“A century before the role of the sun in preventing rickets was established, a doctor testifying before a parliamentary commission investigating night work by children in the factories argued that sunlight was critical to children’s growth. He pointed out that the deformities common in the industrial towns were absent among Mexicans and Peruvians, who were continuously exposed to light. These concerns were brushed aside by Dr. Andrew Ure, who wrote a lengthy defense of the factory system in his 1835 book The Philosophy of Manufactures, and who was certain that the brilliant coal-gas lighting of a cotton mill was more than adequate to meet the developmental needs of the young ‘factory inmates.’ ”
Daily eclectic excerpts by editor Richard Vague |Delanceyplace: Manchester, Children, and Sunlight
