108
SEX IN INDUSTRY.
count them as rapidly as possible, and it will be found that not only is the manual movement exceedingly rapid, but that the mental concentration is most intense, monotonous, and unremitting ; while the result attained, even at the utmost endeavor, is not very great. It will hence be readily understood, that in the constant employ at this occupation there must of necessity be a most exhausting draft upon the mental and physical forces. Exactly such is found to be the case; and this pursuit, which, it will be seen, combines, to a degree that no other we have considered does, the several special influences of mental depression, concentration, alertness, continued exercise, and monotony, exercises its deleterious power upon the periodicity of its followers in the way and with the rapidity that we should expect.
Miss-, the lady longest in the employ
of the department, and in charge of the “ counting ” (over thirteen years), states that, —