Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/203

 certainly the annoyances, although still considerable, are much less so than in former times.

As there is no staple manufacture in Bristol, the occupations of the working classes are very various. There are, however, as might naturally be expected in a city of such magnitude, many extensive manufactories, which give employment to a large proportion of the population. The most numerous of the trades prosecuted upon a large scale, are those which depend upon the port; such are the building and fitting-up of vessels, rope-making, chain and anchor works, &c. From the connection of the place with the commerce of the West Indies, sugar-refining occupies a conspicuous place among our local manufactures. Glass-works are carried on to a great extent; so, likewise, are tanning, and the manufacture of soap, glue, parchment and floor-cloth. There are no employments here which exert a specifically injurious influence upon the constitution excepting the preparation of white lead and flax dressing. In some of the occupations which we have mentioned, such as glass blowing, iron-working, sugar-baking, &c. there is, of course, a frequent risk of contracting those disorders which result from exposure to alternations of temperature, but it does not appear that the operatives in these trades are shorter lived than others. It would be out of place to dwell here upon the agency of these employments, in a medical point of view, since they are not so prevalent in, or peculiar to, Bristol, as to hold any prominent place in relation to its healthy or morbid character. Each of them must, of course, contribute to the aggregate of disease, but cannot be considered