THE TELEGRAPH NERVES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 22, 21 October 1907, Page 10

THE TELEGRAPH NERVES.

'■ r —«——.■■' ; .. ■'.. Tho suicide of Miss Marion Gibbons, a young telegraphist employed at the LondoD General Post Office, has drawn attention tc tho nerve-shattering nature of the work in which she was engaged.' " •■■ ■ • An expert telegraphist employed at the General Post Office told an "Express , representative that there was always a 'large number of women on tho sick list owing to nervous breakdown. "The fear of making mistakes in catching the sounds which come from the little box placed close to the ear makes many womeji extremely nervous, and tho' mb'riotqrio'us !t'ick-tick ,;, lia's a"depressing effect on highly-strupg people. 'Tho women telegraphists' work very fairly divided, however. The forwarding of messages is a great relief after tho strain of re r ceiving." . I think, however, that the;work of the_ telephone operator" is far more'tirying tO'Wonien than that of the telegraph." The Postmaster-General's report for 1906 shows that out of a ' total of 195,432 Post Offico employees, there wore twelve casbs of suicide, of which one was a woman. There is nothing'in tho report to show to what branch or branches of the service the suicides belonged. There w'ero also ' six cases of "drowning," of which some were perhaps doubtful cases of suicide. Thirty-five deaths, of which two wore of women, were due to diseases of the nervous system. Diseases of the nervous system wero responsible for a far larger number of retirements from the service than any other single complaint, namely, 134 men and 32 women.