1. Quoted by Charles Dickens to Rev. J Elder Canning, (1874) ‘On the Neglect of Infants in Large Towns’, National Association of the Promotion of Social Science, (NAPSS) (London), p. 723. Quoted in M. Hewitt, (1958) Wives and Mother’s in Victorian Industry (London: Rockliff), p. 99. Dickens however was not the only contemporary to think that mothers’ factory work had a negative impact on infant health. See also W. Dodd, (1842, 1968) The Factory System Illustrated; In A Series Of Letters To The Right Hon. Lord Ashley (London: John Murray; reprint London: Cass), p. 29; W.S. Jevons, W.T. Charley, Mr. Ernest Hart, Mr. George Hastings and Mr Hereford, were also severe critics of mothers’ factory work, see W.S. Jevons, (1882) ‘Married Women in Factories’, Contemporary Review, January, pp. 37–53 This argument persisted through to the Twentieth Century; see G. Newman, quoted in R. Woods, (2006) ‘Newman’s Infant Mortality as an Agenda for Research’, in E. Garrett, C. Galley, N. Shelton and R. Woods, (2006) (eds.) Infant Mortality: A Continuing Social Problem (Aldershot: Ashgate), pp. 18–33. See also E. Garrett, (2006) (eds.) et al Infant Mortality, pp. 4, 10, 27, 33–49, (esp. p. 38) 186 and 191–212.
2. Quoted by Rev. J Elder Canning, (1874) ‘On the Neglect of Infants in Large Towns’, NAPSS, p. 723.
3. B.L. Hutchins, (1983) Women in Modern Industry (London: Bell and Sons), p. 71.
4. Domestic service was the principle form of employment for women during the nineteenth century. Its main employee was the single woman, but some married women were also known to perform it. See the works of Sir John Simon for the bad effects of factory work on the IMR. Sir John Simon, (1872) ‘Instructions to Vaccination Officers issued by the Local Government Board, 21st December 1871’, First Report of the Local Government Board PP 1872 XXV111, pp. 77–81; G. Newman, (1906) Infant Mortality, (London); J. Ikin, (1865) ‘Abstract on a Paper from the Undue Mortality of Infants’, (Leeds) and J. Clay (1854) ‘Burial Clubs and Infanticide in England; A Letter to W.M. Brown’ (Preston).
5. This is despite the nineteenth century having a plethora of women waged workers who went out of the home to earn a living. Female London costermongers walked the streets earning a pittance, Bel-Maiden mineworkers toiled in the Cornish mining industry as Pit Brow Lasses worked in the West Riding and Lancashire districts. Bookbinding and printing trades, cloth workers and tailoring trades, nail makers and small metal industries, were also to coax many women away from their homes. See. A. John, (1986) (ed.) Unequal Opportunities: Women’s Opportunities in England 1800–1918 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell)