square inch of
copper gauze. These facts,” says Professor Taylor, “lead to the
inevitable inference that the air of a room, of which the walls are
covered with an unglazed arsenical green paper, is liable to be
charged with the fine dust of the poisonous aceto-arsenite of copper.
Those who inhabit these rooms are exposed to breathe the dust.
The poison may thus find its way by the pulmonary membrane into
the system, or it may affect the eyes, nose, and throat by local
action.”
After this unimpeachable testimony to the poisonous character of
the pigment in this paper, it is not difficult to understand that the
workmen employed in its manufacture are particularly liable to
attacks of illness which exhibit all the symptoms of acute influenza;
or that the paper-hangers, in putting it up, are sometimes obliged to
leave work for a time, in order to get rid of the distressing symptoms
to which its manipulation gives rise.
There is in Sheffield an occupation connected with tool-making
which forms, as it were, a connecting link between the diseases
produced by working in steel and those which flow from working in
lead: we allude to file-making. Unfortunately, the various
preparations of lead enter very largely into the arts and
manufactures of this country; and as its action upon the human
body is very great, its pernicious influence is felt in a vast number of
occupations of a diverse nature. Thus, white-lead manufacturers,
sheet-lead rollers, painters, plumbers, potters, china manufacturers,
colour-grinders, glaziers, enamellers of cards, lead-miners, and shot-
makers, all come under the saturnine influence; even the poor
lacemakers of Belgium do not escape, for the manufacturer, in order
to make the fibre look white, requires them to dust it with white-lead
powder, and possibly, by this means, it may find its way into the fair
skin of a duchess!
It may seem strange that a worker in steel should suffer from the
poison of lead, but it occurs in this manner:—The file-maker, in order
to hold the file securely, and, at the same time, to protect the fine
edge of the sharp chisel with which he cuts the face of the file,
places it upon a bed of lead which rests upon an anvil. In cutting the
larger three-square files, the workman uses as much as a pound of
lead a week; this is detached from the mass by friction and the use
of the chisel, in the form of a fine black powder. It is curious that the
first portion of the file-cutter’s anatomy that is affected is the finger
that rests upon the lead; at first it feels numb, and then becomes
paralyzed. If the artisan will not take warning by this fastidious touch
of a digit, before long the poison grips him by the wrist, and then
some fine morning he wakes and finds that he has what is termed in
the trade “a dropped hand;”[53] that is, the extensor muscles of the
wrist are paralyzed, and the hand falls helplessly forward, like the
fore-paw of a kangaroo. Here the specific action of the poison has
exerted itself through the skin of the part affected. The same thing
is observable in painters, who are more subject to lead-paralysis
than perhaps any other workers in lead. The finger which first
touches the brush first suffers; and the potter, who has in the course
of his trade to dip his ware in a preparation of lead and flints in
order to form the glaze, is in like manner, but still more severely,
afflicted. It is well ascertained, however, that the constitutional
effects which show themselves in obstinate constipation and cholic,
arise from the reception of the lead directly into the mouth, either in
the shape of finely-divided particles, or floating in the air, or direct
from the fingers to the manipulators: thus, painters will eat their
food with fingers soiled with the brush. The mere exhalations of
paint are sufficient to paralyze some constitutions very speedily; a
single night spent in a newly-painted house is sufficient to produce
cholic, especially in young children. And Dr. Watson, in his “Practice
of Physic,” relates a case in which a person suffered from dropped
hands who had, she said, no concern with lead in any way: on cross-
examining her, however, it at last came out that her sons “had in the
preceding summer occupied their leisure time with making birdcages
and painting them green in the one room in which she habitually
lived.” The dippers, as they are termed in the potteries, are perhaps
subjected to more frightful effects from lead-poisoning than any
other workmen: in addition to paralysis and cholic, the subtle poison
sometimes creeps into the brain, mania comes on, and they die
raving mad. The grinding and packing of white lead is so destructive,
that the men can work at the occupation for a few hours in the day
only; the dust that is given off penetrates the clothes, and covers
the skin to such an extent that these artisans, after taking a
medicated bath of sulphuret of potassium in water, come out like
blackamoors.
In these works rats and mice are speedily poisoned by the fine
white-lead dust, which penetrates even to their holes. The artisan
who handles lead in its various combinations may, however, vastly
mitigate his trouble by adopting perfect cleanliness. Before every
meal he should wash his hands thoroughly, and after work he should
change his clothes. Medical science has given him the means of
being forewarned that lead is entering his system by a particular and
rarely-failing diagnostic sign: where the metal has entered the
system a blue line will be discovered near the edge of the gums;
when this blue Peter is hoisted he may know that danger is at hand,
and that, unless he is more careful, his bread-earning hand will
speedily drop powerless by his side. In all cases, however,
prevention is better than cure; and we are glad to learn that almost
perfect exemption from painter’s cholic and paralysis has been
secured in some extensive painting establishments, by causing
artisans to drink a lemonade made by adding a drop of sulphuric
acid to a gallon of water. The sulphuric acid is supposed to form,
with the lead received into the mouth and stomach, a sulphuret of
that metal, which is insoluble, and, therefore, cannot be taken up by
the absorbents into the system.
There are many important classes of workers whose sufferings have
nothing either curious or dramatic about them, who nevertheless
furnish the largest contingent to the army of death. At the head of
these dismal companies march tailors, bakers, and milliners of large
cities and towns. These three classes supply more victims to what
has been erroneously termed “the English death,” or consumption,
than any other. Yet there can be no doubt that there is but one
condition wanting to render these employments comparatively
speaking healthy, and that one want is pure air. Dr. Arnot makes the
monkeys in the Zoological Garden teach us a lesson in this particular
which should not be lost upon us. In his evidence before the Health
Commission he says:—
“A new house was built to receive the monkeys, and no expense was
spared which, in the opinion of those intrusted with the
management, could ensure to those natives of a warm climate all
attainable comfort and safety. Unhappily, however, it was believed
that the object would be best secured by making the new room
nearly what an English gentleman’s drawing-room is. For warming it,
two ordinary drawing-room grates were put in as close to the floor
as possible, and with low chimney openings, that the heated air in
the room should not escape by the chimneys, while the windows and
other openings in the walls above were made as close as possible.
Some additional warm air was admitted through the openings in the
floor, from hot-water pipes placed beneath it. For ventilation in cold
weather, openings were made in the skirting of the room below the
floor, with the erroneous idea that the carbonic acid produced in the
respiration of these animals, because heavier than the other air in
the room, would separate from this and escape below. When all this
was done, about sixty healthy monkeys, many of which had already
borne several winters in England, were put into the room. A month
afterwards more than fifty of them were dead, and the few
remaining ones were dying. This room, only open below, was as
truly an extinguisher to the living monkeys as an inverted coffee cup
held over and around the flame of a candle is an extinguisher of the
candle. Not only the warmth of the fires and the warm air that was
allowed to enter by the openings in the floor, but the hot breath and
all the impure exhalations from the bodies of the monkeys ascended,
first to the upper part of the room to be completely incorporated
with the atmosphere there, and by no possibility could escape
except as a part of that impure atmosphere, gradually passing away
by the chimneys and openings in the skirting. Therefore, from the
time the monkeys went into the room until they died, they could not
have had a single breath of fresh air.”
The post-mortem examination proved that these monkeys all died of
consumption; so that we have a practical proof that this dread
disease can be brought on at will. Now, what took place in the
monkey-house is taking place, in a milder form, in the hundreds of
workshops in which tailors and milliners work in this metropolis. In
the great majority of cases tailors work together in rooms by no
means proportioned to the number that occupies them. In many
cases they work knee to knee on the shop-board with the
thermometer ranging from 95 to 100 degrees, no ventilation
whatever being present, for when it is provided, the enfeebled
workers, fearing catarrhal complaints, stop them up. The result is,
an amount of consumption among them second only to that
prevalent among the grinders of Sheffield and bakers. The cross-
legged fashion in which he works in some measure assimilates him
to the collier. It has been suggested that instead of thus doubling
himself up for the whole time of his working life, he should work on
a board having a hole in it of the circumference of his body, with a
seat fixed for his support beneath. Such a contrivance would render
his position easy, and enable him to bring his work pretty close to his
eyes without his having to bend over it as he does at present. As the
tailor is principally employed on black and dark clothes, his eyes are
much strained, especially if he works by gas-light: hence he is
subject to great impairment of vision.
The baker is subjected to a still greater number of debilitating
influences as regards his health than the tailor. In all cases his place
of work is in a confined basement, where the oven and the gas
contrive to keep the temperature at a tropical point. There is
generally a privy close at hand, and the drains are not always in
good order; the air, already foul enough, has yet to be contaminated
with the floating flour-dust so irritating to the fine air-passages of
the lungs. In an atmosphere thus deliberately poisoned with the
elements of sickness, the journeyman baker is confined ordinarily
from seven o’clock at night until four the following morning, and
towards the end of the week he is engaged nearly two entire days in
succession. Is it surprising that their rate of sickness is dreadful—
greater than even that of the tailors? Dr. Guy tells us that no less
than thirty-one in the hundred spit blood, and that every other
journeyman of the low-priced bakers, who work under still worse
conditions, is subjected to this most dangerous disease. We feel
convinced that the public cannot be aware that they eat their daily
bread at the expense of the life-blood of the producers. Parliament
has refused to interfere in their behalf, but Lord Shaftesbury has
taken up their cause, and we believe that ere long the force of public
opinion will lead to the abolition of the nightwork, which is at the
bottom of the evil. At all events, those who wish to assist in the
emancipation of these slaves of civilization, will see with pleasure the
introduction of the aërated bread, which by the aid of machinery
manufactures the loaf in a much more cleanly method than by hand-
labour, and performs the whole process in less than an hour. The
introduction of machinery into this trade will at once cure the evils
complained of, which result in the majority of cases from the
confined establishments and insufficient means of the master-
bakers.
The milliners, especially of London, are nearly as unhealthy as the
tailors. The evidence given before the Select Committee of the
House of Lords in 1855, to inquire into the expediency of passing a
bill for the protection of needlewomen, certainly is appalling in the
tale it tells of the waste of youthful life. During the season of four
months, the shortest time these poor young creatures work is from
six in the morning until twelve at night, and when they are very hard
pressed for time they are obliged to take their meals standing. At
times of great pressure young girls have been worked four days and
nights consecutively; and Lord Ashley publicly made mention at the
meeting at Exeter Hall, July 11th, 1856, of a witness who had
worked without going to bed from four o’clock on Thursday
afternoon until half-past ten on Sunday night. Such toil as this in
close rooms reeking with human exhalations, and further
deteriorated by the excessive use of gas, is scarcely to be matched
in deadliness by any occupation engaged in even by the stronger
sex; and we are not surprised to hear that it is a frequent thing in
fashionable millinery establishments to find the workers faint from
sheer exhaustion; as the Queen’s physician emphatically says, “a
mode of life more completely calculated to destroy human health
could scarcely be contrived.” Mr. White Cooper, the Queen’s oculist,
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