No. 259. — Mr. Atkinson, Surgeon.

Twenty-five years of age. Has been here 2 years. Was an assistant at South Shields. Pitmen have more sickness here perhaps than at many other collieries, the situation being low, near the river and in the smoke of iron-works and coke-ovens. In general pitmen and their children, i.e., their working boys, recover more quickly from serious accidents than other classes of labourers. The men about here in Thompson's iron-works being but lately employed [the works having been established about 5 years] no medical inferences can be drawn from their physical condition. Generally speaking they are a healthy and respectable set of men. Those employed in the steam engine manufactory are not so hardy, healthy, or respect able in moral conduct as in external appearance. At Newburn, cholera was more fatal than in any other place in the North of England.