XXXIX. QUARRIES…

XXXIX. QUARRIES

Introduction.--Man is essentially a builder, and Nature has prepared for him material in abundance and rich variety. Quarrying or stone-getting is an occupation of great antiquity. Its early records are evidenced in the relics of man’s labour in prehistoric days. Through all the ages human ingenuity and skill have been at work freeing the closely-fettered rocks and fashioning them for uprising.

A thorough investigation of our subject would make an acquaintance with geology and practical mechanics desirable, but in the present article it will only be possible to deal with the matter in its immediate relation to health, and its public importance will be evident when it is remembered that something like 94,000 individuals are engaged in connection with quarries in the British Isles alone.[141]

Definitions.--A quarry (L.O.F. quarrière, F. carrière, L.L. quadraria, quadratus) is an excavation, pit, or place from which stone or rock material is separated by digging, cutting, blasting, or similar processes.

For legal requirements a quarry is defined as: “A place in which persons work in getting slate, stone, coprolites, or other minerals, and any part of which is more than 20 feet deep.”[142]

It will be readily seen that the depth limit in the legal definition introduces a factor which goes far to lessen a proper application of the law, and it is desirable that such restriction should be abandoned.

Varieties of Quarries.--Quarries vary greatly in respect to their size, depth, and the nature of the material worked. In some instances the quarry is superficial in its extent, readily accessible and easily worked from the surface. In other cases the quarry is deep, can be reached only by shafts or ladders, and its working necessitates elaborate means for the elevation and removal of the materials when separated from the native rock. Of the stones quarried for building purposes we may distinguish: 1. Enduring stones, which are used for the major part of the structure; 2. Shaping stones, which are principally utilised for ornamentation.

Of quarried materials the uses may be exceedingly varied, chalk being worked for the making of lime, china-clay for the purpose of pottery, graphite for pencil manufacture, and so on.

Quarries are perhaps best classified according to the nature of the rock they yield. We can distinguish the following:--

Alabaster Basalt or Whinstone Brickearth Chalk Chert China-clay Clay Flint Freestone Graphite Gravel Gypsum Limestone Marl Porphyry Sand Sandstone Shale Serpentine Slate

Of each of the above class of quarry much might be said, would space allow, concerning: (a) geological character of the rock; (b) localities where the various forms of quarry are to be found; (c) uses of the quarried materials; (d) special methods of working employed in some of the quarries; and (e) particular dangers connected with certain forms of quarry. But for the purposes of this article it will be desirable to deal with the subject in its general aspects only.

Methods of Working.--In early days men were content to labour patiently with primitive methods and inadequate tools. The modern use of explosives, and the introduction of various mechanical contrivances, have, however, done much to accelerate the getting of stone: and such measures have led to accidents and conditions inimical to health.

The methods of quarrying and the operations immediately concerned therewith may be grouped under:--(a) Mechanical, or the application of various mechanical contrivances; (b) Blasting, or the use of explosives.

In spite, however, of the introduction of machinery and explosives, it would seem that the risk of accidents and exposure to conditions detrimental to health have not been very appreciably increased, although, of course, the process of quarrying has been greatly facilitated, and such works extended. In most quarries, both in this country and abroad, the wedge and hammer are still the chief agents employed in the getting of stone. For rocks in levels or distinct seams, as in the case of the millstone grit, probably the wedges afford the best methods. A procedure called the “plug and feather” method, and working on the principle of the incline plane, is sometimes employed.

According to an ancient procedure, after the hole was drilled, dry wood was inserted, and the expansion after moistening with water employed to split the rock. Another custom was to fill the bore-hole with quicklime and water.

Explosives are, however, extensively employed, and their use proves fruitful as a source of accidents. In many quarries with stone in flat layers, after boring the holes by hand, or the aid of machinery, only sufficient explosive is used to split but not to break or shatter the rock, its further separation being accomplished by wedge and hammer.

Blasting is commonly used for all rocks not found in seams, and hence explosives are largely employed in granite and marble quarries. In slate quarries also, especially in Wales, blasting would seem to be the favourite method.

Among the more important explosives used in quarry work are the following:--

Blasting gelatine Dynamite Fulminate of mercury Gelatine dynamite Gelignite Gunpowder Roburite Tonite

Pathology.--The quarryman, from the nature of his work and the circumstances under which it has to be carried on, is necessarily exposed to influences which may (1) excite or (2) predispose to morbid conditions, and in not a few cases it is difficult, if not impossible, to sharply distinguish between them.

The pathological lesions resulting from the action of the causal agents may be best considered under the customary headings of (1) Accidents, and (2) Disease.

Etiology.--The exciting agents may be classified according to their nature into:--(1) Mechanical; (2) Thermal; (3) Chemical; (4) Electrical; (5) Biological.

The predisposing agents act by (1) influencing the condition of the individual, and (2) by modifying the character of his environment. Without entering into details we may simply enumerate such points as heredity, sex, period of life, constitution, temperament and previous disease, as modifying the health tendencies of the individual; while climate, social standing, education, form of occupation, and habits are all influential in modifying the environment.

Of accidents occurring in connection with quarries, a study of the published returns will show that these may be best considered as to whether they arise (1) inside, or (2) outside the quarry proper.

Quarry accidents may thus be grouped:--

1. Those which occur inside the quarries--

(1) From falls of ground and detachment of rock. Such may occur (a) from beyond, or (b) at the person’s own working place.

(2) By blasting. Accidents are here particularly liable to occur (a) while charging or tamping, (b) from stones projected by shots, (c) from miss-fires.

(3) During descent or ascent to a deep-seated quarry, accidents may arise from (a) falling from paths, steps, or ladders, while climbing; or even (b) when ascending or descending by machinery.

(4) Accidents may also arise from a miscellaneous group of causes, such, for instance, as--

The breaking of ropes or chains, the mismanagement of machinery, boiler explosions; in connection with inclined and engine planes, railways, tramways, or sidings, from falling from ledges, or by injury with the ordinary quarry implements.

2. Those which occur outside the quarries--

The chief of these arise in connection with machinery, from the use of hot liquid or molten metal, by boiler explosions, from the escape of gas, steam, or metal, on inclined and engine planes, railways, tramways, or sidings.

It will thus be seen that the accidents arise chiefly from mechanical agencies, or from the misuse of explosives. Thermal causes lead to burns and scalds. As electricity comes into more general use, injuries from this agent are likely to be met with.

The dangers from mechanical conditions depend upon: (1) the situation and material of the quarries; (2) the implements and machinery used.

Dangers in connection with the use of explosives arise: (1) while conveying explosives; (2) during the thawing of explosives; (3) from changing or stemming holes; (4) allowing access of sparks from lamp or candle; (5) by the use of iron or steel tools, or by using wooden, brass, or copper tools; (6) premature explosions are liable to arise from the use of squibs or straws, and sometimes from the so-called safety fuse; (7) delayed explosions; (8) unramming shots; (9) blows from stones projected by shots.

Exceptional accidents may also arise, as, for instance, where an acetylene gas apparatus used in the quarry work suddenly exploded.

The nature and extent of the injuries met with in quarrying vary greatly. Burns and scalds may occur from contact with the boilers and steam appliances used in many large quarries. Contusions of greater or less severity are necessarily common. Crushes may arise from falling rock or entanglement in machinery. Dislocation of joints sometimes occurs from falls or similar accidents. Eye injuries are somewhat common from granite chips or particles of steel, and they also occur where dressing of stone is carried out at the quarries. Fractures arise from falls and the giving of the ground. Lacerations, superficial or deep, and involving skin and muscular structures, arise not only in connection with the actual quarrying, but in the use of the machinery which is now so frequent in large quarries. Sprains are not uncommon in connection with falls and the like. Wounds may arise from various circumstances, and may be of any degree of severity.

Diseases.--After having made extensive inquiries with a view to ascertain the extent of actual disease which may be fairly considered as incidental to quarrying, we are drawn to the conclusion that such work, generally speaking, is not necessarily detrimental to health.

The medical officers and managers of most of the large quarries from whom we have sought information are decisive in considering quarrying, as usually carried out in this country, a fairly healthy occupation.

Of course quarry-workers are liable to many of the ailments to which all labourers are more or less prone, and their habits and social customs are not always such as to maintain a high degree of physical vigour.

Unfortunately, in many parts the quarrymen are thriftless and drunken. Their homes also are often ill-built and ill-kept. A neglect of habits of cleanliness is, in many instances, only too apparent. In some parts of the country the quarrymen are of poor physique, which arises, according to local opinion, from too early marriage, intermarriage, excessive tea-drinking, and poor diet.

We find that in some rather isolated districts, for instance in Cornwall, there is considerable intermarriage among the workers, and some believe that this affords a factor of importance in connection with the development of phthisis.

That quarrying is by no means a dangerous employment to health is evidenced by the fact that in many quarry districts old men abound, many of whom work until over eighty years of age.

We have made particular inquiries regarding workers in limestone, but even those who are engaged as burners and dressers of the lime seem to experience no detriment to health, many having worked all their lives without complaint. Indeed, we learn that at one justly celebrated lime-works, delicate lads have been sent to work at drawing lime, and have materially improved in their general health. The fact that quarrying is necessarily carried on out-of-doors of itself makes for physical vigour.

Even where dressing is carried out in the immediate vicinity of the quarry, the sheds are frequently of such a character as to allow of free natural ventilation, and the ready carrying away of dust almost as quickly as it is formed. In many places the cutting is done quite in the open and with no protection whatever.

Brief reference may be made to some of the more important pathological conditions which, arising in quarry-workers, may be considered as ætiologically associated with the nature of their labour.

Affections of the Respiratory Organs.--Lesions in connection with the lungs and air-passages have long and rightly been considered the more particular accompaniment of work associated with the production of dust. But in most forms of quarrying the amount of dust and its means of access to the respiratory tract must be considered so limited that serious pulmonary disease is quite the exception.

Where, however, in connection with quarry-works there is also extensive dressing of soft material like sandstone, or the preparation of material giving rise to such irritating particles as granite, changes in the bronchi and lungs are liable to occur. The bronchi then become the seat of an excessive formation of mucus, and it may be that a catarrhal process is established which may progress to a chronic bronchitis, to which will sooner or later be added the usually associated conditions.

The lungs may absorb more or less of the dust particles which, becoming deposited in the inter-alveolar and sub-pleural lymphatics, or arrested in the bronchial glands, give a greater or less degree of pigmentation to the lung (pneumoconiosis). Should, however, as is very likely, the particles of stone-dust produce marked irritation, the reaction of the tissues will lead to the formation of fibrous tissue which may not only lessen the function of the lungs as blood-aërating organs, but predispose them to the invasion of the tubercle bacillus.

Quarry workers would appear to be but little predisposed to tuberculosis, and doubtless the outdoor character of the work greatly militates against the liability to infection.

Cardio-Vascular Disease.--The laborious and oftentimes straining character of the work seems to be influential, at least to some extent, in initiating and perpetuating states of arterial degeneration, leading to or associated with cardiac enfeeblement. It is very doubtful, however, if atheroma and cardiac involvement occur more frequently in quarrymen than in the sedentary and intellectual workers of the present day, in whom cardio-vascular regressive changes are only too common.

Indeed, even when cardiac and arterial degeneration is met with in quarry workers there seems reason to believe that it is more often due to alcoholic indulgence and other irregular habits than to the nature and character of the work.

Cutaneous Lesions.--The skin frequently shows evidence of exposure to wind and weather and scars from the war with rocks.

Digestive Disturbances.--The lack of suitable food, irrational indulgence in tea, or excessive use of alcohol, not infrequently leads to digestive derangements.

We learn that in consequence of dietetic ignorance in some of the Welsh quarries, constipation, dyspepsia, hæmorrhoids and hepatic disorders are common.

Ear Affections.--It might be thought that the constant vibration from the use of the hammer and the employment of explosives might prove detrimental to hearing, but such seems not to be the case.

Eye Affections.--Injuries to the eyes have already been referred to and are often serious, but inflammatory or other morbid processes in the eye are not of frequent occurrence. The action of the sunlight on some of the light coloured and strongly reflecting rocks may occasionally produce conjunctivitis, but, generally speaking, the powers of vision of the quarryman would not seem to be inferior to that of the ordinary labourer.

Osteo-arthritis, whatever may be the nature of its pathology, certainly affects some of the quarrymen, especially when getting into advanced life, but they are apparently not more liable than other labourers. Rheumatism, more particularly in its so-called chronic and muscular forms, may affect quarrymen, and is generally credited as arising from exposure to damp and cold, which of necessity during a considerable part of the year forms the daily portion of most quarrymen in this country. Dupuytren’s contraction of the palmar fascia and contiguous structures may also be met with.

Septic Infection.--Considering the frequency of injuries and the unsatisfactory methods of treating the same, it is surprising that more cases of serious septic infection do not occur.

Tetanus.--A quarryman, just like any other labourer, occasionally contracts tetanus, but infection is quite exceptional.

Legal Provisions.--Very rightly the working of quarries is under strict supervision and controlled by legal enactments.

The chief Acts directing their management are:--

1. Quarries Act, 1894.

This empowers the application to quarries of certain provisions of the Metalliferous Mines Regulations Acts, 1872 and 1875, and the Metalliferous Mines (Isle of Man) Act, 1891, and arranges that the Inspectors under the Metalliferous Mines Regulations Acts, 1872 and 1875, shall be Inspectors of the Quarries under this Act. This Act applies to all quarries 20 feet or more in depth.

2. Metalliferous Mines Regulations Acts, 1872, 1875, 35 and 36 Vict., cap. 77, 38 and 39 Vict., cap. 39; and Metalliferous Mines Regulations Acts (Isle of Man Act) 1891, 54 and 55 Vict., cap. 47, make certain provisions which also apply to quarries.

3. The Factory and Workshop Acts, 1878 and 1891. These Acts apply also to quarries, and there have also been introduced certain modifications in the working of the same. Since 1898 brick and other works in connection with quarries have come under the jurisdiction of Inspectors of Factories. This explains why of recent years the number of individuals returned as engaged in work outside the actual pit, hole, or excavation has often been less than formerly.

4. Quarry (Fencing) Act, 1887. This provides that where any quarry dangerous to the public is in open or unenclosed land within fifty yards of a highway or place of public resort dedicated to the public, and is not separated therefrom by a secure and sufficient fence, it shall be kept reasonably fenced for the prevention of accident, and unless so kept shall be deemed to be a nuisance liable to be dealt with summarily in manner provided by the Public Health Act, 1875.

Actual getting of clay in case of brickworks is under the Inspector of Quarries, but in the making of clay-ware under the Factory and Workshop Act, the local Inspector of Factories exercises supervision.

Where washing and dressing of quarried material takes place adjacent to the quarry, the Inspector of Quarries acts as a Factory and Workshop Inspector under the Factory and Workshop Acts.

It may be well to point out that there is much need that the legal definition of a quarry should be amended by abandoning the depth limit.

It is also well to state that even in the case of small quarries, where only one or two men may be employed, and the stone removed only for such purposes as road repair, the place is nevertheless a quarry, and legal enactments must apply. Explosives may be employed only in accordance with the Explosives Act.

In many indirect ways legislative measures have of recent years accomplished much in lessening the dangers of quarrying. Thus the passing of the Workmen’s Compensation Act has led in many districts to much greater care and supervision being exercised. For instance, in some quarries it is now forbidden to bring alcoholic drinks into the quarries during working hours, although formerly it was no unusual thing to find a lad whose chief work was the fetching of beer for the workmen.

The Boiler Explosives Act will also, of course, apply to cases occurring in connection with quarry works.

The systematic examination of boilers is a measure likely to avail much in lessening the occurrence of boiler explosions.

The Employers’ Liability Act also applies to quarry proprietors.

With regard to further restrictions, it may be pointed out that the Quarry Fencing Act, which applies to quarries on unenclosed land within fifty yards of the highway might be well extended in its scope, so as to provide protection to the public from the only too common abandoned quarries.

It is also very necessary that those responsible for the conduct of a quarry should insist on the strict enforcement of rules. An abstract of the Quarries Act and Special Rules should be printed on enamelled iron and placed in a conspicuous position in the works. It is of particular importance that well understood signals be always used in connection with blasting.

Prophylaxis and Treatment.--Although quarrying as now conducted must be considered a comparatively safe and fairly healthy occupation, there yet remains much to be done to ensure the carrying on of such work with the minimum of risk and the maximum of efficiency.

Unless constant care is exercised and rigorous inspection carried out, the results of ignorance and neglect are soon made apparent.

1. Preventive Measures.--These may be considered as they are formulated and carried out by (a) the State, (b) the Employer, (c) the Workman.

(a) The State has recognised the risks and dangers incidental to quarrying, and legislation has to a great extent limited the dangers arising from neglect and ignorance. The annual publications of the Reports of the Inspectors and the occasional prosecution of law-neglecting proprietors give evidence that the enforcement of the law is in many districts satisfactory, but it may be freely admitted that further measures of control and increased activity in surveyance would do much to lessen the accidents still only too common in quarries.

(b) The workmen should be well housed and offered inducements to live rationally and act hygienically. Where possible, baths should be available. Education in the elements of hygiene should be encouraged.

(c) The workman can do much to maintain and retain his own health. His clothing should be suitable to the form of his work and the nature of the climate. His diet should be nutritious and appropriate to the laborious character of his work. Suitable recreation should be afforded, and temperance and thrift practised. Steps to provide against accidents, sickness, strikes, and old age will be taken by a thrifty and thoughtful workman.

A wise workman realises that his best protection lies in his own intelligence and experience, and no rules or superintendence can relieve him of his own personal responsibility.

2. Treatment of Accidents and Ailments occurring in Quarries.--The workmen engaged in quarries should be trained in the methods of rendering “first aid” in cases of accident and illness, and dressings, bandages, splints, and suitable appliances should always be available.

In most large quarries a medical officer exercises a certain amount of general inspection as regards hygiene measures, often holds ambulance classes, and attends in case of accident or sudden illness.

JOHN BROWN. T. N. KELYNACK.

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XL. THE CHEMICAL TRADES

Introductory Remarks.--Under the title of the chemical trades a very large number of industries must be included which vary widely in the conditions under which the manufacturing operations are carried on. Nor must sight be lost of the great variety of chemicals used in the arts. For instance, in the department of pure chemicals and drugs for medical purposes, we find manufacturers who are engaged in producing small quantities of these substances, with the greatest precautions for cleanliness and care in the details of manufacture. These articles may be manufactured in small vessels by the pound weight at a time. At the other end of the industry we find the manufacture of such chemicals as are used in very large quantities carried on by tons. The whole conditions of such a manufacturing process are necessarily quite different, and we find laboratory fittings replaced by enormous machinery and great furnaces working under open sheds and turning out large quantities of material. It is therefore impossible to deal adequately with an industry of this description, or to give anything approaching a complete survey of the different conditions of employment found in it.

Furthermore, we have allied to the chemical trade others closely resembling it. It is, for instance, a mere arbitrary distinction to separate the manufacture of pigments from that of chemicals, as many of the pigments used at the present day are made by means of chemical processes carried on under similar conditions, and the workmen engaged in these are exposed to similar risks and dangers. The white lead industry, for example, is merely a process of chemical manufacture, although for convenience it is regarded as an industry by itself. There are other industries in which the danger to health in using certain chemicals is even more serious than it is to those actually engaged in their manufacture. For instance, it seems to be far more dangerous to dip match heads in the composition containing small quantities of phosphorus than it is to manufacture phosphorus itself, and many cases occur where lead poisoning results from the use of chemicals containing lead. The greatest danger seems to be for those who are continuously engaged in handling these substances in small quantities rather than for those who deal with the manufacture in bulk. It is evident, then, that as a matter of convenient classification we must strictly limit the meaning of the words “chemical trades.”

Dealing purely with the manufacture of chemicals themselves, we may, I think, lay down this general principle, that there is not necessarily any danger to the workman in manufacturing the most poisonous substances, if reasonable precautions are taken. Most chemicals are made by a wet process, and are crystallised or precipitated from the solutions, and therefore the danger from the inhaling of poisonous dust is not present. If deleterious gases are evolved, suitable arrangements can be made for preventing them escaping into the laboratory: moreover, we find that firms engaged in the manufacture of fine chemicals usually prepare a great variety of substances, so that the workmen are not always engaged upon the same process, and the risk of accumulated poisoning is diminished.

The experience of scientific chemists in their own laboratories goes to show that for many years experiments may be carried on with the most dangerous substances, including gases of a poisonous nature, and that they may work day after day in an atmosphere frequently loaded with the fumes of strong acids and other substances, and yet not suffer any serious damage. In the manufacture of miscellaneous chemicals and drugs conducted on a comparatively small scale, there is no reason, I believe, to look for any serious difficulty in making the work perfectly healthy. Good ventilation and obvious precautions are all that are really necessary. But when we come to consider the manufacture of certain chemicals in very large quantities, then we find conditions which make it very difficult to protect the workmen from injurious consequences. The heaviest part of the chemical trade is that devoted to the manufacture of hydrochloric and sulphuric acids, carbonate of soda, caustic soda, and bleaching powder. These chemicals are usually made in one establishment, as part of one process, or in establishments closely allied to each other, and we shall find that there are three distinct methods of producing some, at any rate, of these chemicals.

The Le Blanc Process.--To deal first with the process by which all these substances can be manufactured, and which is the oldest and still the most important, we shall consider in some detail the manufacture known as the Le Blanc process, which is carried on in this country by the United Alkali Company and others. We shall find that the manufacturing processes necessitate the workman being exposed to the weather in open sheds, and that he is carrying on operations involving considerable bodily exertion before furnaces, and is exposed to various deleterious gases. Probably the fact that his work is carried on in open sheds, while making him more liable to sudden chills after working before the furnaces, is, on the whole, beneficial, as he is supplied in this way with fresh air. In fact it would be impossible to carry on many of the operations under any other conditions. As has been shown by statistics, the agricultural labourer, in spite of his exposure to inclement weather, has the longest life of any class of workmen. We may say, then, that the chemical worker, as his employment is practically an outdoor one, has this much to the good; but we cannot compare the air which he breathes in the chemical works with that which is breathed on the country farm.

The processes of Le Blanc manufacture are as follows: The first is the production of sulphate of soda or salt cake. This is produced by acting upon common salt with sulphuric acid or oil of vitriol. We shall have to consider the conditions of the manufacture of sulphuric acid itself, but it will be simpler in the meantime to assume that we have sulphuric acid supplied to us. Its manufacture is usually carried on in the same works in which the salt cake is made. The sulphuric acid and salt are heated on the bed of a furnace, and are raked and moved about by the man in charge, until the decomposition of the salt is complete, and it has been converted into sulphate of soda. During this process torrents of hydrochloric acid gas are set free from the mass, and are drawn away from the furnace by means of a Root’s blower or some similar contrivance.

The hydrochloric acid gas has a suffocating and irritating effect when breathed, and if present in any considerable quantities in the air, makes it quite impossible for any one to stand the suffocation and irritation produced. Even in smaller quantities the irritation of the air-passages is so great that it must in course of time prove injurious to the workmen. If we could obtain an ideal system, there seems to be no reason why workmen should be exposed at all to this irritating gas. The furnaces are, of course, arched in, and the gas is drawn off as it is generated. The main danger of exposure to the gas comes when the workman rakes the salt cake from the furnace into barrows, for removal to the next operation. Here a considerable improvement has been made of late years. The salt cake is raked into an iron box, which is connected to the furnace draught, so that the gases are drawn away while the salt cake cools, and the box is not removed from this position until by this means most of the fumes of acid have been given off.

Notwithstanding these improvements, hydrochloric acid gas is found to be present more or less in the neighbourhood of these furnaces. The state of repair in the furnaces themselves, the condition of the weather, the amount of moisture in the air, the successful working of the acid towers, the rate at which the workman is trying to get out his material, and consequently not allowing it to cool properly in the iron box--all these conditions are present, and any of them may result in the presence of a certain amount of gas. It is only necessary to be in a town like St Helens on a moist evening to realise the fact that from these various chemical works large quantities of hydrochloric acid and other gases are evidently escaping.

In order to protect himself to a certain extent from the hydrochloric acid, the workman either wears a flannel muffler tied over his face, or he bites a piece of flannel between his teeth and breathes through it. The fumes of acid quickly cause the teeth to rot away, and it has been suggested that this biting of the flannel, which gets full of acid, is one of the main causes of the rotting of the teeth. I have no evidence, however, on this point. My impression is that the rotting away of the teeth will take place whether flannel is held between the teeth or is wrapped over the mouth. Besides being exposed more or less to hydrochloric acid gas, the man is also working before a furnace door, in an open shed, and his work is of a very heavy character, so that he usually wears a minimum of clothes and perspires freely. He is thus exposed to constant chills, and to the risk of developing some pulmonary disease.

The custom of the chemical trade is to divide all work of this character into shifts of twelve hours each, though as a matter of convenience the workmen sometimes arrange to take shifts of eleven and thirteen hours. During the twelve hours the workman is supposed to have sufficient time for his meals, but he does not leave his furnace; his food is brought to him, and he so arranges his work that he is able, to get his meal while waiting for the next operation to take place. His work at the furnace is not absolutely continuous. It would be impossible for any human being to carry on such heavy muscular labour continuously. He has to watch the materials, to stir them and rake them about at the proper intervals, and to remove the charge when completed, and to distribute a new charge in the furnace. But as the method of payment universally adopted in the chemical trade is by the quantity of material turned out, he is naturally anxious to turn out as much as possible, and he produces with considerable regularity the same quantity of stuff from day to day.

The amount of labour involved in this would be impossible to a muscular man who had not been trained to it. The mere exposure to heat would make it very difficult. But it must not be supposed, that because a man going to this work for the first time would find the labour and the heat involved quite intolerable that it is so to the salt cake worker. The extraordinary power of adaptation which we find in the human subject enables him to carry out these arduous operations with comparative ease, and so far does this adaptation go, that the men working beside him, whose business it is to wheel barrow loads of the weighed chemicals to the furnace door, can wheel barrows all day, but could not carry out the furnace operations; while the furnaceman, if put into the yard, where he has general labouring work to do, will be found at first very unfit for such toil, and will do the best he can to get back to his furnace work again.

Besides the long hours involved, the exposure to the heat of the furnaces tends to make such men heavy drinkers, and I think it is the universal experience in the chemical trade that such is the case. I believe that inquiry would show that the quantity of alcoholic liquor that one of these men can take, without any apparent injurious effects, is extraordinary. In the end these drinking habits tell, and the result is that the health of the workman rapidly breaks down.

We have then four conditions which are acting prejudicially--exposure to the fumes of an irritating gas, exposure to high temperature from the furnaces, exposure to cold and chills working in an open shed, and the tendency to drink heavily when away from work. I have described these conditions in considerable detail, because the work at the salt cake furnace is so similar to that carried on in many other operations in chemical works, that it may be taken as fairly typical. The men employed in this industry are very largely Irish labourers. If they are not of Irish extraction, they are principally country labourers from the surrounding districts. The comparatively high wages earned are, of course, a temptation. A man may change from salt cake to a black ash furnace, but he is still engaged in similar operations. The work is of so peculiar a character, that a man who has once got adapted to it is not suited for other purposes. When no longer fit for so arduous a task, we may find him employed in odd jobs about the yard, acting as a night watchman, or performing some of the many miscellaneous jobs that require to be attended to in chemical works.

In the earlier inquiries into the effect on health of this and other processes in the chemical trade, very different opinions were expressed as to whether the operations which these men had to carry on, while undoubtedly of a disagreeable character, had really a serious effect upon their health. I shall not discuss this at the present stage, but I think it is proved, in spite of the difficulties, which I shall refer to later on, of obtaining definite statistics on this point, that the injury to health is of a definite and serious character. I shall also reserve for general discussion the question as to the long hours of labour, and how far that may be dealt with and improved.

The salt cake after it leaves the furnace is mixed with limestone and coal in a black ash furnace. After being heated and stirred in this furnace for a sufficient length of time, it is poured out in a molten condition, wheeled away to cool, is broken up, and the soda dissolved from it in the black ash vats. This operation of decomposing the salt cake used to be carried on in furnaces worked by hand. Such furnaces have practically disappeared, and with their disappearance a form of labour as arduous as the work of the salt cake man has also gone. Large revolving mechanical furnaces are now used for this operation, and although the labour of tending these furnaces is arduous, yet the conditions are very much improved upon those which prevailed in the old days. No fumes result in this operation, so that the workman is not exposed to deleterious gases.

After the soda has been dissolved it is subjected to various processes, according to the product which may be required. It may be converted into soda ash, into soda crystals, and into caustic soda. All these operations involve boiling, furnacing, and similar processes, but there is nothing to be said about them of special interest, except the final operation in the manufacture of caustic soda.

In order to make caustic soda, the liquors, after treatment with lime, are evaporated in large cast-iron cauldrons some 15 feet in diameter. As the liquor gets more and more concentrated, the temperature keeps rising, until finally the cauldron is full of red-hot caustic soda, which when it is finished is bailed into iron drums and there solidifies and is ready for sale. These great cauldrons of red-hot caustic are, of course, dangerous, as the substance will produce very serious injuries, if by any accident it gets out of the pot, while a drop of water will cause it to spurt, and other accidents may happen, causing similar spurting of this liquid. We find accordingly that burns are apt to happen in the caustic shop, although they are seldom of a serious character, and occasionally men have lost their lives from slipping and falling into the caustic pot.

Some of these cases were discussed in the inquiry which was made in 1893 into the chemical trades, and certain precautions were suggested for preventing such accidents in future, and were embodied in the special rules. The most important of these was taking care that the top of the pot should be at least 3 feet in height above the ground, and that the brickwork should slope to the top, and should have no ledges upon it where the workman could place his foot.

But while the manufacture of caustic may and does lead to accidents, there is nothing in the actual process of manufacture itself which seems to be injurious to the workman, beyond the exposure to heat and cold. The work of the caustic finisher is not nearly so continuous or so arduous as that of the furnaceman. He is usually highly paid, and requires to be a man of considerable skill, for the turning out of a white caustic of a high strength depends upon long experience, as well as great care in its manufacture.

The next process to be considered is the manufacture of bleaching powder from the hydrochloric acid which was given off during the operations in the salt cake furnace. In practice there are two ways of dealing with this substance, with the view to producing chlorine gas, from which bleaching powder is prepared. Either the hydrochloric acid is decomposed in large stone-covered vessels, known as stills, by means of manganese mud, the chlorine gas evolved being carried away through suitable pipes to the bleaching chambers; or the hydrochloric acid gas is passed direct from the salt cake furnace, and without condensation is mixed with proper proportions of air and steam; it is then decomposed by being brought into contact with specially prepared material, and the chlorine gas liberated. The first process is known as the Weldon process, and chlorine gas produced by decomposition of hydrochloric acid and manganese mud is known as Weldon gas. The second process is known as the Deacon’s process, and the gas is called Deacon gas.

I have mentioned both these processes because the method of preparing chlorine makes a considerable difference in the way in which bleach is prepared from gas. In order to prepare bleaching powder we must expose freshly slaked lime to the gas. The lime will then absorb the chlorine gas, forming a compound known as bleaching powder, from which chlorine can be very readily evolved, mere exposure to air and carbonic acid gas being sufficient to cause a slight decomposition to go on.

It is a matter of great importance to the manufacturer to get as high a percentage of available chlorine into every ton of bleaching powder that he sells as he can, as the buyer of bleaching powder naturally objects to paying carriage on a weak article.

As bleach is always slightly decomposing and losing in strength, it becomes specially important for export purposes, where it may be exposed to long voyages, to make it as strong as possible before it is sent away. We have then the production of an unstable compound, which can only be prepared at full strength, say 38 per cent., by taking great care in the conditions of manufacture, a compound which is always slightly decomposing, and which, if the conditions of manufacture are only slightly altered, will possibly lose rather than gain in strength in the final stages of its manufacture. For example, in order to be able to meet the competition from the Continent and America, it is necessary to turn out this product at as high a percentage of strength as possible. The bleach below 35 per cent. in strength is not saleable, except at a very reduced price, while bleach of 38 per cent. strength is considered to be of the highest quality. It is a matter of the utmost importance to the manufacturer to obtain this 2 or 3 per cent. of strength. Many of those who have discussed the manufacture of bleach, and have talked of improved mechanical processes, have not realised how difficult and delicate a business the production of bleach of full strength really is. These facts should be kept in mind when the chemical manufacturer is condemned for what is called his crude and old-fashioned methods of making this article.

If we are going to make bleach from Weldon gas, we are dealing with gas which contains a very high percentage of pure chlorine, and, consequently, the conditions for successful manufacture are quite different from those prevailing in the case of Deacon gas, in which we have only some 7 per cent. of chlorine present. The manufacture of bleach from Weldon gas is carried on to-day as it has always been, by spreading lime over the floors of chambers, which are at the present time usually made of lead, and passing the gas into these chambers, and allowing it to be absorbed by the lime. These lead chambers are of varying size, but are usually about 100 feet long, 30 feet broad, and about 6 feet high. The lime is spread over the floor, and is made up into ridges by means of a wooden rake. The doors are closed and the chlorine gas is allowed to enter. The absorption process is carried on for two or three days. During that time the lime is taking up the chlorine gas, and forming the compound which we call bleaching powder. Samples are withdrawn from time to time, the supply of fresh gas is stopped, and the lime is allowed to continue absorbing the gas still remaining upon it in the chamber. When this operation has gone as far as it can, and the bleach has reached full strength, then the chamber is again connected to another chamber, containing fresh lime, and this second chamber is then connected to a pipe and subjected to a gentle suction so as to cause a slight current from chamber No. 1 to chamber No. 2. The doors of the first chamber are now slightly opened, so as to admit a little air, and the remaining chlorine gas is then gently drawn off into the chamber which is freshly limed, while air passes in and takes its place. The doors are then thrown wide open, and free admission of air is allowed. The chamber cools, and the greater part of the gas is removed; but complete removal of the gas is not practicable, as the powder itself is always slightly decomposing, and if left long enough on the chamber floor would soon cease to be saleable bleach.

The quantity of gas which may be left in the chamber when the bleach is packed has been laid down in the Act of Parliament dealing with injurious gases from chemical works, and the works’ chemist is expected to test the air in the chamber and enter the result in a book which is inspected from time to time by the Alkali Inspector. These inspectors are not appointed under the Factory Acts. Their function is to prevent the escape of injurious gases which may injure neighbouring property. It must be remembered, however, that the bleach is always decomposing, and in summer weather the decomposition of the bleach is going on very rapidly, and unless it is packed with great promptitude it will lose in strength, while, on the other hand, the fact of this decomposition going on makes the work of packing more disagreeable.

The method of packing is as follows:--The bleach packer wraps his face in roll upon roll of flannel, the flannel being drawn over his mouth and leaving the nostrils free. These layers of flannel stand out some three inches beyond his face, and have to be of just the right dampness to prevent the gas reaching his lungs. He then puts on leather goggles to protect his eyes, and ties a piece of paper round his trousers to keep the bleach from attacking them. He then enters the bleach chamber and rapidly shovels the powder through holes made in the floor. Under these holes are shoots down into the casks which are underneath the bleaching chamber, and a covering is attached to the shoot and tied round the sides of the cask, preventing the bleach from escaping as it goes down. In this way the bleach is packed.

This operation of bleach packing is the most disagreeable to which the man in charge of the bleach is subjected. The chlorine rises from the bleach as it is disturbed, and it would be impossible for any one to remain for a few seconds in a bleach chamber unless he was protected from breathing the gas in the way I have described. On the other hand, such wrappings make breathing very difficult. In fact a man who has not got accustomed to the bleach packer’s flannel would imagine that he was going to die of suffocation, and could not bear it round his face for more than a few seconds. While the bleach packer leaves his nostrils free, he is careful to breathe out from them, while he inhales through the flannels. He may stay from twenty to forty minutes inside the chamber, then come out and take fresh air, then put on his flannels and go back again, and in the course of a day he may thus do from two or three to five or six hours’ bleach packing. The bleach chambers come up to strength in succession, and when one of these is up to strength the product is packed as rapidly as possible, and the chamber prepared for another operation. A great part of the bleach packer’s time is spent in merely looking after his bleaching chambers, seeing that the lutes are tight, that the gas is passing properly into the chambers, and so on. His life consists of periodic leisure combined with the most arduous and exceptional form of toil.

The exact conditions vary in different works, but it is usually found that the bleach packer also prepares the chamber with lime, and he may also prepare the lime himself and sift it. In large works the duties of sifting and slacking the lime are performed by a special set of men. This preparation of the lime is also a very unpleasant process, as it involves working in clouds of lime, which settle on the body and clothes, and is inhaled in considerable quantities. The lime-dresser rubs his arms and face over with grease and has also to roll his face in a flannel, but does not require to put on anything like the number of layers which are necessary in the case of the bleach packer exposed to chlorine gas. In the case of the Deacon process, the arrangement is somewhat different. The lime is distributed on shelves, and is finally removed by being pushed from these shelves down suitable holes, by means of openings from the outside; so that the Deacon man does not go into the chamber, as he does in the case of Weldon gas.

Besides the exposure to the chlorine gas under the conditions of packing, it must be remembered that, in carrying on operations on a large scale with gas having the corrosive properties of chlorine, many little escapes of gas will take place, and that accidents from this source will be found to happen more frequently when the men, not expecting such an escape, are not, consequently, prepared for it, than from actual breathing of the gas during the process of packing.

It is unnecessary to describe the effects of chlorine when breathed. A person has himself to experience the peculiarly suffocating and irritating properties of this gas, in order to appreciate its qualities. But while the inconvenience and discomfort produced are very great, and may result in vomiting and irritation of the bronchial passages lasting for some days, yet the discomfort is greater apparently than the permanent injury to health. Insensibility and death have been produced, but such results are rare. It often happens that workmen in chemical works get “gassed” accidentally, and consequently feel great irritation of their respiratory passages, and have a feeling of suffocation, followed by vomiting, but these symptoms are temporary in their duration, and do not appear to cause permanent injury. Any one who is familiar with chemical works has been gassed occasionally, and yet he has found no permanent harm come from it.

But when we come to the question as to whether the continuous exposure to this gas, combined with work under the peculiar conditions necessary in the case of the bleach packers, does not ultimately undermine the health of the workers, we approach a more difficult problem. These men are necessarily men of great physical strength and in the prime of life, and they like the trade because of the very high wages paid; but it is difficult to trace the ultimate history of such men, and decide how far the death-rate among men who are picked for their health, strength, and age would give any real information as to the injurious nature of the employment. Here again, as in the case of the furnace man, the temptation to excessive drinking is very great. The bleach packer is more highly paid, and as he has a good deal of responsibility resting upon him in the manufacture of this difficult article, he is a superior man, just as the caustic finisher is a better man than he who works at a furnace door. Many of them are in the local football teams, and I think we may take it that, at any rate for a considerable number of years, working in chlorine does not produce any very obvious bad effects.

Naturally when people first come across this industry, they remark upon the crude methods by which this manufacture is carried on, and they say at once: “Why is not some arrangement invented for the mechanical production of bleach? How easy it would be to put in lime at the one end, and carry it by means of suitable belting out at the other end, and pass the chlorine gas continually over it, and so avoid these unhealthy processes.” And the chemical manufacturer has been denounced for his inhumanity in not adopting some such plan. The question of humanity, or inhumanity, does not enter into the matter. A successful mechanical mode of making bleach would save so much expenditure in labour, the men connected with bleach manufacture being highly paid, and would save so much capital expenditure, that it would be at once adopted by chemical manufacturers. In the Home Office Report on the Chemical Trades, one piece of apparatus, known as the Hasenclever apparatus, is described, and an invention by another engineer. Hasenclever’s apparatus has been used, I believe, in Germany, and there is one works at any rate in St Helens where the apparatus has been tried. I have had no experience of its working, and consequently can say nothing about it, but the mechanical difficulties involved in the manufacture of bleaching powder are so great, that there is no indication at the present time of mechanical methods being adopted. In the case of the Deacon process, shelves are being used, and the latest plant put up by the Alkali Company consists of shelves made of slate, upon which lime is to a certain extent distributed mechanically. In processes where strong gas like the Weldon gas is produced, the lead chamber is still in use, and in modern works where the latest electrolytic plant is being erected in this country, and of which I shall have something to say presently, large lead chambers on the same plan as those used for the Weldon gas are being built. Very little progress has, therefore, been made in the replacing of the old methods of bleach making by a mechanical process. The tendency seems to be in two directions. In the case of the Le Blanc manufacture, with which we have been dealing so far, the Deacon process is replacing the old Weldon process; but in the case of the new electrolytic methods of making bleach, which are probably going to be the methods of the future, the strong gas produced under these conditions is being poured into bleach chambers, built on the old lines.

There is another possible way of getting over the difficulty, and that is by the men wearing a helmet not unlike a diver’s apparatus. There are two difficulties here: one is the awkwardness for the workman wearing such an apparatus, and his dislike to being covered in it, while engaged in heavy toil. Another difficulty is in making the apparatus of such material that it will stand continuous exposure to chlorine gas. It is a common thing for people to say, why not use a helmet covered with gutta-percha, or some other material that will resist chlorine? This sounds very simple, but the material which will continuously resist the action of chlorine, and at the same time will enable us to construct a tight-fitting helmet, with its valves and apparatus, has yet to be discovered. The practical difficulties in the way of improving the conditions of bleach manufacture are very serious indeed, and I fear that no real solution of them has yet been found.

We have still to deal with two other products of manufacture which are made by the Le Blanc process before considering other methods of manufacturing soda and bleaching powder. One of these is sulphuric acid.

The manufacture of sulphuric acid is carried on in many works besides those for the manufacture of soda. Sulphuric acid is used in many processes of manufacture, and is so expensive to carry, that it is found more convenient to make the acid on the spot where it is wanted. The method most universally adopted for making the gas is to burn sulphur or sulphide of iron in specially constructed furnaces, so as to produce sulphur dioxide, with the smell of which we are all familiar. This is drawn into large lead chambers, where it is brought into contact with air, steam, and nitrous fumes. These fumes are produced by decomposing small quantities of sodium nitrate with sulphuric acid, the nitric acid gas and fumes being drawn into the sulphuric acid chambers. In these chambers a chemical reaction is set up which results in the production of sulphuric acid, while the nitrous fumes are regenerated by the action of the air, and are consequently used for the manufacture of a fresh quantity of acid. As it is necessary to cause a current of these gases to move through the chambers, we find at the end of the series of chambers air ladened with nitrous fumes passing away; the nitrous gases are therefore absorbed and are returned to the process again, so that we have in practice the burning of the sulphide of iron going on continuously, and the gases passing into the chambers at the bottom of which the sulphuric acid collects and is drawn off from time to time, while the addition of fresh nitrous fumes, by the decomposition of small quantities of nitrate of soda, is necessary, merely in order to supply the waste which takes place in what is theoretically a continuous process. The manufacture from sulphur dioxide is too new to be considered here.

The men working at the pyrites burners are exposed to heat and cold, and at the same time are exposed to a certain amount of sulphur dioxide, and to occasional nitrous fumes. These gases are, of course, irritating, and must tend to produce similar effects on the breathing apparatus to those found in the case of chlorine and hydrochloric acid. Here again an entirely perfect system would result in the men not having to breathe either sulphur dioxide or nitrous fumes, but under practical conditions of manufacture, such substances are apt to be more or less present on occasion. The work of a pyrites burner is not so arduous as that of a man employed in making salt cake.

The other product of manufacture, introduced in recent years, is that of sulphur. Returning for the moment to the preparation of soda, it will be remembered that at a certain stage black ash was produced, which was treated with water, and the soda it contained dissolved from it. After this operation, the black ash vats are left full of material, known as vat waste, which is principally sulphide of lime. In past years this material was thrown out as a waste product, so that in the neighbourhood of such towns as St Helens immense quantities of it have accumulated, forming great mounds. It is very unsightly, as no vegetation can grow upon it, and it is gradually decomposed by air and rain, with the result that the air and the streams become loaded with sulphuretted hydrogen--a most disagreeable gas--the rotten-egg smell of which is familiar to those who drink sulphur waters. For many years attempts were made to recover the sulphur from this substance, and we now find that the problem has been solved by that part of the Le Blanc manufacture known as Chance’s process.

The tank waste is mixed with a sufficiency of water, and placed in large closed vessels, through which carbonic acid gas is passed. The result is to decompose the tank waste, and give off sulphuretted hydrogen gas, while the carbonate of lime is precipitated. When the decomposition is complete, the sludge is run off from these vessels into a suitable settling pond, and the sulphuretted hydrogen gas, which has been produced, is burned, under certain conditions as to limitation of the quantity of air, with the result that water and sulphur are formed.

This process means the manufacture in enormous quantities of sulphuretted hydrogen, and this gas, as is well known, is very poisonous. Breathing the gas for a few minutes, even if diluted with a considerable quantity of air, results in coma, very often followed by death. The smell of the gas is also so disagreeable, that if only a very little escape, the whole neighbourhood is made intolerable, and therefore the process of manufacture is so carried on as to make the chance of gas escape as remote as possible. At the same time we find here again the difficulty of carrying on a large process with absolute perfection. Consequently, in such a district as St Helens we find that at night the air will, in the neighbourhood of a Chance’s plant, occasionally smell strongly of this gas. The best remedy for gassing with sulphuretted hydrogen seems to be the breathing of pure oxygen, and consequently a cylinder of compressed oxygen is kept at the works. On the other hand, I have not been able to obtain any evidence that the occasional exposure to small quantities of this gas has an injurious effect. People living in the neighbourhood of Chance’s plant are frequently breathing this gas, largely diluted with air, and while they seem at first to suffer in health, loss of appetite, and so on, they seem soon to adjust themselves to it, and not to suffer any permanent inconvenience. At the same time it is very difficult, unless we could have a large number of cases very carefully watched for many years, to tell how far the presence of this gas is deleterious to health in its ultimate effects.

Alkali Manufacture, other Methods.--We have now dealt with the main branches of alkali manufacture, as carried on by the Le Blanc process, and it remains to say something of the new processes which are being used in connection with this industry. Soda is very largely manufactured in England, and on the Continent, by means of the ammonia soda process. This process is carried on in closed vessels, the substance being in solution during the whole time, and we do not find the furnace introduced until the very last stage, when the soda ash has to be heated at a comparatively low temperature, so that there are no deleterious gases produced. There are no arduous furnace operations, and I have never heard any complaint made as to the conditions of the workmen in this industry. Messrs Brünner, Mond, & Co., the largest manufacturers in this country, introduced some years ago an eight hours’ day for their furnace-workers, and I believe that the result was very successful, but I shall deal with that matter later on.

The ammonia soda process, while giving us soda, does not produce bleaching powder, and consequently we have to adopt some other means of production--either by chlorine, as produced by the Le Blanc process, or by some other method of obtaining this gas. At the works of Messrs Brünner, Mond, & Co., I believe special processes are used by which chlorine is part of the manufacture, but I cannot go further into that particular matter.

One of the most important methods of producing both soda and chlorine, which is now coming to the front, is by means of the electrolysis of salt. An electric current is passed through a solution of salt, and the result is to decompose the salt directly into chlorine gas and caustic soda. The caustic soda can be concentrated, or converted into carbonate of soda, while the chlorine gas is led away and used for the making of bleach. This method of manufacture has been very successful on the Continent, and is also in use in this country, where large new works are being erected for the production of chlorine in this way. As in the case of most new industries, many different devices have been introduced for carrying on the process, some successful and some unsuccessful, but on the whole it continues to advance, and is likely ultimately to replace the Le Blanc process. By this method of manufacture we find all furnace operations are practically done away with; but, on the other hand, the chlorine gas has to be drawn from the decomposing house and converted into bleach, and we find here conditions prevailing which we have already described, and which show no indication of improvement. With the exception of the bleach packing, the conditions of labour, however, are enormously improved, and the more arduous duties of the chemical workers are absent.

We must not expect to see the Le Blanc process of manufacture entirely replaced by these new methods, and for this reason: the first stage of the manufacture consists of the preparation of salt cake as already described. This substance is used in very large quantities in glass manufactories and also in other industries. As long as there is a demand for salt cake, it will probably be prepared by the decomposition of salt with sulphuric acid. It is possible that in the future the Le Blanc process may stop at this stage, and that nothing but salt cake and hydrochloric acid will be manufactured; but salt cake in some way or other must be produced in enormous quantities quite apart from the other products resulting from the Le Blanc process.

The Chemical Worker.--The general conditions of the chemical worker are very much as I have described them, but how far they affect his health is a more difficult matter. The earlier inquiries into this question seem to have left the effect on health very doubtful. The statistics of the death-rate of such a town as St Helens are not of any value for a purpose of this kind. The town is inhabited very largely by glass workers, coal miners, and engineers, and the chemical workers form only a small proportion of the number of hands employed. I do not find on inquiry of the medical men in St Helens, that they have very definite views on this question. Where we have, for example, lead poisoning produced by an industry, it is very easy to trace back the cause of illness, but when we are dealing with a general undermining of health, it is much more difficult to give definite figures or definite facts as to the effects of an industry. Then the chemical worker changes; he leaves the trade and goes back to it; he moves from place to place. We also find that a very large number of men who work in chemical works are simply labourers employed in the yard, and are only exposed accidentally to the injurious gases produced, and then probably in a diluted form. The construction of the works has also an important effect. We may, for example, be trying to trace the effects on health of employment at the black ash or the salt cake furnace, and in the particular works examined, the bleach chambers might be built in such a position that when the wind is blowing in a certain direction, the chlorine gas is carried to the furnace and may seriously affect the health of the workmen, while in other works the chlorine might be blown in a different direction. The gas is so heavy that under

TYNE AND SCOTLAND DISTRICT.

Average Hours of Labour and Wages per Week.

+---------------+----------------+----------------+ | | Vitriol | Salt Cake, | | | Burner | Pot, and | |Name of Works. | | Men. | | +------+---------+------+---------+ | |Hours.| Wages. |Hours.| Wages. | +---------------+------+---------+------+---------+ |TYNE:-- | |s. d.| |s. d.| | | | | | | | Allhusen’s | 56 | 32 1 | 56 | 30 0 | | | | | | | | Hebburn | 56 | 33 10 | 70 | 34 6 | | Friar’s Goose| 56 | 31 6 | 71 | 33 0 | | St Bede | 56 | 31 6 | 70 | 32 6 | | | | | | | |SCOTLAND:-- | | | | | | St Rollox | 56 | 35 0 | 70 | 28 0 | | Eglington | 84 | 34 0 | 72 | 38 0 | | Irvine | 84 | 33 3 | 70 | 35 8 | +---------------+------+---------+------+---------+ | Averages | 64 | 33 0 | 68 | 33 1 | +---------------+------+---------+------+---------+

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2. of table

+---------------+--------------------------------------------------+ | | Alkali. | | |----------------+----------------+----------------+ | | Revolver | Vat | | |Name of Works. | Men. | Men. | Salting. | | +------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+ | |Hours.| Wages. |Hours.| Wages. |Hours.| Wages. | +---------------+------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+ |TYNE:-- | |s. d.| |s. d.| |s. d.| | | | | | | | | | Allhusen’s | 56 | 40 4 | 84 | 35 4 | | | | | | | | | | | | Hebburn | 71 | 36 0 | 54 | 32 0 | 70 | 32 6 | | Friar’s Goose| 70 | 37 0 | 58 | 44 0 | 70 | 28 0 | | St Bede | 72 | 41 7 | 72 | 27 0 | 72 | 24 0 | | | | | | | | | |SCOTLAND:-- | | | | | | | | St Rollox | 70 | 32 0 | 56 | 26 0 | 70 | 27 0 | | Eglington | | | | | | | | Irvine | 70 | 40 0 | 54 | 37 0 | | | +---------------+------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+ | Averages | 69 | 37 9 | 63 | 33 7 | 70 | 28 0 | +---------------+------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+

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3. of table

+---------------+---------------------------------+ | | Alkali. | | |----------------+----------------+ | | | Caustic | |Name of Works. | Carbonating. | Pots. | | +------+---------+------+---------+ | |Hours.| Wages. |Hours.| Wages. | +---------------+------+---------+------+---------+ |TYNE:-- | |s. d.| |s. d.| | | |{Firing. | 56 | 35 0 | | Allhusen’s | |{Finish- | | | | | |{ ing. | 84 | 63 8 | | Hebburn | 70 | 30 6 | | | | Friar’s Goose| 70 | 31 0 | | | | St Bede | 72 | 31 0 | | | | | | | | | |SCOTLAND:-- | | | | | | St Rollox | 70 | 25 6 | | | | Eglington | | | | | | Irvine | | | 72 | 52 0 | +---------------+------+---------+------+---------+ | Averages | 70 | 29 6 | 71 | 50 3 | +---------------+------+---------+------+---------+

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4. of table

+---------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | Bleach. | | |----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+ | | Weldon | Deacon | Lime | Still | |Name of Works. | Packers. | Packers. | Dressers. | Men. | | +------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+ | |Hours.| Wages. |Hours.| Wages. |Hours.| Wages. |Hours.| Wages. | +---------------+------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+ |TYNE:-- | |s. d.| |s. d.| |s. d.| |s. d.| | | | | | | | | | | | Allhusen’s | 42 | 60 0 | | | 42 | 59 9 | 56 | 35 0 | | | | | | | | | | | | Hebburn | 36 | 60 0 | | | 36 | 60 0 | 70 | 39 0 | | Friar’s Goose| 36 | 55 0 | | | 48 | 40 0 | 69 | 33 0 | | St Bede | 36 | 60 0 | | | 36 | 60 0 | 70 | 33 0 | | | | | | | | | | | |SCOTLAND:-- | | | | | | | | | | St Rollox | 48 | 34 0 | | | 54 | 33 0 | 75 | 27 0 | | Eglington | 36 | 55 0 | | | 48 | 52 0 | 72 | 46 0 | | Irvine | 36 | 47 0 | | | 36 | 47 0 | 70 | 47 0 | +---------------+------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+ | Averages | 39 | 53 0 | | | 43 | 50 3 | 69 | 37 0 | +---------------+------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+

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5. of table

+---------------+---------------------------------+----------------+ | | Sulphur. | | | |----------------+----------------+ Copper | | | Carbonator | Claus | Furnace | |Name of Works. | Men. | Kiln. | Men. | | +------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+ | |Hours.| Wages. |Hours.| Wages. |Hours.| Wages. | +---------------+------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+ |TYNE:-- | |s. d.| |s. d.| |s. d.| | | | | | | | | | Allhusen’s | 42 | 60 0 | | | 42 | 59 9 | | | | | | | | | | Hebburn | 36 | 60 0 | | | 36 | 60 0 | | Friar’s Goose| 36 | 55 0 | | | 48 | 40 0 | | St Bede | 36 | 60 0 | | | 36 | 60 0 | | | | | | | | | |SCOTLAND:-- | | | | | | | | St Rollox | 48 | 34 0 | | | 54 | 33 0 | | Eglington | 36 | 55 0 | | | 48 | 52 0 | | Irvine | 36 | 47 0 | | | 36 | 47 0 | +---------------+------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+ | Averages | 39 | 53 0 | | | 43 | 50 3 | +---------------+------+---------+------+---------+------+---------+

N.B.--The hours mentioned are the total hours the men are on duty, without deduction for meal times, etc. certain atmospheric conditions it will produce serious effects a long way from the point of escape. In fact the men working in the bleach chambers might be quite free of the gas while it was doing much damage elsewhere. Each works would, therefore, have to be considered by itself in studying health conditions, or very erroneous conclusions might be arrived at.

Hours of Work in Alkali Manufacture.--Before leaving this industry it will be of interest to give some figures supplied by the Alkali Union to the inquiry made in 1893 as to the hours of work of the different workmen employed. These figures may be taken as very carefully drawn up, and as representing very closely the conditions of labour which still prevail. Wages, of course, tend to vary, so that statistics on this point have to be constantly revised (see table on preceding page).

HOURS OF ATTENDANCE AND TIME SPENT IN ACTUAL WORK AT GLOBE WORKS.

Vitriol Process.

Average hours of attendance of the two shifts of men 84 per week Hours spent in actual labour (say) 30 „ The latter is arrived at in the following way, viz.:-- Dropping one burner or kiln 2 minutes Barring and charging one burner 4 „ -- 6 „ ==

30 burners are charged per 12 hours, or at the rate of 2½ per hour. 6 × 2½ = 15 minutes per hour. Time spent in potting 6 „ -- 21 „ × 12 = 4.2 hours per shift, or 29.4 per week.

Salt Cake Department.

Average hours of attendance 70 per week Potmen--Time spent in actual labour 52½ „ Arrived at as follows:-- Gathering up charge 6¾ minutes Shoving 23¼ „ Spreading 10 „ Charging pot 7¼ „ Wheeling out salt cake 19 „ Wheeling salt 19½ „ Working pot 14 „ Watching acid-heater filling 16 „ Clinkering fire 3¼ „ Firing 8 „ Throwing up cinders 2½ „ ------- 129½ „ =======

Or 2 hours 9½ minutes per charge × 3 = 8 hours 38 minutes per shift, or 51 hours 48 minutes per week.

Furnacemen--Time spent in actual labour 55 hours 18 minutes Arrived at as follows:-- Taking in one charge 23¼ minutes Spreading 10 „ Charging pot 7¼ „ Clinkering 3 „ Slicing 28¾ „ Wheeling out salt cake 19 „ Slicing, tooth-raking, and drawing 36½ „ Firing 8 „ Throwing up cinders 2½ „ ------- 138¼ „ =======

= 2 hours 18¼ minutes per charge × 4 = 9 hours 13 minutes per shift, or 55 hours 18 minutes per week.

Bleaching Powder Department.

Lime Dressers--Three men employed:-- Average hours of attendance 63 per week Time spent in actual labour (say) 30 „ Arrived at as follows:-- 2 men sieving 3½ hours each One man laying down lime, 2½ hours } One man slacking lime, 1 hour } 3½ „

All the men turning lime, 1 hour each, ∴ each man works 4½ hours, which × 6 = 27 hours per week (say, 30 hours).

It will be noted, after examining these figures, that the employment of men who are on duty a very large number of hours does not mean absolutely continuous work. The labour is, of course, of a very heavy character, and such continuous labour would be impracticable.

As has been already stated, Messrs Brünner Mond have introduced eight hours’ shifts for their furnace workmen, and I myself am responsible for trying an experiment of this character with hand-worked black ash furnaces. My experience was as follows: I found that each furnaceman in a twelve hours’ shift was able to turn out 15 black ash balls, and on an eight hours’ shift he was able to turn out from 11 to 12, so that in the course of the twenty-four hours the output of the furnace was increased from 30 to 36 balls. This increased output was not sufficient to enable the firm to pay quite the same wages. The black ash workman is paid by the balls that he turns out, and it is evident that in order to earn the same wage, the amount paid per black ash ball would have to be increased. We were able to so adjust matters that his earnings were reduced less than 2s. a week, while of course he had the advantage of additional leisure. This experiment was ultimately abandoned, because it was not appreciated, either by the foreman or by the black ash men themselves. They preferred to have a twelve hours’ shift, and produce their 15 balls with less strain, than to work harder for eight hours, to get out the twelve balls. The foreman objected that the greater leisure which the men had, made it more difficult to keep his gang of men sober, while I believe the wives also objected to the change of shift for the same reasons. These, of course, are merely temporary objections, which would disappear if any such reform was carried out on a large scale. Messrs Brünner Mond state that in their experience they found that the result of the change has not worked out at any loss to the firm, while the workmen are receiving the same wages.

It must be remembered, however, that there are many processes in the chemical works which cannot be hastened, and that the greater energy of the workman has no effect on the output of the process. This was pointed out by the Alkali Union at the time of the Home Office inquiry. In such cases it is evident that the shortening of hours must result in a definite loss to the manufacturer, and therefore it is not right to assume that, because in the special furnace operations carried on by Messrs Brünner Mond they are able to reduce the number of shifts without loss because of the greater output of their furnaces, therefore in the case of chemical processes of all kinds a similar gain would result from shorter hours. This point is sometimes lost sight of by those who discuss this question.

The Administration of the Alkali Act.--There is another matter to be considered in connection with the alkali manufacture and all chemical processes in which gases are produced which are injurious to health and to vegetation. These processes have been under the charge of a special set of inspectors appointed under the Alkali Act to prevent the escape of gas with the view to protecting the neighbouring districts from the injurious consequences that these gases may produce. Consequently the present alkali manufacturer finds himself under inspection from two different departments and from two different points of view. The Factory Inspector requires him to take certain precautions under the special rules issued by the Home Office for dangerous trades, while the Alkali Inspector also requires him to prevent the escape of gases. The Alkali Act had done a great deal to improve the condition of the workman in the chemical works, because the diminution of the escapes of gas injurious to his health has of course benefited him as well as those living in the neighbourhood.

The main defect, however, under this Act is to be found in the limited amount of inspection possible in spite of the zealousness of the inspectors. The districts they have to cover are so large, and the number of works they have to visit so great, that it is impossible for them to do all that might be done by enforcing this particular Act. The tendency in all the chemical works is to arrange that if any gases are to be allowed to escape it shall be done at night, and consequently a night staff of inspectors is urgently required in order to see that the law is complied with. It is a common statement to make, that as these gases have a commercial value the manufacturer may be trusted to prevent their escape. This argument is one which a practical manufacturer smiles at. It is often much more important to push work through as rapidly as possible with the view of delivering orders. And it may be more profitable, with the view to getting a larger output from the same plant, to allow a certain amount of gas to escape, rather than use up the whole of the gases. It may happen that some part of the plant breaks down, or that in order to get over some difficulty the simplest plan is to let certain gases go. The temptation is for all such operations to be arranged to take place if possible at night, so that the public shall know as little about them as possible. There are so many ways of evading such an Act that a far larger staff of inspectors is necessary, to see that it is thoroughly complied with.

Output Method of Paying Wages.--Another matter we have referred to is the method of payment of the workmen. We have already quoted the tables supplied by the Alkali Union, with the view of showing the hours of work prevailing in their factories. The usual method of payment in the chemical works is by output, and a system of sub-contracting is very frequently present, i.e., one man will take charge of the output of bleach or of caustic soda, and will pay those he employs. Whatever the system may be, the general principle is to pay by tonnage and not by means of a weekly wage. This has been denounced as an unfair system, as it causes the workman to be more exposed than is necessary to the injurious nature of his employment. As I have already indicated, it has that effect. The workman is disposed in many cases to push the work through at the risk of exposure to injurious gases for the sake of getting a larger output, and making a higher wage. On the other hand it is, I fear, the only way in which such an industry can be successfully carried on. Chemical works usually extend over a large area of ground, and consist of a large number of workshops and buildings in which various processes are being carried on, and which make strict supervision on the part of the foreman practically impossible. The only way in which economical results can be obtained is by making the workman himself directly interested in creating a proper output, while the chemist in the works takes care that the product produced is up to standard quality. It is difficult to see how under the present conditions of manufacture it could be carried on economically in any other way. The amount of competition which now exists with Germany and America has put this industry in so serious a position that it is engaged in a fierce struggle for existence, and consequently it becomes very difficult to carry out any radical reforms.

While we have stated the dangerous nature of the work, it will be evident in reading this description that little has been suggested in the way of improvement beyond increasing the staff of alkali inspectors with the view to keeping down the escape of injurious gases. The reduction of the hours of labour of the workmen from twelve to eight would no doubt have an excellent effect, and would be a reform which all would welcome. At the same time, unless some understanding could be come to, of an international character, on this point, I fear that such a reduction at the present time would be disastrous to the chemical trade, and consequently it is not at the present moment within the region of practical politics. The difficulties of improving the manufacture of bleach have also been dealt with, and while it may be said that dangers have been pointed out and no remedy suggested, it is better to face the fact of the numerous difficulties in the way of improvement, rather than to imagine that it is a simple matter to put this industry in a proper sanitary state.

Bichromate of Potash Manufacture.--Another department of chemical manufacture which has attracted attention is the preparation of bichromate of potash. This subject has already been dealt with by Dr Morison Legge, and need not be repeated here.

Coal Tar Products.--Another industry, to which attention has been directed of late years, is the manufacture of various products from coal tar. This manufacture is principally carried on in Germany; the crude distillations of the coal tar are made in this country, and the resulting products sent to Germany: various dyes, drugs, etc., are there manufactured from them, and then largely sold in this country to our dyers and druggists.

But the preparation of these compounds in this country is growing in importance, and the almost complete monopoly which Germany has held for so many years is not likely to be permanent.

Consequently attention has been directed to the effect on the health of the workers of the substances manufactured. Many of these are so new to science that their possible poisonous qualities are not yet known, but in the case of one or two, distinctly injurious results have been proved to exist.

Among these we may mention aniline and the nitrobenzines. These bodies are prepared in large quantities as the starting point for other compounds, and consequently their poisonous qualities have been shown very clearly upon the workmen. One or two references to reports will make this clear. In the year 1896, Mr Rodgers, H.M. Inspector of Factories, pointed out that he had one or two cases of somewhat serious illness among workers in aniline. He described the process of manufacture by which the crude benzine is first of all converted by the action of sulphuric and nitric acids into nitro and dinitrobenzine, known to the workmen under the name of myrbane. This substance is then reduced to aniline by means of the action of hydrochloric acid and iron.

The fumes from the preparation of the nitrobenzines seem to occasionally produce serious effects, such as dizziness ending in coma and vomiting. Evidently some men are more susceptible than others, as one case is mentioned where a man had been repeatedly away suffering from pain in the stomach, dizziness, partial paralysis of the legs, and defective vision.

Again, we find another further reference to this industry. In the report for the year 1899, Mr Sidney Smith, H.M. Inspector of Factories, reports that he has noticed the peculiar anæmic appearance of the men engaged in the manufacture of aniline, both those employed in distilling the crude aniline oil and those engaged in manufacturing the aniline hydrochloride. The men speak of being “gassed”--as they call it--a number of times, and they seem to find tolindene, the homologue of aniline, to have a similar effect. So that here we find the aniline itself referred to as dangerous to the workers. It is, of course, well known to medical men that aniline itself is an active poison. It is evident from these accounts that these substances are dangerous to health, and special measures are required to protect the workers.

Doubtless, as we get further knowledge of the compounds belonging to this large group of substances, we shall find other cases where injurious results are produced, and, in fact, the time has probably come for a searching inquiry into this branch of chemical manufacture.

Bisulphide of Carbon.--Another substance which might yet be mentioned is bisulphide of carbon, but as it has been dealt with in regard to the manufacture of rubber, where its effects are far more injurious than in the actual manufacture of the substance itself, it is hardly necessary to discuss it here.

Phosphorus.--In the same way phosphorus is more dangerous to the matchmaker who uses it than to the worker who manufactures it. The modern process of manufacture in an electric furnace is to a great extent a secret one, and consequently it is difficult to get accurate information.

There are numerous other chemical substances, such as cyanides, the compounds of antimony, the compounds of arsenic, and the compounds of barium, which are very poisonous, and which are manufactured in very large quantities, and which have not, as far as I am aware, ever been studied in their relation to health. But many of these substances appear in other industries, and their discussion in any detail would be endless. It is probably sufficient to say that in all these processes of chemical manufacture special precautions should be taken to prevent the workmen being exposed to the fumes arising from vats and tanks, to insist upon the greatest cleanliness, to allow him efficient respirators during certain operations, and to take every precaution for ensuring the removal of dust, and thorough and efficient ventilation. If these things are done there is no reason why many of these substances should not be manufactured, although poisonous in their nature, without injury to the workmen.

The special rules which were drawn up by the German Government for bichromate works afford, I think, a very good guide as to the conditions that ought to be insisted upon in all chemical manufactories. We come now to consider how far statistics show that the manufacture of chemicals is injurious to health.

Health of Chemical Workers as shown by Statistics.--The use of statistics in this particular industry is of doubtful value. In the first place it is very difficult to define what are the limits of chemical manufacture. If, for example, the manufacture of chemicals includes white lead, at once we shall cause a considerable apparent increase in the unhealthiness of the industry; while, if white lead manufacture is treated by itself and statistics referring to it removed from the chemical trade, doubtless better results would be shown. There are many other cases where it is difficult to know whether under the head of chemical manufacture a particular industry is included or not.

Then the trade is one which to a large extent employs the lowest class of labour and requires little skill or special knowledge from those employed. Many manufacturers in fact prefer to use this class of labour, so that the workman himself shall have as little knowledge as possible of the processes that he is carrying on, and will therefore be useless to any rival manufacturer if bribed to give information. Then the labour being of this rough and unskilled kind, the men leave the industry or come into it in a very casual way, and we do not find that a chemical worker is always a chemical worker in the same way in which a cotton operative would be who remains in the cotton mills all his life.

Furthermore, so many of the chemical industries require men of unusual health and strength, that they are recruited from the vigorous class of country or Irish labour, and when the men get unfit for the arduous character of the work, they are apt to drop out of the industry, so that it is difficult to follow these men through their whole career, and death statistics fail to indicate how far the industry is unhealthy.

As I explained in the opening remarks of this chapter, the conditions of the industry itself vary so enormously according to the substances manufactured that any general condemnation of it, or approval of it, is impossible, and if we find that men engaged in this industry show a distinctly higher death-rate than those engaged in ordinary trades, we must, I think, assume that certain branches of chemical manufacture are peculiarly unhealthy since those branches are able to bring up the death-rate over the whole number. With these preliminary remarks I propose to quote some of the figures published by Dr Tatham as the result of the census of 1890–91–92, which show, I think, very clearly that this industry is far from being a healthy one.

In the first place, if we compare the mean annual mortality of males engaged in different occupations at successive periods of life, we find, as is evident from the figures printed below, that while the chemical worker up to the age of thirty-five does not show any very excessive rate of death as compared with all males, with occupied males, or with carpenters (to take an industry which may be regarded as a very healthy one), his death-rate after thirty-five begins rapidly to increase, and by the time we come to the period between forty-five and fifty-five, his death-rate is nearly double that of a carpenter.

In fact, in order to find between these ages so high a death-rate, we have to take the returns for brewers, who are notoriously unhealthy from the excessive quantities of beer they consume, cutlers, file makers, lead workers, earthenware and glass workers. In some of these industries that I have just referred to the figures are considerably higher than those for the chemical worker: e.g., while the figure for the chemical workers at this age (forty-five to fifty-five) is 30.3, that for earthenware is 43, and for the file maker 40: but these are notoriously unhealthy industries, and it is evident that the chemical worker comes high up among the unhealthy trades.

MEAN ANNUAL MORTALITY of Males engaged in different Occupations in the three years, 1890–91–92, at successive periods of life.

+-----------------------+--------------------------------------------------+ | | Ages. | | Occupations. +------+------+------+------+------+------+--------+ | | 15–20| 20–25| 25–35| 35–45| 45–55| 55–65| 65 and | | | | | | | | |upwards.| +-----------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+--------+ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |All Males | 4.1 | 5.6 | 7.7 | 13.0 | 21.4 | 39.0 | 103.6 | |Occupied Males | 2.6 | 5.1 | 7.3 | 12.4 | 20.7 | 36.7 | 102.3 | |Brewer | 2.7 | 5.6 | 10.8 | 19.0 | 30.8 | 54.4 | 129.1 | |Cutler | 2.4 | 5.4 | 8.5 | 20.9 | 35.6 | 60.2 | 136.8 | |File Maker | 1.7 | 6.9 | 11.1 | 26.1 | 40.1 | 70.8 | 147.4 | |Copper Worker | 2.6 | 8.0 | 11.1 | 16.2 | 27.9 | 58.8 | 168.9 | |Lead Worker | 4.4 | 11.8 | 12.1 | 22.8 | 37.6 | 75.3 | 281.3 | |Carpenter | 1.7 | 4.0 | 5.8 | 9.4 | 17.2 | 32.2 | 102.2 | |Manufacturing Chemist | 4.5 | 6.7 | 8.4 | 16.7 | 30.3 | 62.5 | 117.3 | |Earthenware Manufacture| 2.8 | 5.4 | 8.2 | 19.6 | 43.0 | 75.1 | 143.4 | |Glass Manufacture | 3.2 | 6.4 | 11.3 | 17.9 | 32.1 | 60.8 | 172.4 | +-----------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+--------+

If, now, we take another of these tables and compare the comparative mortality from specified causes among males engaged in certain occupations, and if we take the annual mortality among all males as 1000, so as to obtain a figure of comparison, we find the following results. The brewer, cutler, file maker, copper worker, lead worker, and those engaged in earthenware and glass, all show high mortality; but among these we find again the manufacturing chemist. In fact we find only five industries in which the mortality is greater. Among these, the file maker, lead worker, and earthenware worker again head the list with enormous figures.

COMPARATIVE MORTALITY from specified Causes among Males engaged in certain Occupations, 1890–91–92.

Key to table: A: All Causes. B: Alcoholism. C: Rheumatic Fever. D: Gout. E: Phthisis. F: Diseases of the Nervous System. G: Diseases of the Circulatory System. H: Diseases of the Respiratory System. I: Diseases of the Digestive System. J: Diseases of the Urinary System. K: Plumbism. L: Accident. +--------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | | Causes of Death. | | Occupation. +----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+ | | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L| +--------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10| 11| 12|13| |All Males |1000| 13| 7| 2|192|102|132|224| 58| 44| 1|56| |Occupied Males| 953| 13| 7| 2|185| 82|126|221| | 41| 1|56| |Brewer |1427| 41| 13| 10|273|125|195|315|106| 78| |50| |Cutler |1516| 18| 7| |382| 91|167|518| 58| 56| 3|32| |File Maker |1810| 4| | 4|402|212|204|423| 72|104| 75|39| |Copper Worker |1381| 4| | |294| 85|186|406| 76| 60| 8|57| |Lead Worker |1783| | | |148|232|272|397|147|161|211|45| |Carpenter | 783| 8| 9| 2|172| 71|106|154| 45| 34| |39| |Manufacturing | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Chemist |1392| 7| 7| |162| 98|168|502| 68| 52| 1|98| |Earthenware | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Manufacturer|1706| 9| 8| 1|333|123|227|668| 66| 63| 17|20| |Glass | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Manufacturer|1487| 24| 10| 9|295|155|157|445| 67| 63| 12|59| +--------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+

If we now pass from these figures to the causes of death there are some interesting points to notice. Unfortunately, returns as to causes of death are not of so much value as they might be. Death certificates are apt to be filled in in many cases very hastily, and too often the custom is to give the immediate cause of death without attempting to show how that immediate cause has been brought about. It has been and still remains one of the great difficulties in tracing the effects of industry on health that so little attention has been paid by the medical profession throughout the country to industrial conditions as causes of death. Even in the case of so specific a thing as lead poisoning much difficulty has been found in obtaining reliable statistics, and when we come to the general undermining of health produced by other industries, the difficulties are increased. It must be remembered that on account of the low class of labour employed in chemical works, although the wages are in many cases good, the workman probably feeds badly, lives under unhealthy conditions, and spends far too much on drink, so that all these tell against him. It must also be remembered that the tendency to drink is largely caused by the nature of his work, therefore the nature of his employment may be indirectly blamed for injury that is really caused by alcohol. With these preliminary remarks, let us look at the causes of death as stated in Dr Tatham’s tables.

One striking fact is noticeable. The chemical trades head all other industries in the number of deaths put down to accident. While the number for all males stands at 56, the number for the chemical trades stands at 98, and the only industry which approaches it is that of shipwrights, with a death-rate from accident of 63.

The next point of interest to notice is the number of deaths from diseases of the respiratory system. If the fumes and deleterious gases breathed by the chemical workers are injurious to health, it is in pulmonary diseases that we should expect to find an increase; consequently we find that while the number of deaths from diseases of the respiratory system stand in the case of the manufacturing chemist at 502, there are only two industries in which higher figures are given--the cutlers, who are exposed to the dust from the grindstones, and the earthenware manufacturers, who are exposed to the deadly dust from the ground flints. Curiously enough, the next figure after chemical workers is that for manufacturers of glass. This is not an employment in which the workers are exposed to dust or injurious fumes, and the only and the natural cause for diseases of this character must be the exposure to the heat of the glass furnace and to the cold of the open sheds, while engaged in an arduous employment. The figure given for the glass workers is 445, so that it is apparently probable that the conditions under which the chemical workers carry on the operations in furnaces would alone be sufficient to cause a high death-rate among that particular class without the additional injury caused by exposure to fumes.

When we look at the returns of death from phthisis we find that the manufacturing chemist is below the normal for all males, the figure for all males being 192, and for the chemical worker 162. If we compare the glass worker, who is exposed to similar conditions of heat and cold, we find that the figure for the glass worker is 295. This result agrees with the view, which is held by many doctors in St Helens, that the gases present in the air, such as sulphur dioxide, hydrochloric acid, nitrous fumes, and chlorine, are distinctly beneficial to phthisical cases; that phthisis is rare, and when present, that the progress of the disease is slow, also that it does not assume the virulent form which is found in other places.

As the figures given for chemical workers do not show any other marked results, we may say that chemical manufacture is to be ranked among one of the most unhealthy of our industries, coming fairly high up in the list, although of course not ranking with those in which lead is present in large quantities.

Furthermore, it is one of our industries in which it is not easy to improve the health of the worker.

It is to be hoped that the most objectionable process of manufacture, the making of bleaching powder, will in time become a thing of the past, as the manufacturers who require this material for the bleaching of goods and of paper pulp will make their own bleach liquors by means of the electric current passed through the salt solution, and so avoid the necessity of producing the same on a large scale. This industrial revolution will take time. Meanwhile the manufacture of bleach remains a difficult problem for those who wish to see the occupation healthier.

I have suggested that more might be done by increasing the number of inspectors under the Alkali Acts so as to protect the workmen from the injurious fumes. While the present small staff of inspectors do all they can to carry out the Act, they are not sufficient in number. It would be necessary to appoint several new inspectors, so as to arrange for constant surprise visits to the works, especially at night. Furthermore, in this and many other industries where the general conditions of life are unhealthy without the presence of any specific cause of poison, such as lead, the best remedy will be the reduction of the number of hours of work. If the men were working for eight instead of twelve hours a day, their health would be enormously improved. This has been clearly shown in the case of the works of Messrs Brünner Mond, where it was found that the conversion of the twelve to the eight hours’ day reduced the number of men who were attended by the doctor by nearly 50 per cent. The actual figures given are as follows:--In the year 1889, 10.12 per cent. were attended by the doctor; in the year 1893, under the new system, 5.1. Where an industry is successful and making large profits, as in the case of Messrs Brünner Mond’s works, such changes can be made; but where the industry is struggling against severe competition and vanishing profits, such an alteration would be disastrous. It is therefore not a matter which can be done with a stroke of the pen, but if some understanding could be come to of an international character, chemical industries might make a move in this direction. The number of works engaged in alkali manufacture in America, Germany, Belgium, France, and England is after all not so very large. At the same time the capital required to make a change in this direction is very large, so that it ought to be possible to come to some understanding, though it would be very difficult in the case of industries carried on in small workshops. The effect of the shorter hours would ultimately be the moral as well as the material improvement of the workmen. It is impossible that a man who is engaged in hard physical labour for twelve hours out of the twenty-four, and who leaves it too exhausted to do more than eat and sleep, can develop intellectually or morally to a very high level, and consequently he has small chance of resisting the temptations to drink. With shorter hours and more leisure might come an improvement, such as has been the case in the mining population.

In conclusion, I may state that the rules for bichromate of potash works, published by the German Government, as indicating the kind of precautions to be taken in processes of chemical manufacture, are such as might well be applied to chemical processes throughout the country, with the exception of those special processes like the manufacture of bleach, where the conditions seem at present to make improvement almost hopeless. The subject, however, is so vast and complex, that I feel as if I had simply touched upon many of the problems connected with chemical manufacture and the health of the workpeople.

A. P. LAURIE.

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XLI. EXPLOSIONS AND EXPLOSIVES

Introductory

In the following pages I have made no attempt to scientifically discourse upon the composition and properties of explosive bodies, nor have I endeavoured, on the other hand, to write an elementary treatise on the subject; such matters have been fully attended to already by Berthelot, Guttmann, Eissler, and others, while much useful information is also obtainable in the Dictionary of Explosives and the Handbook of Service Explosives. My object has rather been to offer to such of the educated public as already possess a general knowledge of the subject, a few remarks from a point of view from which it has never yet to my knowledge been approached except in Blue Books, while at the same time I have striven to avoid reiteration of information already published in our Annual and Special Reports.

Moreover, I have endeavoured to exclude, so far as may be, all matter not entirely germane to the question at issue, viz., the special risks connected with the trade in explosives in the United Kingdom.

Until the year 1845 “explosive” and “gunpowder” were to all intents and purposes synonymous terms, and even now as an explosive of universal application gunpowder stands unrivalled. In these days of specialism, however, it is being rapidly ousted from the field of battle, by cordite as a propellant, by lyddite as a burster for shells, and by gun-cotton as a destructive agent; from the field of sport, by the countless nitro-powders; from the quarry and railway tunnel, by the gelatine dynamites; and lastly, from the coal mine, by the so-called safety explosives. As a coal-getter pure and simple, irrespective of the question of danger from fire-damp and dust, it still, however, stands unequalled, and in view of the recent vast improvements in its manufacture--the result, no doubt, of legislative action--it would be exceedingly rash to state that its days are numbered.

The great epoch-marking events in the history of explosives may be briefly stated as follows:--

First, the discovery of the deflagrating properties of saltpetre in admixture with carbonaceous material, and its consequent utilisation in the form of Greek fire and such like destructive compounds, date unknown.

Second, the first use of gunpowder as a propellant, in or about 1320 A.D.

Third, the invention of gun-cotton, in 1845.

Fourth, the discovery by Alfred Nobel in 1875, that a variety of gun-cotton, or rather nitro-cotton, could be dissolved in nitro-glycerine to form the homogeneous jelly-like mass to which he gave the name of blasting-gelatine. To these may perhaps be added the discovery of the power of transmitting detonation possessed by fulminate of mercury.

Although there are doubtless many other important discoveries connected with the evolution of our multitudinous modern explosives, yet, without belittling the genius of their inventors, they may all be regarded as mere episodes, so to speak--the adaptation of existing principles. Thus, nitro-glycerine and dynamite followed naturally in the wake of nitro-cellulose, just as the gelatine dynamites and more recently ballistite and cordite were merely modifications of blasting gelatine. Perhaps the most important discovery in addition to those above mentioned was Sir Frederick Abel’s process of pulping and cleaning gun-cotton, or rather the principle underlying the process, viz., that only by thorough cleansing can stability be assured to a nitro-compound.

About lyddite there is little to say which has not already appeared in the daily papers, and of that little the greater part is confidential; but as regards its effect on the enemy, I have it on the authority of an artillery officer who was engaged in every action of the campaign which terminated in the relief of Ladysmith, that it was quite impossible to obtain reliable information. Even when a rout resulted from its use, it is doubtful whether this was not due as much to the steep angle of descent of the howitzer fire as to the explosive effect of the lyddite. The stories as to the wholesale havoc wrought at Omdurman, where entire ranks of horsemen are said to have been laid low by a single lyddite shell without a mark being found on them, must be accepted with caution. A shell filled with high explosive naturally bursts into very much smaller fragments than when filled with gunpowder, and the resulting wounds would in many cases no doubt be difficult to discern at a cursory examination.

Of all branches of the explosives industry fireworks are perhaps the most difficult to control. Not only is it a common custom at North of England weddings to improvise amateur displays by filling iron pipes with gunpowder and applying a light, but the actual manufacture of squibs and rockets is regarded in most quarters as a praiseworthy and legitimate occupation, provided there is no question of sale. That this is entirely erroneous cannot be too strongly emphasised--the fine on conviction being no less than £100 a day. Moreover, since the amateur pyrotechnist invariably includes both chlorate of potash and sulphur in his coloured fire composition, a mixture entailing grave risk from spontaneous combustion, and one which is on this account prohibited by Order in Council, a further offence is involved.

I.

Accidents in Manufacture and Use.

There is no industry possessing greater possibilities for sudden death to its operatives than that connected with the manufacture, storage, and conveyance of explosives; and there is no industry of an admittedly dangerous nature demanding fewer victims. The reasons for this happy result are not far to seek, and may be summarised in two words--legislation and self-interest. The destruction of property caused by an explosion in a factory is a mere fraction of the actual loss; for days or even weeks the employés may not only refuse to return to work, but may make use of the accident as a lever to obtain a permanent rise in wages. Moreover, in gunpowder factories particularly, where every trace is swept away, the cause of the explosion is often impossible to determine, and the vague feeling of unrest to which this uncertainty gives rise is by no means conducive to efficient work. Thus, even the apathetic manufacturer is constrained by motives of self-interest to enforce certain precautionary measures (which, however, he is quite prepared to relax under the strain of competition), while the conscientious trader who really has the safety of his workpeople at heart is only too easily persuaded by the additional incentive of personal profit to institute and maintain a very high standard of discipline throughout his factory. It is, however, extremely difficult for either of these individuals to differentiate between what may be called essentials and refinements, and the unscrupulous trader, in his anxiety to sail as near the wind as possible, may neglect some obvious precaution, whereas his less reckless rival may be seriously handicapped by a too close attention to details. Here, then, is where legislation steps in, and by enforcing equal restrictions on all, prevents undue economy at the expense of safety--and, moreover, the public are properly protected. With the courteous assistance of the trade, I am able to give some figures in support of this. The total quantity of explosives manufactured per annum in the United Kingdom, exclusive of that which is produced in Government factories, is approximately as follows[143]:--

Classes I. to IV. (i.e. gunpowder, other nitrate mixtures, nitro-compounds, and chlorate mixtures), 32,115 tons.

Class V. Fulminate of mercury being the only explosive of this class made in any quantity, and the manufacture being practically in the hands of two firms, one of which is domiciled in the Channel Islands, I must not for obvious reasons disclose the total output.

Class VI. (Ammunition). Here again it is impossible to specify with any degree of accuracy the number of the various natures of explosive coming under this head. Fifty million detonators, electric detonators and fuses, and an equal number of yards of safety fuse will not be very wide of the mark, while about 500 million cartridges for small arms are turned out by licensed factories during the year.

Class VII. (Fireworks). About 1788 tons.

In the actual operations of manufacture 4828 persons are employed, the total number working within the licensed areas, and therefore more or less exposed to the effects of an explosion, being 11,098. During the year 1899, 54 accidents occurred in the manufacture of explosives, causing the death of 3 persons and injuries to 24, the average for the last ten years being 4.4 and 20.4 respectively. Of the 54 accidents no less than 32 were unattended with loss of life or personal injury--a fact that would be somewhat remarkable were it not that in many operations in which the application of force is required, or where the explosive is of an extra sensitive nature, accidents are unavoidable and provided for accordingly. “Prevention,” in fact, being impossible, a “cure” is applied. Among these specially dangerous processes may be instanced the “milling” or “incorporation” of gunpowder, the “pressing” of detonators, and the mixing of cap composition, during each of which the operator is either directly or indirectly specially protected.

In the following table I have endeavoured, by collecting the results of the last ten years, to show the relative risk attached to the manufacture of various classes of explosives. The classification is by no means in accordance with the Order in Council classifying explosives, but is better suited to the particular purpose in view.

TABLE A.

Showing the Number of Accidents causing Personal Injury, and the Number of Killed and Injured in the Manufacture of the Various Natures of Explosive during the decade 1890–99, and the Number of Persons now Employed.

+--------------------------+---------------------------+------------------------------------+ | | Accidents causing Loss of | Number of Persons Employed in the | | | Life or Personal Injury. | Manufacture of the various natures.| | +----------+-------+--------+----------+--------+----------------+ | Nature of Explosive in | No. of | | In the | In | Per 1000 | | course of Manufacture. |Accidents.| No. of Persons | Danger |Licensed| per annum. | | | +-------+--------+Buildings.| Area. +-------+--------+ | | |Killed.|Injured.| | |Killed.|Injured.| +--------------------------+----------+-------+--------+----------+--------+-------+--------+ |1. Gunpowder | 18 | 10 | 23 | 964 | 1,906 | .52 | 1.2 | |2. Nitro-glycerine and | | | | | | | | | Cellulose Explosives | 47 | 17 | 58 | 2034 | 4,021 | .42 | 1.4 | |3. Ammunition, exclusive | | | | | | | | | of Detonators | 39 | 5 | 43 } | | | | | |4. Fulminate Compositions,| | | } | 1155 | 4,267 | .23 | 2.2 | | in or out of | | | } | | | | | | Detonators and Caps | 48 | 5 | 54 } | | | | | |5. Fireworks | 23 | 7 | 26 | 675 | 904 | .77 | 2.9 | +--------------------------+----------+-------+--------+----------+--------+-------+--------+ | Totals | 175 | 44 | 204 | 4828 | 11,098 | .39 | 1.8 | +--------------------------+----------+-------+--------+----------+--------+-------+--------+

Under heading No. 2 are included the various smokeless powders for sporting purposes, but as a matter of fact no accident causing personal injury has occurred in their manufacture during the last ten years, and the same may be said of safety fuse, which comes under heading No. 3. The explosives of the ammonium-nitrate group also have a stainless record up to the present, and they no doubt possess a very high degree of safety in manufacture; but those of them which contain dinitrobenzol present another kind of risk quite independent of their explosive properties. This subject is, however, fully dealt with elsewhere by Dr Prosser White, and will not be enlarged on here. As regards their apparent safety in manufacture, too much stress must not be laid on their immunity from accident in the past. They can most of them be exploded by combined friction and percussion, and though as a rule only the part affected will explode, this applies also in the case of gun-cotton and many other admittedly sensitive compounds, and it would be rash to predict the result under circumstances specially favourable to the transmission of detonation.

To the accidents in actual manufacture, those occurring during the storage and distribution of the finished product must also be added, since they may be said to have taken place under conditions to which the controlling provisions of the Act are intended to apply. Thus 69 accidents, causing 32 deaths and injuries to 81 persons, occurred under these headings during the decade 1890–1899, making a grand total of 76 killed and 285 injured in the period named, or an average of 7.6 killed and 28.5 injured per annum in that section of the industry which is presumably controlled by experts supplemented by Government inspection. Briefly, this result has been attained by (a) subdivision of risks, i.e., the number of persons allowed in any one “danger” building is strictly limited, and communication of explosion between buildings is prevented by the erection of mounds of earth or masonry, and by making the quantity of explosive in any building directly dependent on its distance from others; (b) scrupulous attention to cleanliness; (c) prevention of the introduction of matches and other dangerous articles, by providing suitable clothing without pockets, and by a thorough system of searching all those employed in danger buildings; and (d) the provision of an adequate number of escape doors opening outwards, and provided with safety latches so as to yield easily to a push from the inside. Many manufacturers of their own initiative go far further in these directions than is enjoined by statute, with the result that in discipline, efficiency, and immunity from accident, their factories compare most favourably with the Government establishments.

On turning to the question of risk in the use of explosives, the prospect is not so pleasing; the contempt bred of familiarity is something appalling. It is not too much to say that 99 out of every 100 accidents would have been avoided by the exercise of reasonable care and common sense. Scraping out detonators with pins, thawing dynamite over the fire in tin dishes, driving gunpowder and dynamite with metal rods into roughly drilled holes, and boring out misfires, are only a few of the commonest examples of reckless folly. In mines alone there were no less than 29 persons killed and 195 injured by explosives during the year 1899, and this be it remembered in the handling and use of the finished article, each nature of which is thoroughly tested for purity and absence of extreme sensitiveness before being authorised by the Home Office, whereas in the course of manufacture many operations have to be undertaken which are known to be dangerous, even with the exercise of the greatest care. Quite recently a fatal accident was reported as follows:--“A. B. was charging a bore-hole in rock with pellet gunpowder. Finding a difficulty in inserting the charge, he was holding the tamping rod on the powder while his mate drove it home with a sledge-hammer, when, for no reason whatever, the charge exploded.” The italics are my own.

TABLE B.

Showing the Number of Accidents in the handling and use of the various Explosives during the decade 1890–99.

+----------------------------+----------+----------------+ | | | No. of Persons | | Nature of Explosive. | No. of +-------+--------+ | |Accidents.|Killed.|Injured.| +----------------------------+----------+-------+--------+ |1. Gunpowder[144] | 244 | 94 | 294 | |2. Nitro-glycerine Compounds| 376 | 135 | 440 | |3. Ammonium Nitrates | 44 | 12 | 41 | |4. Detonators | 143 | 3 | 193 | |5. Fireworks | 41 | 19 | 96 | +----------------------------+----------+-------+--------+ | Total | 848 | 263 | 1064 | +----------------------------+----------+-------+--------+ |Total in Manufacture during | | | | | same period | 175[145]| 44 | 204 | +----------------------------+----------+-------+--------+

In Table B, I have summarised the accidents which have occurred during the ten years 1890–99, in order to give some idea of the relative risk attached to the handling of the various explosives. It is, however, somewhat misleading in view of the impracticability of forming even a rough estimate of the quantity of each description used, and also of the fact that ordinary mining accidents with gunpowder are not required to be reported.

The accidents with ammunition other than detonators are so insignificant in number and effect that I have omitted them from the above table, but, on the other hand, the ammonium-nitrates now contribute their quota of casualties. Whatever margin of safety they may possess alone, it is nullified the moment the detonator is fitted, and without this deadly little adjunct they are useless. The ideal mining explosive is no doubt one which, while possessing the slow action and consequent “coal-getting” properties of gunpowder, together with its capacity for exploding without the use of a detonator, shall at the same time be as safe to manufacture, store, convey, and use in a “fiery” or dusty mine, as an ammonium-nitrate explosive. Moreover, it should have the plasticity of gelignite with similar immunity from injury by water, should require a bore-hole of but small diameter, and lastly, should produce on combustion nothing more harmful than CO_{2} and water. If to these advantages cheapness be added, and the inventor has sufficient capital to properly exploit its capabilities, such an explosive may possibly have a future before it--but the British miner is very conservative, and has a deep-rooted affection for gunpowder.

I have already referred to the system by which the quantity of explosive allowed in a licensed building is automatically regulated by the distance that can be maintained between the building and the nearest highway, dwelling-house, railway, etc., and from the social aspect the application of this principle is of more importance in the case of an isolated magazine or store (of which there are several thousand in the United Kingdom) than when only the various buildings of an individual factory are involved. Fortunately, owing to the care with which explosives of questionable stability are excluded from the authorised list, an explosion in a magazine or store is of the rarest occurrence in this country (and as regards foreign explosions figures are difficult to obtain), but in the following table I have been at some pains to set forth the results, from a destructive point of view, of a number of accidents with gunpowder and high explosives, even though they may not have occurred in magazines or stores, so as to enable the public to estimate for themselves the measure of risk offered by the unavoidable establishment in their midst of so great a quantity of “bottled energy.” I say unavoidable, since modern engineering feats would be practically impossible without high explosives, and admitting the necessity for their existence, it is assuredly safer to keep them stored in specially constructed and protected buildings, than to have them continually travelling about the country. In Table C “destructive effect” may be taken to mean structural damage to ordinary dwelling-houses due to the explosion itself, but not to projected débris. Nor does it include broken windows; to maintain a radius sufficient to prevent this would be practically impossible; at Erith, for instance, in 1864, windows were broken up to ten miles. In many cases much protection was no doubt afforded by mounds of earth and clumps of trees specially erected and planted for the purpose, interfering somewhat with the accuracy of the figures, but the margin of safety is in general so ample that no apprehension need be felt on this score.

As showing how circumstances alter cases, a comparison of the results of the Regent’s Park explosion on 2nd October 1874, with that of Craig, near Montrose, on 5th March 1880, is somewhat striking. In the former case five tons of gunpowder exploded in the middle of London, without injuring a soul outside the barge on which the explosive was being conveyed; whereas at Craig, an ounce or two of nitro-glycerine--possibly less than an ounce--killed no less than five persons, and severely injured another.

To summarise, the explosives industry can scarcely be said to affect the health of the operatives, as this word is generally understood, although there is no doubt an ever-present risk of sudden mutilation or death. I have endeavoured to show, however, that with the precautions now universally adopted in this country, this risk is reduced to a minimum, and that in all other respects the high standard of cleanliness and smartness necessarily associated with the manufacture introduces a condition of affairs which cannot be otherwise than beneficial to those engaged.

Finally, the fact cannot be too strongly emphasised, that in dealing with explosives a policy of pin-pricks is strongly to be deprecated, unless the perpetrator is anxious to be translated to a higher sphere. In the words of the late Colonel Cundill, “the function of an explosive is to explode.”

TABLE C.

Giving some particulars in connection with the Chief Explosions which have occurred in this country.

KEY TO COLUMN HEADINGS: A: Date of Accident. B: Place. C: Nature of Explosive involved. D: Quantity of Explosive involved. E: No. of Killed. F: No. of Injured. G: Radius of destructive effect in yards. H: Distance in yards from nearest inhabited house, now rendered obligatory for this quantity. I: Cause so far as ascertained, and Remarks.

+--------+----------------+----------+------+----+-------+---------+----+-------------+ | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | +--------+----------------+----------+------+----+-------+---------+----+-------------+ |1/10/64 |Erith |Gunpowder | 51 | A large | 3080 |3500|Unknown. | | | | | tons | number | | | | |11/8/71 |Stowmarket, |Gun-cotton| 12½ | 24 | over | 466 |1030|Malicious | | | Suffolk | | tons | | 50 | | | introduction| | | | | | | | | | of acid | | | | | | | | | | into pure | | | | | | | | | | gun-cotton. | |2/10/74 |Barge on Canal |Gunpowder |5 tons| 3 | 1 | 400 | 525|Ignition by | | | in Regent’s | | | | | | | the cabin | | | Park, London | | | | | | | fire of | | | | | | | | | | benzoline | | | | | | | | | | vapour, | | | | | | | | | | which | | | | | | | | | | communicated| | | | | | | | | | to the | | | | | | | | | | gunpowder. | |21/4/76 |Cymmer, |Dynamite | 160 | 13 | 2 | 37 | 50|Probably due | | | Glamorgan (in a| | lbs. | | | | | to candle | | | tunnel) | | | | | | | falling on | | | | | | | | | | to the | | | | | | | | | | explosive. | |12/5/76 |Herodsfoot, |Gunpowder | 4½ | 3 | | 150 | 470|Workman | | | Liskeard | | tons | | | | | struck a | | | | | | | | | | spark with | | | | | | | | | | wooden | | | | | | | | | | mallet while| | | | | | | | | | “breaking” | | | | | | | | | | press cake. | |30/6/77 |Floating |Detonators| 3300 | 3 | |No houses| 250|Probably due | | | magazine | | lbs. | | | near | | to the fall | | | off Gravesend | | | | | | | of a case | | | | | | | | | | containing | | | | | | | | | | detonators. | | 6/8/78 |Victoria |Gunpowder |1 ton | | 2 | do. | 150|Lightning. | | | Colliery, | | | | | | | The nearest | | | Bruntscliffe, | | | | | | | house at | | | Yorkshire | | | | | | | 220 yards | | | | | | | | | | was quite | | | | | | | | | | uninjured. | |29/11/78|Elterwater, |Gunpowder | 500 | 3 | 1 | 20 | 65|Unknown. | | | Westmoreland | | lbs. | | | | | | |21/2/79 |Hall’s |Gunpowder | 3½ | 1 | 8 | 300 | 360|Probably due | | | Factory, | | tons | | | | | to | | | Faversham | | | | | | | accidental | | | | | | | | | | breaking of | | | | | | | | | | shaft in | | | | | | | | | | “glazing” | | | | | | | | | | house. | | 5/3/80 |Craig, |Nitro- |about | 5 | 1 | | |In a kettle | | | Montrose | glycerine|1 oz. | | | | | placed on | | | | | | | | | | the fire. | |19/3/81 |Blackbeck, |Gunpowder | 1800 | 3 | 3 | 45 | 148|Breaking down| | | Haverthwaite | | lbs. | | | | | “mill cake.”| |21/7/81 |Gatebeck, near |Gunpowder | 1100 | 2 | |Under 50 | 100|Unknown, but | | | Kendal | | lbs. | | | | | while | | | | | | | | | | “pressing.” | |29/9/83 |Furness, |Gunpowder | 2½ | 1 | 3 | 240 | 255|Probably | | | Inveraray | | tons | | | | | spark from | | | | | | | | | | adjacent | | | | | | | | | | chimney. | |17/11/83|Pembrey, near |Dynamite | 300 | 7 | 1 | Only a | 65|Blow on | | | Llanelly | | lbs. | | |few yards| | frozen | | | | | | | | | | dynamite. | |26/7/84 |Blackbeck, |Gunpowder | 1400 | 4 | | 50 | 125|Lightning. | | | Haverthwaite | | lbs. | | | | | | | 3/5/87 |Hounslow |Gunpowder | 7600 | 1 | | 60 | 390|Probably | | | | | lbs. | | | | | fracture of | | | | | (but | | | | | machinery in| | | | | not | | | | | glazing | | | | |all at| | | | | house, or | | | | | once)| | | | | malicious. | |22/6/87 |Cornbrook, |Picric | (?) | 1 |Several| 180 | (?)|Formation of | | | Manchester | acid | | | | | | picrate of | | | | | | | | | | lead during | | | | | | | | | | a fire. | |7/11/87 |Kennall Vale, |Gunpowder | 1050 | 2 | | 30 | 100|Spark in | | | near Redruth | | lbs. | | | | | “pressing.” | |22/1/90 |Roslin, near |Gunpowder |2 tons| 6 | 1 | 120 | 200|Probably | | | Edinburgh | | | | | | | matches in | | | | | | | | | | mixing | | | | | | | | | | house. | |22/10/90|Roslin, near |Gunpowder | 2500 | 2 | | 150 | 160|Repairing | | | Edinburgh | | lbs. | | | | | glazing | | | | | | | | | | reel. | |11/1/92 |Floating |Fireworks | 10 | | |No houses| 525|Friction | | | magazine, | | tons | | | near | | light. | | | Gravesend | | | | | | | | | 3/9/92 |Barque |Gunpowder | 20 | | | Nearest |1525|Fire on | | | “Auchmountain,”| | tons | | |house at | | board, not | | | off Greenock | | | | | 1¼ | | known how | | | | | | | | miles | | originated. | | | | | | | |uninjured| | | |24/2/97 |Ardeer, |Nitro- |about | 6 | 8 | 200 | 200|Unknown. | | | Stevenston, | glycerine|1 ton | | | | | Damage was | | | N.B. | | | | | | | to wooden | | | | | | | | | | buildings | | | | | | | | | | only. | |19/1/98 |Blackbeck, |Gunpowder | 1¾ |None| None | 60 | 187|Fall of roof.| | | Haverthwaite | | tons | | | | | Damage small| | | | | | | | | | on account | | | | | | | | | | of good | | | | | | | | | | position. | |26/5/00 |Blackbeck, |Gunpowder | 1800 | 2 | |Building | 148|Probably | | | Haverthwaite | | lbs. | | | at | | failure of | | | | | | | |100 yards| | one of the | | | | | | | |uninjured| | columns of | | | | | | | | | | press. | |30/5/00 |Huddersfield |Picric | (?) |None| None | 140 | 400|Probably due | | | | acid | 6800 | | | | | to formation| | | | | | | | | | of picrate | | | | | | | | | | of lime | | | | | | | | | | during a | | | | | | | | | | fire. | +--------+----------------+----------+------+----+-------+---------+----+-------------+

II.

Products of Combustion: Fumes.

All explosives in practical use contain carbon. If there be also present a sufficiency or an excess of oxygen this carbon is generally burnt on explosion to carbonic anhydride, CO_{2}. This is a poisonous gas. If, on the other hand, there is a deficiency of oxygen the carbon is only partially burnt and carbon monoxide (CO) is formed. This is a vastly more poisonous gas. But in any event the products of combustion are distinctly harmful, and it is misleading and mischievous to assert of any explosive that it gives off “no noxious fumes.” Some are, however, as already stated, worse than others in this respect. Gunpowder, gun-cotton, and lyddite (picric acid) are all deficient in oxygen. The two latter, being chemical compounds, are of constant composition, viz.:--

C_{12}H_{14}O_{4}(O,}NO_{2}){6} and C{6}H_{2}(NO_{2})_{3}OH

respectively, and their lack of oxygen can be seen by inspection of their formulæ; but the ingredients of gunpowder, being merely mechanically mixed, may be varied at will so as to produce on combustion the minimum of CO compatible with other requirements. In blasting, for instance, where there is no outlet for the gases formed except by disruption of the rock or coal, the production of a large volume of gas at high temperature is in theory all that is necessary--the time taken to attain maximum pressure is of comparatively little importance. When there is a deficiency of oxygen a proportion of the carbon is converted into CO, giving for equal weights of oxygen double as much gas as is produced in the formation of CO_{2}, and thus, although the heat evolved in conversion to CO_{2} is more than half as much again as in conversion to CO, yet the maximum pressure is theoretically about the same. Calculations of maximum pressures are, however, somewhat unreliable, owing not only to the fact that at the high temperature of explosion the complex potassium salts found in the cooled residue undoubtedly undergo dissociation, but also to the uncertainty which exists as to whether gases, especially compound gases, obey, at very high temperature and pressure, the usual law as to the relation of pressure to volume. Practical experience would certainly seem to contradict the theory of equality in blasting efficiency between high and low grade powder, since far better results are undoubtedly obtained with the former. For use in fiery or dusty coal mines or in confined spaces there is, of course, no comparison between them. According to Noble and Abel the percentages of CO evolved by Curtis’s and Harvey’s best sporting powder, containing 75 per cent. of saltpetre, and by ordinary blasting powder, containing but 62 per cent. of this ingredient, are as 2.47 to 15.22; the hydrogen sulphide, another poisonous gas, being also increased from .83 per cent. in the case of the former to 3.89 per cent. in the latter. On the occasion of the peculiar accident at Crarae Quarry, Lochfyne, in September 1886, when no less than 40 persons were rendered insensible (7 of whom succumbed) by the fumes from a monster blast, the powder used contained 74 per cent. of saltpetre, and only yielded 3.6 per cent. of CO on combustion. Since 150 persons were present, it is more than probable that, had gunpowder of inferior quality been used, the mortality would have been very much greater. Gun-cotton is an even worse offender in this respect, yielding on detonation, according to different authorities and according to the pressure under which it is exploded, from 28 to 45 per cent. of CO. For mining purposes this percentage has been much reduced by the admixture of a due proportion of barium nitrate to supply the necessary oxygen for theoretically complete conversion of the carbon to CO_{2}, and although this happy consummation has not been fully attained, yet this explosive, under the name of tonite or cotton powder, has been used in mines with good results, the products of combustion, according to Sir F. Abel, furnishing little or no carbonic oxide. Prior to the introduction of this modification, several fatal accidents had already occurred in the use of gun-cotton by itself. For instance, no less than 12 persons were injured, one fatally, in April 1878, by the fumes from a gun-cotton blast during the construction of a mine tunnel at Halkyn, Flintshire.

Lyddite, on the other hand, of whose fumes we have been hearing a good deal of late, yields not only a large proportion of CO, but also a notable percentage of free carbon, as is evidenced by the black smoke arising on detonation. In small quantities, however, complete detonation is somewhat difficult to achieve, a yellow deposit being the result. This deposit, mingling with the black smoke tinged with the blue-grey of the pulverised rock, may possibly have given rise to the “green fumes” which were, according to eye-witnesses, a marked feature at Paardeberg and elsewhere. The proportion of CO formed is doubtless greatly in excess of that evolved by gunpowder--especially of the good quality alone used by the War Department--but it is difficult to believe that even in the most favourable circumstances the atmosphere could be rendered unfit to breathe by the bursting of lyddite shells. If this possibility existed half Huddersfield must have been asphyxiated by the recent explosion of picric acid at the works of Messrs Read, Holliday, & Sons. Owing to its exceedingly bitter taste, the sifting of the dry acid gives rise in some cases to sore throat and distressing cough, necessitating the use of a respirator by those employed in this operation, but that these symptoms are mere inconveniences not affecting in any way the general health of the operator is shown by the fact that the workers complain that they cannot keep themselves on account of the tonic and appetising effect of the acid! It is also, in solution, an excellent cure for burns.

Into the question of the physiological effect of CO poisoning I do not propose to enter, but would refer the reader to the reports and papers on the subject by Dr Haldane, whose classical investigations in this connection are unrivalled; but it is of importance to note that all explosives, except nitro-glycerine (i.e. Kieselguhr dynamite), and certain of the ammonium nitrates, produce on explosion a proportion of this deadly gas. Nitro-glycerine, or glyceryl tri-nitrate, as it might more properly be called, contains, as shown by its formula, C_{3}H_{5}(O,NO_{2})_{3}, more oxygen than is required for complete combustion. The manner in which it decomposes on detonation may be expressed according to the majority of authorities by the equation:--

2C_{3}H_{5}(O,NO_{2}){3} = 6CO{2} + 5H_{2}O + 6N + O

giving the following percentages--

Carbonic acid 58.15 Steam 19.82 Nitrogen 18.50 Oxygen 3.52 ----- 99.99 =====

the products thus contain nothing more deleterious than carbonic acid gas. Even if, as is possible, the excess of oxygen combines with nitrogen to form nitrous oxide, the proportion of NO formed can only amount to 6.60 per cent., a quantity which, under no conceivable circumstances, could produce fatal effects.

If; however, nitro-glycerine be decomposed by simple combustion, not detonation, the nitrogen and oxygen in the NO_{2} molecules do not appear to be dissevered, the result being that not only are highly poisonous nitrous fumes given off, but the proportion of available oxygen is also so much diminished that a considerable quantity of CO is formed. Many instances are recorded of fatalities due to the inhalation of these nitrous fumes, and there is also at least one case (in September 1892) when the symptoms pointed to CO, or rather to a combination of CO and CO_{2} as the cause of death, the two victims being rendered unconscious on the spot, and dying before help could arrive. In cases where death has resulted from breathing nitrous fumes only, the end has generally been deferred for some considerable time, amounting in one instance to no less than 40 hours after the inhalation. The symptoms are identical with those observed in cases of poisoning from nitric acid vapour, viz., very little inconvenience is felt at the time,--in fact the person affected has generally partaken of food, and in one recorded case, enjoyed a smoke, before noticing anything wrong,--subsequently difficulty in breathing, accompanied by violent coughing, is then experienced, which increases until death. An accident from these fumes, which occurred in September 1879, during the construction of the Severn Tunnel, by which two men lost their lives, has been very fully reported on by Col. Ford, late Chief Inspector of Explosives, in Special Report No. XXVI., dated 30th October 1879, and he there quotes several other interesting cases brought to his notice by Dr Dupré. Moreover, since the issue of that report, several instances have occurred where dynamite has been accidentally ignited in a mine gallery, and has caused fatal injuries, not by explosion, but by the fumes given off.

The notorious “nitro-glycerine headache” must not be forgotten. This is due to dilation of the capillary blood-vessels, or rather of the arteries, by which means the circulation is largely and suddenly increased. This effect is achieved either by inhalation of nitro-glycerine vapour, or by absorption through the skin, so that it results from handling the manufactured compound, as well as from being present in a building in which the hot explosive is deposited. No one can enter a cordite drying room or “stove” without experiencing a peculiar sensation at the heart and at the back of the head, which, in the absence of fresh air, soon develops into a headache which reduces to insignificance all the other ills of life. Some suffer more than others, but in no case, so far as I can gather, has any permanent harm resulted from this cause, and on most people the fumes appear to lose their effect after a few days. With certain individuals, on the other hand, it is a matter of weeks before they become inured, and during that period they are never free from sickness and headache; moreover, a very few days’ absence from contact with the explosive causes a return of the original susceptibility. The best remedies are strong coffee, and a linseed poultice applied to the back of the neck. Like most poisons, nitro-glycerine is used in medicine, and has undoubtedly been the means of prolonging many lives in cases of angina pectoris. Its freezing point is high, viz., about 40° F., and once frozen it cannot be thawed below 50° F. Thus, nitro-glycerine compounds are frequently found frozen hard in June; in fact, for a great part of the year they have to be thawed before use, and this process, unless carefully carried out in proper warming-pans, constitutes a very considerable danger. The lesson is gradually being learnt that dynamite will explode at temperatures below that required to ignite it, owing to the heat produced by the chemical action set up by the decomposition, which commences long before the point of ignition is reached. Three accidents in thawing occurred during the year 1899, and between the years 1872 and 1898 no less than sixty-eight accidents due to this cause took place, involving the death of 68 persons and injuries of a more or less serious nature to 97 others.

Inasmuch as nitro-cotton contains too little oxygen for complete combustion, and nitro-glycerine contains more than is necessary, it may well be imagined that a very powerful explosive would result from an admixture of the two in proper proportions. This was first effected by Alfred Nobel in 1875, and the invention of blasting gelatine, as the resulting compound was named by him, may be said to mark an epoch in the history of explosives. Provided the nitro-cotton be in the form of the penta-nitrate only, 100 parts of nitro-glycerine would theoretically be required to satisfy 10 parts of nitro-cellulose, but in actual practice it is impossible to ensure the absence of lower nitrates, and as the degree of nitration of the cellulose decreases the necessary proportion of nitro-glycerine increases. If, however, the percentage of nitro-cotton is reduced too low, it is impossible to comply with the Home Office conditions as to exudation. Thus, in this country, where the usual proportion is 9 of nitro-cotton to 91 of nitro-glycerine, a certain quantity of CO is invariably produced by the explosion of even the best blasting gelatine; and cordite, which contains 37 per cent. of cellulose hexa-nitrate to 58 per cent. of nitro-glycerine, the balance consisting of vaseline, produces no less than 32 per cent. of CO. The gelatine dynamites, a most popular class of blasting explosive, and the majority of smokeless powders, may be said to be based on blasting gelatine.

As regards those ammonium-nitrate explosives, of which dinitrobenzol forms the combustible ingredient, several fatalities have occurred in their manufacture, generally from neglecting to make use of the respirators and gloves supplied to prevent introduction of the poison into the system. In one recorded case, however, viz., on 6th June 1889, at the Roburite Company’s Works, a workman was engaged in cleaning out an air flue through which the fumes from three mixing pans were discharged, and owing to the admittedly ultra-dangerous nature of the work, wore a handkerchief over his respirator, and was entirely clothed in indiarubber, but in spite of these precautions was fatally injured by the fumes. According to the manufacturers, the injury to the health of the workpeople in the ordinary process of manufacture is more apparent than real, but the wish may possibly be father to the thought, and the industry has not been in existence long enough to provide reliable statistics.

III.

Explosives in Coal Mines.

Reference has already been made to the dangers attending the use of certain explosives in fiery and dusty coal-pits. In view of the vast quantity used in coal-getting, and of the somewhat complex nature of the problem presented, also having regard to the wholesale destruction of life, and consequent widespread misery entailed by a pit explosion, originating perhaps in quite an insignificant ignition of fire-damp or even of coal-dust, the question as to what does or does not constitute a “safety” explosive has been discussed in all its bearings in every civilised country. The results obtained are, however, hardly satisfactory--no two experts, or rather groups of experts, appear to agree. The systems by which increased safety is sought to be obtained may be dubbed for general purposes the French, German, and British. It would be quite impossible in the space at my disposal to trace the gradual development in each country of the researches, theoretical and experimental, which have in each case culminated in legislative action. Other countries have, so far as I can gather, adopted one or other of the above systems, or modifications of them, but, so far as general principles are concerned, the above classification may be accepted as correct. Thus, in France, the criterion of safety is the calculated temperature of explosion, which must in no case exceed 1500° C.; in Germany, increasing quantities of the explosive under examination are fired unstemmed in a regulated mixture of pit-gas, coal-dust, and air, and no charge may be fired in practice exceeding the maximum weight shown to be safe under the above conditions; lastly, in this country, an arbitrary but semi-practical test has been established, and in the prescribed mines no explosive may be used, until it has satisfied this test. Having been connected with the Woolwich Testing Station since its inception, any comparison by me of the merits or demerits of the three systems would be worthless, but I venture to hope that it will be conceded that the principle underlying our own method is sound, however defective the details may be considered by rival investigators. The truth of the matter is, that the whole question is most involved, safety depending not on one condition but on many. The temperature, the time, and the products, gaseous and solid, of the explosion, the weight of the charge, the depth and diameter of the bore-hole, the quantity and quality of the stemming, the position of the bore-hole with reference to surfaces or obstacles on which the hot gases may impinge, the composition of the atmosphere of the mine, the meteorological conditions, the structure of the rock or coal in which the shot is fired, and last but not least, the means of firing--all have their say in the matter; and it is ridiculous to attribute to the inherent qualities of an explosive a calamity really due to the negligent or reckless misuse of it. An analysis of the official reports on mine explosions caused, or rather probably caused, by shot firing during the last twenty years, is somewhat instructive in this connection, and may be deemed worthy of perusal, with this preface, however, that the information has been obtained from the published reports only, and with no facilities for reading between the lines (see pp. 617–618).

The natural inference to be drawn is, that if a “permitted” explosive alone is used, and the charge properly stemmed with suitable material, and if, moreover, a very moderate quantum of judgment and common sense is used in selecting the position of the bore-hole and the weight of explosive necessary to do the work, the risk of an accident under this head is practically eliminated.[146]

TABLE D.

A List of Explosions of Gas and Dust in Coal Mines caused by Shot-firing, on which Reports have been published, with Explanatory Extracts from these Reports.

+--------+------------+----------+----------------------------------------+ | Date. | Place. |Nature of | Remarks and Extracts. | | | |Explosive.| | +--------+------------+----------+----------------------------------------+ | 21/1/80|Fair Lady | Blasting |62 killed. Caused by a blown-out shot | | | Pit, | gunpowder| in a particularly fiery and dusty mine| | | Leycett, | | in which, on the initiative of the | | | Staffs. | | owners themselves, steps had already | | | | | been taken to substitute “wedging” | | | | | for “blasting.” | | | | | | | 8/9/80 |Seaham | (?) |160 killed. Cause of explosion doubtful,| | | Colliery, | Blasting | but if due to a shot, there is | | | Durham | gunpowder| no evidence to show carelessness in | | | | | charging and firing. In other words, | | | | | the accident could only have been | | | | | avoided by the prohibition of | | | | | explosive--or, at any rate, of | | | | | gunpowder--throughout the mine. | | | | | | | 27/1/84|Pen-y-craig,| Dynamite |14 killed. The conditions were such as | | | Rhondda |(probably)| “in the opinion of all the skilled | | | Valley | | witnesses would have deterred any | | | | | prudent man from firing a shot on | | | | | 27th January in the place where the | | | | | explosion originated.” | | | | | | | 2/3/85 |Usworth | Blasting |40 killed. “In my opinion to fire a | | | Colliery, | gunpowder| shot at such a place was a breach of | | | Durham |(probably)| General Rule 8, sub-section 2, of | | | | | Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1872.” | | | | | | | 8/4/85 |Great Fenton| (?) |8 killed, 5 injured. “The error of the | | | Colliery | | fireman in boring the shot-hole into | | | | | the ‘fast,’ and thus causing the shot | | | | | to ‘blow out,’ was the immediate | | | | | cause of the explosion.” | | | | | | | 2/10/86|Altoff’s | Blasting |22 killed. “Three consecutive shots | | | Colliery | gunpowder| fired in the same part of the | | | | | pit--the third causing the accident. | | | | | Watering quite inadequate, since the | | | | | mine was very dusty.” | | | | | | | 18/2/87|National | Gelatine |39 killed, 6 injured. The shot was | | | Colliery, | dynamite | fired in the roof pointing towards | | | Tnyshir, | | very dusty floor. Also, although it | | | Glamorgan | | was only considered safe to use | | | | | “water cartridges,” the water had | | | | | in this case been omitted. | | | | | | | 10/3/90|Morfa | Blasting |87 killed. No watering done, | | | Colliery, | gunpowder| notwithstanding that “blasting was not| | | Port | | generally allowed in the colliery. | | | Talbot | | The manager was much averse to | | | | | shot-firing, and ... it had been | | | | | entirely dispensed with in | | | | | coal-getting for a number of years.” | | | | | Again, “permission to fire shots was | | | | | reluctantly given.” | | | | | | | 2/4/91 |Apedale | Gelignite|10 killed. Shot fired by fuse and blown | | | Colliery, | | out. The jury at the inquest were | | | Staffs. | | of opinion “that the explosion was | | | | | caused by a blown-out shot, and that | | | | | we are strongly of opinion that the | | | | | management of the colliery has been | | | | | most lax and negligent; leading, in | | | | | the opinion of the jury, to the gross | | | | | carelessness shown on the part of | | | | | their subordinates.” | | | | | | |13/11/93|Camerton | Blasting |2 killed. Overcharged shot, fired in | | | Colliery, | gunpowder| roof pointing at very dusty floor. | | | Somerset | | Shot-hole only 10 inches long and | | | | | 1⅞ inches in diameter, so that the | | | | | charge of about ¾ lb. of powder | | | | | could not have been properly | | | | | stemmed--the cartridge would occupy | | | | | 8 or 9 inches. | | | | | | | 23/6/94|Albion | Gelignite|290 killed. Shot ignited by safety fuse | | | Colliery, | | and fired, probably unstemmed, in | | | Pontypridd| | timber. These facts strongly | | | | | commented on by jury at inquest. | | | | | | | 6/2/95 |Timsbury | Blasting |7 killed. Shot fired by squib or | | | Colliery, | gunpowder| straw--in the roof--and stemmed very | | | Radstock | | probably with an inflammable mixture | | | | | of clay and oil. Road watered | | | | | two or three days before the | | | | | explosion. Shot overcharged owing | | | | | to a joint. | | | | | | | 15/3/95|Malago Vale | Blasting |2 killed. Improperly stemmed shot | | | Colliery, | gunpowder| fired by fuse in a dry and dusty | | | Bristol | | place. | | | | | | | 27/1/96|Tuberstoun | A high |57 killed. Very little watering done, | | | Pits, |explosive,| shot fired by fuse, and so much gas | | | Ferndale | probably | found close to shot-hole that one | | | Collieries| Bellite | fireman refused to fire the shot, | | | | or | there being more than ⅜ inch of | | | | Ammonite | “cap” in his lamp. | | | | | | | 13/4/96|Brancepeth | Blasting |20 killed. The shot was badly put in. | | | Colliery, | gunpowder| The direction of it was bad, it was | | | Durham | | overcharged, and there was an unseen | | | | | joint behind it. No watering | | | | | had been done on the sides and roof. | +--------+------------+----------+----------------------------------------+

In the year 1899, during which period an increased amount of attention was paid to the above points, out of no less than 147 ignitions of fire-damp or coal-dust only 6 were caused by the flame from explosives used in shot-firing.

I will conclude with a very concise description of a few of the best known explosives in common use, other than gunpowder.

(a) MILITARY.

Cordite.--Nitro-glycerine, gun-cotton, and vaseline, reduced by means of acetone to a gelatinous paste, which is then “squirted” into cords through dies of varying diameter by hydraulic or screw pressure. The rate of combustion depends on the diameter of the cords.

Gun-cotton.--Cellulose hexa-nitrate--pure cotton or cellulose steeped in a mixture of the strongest nitric and sulphuric acids, and thoroughly washed.

Lyddite.--Trinitrophenol or picric acid, a mixture of carbolic acid (phenol), and concentrated sulphuric acid treated with strong nitric acid, picric acid crystallising out.

(b) SPORTING.

The name of these is legion. The best known are Amberite, Ballistite, Cannonite, E.C., Schultze, S.S., and Walsrode, and the vast majority are based on nitro-cellulose. This is mixed with other comparatively unimportant ingredients, and granulated, gelatinised, and hardened in a suitable manner, the method of manufacture varying according to the explosive.

(c) BLASTING.

Ammonite, Amvis, Bellite, Electronite, Roburite, and Westphalite, form with a few others seldom met with in this country a group of explosives derived from the admixture of ammonium-nitrate with various carbonaceous substances, such as dinitronaphthalene, dinitrobenzol, starch, and resin. They are comparatively safe to handle and convey, but suffer in keeping from the hygroscopic nature of the ammonium-nitrate, which necessitates their enclosure in absolutely waterproof cases.

Blasting Gelatine.--Nitro-cotton dissolved in nitro-glycerine to form a jelly. This is probably the most powerful explosive in general use.

Carbonite.--About 27 per cent. of nitro-glycerine absorbed in a “dope” of woodmeal and saltpetre or nitrate of barium.

Dynamite.--75 per cent. of nitro-glycerine absorbed in 25 per cent. of an infusorial silicious earth called “Kieselguhr.”

Gelatine Dynamite.--Nitro-glycerine thickened by the addition of nitro-cotton, and combined with woodmeal, charcoal, or certain other non-explosive ingredients.

Gelignite, the most commonly used of all the high explosives, is practically gelatine-dynamite with the addition of saltpetre.

Tonite or Cotton Powder is a mixture of equal parts of gun-cotton and nitrate of barium.

Fulminate of Mercury, used for detonating nearly all high explosives, is a grey precipitate obtained by treating with alcohol a solution of mercury in nitric acid. It is extremely sensitive to percussion or friction.

A. COOPER KEY.

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XLII. ANTHRAX

Hides and Horsehair.

The disease to which the term anthrax is at the present time usually applied, in this country, is fortunately of rare occurrence in man, mainly affecting, as it does, cattle, sheep, swine, and horses. In 1891, it may be noted, there was an outbreak among deer, and in certain foreign countries attacks among goats and camels appear to be not uncommon. The disease may be transmitted by direct inoculation of a scratch or wound of the skin, by inhalation into the lungs, or by being introduced into the alimentary canal with the food. The last-named mode of infection is that which appears to be most common in the lower animals, and the disease produced in them, accompanied as it is, as a rule, by marked enlargement of the spleen, is sometimes referred to as splenic fever. The infective property clings pertinaciously to certain fields and pastures, so that in America, and on the continent of Europe, the risk incurred by allowing animals to graze in particular localities is definitely recognised, while a similar phenomenon has also been observed in this country. The risk in question appears to be greater at certain times of the year. In the Western States of America it is said to be inseparably connected with the highest temperatures of summer, and to occur only when the surface soil has been thoroughly warmed; a certain degree of moisture is also believed to be necessary. Power of transmitting infection is maintained in these particular localities, and conveyed to others, by allowing the discharges from infected animals, and the blood of such animals, if they are slaughtered or cut up after death, to obtain access to the soil. Hides, skins, hair, and wool, which have become smeared with such blood or discharges, retain the property of conveying infection after drying, and exposure to light and air for prolonged periods; even after transportation for thousands of miles the manipulation of such infected products is attended with serious danger.

In man the disease assumes generally what is known as the external form, the poison obtaining access to the body through some abrasion of the skin. At the site of inoculation a small vesicle may be detected at the outset: this vesicle speedily develops into a malignant pustule, i.e., an inflamed area presenting a dark centre, surrounded by a ring of vesicles with a crenated margin. At this stage, which is that in which attention is usually first drawn to the disease, the appearances are generally quite characteristic, and if skilled advice is obtained, and the nature of the mischief realised, the pustule can be excised and there is comparatively little risk of a fatal issue. The term pustule, it may be noted, is a misnomer, as pus (i.e. matter) is not formed in the local manifestation of anthrax as in the case of an ordinary boil or carbuncle. A variety of external anthrax occasionally met with (erysipelatous or œdematous anthrax) is referred to elsewhere. Again, in some instances, usually in connection with the manipulation of wool, anthrax in man assumes the internal form (vide Anthrax in relation to the wool industry). This last-named form of the malady is also met with among workers in horsehair, but is very uncommon in persons who manipulate hides and skins.

History of the Disease.--Little is known as regards the prevalence of anthrax in man and in animals in past times. It has been suggested that the grievous murrain which destroyed the cattle of the Egyptians, and which was succeeded by a “breaking forth with blains” upon men, and upon horses, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep, was anthrax. Again, numerous instances of the concurrence of murrain in cattle with pestilence in man have been recorded from time to time, and some of these may conceivably admit of similar interpretation. At the present day the name anthrax is commonly given, in some parts of the world, to what in England is known as carbuncle, and there is room for difference of opinion as to the meaning of the word when it occurs in old records. It may be sufficient to note in this connection that it has been contended that in ancient Greece the term was applied to smallpox. Towards the end of the last century, however, the occurrence of what would now be termed in this country “anthrax” seems to have been observed in the human subject, in association with the manipulation of raw animal products. Thus Fournier of Dijon in 1769 referred to the transmission of disease to men engaged in handling hair and wool. Similar cases were recorded by Montfils in 1776; moreover, the subject of anthrax in animals was, it may be noted, discussed by Chabert in a work published in Paris in 1780. It was not, however, until the latter part of the nineteenth century that any considerable amount of attention was attracted by the malady.

In 1847 cases of “malignant pustule” were described by Lawrence in connection with a hair factory; a series of cases was collected and published in 1852 by Mr Harvey Ludlow; and in 1862 the history of some 30 cases, one of which occurred in a tanner, and one in a person who had been employed in loading hides, was given by Dr William Budd.

Growth of knowledge concerning anthrax was much stimulated by the discovery of the anthrax bacillus. This organism had been observed by Pollender in 1849; it was shown to be the actual cause of the disease, however, by the researches of Davaine, and knowledge of its life-history was subsequently greatly extended by Koch. The discovery of the comparatively easily destructible bacillus, and its ability to produce highly resistant spores, afforded explanation of the pertinacity with which raw animal products retain the power of transmitting infection, and led to appreciation of the difficulty of dealing with contaminated material. The researches of Pasteur, concerning attenuation of the anthrax organism and protective inoculation, moreover, opened up a most interesting and important field of inquiry.

Anthrax Statistics.--It was not until 1863 that “malignant pustule” began to appear as a cause of death in the Registrar-General’s returns. During the fourteen years 1863–1876, three or four deaths on an average were registered annually. Then, for a time, in addition to the heading “Malignant Pustule,” the headings “Charbon” and “Wool-sorters’ Disease” were officially recognised, and the number of deaths registered under the three headings had, in the year 1880, increased to eighteen. From 1881 onwards, all anthrax deaths have been included by the Registrar-General under the heading “Splenic Fever,” and the number registered was, it may be noted, as small as three in the year 1891, as high as eighteen in 1884, 1897, and 1898, and twenty-one in 1899.

Brief as has been the period in which records of the disease in man have accumulated, and imperfect as these records doubtless still are, anthrax statistics relating to other animals are, as might be expected, still more imperfect. Returns for Great Britain, which are only available from 1887 onwards, are given in the annexed table, taken from the annual report on proceedings under the Diseases of Animals Acts, compiled for the Board of Agriculture.

Number of Counties in Great Britain in which Anthrax was reported by the Inspectors of the Local Authorities, with the Number of Outbreaks reported, and the Number of each kind of Animal returned as attacked in each year.

+------+---------+---------+-----------------------------------+ | | | | Animals attacked. | |Years.|Counties.|Outbreaks+-------+------+------+-------+-----+ | | |reported.|Cattle.|Sheep.|Swine.|Horses.|Deer.| +------+---------+---------+-------+------+------+-------+-----+ | 1887 | 51 | 236 | 415 | 37 | 184 | [147]| | | 1888 | 49 | 180 | 280 | 45 | 76 | [147]| | | 1889 | 45 | 167 | 236 | 4 | 69 | [147]| 461 | | 1890 | 48 | 152 | 253 | 72 | 210 | [147]| | | 1891 | 50 | 226 | 300 | 15 | 156 | [147]| | | 1892 | 60 | 289 | 445 | 11 | 190 | [147]| | | 1893 | 68 | 563 | 833 | 108 | 313 | 46 | | | 1894 | 64 | 494 | 625 | 125 | 188 | 62 | | | 1895 | 66 | 434 | 604 | 158 | 140 | 32 | | | 1896 | 64 | 488 | 632 | 34 | 200 | 38 | | | 1897 | 67 | 433 | 521 | 39 | 284 | 38 | | | 1898 | 73 | 556 | 634 | 22 | 161 | 39 | | | 1899 | 67 | 534 | 634 | 69 | 253 | 30 | | +------+---------+---------+-------+------+------+-------+-----+

As time goes on the value of these returns will no doubt be enhanced. At present veterinary opinion rather suggests that too absolute reliance must not be placed upon the figures given. It may be taken for granted, however, that the system of reporting outbreaks has led to increased attention being devoted to anthrax in animals, and to an appreciation of the fact that the disease is more prevalent in Great Britain than had been supposed. The particulars collected, moreover, show that those counties in which foreign animal products, hides, hair, wool, etc., are manipulated, are specially prone to suffer from outbreaks of anthrax in animals. It may be mentioned that an inquiry was made a few years ago by Dr Ravenal of Pennsylvania as to the influence of tanneries in spreading anthrax among cattle feeding on pastures watered by streams contaminated by tannery refuse. The result of this inquiry is given by Dr Legge in a report, which appears in the Annual Report for 1899 (p. 325) of the Chief Inspector of Factories. It seems that in 1897, 12 men and 60 head of cattle died of anthrax near tanneries in the State of Pennsylvania.

Of the prevalence of anthrax in other parts of the world, it is difficult at the present time to obtain precise knowledge. In some parts of Europe (France, Germany, Russia, and Italy) the malady appears to be more prevalent than it is in this country; the same remark may perhaps be said to hold good for Persia, India, Siberia, China, and parts of Africa, and North and South America. It is stated that in the district of Novgorod, Russia, in the four years 1867–70, 56,000 horses, cattle, and sheep perished from anthrax.

Outbreaks Recorded during Recent Years.--During the last twenty-five years several detailed reports on outbreaks of anthrax in man, attributed to the handling of particular raw animal products, have been made. Thus Dr Russell, in 1878, published the history of an outbreak of this kind, which was attributed to the manipulation of “raw Russian manes” in certain horsehair factories in Glasgow. In his report (appended to the Annual Report of the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board for 1878) Dr Russell discusses certain previously recorded instances of anthrax in association with horsehair manipulation in Paris, Metz, Leipzig, and Massachusetts. From 1878 to 1899 no further cases of the disease were noted in workers in the horsehair industry in Glasgow; in 1900, however, three such cases were reported, and similar cases have been observed in several instances in London (vide Annual Reports of the Medical Officer of Health of the County of London and of H.M. Chief Inspector of Factories). Outbreaks on a more extensive scale have been reported in Germany (vide Report of Dr Kubler in Arbeiten a. d. Kaiserlichen Gesundheitsamte, 15 Band, 3 Heft, 1899). It may be noted that raw Russian and China manes have fallen especially under suspicion in connection with several of the recorded outbreaks, and these kinds of raw material seem particularly prone to be contaminated with dirt, and when combed or “willeyed,” to give rise to dust, which it is presumed is the medium by which infection is conveyed to workers in horsehair.

At about the time when the publication of Dr Russell’s report drew attention to horsehair, the question of wool-sorters’ disease (vide Anthrax--its relation to the Wool Industry) also came to the fore. Again, in 1882–83, Mr Spear, on behalf of the Local Government Board, carefully investigated the circumstances of an outbreak of anthrax in connection with the hide and skin industry in London, affecting persons who had manipulated certain bales of hides from China, either at the warehouse in which they were in the first instance stored, or subsequently at the tannery to which they were conveyed and in which they underwent the process of conversion into leather. Mr Spear published, in an appendix to his report, a table giving particulars as to cases of anthrax which he had traced as having occurred in London between 1873 and 1883. This table was subsequently extended, and further cases have been recorded from time to time in the Annual Reports of the Medical Officer of Health of the County of London. These reports show that between 1873 and 1896 there were recognised, in the metropolis and its neighbourhood, in all 148 cases of the disease. Of these:--

108 occurred among persons engaged in the hide and skin trade; 5 occurred among persons engaged in slaughtering animals; 18 occurred among persons engaged in the manipulation of horsehair, or in the manufacture of brushes; 1 occurred in a person employed in a bacteriological laboratory; finally, 16 occurred under circumstances in which the source of infection was not traceable.

Anthrax Notification.--Sect. 29 of the Factory and Workshop Act of 1895 made notification of a case of anthrax occurring in a factory or workshop compulsory, and under this section there have, during recent years, been notified the following cases:--

In 1896, 13 cases.

In 1897, 23 cases, including 14 in connection with hides and skins and 9 in connection with wool.

In 1898, 28 cases, including 8 in connection with hides and skins; 16 in connection with wool; 3 in connection with horsehair; and 1 in connection with other industries.

In 1899, 55 cases, including 16 in connection with hides and skins; 18 in connection with wool; 17 in connection with horsehair; and 4 in connection with other industries.

In 1900, 37 cases, including 9 in connection with hides and skins; 9 in connection with wool; 12 in connection with horsehair; and 7 in connection with other industries.

In 1897 an important report by a Departmental Committee appointed by the Home Office to inquire into the “Conditions of Work in Wool-sorting and other Kindred Trades” was issued. In this report existing knowledge concerning the subject was summarised and special consideration was devoted to the discussion of possible preventive measures. Dr Whitelegge, now H.M. Chief Inspector of Factories, was one of the members of this Committee, and since his appointment to his present office he has, in his annual reports, published a summary of the facts ascertained with regard to anthrax in each year since 1897. Dr Whitelegge’s more recent reports contain also the results of the inquiries made by Dr Legge, the Medical Inspector of Factories. This series of Home Office reports is from year to year, adding materially to our knowledge of the disease and the methods which may be advantageously used in checking its prevalence. In Germany, moreover, the reports of the Imperial Health Office have of late years contained frequent references to the subject, and a new era may thus be said to have commenced as regards the study of the malady in its relation to industry.

Having regard to the recent introduction of compulsory notification, and to the larger measure of importance which is attached to anthrax, it is now unlikely that cases of the disease will escape notice, as they have doubtless in some instances done in the past, and as more and more complete records of the circumstances of anthrax outbreaks are obtained, there seems reason for hoping that it may be possible to obtain fuller knowledge concerning the history and antecedents of the material which has conveyed infection. If this proves to be the case, preventive measures may be thus greatly facilitated.

Grouping of Anthrax Cases.--That investigation of this kind may prove of importance seems clear from the evidence of grouping of cases which has been forthcoming, even from such inquiry as it was possible to make in past years, and in the absence of the more precise information which compulsory notification may, in future, be expected to afford. The following instances observed in the metropolis and its neighbourhood may be referred to in illustration of this point.

(1) In the year 1895 a number of cases of anthrax occurred among persons employed in manipulating horsehair and in brushmaking. Thus three cases occurred in Southwark, and in each instance the persons attacked had manipulated horsehair, in connection, however, with the establishments of three different brushmakers. A fourth case occurred in a dresser of horsehair employed in St Luke’s. Two cases in Shoreditch appeared to be traceable to a brushmaker’s at Tottenham, and it was found, on making inquiry there, that two other cases had occurred among employés at this particular workplace. Two further cases occurred in East London affecting men who worked with horsehair at a bass and fibre dresser’s in Mile End Old Town. In all, ten cases occurred between May and December 1895, in association with the manipulation of horsehair. The facts as to the distribution of horsehair to the various establishments concerned could not be fully ascertained; so far as the question could be followed up, it appeared quite possible that some particular consignment of horsehair had been handled by all the affected workers, and that this consignment had done all the mischief. Having regard to the distribution of the cases in time such an hypothesis seemed a likely one.

(2) On the last day of January and the first four days of February 1896, six men were admitted to Guy’s Hospital suffering from malignant pustule. Five of the men had recently been engaged in manipulating goatskins at a leather-dressing establishment, and the sixth man was employed at a warehouse from which goatskins had been supplied to this establishment. Every facility was given by the firm employing the five men with a view to enabling the particular consignment of skins implicated to be traced, but it was not found possible to ascertain all the facts with regard to these skins. There was, however, evidence pointing to two conclusions respecting them. In the first place, some of them were “sea damaged,” and secondly, they were brought to England by a vessel which had touched at certain Mediterranean ports.

On investigation of previous occurrences of anthrax in London it was found that a case had occurred in December 1895, the patient being a man employed in a tanyard. This man had on 29th November and succeeding days handled goatskins, which, inasmuch as they were a salvage lot from a ship on which a fire had broken out, had “been sold cheap.” Some of these goatskins which were described as “sea damaged,” were regarded as unfit for treatment, and were sent away; the others were converted into leather. The ship by which they were brought to this country had come from the Mediterranean. Again, a dock labourer who had unloaded goods, among which were goatskins, in St Katherine’s Dock during the first week of December, developed on 7th December a malignant pustule. The skins concerned possibly came from the Mediterranean.

Thus within a period of a few weeks three distinct occurrences of anthrax had been observed in London, apparently attributable to one common cause, the manipulation of goatskins. On the information to hand, the three consignments of goatskins could not be traced to one and the same source--indeed a distinct ship was apparently implicated in each instance, the only feature in common being that two of these vessels were definitely stated to have come, and the third may have come, from the Mediterranean. It was further noteworthy that several cases of anthrax had occurred in recent years at the wharf from which one of the consignments referred to above had been supplied. Thus a case occurred at this wharf in September 1893, another in March 1894, and in each of these cases the man who was attacked had manipulated goatskins. In September 1894 another man working at this wharf was attacked; there was, however, no information as to goatskins in this instance. Again, in October 1895, two cases occurred in men who had manipulated goatskins at the same wharf.

This series of events is suggestive of one or other of two explanations. Either the wharf may have been supplied from time to time with infected goatskins, and in that case the possibility of some particular anthrax-infected locality being the source of supply and the cause of all the trouble naturally suggests itself; or the wharf premises, having themselves become infected, may have served as a means of re-infecting from time to time batches of skins. The former hypothesis seems to best fit in with the facts. That premises may, however, at times become infected and again convey infection at a later period seems not improbable. Such was indeed proved to be the case by Professor Boyce (vide Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health of Liverpool for 1899). It may be noted in this connection with regard to the five cases of anthrax mentioned above, as having occurred in January and February of 1896, that three further cases developed which may possibly have been attributable to the same source of infection. Two of the cases occurred in persons who may have been brought in contact with the skins implicated in January and February; a third case was that of a man who had worked at the leather-dressing establishment, and on a part of the premises in which the skins implicated in the earlier part of the year had been placed.

Grouping of Cases considered in Relation to Preventive Measures.--The occurrence of such groups of cases as those above referred to merely repeats the experience of Glasgow in 1878, when Russian manes were at fault, and that of Bermondsey in 1882, when certain Shanghai hides fell under suspicion. If careful inquiry were made concerning every case of anthrax, it appears not improbable that all the cases occurring during a series of years could be referred to a very limited number of consignments of raw material, and if the origin of the goods were followed up in each instance, it might be found that a considerable check could be placed upon the introduction of infected raw products into this country. In some cases workmen have been led to suspect that they were incurring special risk from something unusual in the appearance of the hides, skins, or horsehair, with which they were dealing. It has been already said that the hides suspected in the historic outbreak in Bermondsey in 1882 came from Shanghai; a considerable number of these were ascertained to have been “light,” “dirty,” “stale,” and “much tainted,” “many were in fact ‘dead’ hides,” i.e. those of animals that had not been slaughtered, but had died, possibly, of course, of anthrax. In a particular instance, in connection with a more recent occurrence of a case of the disease in question in London, it was found that a small quantity of suspected material had been retained at the broker’s warehouse, the bulk of the consignment, of which the said material formed a portion, being sent abroad. The small quantity in question, which consisted of scabbed and worthless skins, was handed over, at the request of the Medical Officer of Health in whose district the warehouse was situated, to be destroyed; but that officer had no opportunity afforded him of examining the bales which were not disposed of in London. There can be no doubt that there would be less likelihood of suspected material being placed upon the market, if it were definitely realised that the source of infection would be traced in all cases of anthrax which occur. Veterinary experts in this country have long insisted that “no attempt should be made to utilise any part of the carcase of an animal which has died of anthrax”; and M. Chauveau, in a paper read before the seventh International Congress of Hygiene and Demography in 1891, argued that only by convincing those concerned with the disposal of raw material, to which suspicion attaches, that to destroy it is the only course open to them in order to safeguard their own interests, will it be practicable to exercise any really efficacious check upon production of disease. M. Chauveau urged that effort should be made to cause this fact to be generally appreciated, and he added, “L’effet de cette propagande devrait être renforcé par une bonne organisation des services de surveillance sanitaire, et par une application sévère des pénalités contre les délinquants.”

Mr Spear, in his report in 1883, referred to the possibility of “the establishment of an organisation by which this country may be warned of the existence of the disease among cattle,” with a view to prohibiting the import of suspected hides. He pointed out, moreover, that if the practice of dealing separately with “dead” hides, from their first shipment at the port of export, were to become established, such a system would “result in the limitation of dangerous material mainly to one class of goods, instead of its distribution throughout the entire bulk.” These suggestions seemed, perhaps, when they were made, to be “counsels of perfection,” but if the material conveying infection is in the future traced in a growing proportion of cases, and if, armed with knowledge of all cases of anthrax which occur, inquiry as to the antecedents of implicated material is more and more sedulously prosecuted, it seems probable that it will increasingly become the practice of owners of diseased animals to destroy infected hides, skins, hair, etc., instead of attempting to dispose of them.

Against the prospect of diminution of risk from the growth of a desire on the part of dealers in raw animal products to safeguard their own interests, it may be urged that anthrax is so common a disease that the wholesale destruction of the skins, hides, hair, etc., of infected animals would mean great loss; that in many instances the existence of diseased conditions cannot be detected; that even with the best intentions on the part of the dealer much dangerous material must necessarily be placed on the market; and that in any event all that is needful in the case of suspected raw products is that they should be adequately disinfected. Further experience will no doubt throw more light on these questions, but the history of cases in London and elsewhere, so far as it is known, suggests that the amount of dangerous material exported to this country is very small in proportion to the total bulk, and that, with the devotion of an increasing amount of attention to the matter, it will become more and more usual for the origin of consignments of such dangerous material to be traced. If this should prove to be the case, it may be that the prevention of anthrax infection will be worked out very much upon the lines indicated by M. Chauveau.

Disinfection and Other Measures of Precaution.--As regards disinfection it has been, until quite recently, assumed that exposure to steam, or to reliable chemical disinfectants, was quite out of the question. So far as the leather trade is concerned this doctrine is still generally accepted, but, as regards the horsehair industry, experiments have shown that disinfection is practicable under certain conditions. It appears from a recent Report of the Medical Inspector of Factories (Dr Legge), that in this country a steam disinfector is in use in a particular establishment for dealing with mane hair from Russia and China, and that in other establishments all mane hair is boiled or dyed before being used for curling purposes. In Germany careful experiments have been made with a view to determining how disinfection can be carried out with a minimum of damage to raw material, and an account of the results obtained is contained in the Arbeiten a. d. Kaiserlichen Gesundheitsamte, 15 Band, 5 Heft, 1899. The principal conclusion would appear to be that the pressure under which the steam is allowed to enter the disinfecting chamber should not exceed 0.15 atmosphere (2 to 3 lbs. to the square inch). Higher pressures, such as are commonly in use in steam disinfectors in this country, tend to make the ends of the hair (especially of long tail hair used for weaving purposes) brittle. A further objection to steam is the yellow colour which it imparts to white hair. As the outcome of these experiments, special rules dealing with the disinfection of foreign horsehair and pigs’ bristles were formulated, and came into force throughout Germany in 1899. A report as to their operation appeared in 1901 (loc. cit., 18 Band, 1 Heft).

The use of steam disinfection in the horsehair industry may, therefore, become considerably extended. Dr Legge points out, however, that reliance must not be placed upon such disinfection as at present practised for dealing with “unopened bales, especially when hydraulically pressed.” The fact noted by Dr Legge that, in September 1899, “the principal horsehair manufacturers, at a meeting held in London, passed unanimously a resolution binding themselves from that date to buy no Russian, Siberian, or Chinese undyed mane hair, until satisfactory guarantees had been given by the sellers that the hair has been thoroughly disinfected,” is a significant one. Further, reference may be made to a circular letter, addressed to occupiers of horsehair works by H.M. Chief inspector of Factories, which deals with means of diminishing risk of anthrax in the industry in question (vide Annual Report of the Chief Inspector for 1900).

In connection with hides, Mr Spear first pointed out the desirability of studying, in relation to the process of curing, the question of the possibility of favouring the destruction of morbific germs. “It might,” he said, “be possible so to treat the skins by a preliminary process, as to cause any attached spores to germinate into the easily destructible rods.”

Anthrax appears to be rarely, if ever, conveyed by wet hides, and there is, therefore, some prospect that the increasing adoption of the “wet,” as opposed to the “dry,” cure may prove an important means of obviating the spread of infection. The dry cure is said to stand condemned from the point of view of producing good leather, but, in places where difficulty of transport makes weight an important consideration, it is still largely adopted. As long ago as 1894, a writer in the Leather Trades Circular and Review urged the merchants engaged in the China trade to “establish saladeros (as has been done in South America), where all green hides shall, after slaughtering, go through a proper system of brining, or arsenic curing, or salting, by which the pelt will be preserved.” Arsenic curing, it may, however, be noted, might become a source of danger. Experiments made with a view to determining whether chemical disinfection of hides can be effected in a practicable manner are being carried out in this country at the present time.

Pending the growth of knowledge as to sources of anthrax infection, and increase in appreciation of the desirability of destroying infected goods, something can be done by advocating cleanliness and enforcing the provision of washing appliances, and by urging the great importance of alertness as regards detecting the disease at the outset, with a view to obtaining proper advice during the earliest stages of the malady. In the Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories for 1899 the special rules issued in 1899, and established in eighty-eight works, are published in extenso. These rules define both the duties of the occupier and the duties of persons employed. In 1899, too, it was decided by the Home Office authorities to give facilities for bacteriological examination, with a view to the verification of doubtful cases of anthrax, and medical practitioners, on making application to the Medical Inspector of Factories at the Home Office, are now enabled to satisfactorily clear up the diagnosis in doubtful cases. This in itself constitutes an important step in advance, and is an indication of the growing amount of attention that is likely to be accorded to anthrax prevention in the near future.

W. H. HAMER.

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XLIII. ANTHRAX--ITS RELATION TO THE WOOL INDUSTRY

Wool has been woven into the industrial history of the world, and has been an important factor in the progress of nations from savagery to civilisation. In all ages, “flocks and herds” have represented peace and prosperity, and only within recent years has it become known that the fleeces, hides, flesh, and other products of animals which die from anthrax sometimes convey the disease to man.

The word “wool” in its technical meaning comprises sheep or lamb’s wool, goat’s wool or hair (mohair), camel’s wool or hair, alpaca, and other allied textile fibres. The quantities and origins of these for manufacturing purposes in the year 1900 were nearly as follow, in million pounds weight:--

From the United Kingdom 141 „ British Possessions 448 „ Foreign Countries 105 „ „ Mohair 22 „ „ Alpaca 6 --- 722 Exported in the “raw” state 220 --- Balance for home use 502 ===

The “clip” of wool of the United Kingdom is practically what it was fifty years ago. The total imports of wool, goat’s hair, and alpaca, have increased fourfold during the same period. This increase represents the growth of the wool industry in the West Riding, there having been little increase in other parts of the Kingdom. It is probable that “three-fourths of all the wool used in this country is consumed within a radius of fifteen miles from Bradford.” The longer and finer combing wools, including almost all the mohair and alpaca, are manufactured into “worsteds”--stuffs--for which Bradford is the commercial centre. The shorter and coarser felting wools are made into “woollens”--cloths--of which Leeds and Huddersfield are the most important producers; others are used at Halifax and Kidderminster for carpets, and also at Leicester for hosiery.

Previous to 1837, when alpaca and mohair were imported from Peru and Asia Minor respectively for use as textile fibres, no specific disease had been associated with wool. Ten years afterwards, owing to recurring deaths of sorters, a suspicion arose that these materials were in some way or other the cause of the peculiar, rapid, and fatal illness which became known as “wool-sorter’s disease.” When these sudden deaths followed each other at several months’ interval they did not attract much attention, but when sorters died within a few weeks from a similar and unusual disease, the workpeople became alarmed, and their fears were increased when no reasonable explanation could be given as to the nature of the illness, its prevention or its cure. In the hope of solving the mystery, many post-mortem examinations of the bodies of wool-sorters were made by leading medical men in the large towns of the West-Riding, and the suspected materials and dust arising from these were submitted to experts for microscopical examination and chemical analysis. These investigations and reports extended over more than thirty years without arriving at a satisfactory explanation. In 1877 a case of this disease came under the writer’s observation; the man was apparently well in the morning on leaving home for work, and died seventeen hours after the first feeling of illness. It was evident that this fatal collapse without pain or distress was not from any well-known disease. In 1879, when visiting such a patient--who died twelve hours afterwards--he took some blood from the arm, and within a few minutes two or three drops of it were injected under the lumbar skin of a rabbit, a guinea-pig, and a mouse respectively. The animals died within sixty hours, and the blood of each showed the presence of bacilli. Another animal was inoculated with the blood from one of these, and it died in a shorter time. The fluids from this animal were found to be crowded with the bacillus anthracis, and the disease was recognised to be anthrax. (Lancet, vol. ii., 1879, pp. 920, 959.)

Anthrax is a contagious disease, and of the widest distribution. It readily attacks most wool-bearing animals, and is found in all countries, being very prevalent on the Continent of Europe, in Asia, South Africa, and South America, and occurring less commonly in the United Kingdom, North Africa, North America, and Australasia. The incidence of anthrax among animals in Great Britain varies very much, some counties having no outbreak year after year, while from others it is never absent. It is most prevalent in the West-Riding, and the counties of Leicester, Northampton, and Norfolk, in all of which foreign wool, hair, hides, or other animal products are used in industrial processes. The number of sheep and lambs in Great Britain in 1900 was 28,000,000, and the number reported to the Board of Agriculture to have died from anthrax during the year was 40. For 1899 the number of deaths was 69. The risk of infection from home-grown and colonial wools is so slight that it may be disregarded. The most noxious wools are those from foreign countries where anthrax is prevalent, the wool being dry, dusty, of low quality, and having very little “yolk.” (Yolk is a peculiar unctuous substance, chiefly consisting of a potash soap which pervades the wool and protects the animal from the effects of rain and cold; it also nourishes the wool, rendering it soft, oily, and pliable.) It is equal in weight to 7 or 8 per cent. of the “raw” fleece. Alpaca, mohair, camel’s hair, Persian, and inferior dry Eastern wools have very little yolk, and are dangerous to handle if they contain “fallen fleeces.” The greater amount of yolk or grease in South American and other foreign wools appears to fix the anthrax spores, and renders the wool almost innocuous to the sorters.

The essential cause of anthrax is a micro-organism, the Bacillus anthracis, the spores of which can only produce their specific effect when they gain access to the circulating blood by way of the skin, the lungs, or the stomach; hence there are three types of the disease: the cutaneous, the pulmonary, and the intestinal.

1. Cutaneous Anthrax.--This presents two varieties, viz., malignant pustule and erysipelatous anthrax. The malignant pustule was first noticed in England in 1854, and recorded in 1863. It must have occurred frequently in the Bradford Worsted District for more than thirty years before it was diagnosed as anthrax in 1880. This form of cutaneous anthrax in wool-workers is very much the same as that which appears in hide-dressers and others.

Erysipelatous anthrax, of which œdematous anthrax is a milder manifestation, has, until recently, escaped recognition in this country. It was first noticed by Bourgeois in Provence, France, in 1834, and his observations were published in 1843. He wrote afterwards a very complete account of it in his book on La Pustule Maligne et L’Œdème Malin, 1861. Subsequent writers have been almost entirely indebted to this author for their statements.

Symptoms.--Bourgeois says: “It begins as a pale swelling, soft and without pain. It is only after several days, and when more fully developed, that vesicles and eschars form, notably on the eyelids, but at the onset the skin is smooth and has no trace of a pimple.” The local symptoms are the extensive œdema, in slight cases, without redness, vesication, or eschar; in severe cases, with redness, vesication, and a gangrenous appearance of the skin. The general symptoms are of a negative character; there may be no pain, no distress, and no fever. Even in fatal cases these are not very marked.

Diagnosis.--The appearance of the patient is so like that of one with ordinary erysipelas that the differences might easily be overlooked, were it not that there is so little constitutional disturbance. The absence of injury, pain, and fever will distinguish it from acute emphysematous gangrene. The only proof, however, is the finding of the characteristic bacillus in the blood or fluids by cultures and physiological tests.

Prognosis.--This form of anthrax is stated to be much more fatal than malignant pustule; of seven cases seen by the writer, three were fatal.

CASE.--J. G., æt. 29, a willower of low class wools, had been ailing several days when visited on 12th March 1899. The right upper eyelid was greatly swollen, red, and hard, there were several vesicles, nearly the size of kidney beans, which contained a clear gelatinous, straw-coloured serum; pulse 88, temperature 100.5°. March 13th, neither eye could be opened, the right ear was doubled on itself, the scalp pitted on pressure, and he was slightly delirious; pulse 76, temperature 101.8°. March 14th, other vesicles on the cheek, much swelling of submaxillary glands and neck; pulse 88, temperature 101.8°. After a few days, black eschars appeared on the eyelids, the swelling subsided, and he was convalescent. March 17th, pulse 72, temperature 98.9°. Serum taken on 12th March for cultivation yielded positive results.

2. Pulmonary Anthrax.--“Wool-sorters’ Disease.”--From the year 1846, when this disease was first noticed in the neighbourhood of Bradford, to 1877, it had not been known to attack other persons than the sorters of alpaca and mohair. In subsequent years it was found that camel’s hair, Persian, and other dry, dusty, low class foreign wools, were also infective; and further, that any person might be attacked if exposed to the inhalation of anthrax spores in dust arising from the products of dead animals.

Symptoms.--The absence of troublesome symptoms is very remarkable. There may be no rigor, pain, cough, vomiting, purging, or other distressful conditions. Even when dying, the patient may not feel particularly ill. In ordinary cases, at the commencement, there is a chilliness or slight shivering, the tongue is moist and thinly coated, thirst is present, and the appetite indifferent, with some nausea and uneasiness at the stomach; vomiting is common (if this is only at the commencement it is not of much moment, but if persistent or commencing after two or three days it is of serious import, indicating the extension of the disease to the stomach and bowels.) The lungs are always affected, although sometimes only slightly. Nearly all patients have a feeling of tightness, weight, and oppression about the chest, which embarrasses the breathing. Cough is generally present, but never very troublesome; in one-third of the cases it was absent, or very slight. In most there is no expectoration, but in mixed cases, which continue over five days, there is some, which is occasionally rusty coloured. The purer the infection, however, the less likely is there to be any pneumonia. There is a dusky, leaden hue, with coldness of face, ears, and fingers in the collapse stage. Percussion sounds are generally clear; occasionally there is some dulness, mostly at the base of the right lung; the respiratory sounds are feeble and almost inaudible on this side, with some sibilant sounds; moist bronchial râles may be present later on, but rarely crepitations. In cases where no dulness on percussion was detected a few hours before death, not unfrequently a considerable quantity of fluid has been found in the pleural spaces at the post-mortem examination. In the early stage the pulse may not differ from the normal as regards frequency; later it is small, feeble, irregular, uncountable, and out of keeping with the apparent slight character of the illness. The heart’s sounds are also very weak and may be inaudible. In most cases the mind keeps clear to the end; in some with cerebral lesions, there are struggling, convulsions, and coma. The skin is always moist and often bathed with perspiration. The temperature seldom reaches 103°; when more than this, the infection is mixed, causing septic pneumonia. Generally the temperature is from 3° to 5° higher in the rectum than in the axilla. As the illness advances, the temperature falls. The urine is scanty and high-coloured. In one case the sp. gr. was 1040. In several cases albumin was found, in one equal to two-thirds of the quantity of urine in the test-tube. Sugar is also occasionally present.

The cases clinically arrange themselves into three classes: (1) Rapid, in which death takes place within two days, from collapse without any reaction. (2) Ordinary, in which the initial depression is followed by reaction and death within four days. (3) Prolonged cases, in which there is pneumonia from mixed infection, and death after the fourth day.

Duration of Illness.--Number of cases fatal within--

1 day 2 days 3 days 4 days 5 days 10 days over 10 days Total 5 19 19 16 7 7 2 75

Diagnosis.--In a rapid case this is easy; the patient when first visited is seen to be dying from continued uncomplicated collapse, which if there has been exposure to infection should not be mistaken for any other disease. In ordinary cases during the first two days diagnosis is impossible, the symptoms are not severe, and are such as are met with in common ailments; it is only when the illness becomes more pronounced by the patient’s strength and his heart failing without other sufficient reason that a diagnosis may be made. In prolonged cases the uncertainty is still greater; the pleuritic and pneumonic conditions mask the purely anthrax symptoms so much, that it is only by a post-mortem examination that the true nature of the illness can be known.

Prognosis.--In all cases this is unfavourable; symptoms are unreliable; what appears to be nothing more than ordinary catarrh in a person who has been exposed to anthrax infection may suddenly terminate fatally from heart failure. In the more prolonged cases, which are mixed with septic pneumonia, death may occur unexpectedly. It is probable that many cases of pulmonary infection recover; such cases have been reported, but in none has the diagnosis been confirmed by exact experimental methods.

Incubation.--The period of incubation is uncertain. The exact time of infection cannot be fixed as in cases of traumatic cutaneous anthrax. No case of pulmonary anthrax has been recorded which was due to only one exposure to infection. Sorters of noxious materials may work exposed to the risk of infection almost daily for years without any noticeable effect from it. It is only when the virus gains access to the blood stream through some accidentally open gateway that serious illness follows. Judging from what takes place in cutaneous cases we may presume that when the spores pass the respiratory epithelial barrier they will produce some local specific effect within twenty-four hours. Infective material may be present on the skin or the mucous membranes several days before it gains access to the blood and produces any noticeable effect.

Pathological Changes: External.--The appearance of the body twenty-four hours after death varies considerably. The discoloration of decomposition appears very soon, attended with more than the usual lividity, which is not confined to the posterior surface of the body. The face is sometimes very much swollen and discoloured. The cellular tissue of the neck and upper part of the chest may be distended, gangrenous-looking, and emphysematous. In many cases the cause of death may be surmised from the external appearance of the body alone; in other cases there is no unusual discoloration excepting that the tips of the fingers are cyanosed. Between these two conditions there is every gradation of external appearances. Internal.--On cutting the skin of the chest where it is much discoloured serum and air bubbles escape. The muscles are dark coloured. On removing the sternum the cellular tissue beneath is sometimes emphysematous; more frequently there is much gelatinous œdema and occasionally it has been seen infiltrated with blood. The pleural spaces almost invariably contain a large quantity of clear straw-coloured serum, generally more on the right side. Gelatinous infiltration under the serous covering of the lungs and between the lobes may be one inch in thickness without any plastic inflammatory exudation. On section the lungs are seen to be engorged with dark-coloured blood, some portions being more solid than others, and of a blacker red colour. It is not uncommon to find infarcts of blood in the parenchyma of the lungs, and these in prolonged cases may have broken down and become purulent. The bronchial glands are enlarged, and more so on the right side; the mass may be the size of a hen’s egg. The trachea and bronchial tubes contain frothy blood-stained mucus; the mucous membrane is claret-coloured and swollen, and beneath it are frequently small infarcts of blood. The connective tissue at the root of the lungs and base of the heart is sometimes œdematous and extensively infiltrated with blood. The pericardium, epicardium, and endocardium frequently show subserous petechial spots, and the pericardial fluid may be increased to five or six ounces. The blood is nearly always fluid and of a dark, almost black colour. The heart may be empty or contain fluid blood in all its cavities. The colour of its lining membrane varies from a pale cherry red to dark chocolate. The abdomen does not contain much fluid unless the intestines have been involved, when the quantity may be from two to four pints. The gelatinous œdema is sometimes very considerable in the mesentery and the cellular tissue surrounding the kidneys. Extravasated blood in small or large quantities is also seen in a few cases in the mesentery or in the connective tissue around the kidneys. The stomach and intestines frequently show numerous patches of extravasated blood; if these are considerable in size they are seen on both the mucous and serous surfaces. The spleen, like all other organs in this disease, varies very much. It is generally larger than natural, but not unfrequently it is unaltered in size and appearance. The liver and kidneys are less frequently affected than other organs. The brain is occasionally completely surrounded by blood extravasated between the membranes. Small infarcts are sometimes seen in the cerebral substance. The characteristic changes are: 1. The discoloration of the skin, especially about the neck and upper part of the chest. 2. The gelatinous œdema under the sternum, about the base of the heart, in the mesentery, the omentum, and the adipose tissue around the kidneys. 3. The extravasations of blood, which may be extensive, in the chest, the abdomen, or the head, with smaller hæmorrhagic areas and petechial infarcts in any organ or any part of the body. 4. The serous effusions into the pleura, pericardium, and peritoneum. 5. The dark colour and fluid condition of the blood. Many coarse changes are present in every case, but no single lesion is found in all cases. There may be no unusual discoloration of the skin, no gelatinous œdema, no large or numerous small extravasations of blood, or even serous effusions, but one or more of these in various degrees is always present.

3. Intestinal Anthrax.--Only one case of primary intestinal anthrax has been observed in wool-workers, and that recently. A wool-sorter, aged 29, on leaving work felt weak and as if he had a lump at the stomach. The following day he was sick and restless; on the third day the pulse was 86, temperature 99.2°; on the fourth day brown-coloured blood was vomited, and several tar-like stools were passed. Thirteen hours before death he was in a collapsed condition; pulse 112, small and almost uncountable; respiration 26. The lungs were not involved. Duration of illness, 4½ days.

Distribution of the Bacilli.--These are found in the swollen mucous membrane of the trachea and larger bronchi, being most numerous in the neighbourhood of small hæmorrhages, and only a few in the lung tissue. The gelatinous serum never contains large numbers. The serum from the chest and abdomen, being a pure cultivation fluid, generally contains large numbers of bacilli of shorter or longer lengths. Bacilli are very unequally distributed throughout the body; they may not be found in the spleen, but in the fluids and tissues near pathological lesions.

Inoculations of rodents with blood taken from a patient twelve hours before death does not always produce fatal anthrax, a result which is inevitable if the blood be taken two or three hours before the event, even if on microscopical examination it gives no evidence of containing bacilli. Inoculations with gelatinous and pleural serum taken within twenty-four hours after death may have no effect on rodents, but generally they are fatal. All fluids and tissues which are fresh and contain the characteristic bacilli give rise to anthrax when inoculated into the blood stream of susceptible animals, but if not used for two or three days this effect may not follow.

Preventive Measures.--Noxious wools of foreign origin sometimes include “fallen fleeces,” which are easily recognised; these should be picked out, classed apart, and disinfected by steam.

The Precautionary Regulations agreed upon at Bradford in 1884 were adopted by the Home Office in 1899, and have the force of legal enactments. They provide that bales of alpaca, pelitan, cashmere, Persian and camel’s hair, shall be opened over a dust-extracting fan, so arranged that the current of air shall draw the dust away from any workman in the room. Badly-damaged wool or hair, van mohair, “fallen fleeces,” and foreign skin wool shall be damped with a disinfectant, and then washed without being put through any dust-extracting machine. The dust collected by the willows or other dust-extracting machine from the open boards--wire-work--shall not be discharged into the open air; it shall be removed weekly and afterwards burnt. No person having any open cut or sore upon any part of the body shall be allowed to attend to any willow or dust-extracting machine. No bale of wool or hair shall be stored in a dust-extracting room. Requisites for slight wounds shall be kept at hand. Appliances for washing shall be provided for the workers in the warehouse and dust-extracting rooms. No meals shall be taken in the willowing or carding room. These regulations have had a beneficial effect in reducing the number of cases of anthrax, but they are not sufficient to eradicate the disease. If bales of noxious wool or hair were placed in steamers, and submitted to a steam pressure of six pounds to the square inch--230° F.--for a few hours, all bacteria would be destroyed. Such a regulation should be enforced wherever noxious wools or hairs are used in the United Kingdom.

Treatment.--It is to be regretted that in such a fatal disease so little can be done in the way of treatment. The progress of the illness is often so rapid that before a diagnosis can be determined the patient is in a hopeless condition. If the patient is seen before any signs of collapse are apparent, perhaps the inhalation of non-toxic germicides in the form of spray, and the intravenous injections of these may give the best chances of success. We may look forward with confidence to the time when we shall be able to treat the disease more successfully by antitoxines; hitherto these have been used only in external cases.

JOHN HENRY BELL.

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XLIV. RAGS AND THEIR PRODUCTS IN RELATION TO HEALTH

_Rag-Sorting, Rag-Grinding, Shoddy, Mungo, Flocks, Carbonising or Wool-Extracting_

Rags may be roughly divided into two distinct kinds: (1) cotton and linen rags; (2) woollen and partly woollen rags. The former are almost entirely used by the paper-maker, the latter by the cloth manufacturer. It is with the second section that I am here chiefly concerned. Rags, as a matter of fact, seem to cause little or no infectious disease to those who work among them, except in the case of cotton and linen rags used in papermaking, which have been a frequent source of smallpox infection. It may be stated that little or no infectious disease is introduced among the workers by woollen rags. Woollen rags are of two kinds: (1) soft rags, and (2) Mungo rags. Soft rags are largely drawn from Scotland. Such rags as stockings, white flannels, stuffs, carpets, etc., are included in the term “soft rags.” The “Mungo rag” is of two sorts, the “old and the new”: the old, derived from coats, vests, trousers, caps, etc., the “new” from clippings of army cloth, and tailors’ shreds, etc. The wide world is laid under contribution by the rag merchants. Walter White, in his Month in Yorkshire, says of Batley:--“Hither were brought tatters from pediculous Poland, from the gipsies of Hungary, from the peasants and scarecrows of Germany, from the frowsy peasants of Muscovy, to say nothing of snips and shreds of monks’ gowns and lawyers’ robes, from postillions’ jackets and soldiers’ uniforms, from maidens’ bodices and noblemen’s cloaks. A vast medley, truly, and all to be manufactured into broadcloth in Yorkshire.” Sir George Head, in his Home Tour, also alludes to Batley and the shoddy trade. This quotation gives one a good idea of where rags come from. Rags are collected by travelling tinkers, etc., and by marine store dealers, and by them transmitted to rag merchants, who sort them out into different lots according as they are (1) soft, and (2) Mungo rags. All linings and seams are removed by the sorters. All rags are sorted over what is called a riddle, through which the dust falls, at least a part of it. Rag sorters only sit down when seaming.

Effects of Rag-Sorting on Health.--People who sort rags are occasionally bronchitic and asthmatic from the dust which rises from them, but I have seldom met with this condition in rag sorters, although I have known individuals who had to wear respirators when sorting. In the case of very dirty rags derived from dust heaps, rags which have been exposed to rain in many cases, it is probable that after drying, the dust would be of a septic character, and might induce sore throat. Rags from surgical hospitals are decidedly dangerous. Most persons who work as sorters are infested with fleas, which simply swarm among the rags, especially the Mungo variety. Sorters are mostly females, and they have sometimes to help to crane up bales of rags into warehouses. This frequently produces prolapse of the womb and other uterine displacements. It is certainly not suitable work for women. If infection ever breaks out among rag-sorters, it generally attacks them when a bale is first opened. It is a desideratum that all rags, whether of foreign or home origin, should be subjected to disinfection by heat before being opened, and this can be effectually accomplished, even in the tightly packed bales from abroad. This would have the virtue of destroying fleas, while disinfecting the bales.

Rag-Grinding.--This process is accomplished by means of a swift which is really a drum, studded with sharp teeth, which are set very close for grinding cloth, and more openly for the transformation of soft rags, such as stockings, flannels, etc. These swifts perform six or seven hundred revolutions per minute, and the rags are metamorphosed into a soft, fluffy, woolly mass. Oil is largely used in this process. This prevents dust.

The dust which rises from rag machines consists of particles of wool and also of filth adherent to the various kinds of rags. It is highly irritating to all the respiratory passages, especially in those who are novices at the trade, but older hands become inured to it, and tolerate it well. A train of symptoms is developed, called “shoddy fever.” It is accompanied by high fever, with nasal catarrh and frontal headache, and a certain amount of bronchial catarrh. It is ushered in by shivering, malaise, and general muscular pain. It is almost indistinguishable from epidemic influenza, and if treated on similar lines, recovery is soon secured. The only difference is, that the catarrhal symptoms are the result of local irritation, and, consequently, when that is removed, the febrile condition soon subsides. Shoddy fever is easily induced in persons who have been out of the mill for a few weeks and return to work, in persons suffering from general catarrh, or in habitual drunkards.

What is known as shoddy is produced from soft rags, and Mungo from cloth rags. Flocks of the commoner kind are manufactured from a variety of raw material, the refuse of the shoddy trade, while the superior qualities are manufactured from a better raw material. For the former, the seams of woollen cloth rags, and heavy linsey (mixed wool and cotton), such as old dresses, and a variety of other materials, are used. The lowest class of flocks are made from old carpets with a backing of hemp or other vegetable fibre. Flocks are used for stuffing beds and articles of furniture. The raw material is separated in a similar manner as in the manufacture of shoddy and Mungo, only in flock-making the teeth are shorter and not so sharp. When a shoddy machine is worn out, it is sometimes used for flock-making.

Carbonising.--This process is applied to rags which have a certain amount of cotton in them. The cotton is carbonised by means of either sulphuric or hydrochloric acid. The former acid is used in a wet process, the rags being steeped in a somewhat diluted sulphuric acid, at a temperature of 160° to 190° F., then rinsed in water, and dried in a stove. In the second or dry process, the rags are heated for some hours in an atmosphere of hydrochloric acid gas. By these means the cotton fibre is destroyed, and when the rags are beaten it flies off as a powdery dust, probably glucose, which is very inflammable, and often causes explosions. The above process is also styled “extracting,” i.e. extracting the wool from fabrics composed of cotton warp, and worsted or woollen weft.

Are these various processes inimical to health? Shoddy fever has been already considered. Flock fever is also a condition of the flock manufacture. Upholsterers, working with flocks, are occasionally sufferers from the dust. A few of the workers in shoddy mills suffer from bronchitis and emphysema of the lungs, but those who do so are the older men who began to work before so much oil was used with the rags. The dust is also apt to combine with the wax in the ears and plug them, as is the case in any dusty occupation. Granular inflammation of the eyelids is also occasionally seen among rag grinders. Acne is common through plugging of the sebaceous ducts. Carbonising occasionally causes bronchitis and emphysema. Workers in carbonising mills state that it is quite the exception for men to be off ill. In one mill which I visited, no worker had been off work for more than two days, and the mills had been in existence upwards of five years. The glucose product from carbonised rags subjected to the “shaking” process is highly inflammable, and severe burns are occasioned by the explosion of it in the air. These are generally due to carelessness.

Recommendations.--Dr Parsons, in the Annual Report of the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board (Dr George Buchanan) for 1885, recommends: (1) vaccination and re-vaccination of rag workers; (2) ventilation, cleanliness, and avoidance of dust in rag factories; (3) disinfection or purification of rags, preferably in the bale. Disinfection of rags is at present not very satisfactory, as the steam used for disinfection in the bale condenses and ruins the stock. Many men in the trade say that no disinfection is necessary, as infection seldom or never comes from woollen rags.

JOHN A. E. STUART.

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