| | | |TOTAL |Death-rate|
| | | DEATHS FROM |DEATHS | per 1000 |
| | | |FROM | Members. |
| | +----+----+---------+----+----+---------+----------+
| | | | | | | | |Per |Per |
| | | | | | | | |col.|col. |
| | No. of | | | | | | | 9. | 10. |
| ||Members.| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J |
+-----------------------+---------+---------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+
| 1894. =1= | =2= | =3=| =4=| =5=| =6=| =7=| =8=| =9=|=10=|=11=|=12= |
|Half-year ended June 30| 12,417 | 61| 7 | 2 | 21 | ...| 2 | 30 | 23 | ...| ... |
| „ „ Dec. 29| 12,544 | 46| 2 | 2 | 11 | ...| 1 | 15 | 12 | ...| ... |
| +---------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- +
| Whole year {| 12,480 |}107| 9 | 4 | 32 | ...| 3 | 45 | 35 | 3.6| 2.8 |
| {|(average)|} | | | | | | | | | |
| +=========+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+=====+
| 1895. | | | | | | | | | | |
|Half-year ended June 29| 13,378 | 78| 6 | 9 | 23 | ...| 6 | 38 | 29 | ...| ... |
| „ „ Dec. 28| 13,593 | 65| 6 | 5 | 16 | ...| 3 | 27 | 19 | ...| ... |
| +---------+----+----+----+----+---------+----+----+----+-----+
| Whole year {| 13,485 |}143| 12 | 14 | 39 | ...| 9 | 65 | 48 | 4.8| 3.6 |
| {|(average)|} | | | | | | | | | |
| +=========+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+=====+
| 1896. | | | | | | | | | | | |
|Half-year ended June 27| 13,673 | 75| 5 | 7 | 17 | ...| 2 | 29 | 19 | ...| ... |
| „ „ Dec. 26| 13,906 | 68| 2 | 8 | 26 | ...| 1 | 36 | 27 | ...| ... |
| +---------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+
| Whole year {| 13,784 |}143| 7 | 15 | 43 | ...| 3 | 65 | 46 | 4.7| 3.3 |
| {|(average)|} | | | | | | | | | |
| +=========+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+=====+
| 1897. | | | | | | | | | | | |
|Half-year ended June 26| 13,862 | 82| 6 | 8 | 19 | ...| 4 | 33 | 23 | ...| ... |
| „ „ Dec. 25| 14,405 | 54| 4 | 2 | 21 | ...| 1 | 27 | 22 | ...| ... |
| +---------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+
| Whole year {| 14,133 |}136| 10 | 10 | 40 | ...| 5 | 60 | 45 | 4.2| 3.2 |
| {|(average)|} | | | | | | | | | |
| +=========+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+=====+
| 1898. | | | | | | | | | | | |
|Half-year ended June 25| 14,602 | 77| 5 | 3 | 22 | ...| 2 | 30 | 24 | ...| ... |
| „ „ Dec. 31| 15,075 | 69| 5 | 1 | 19 | ...| 1 | 25 | 20 | ...| ... |
| +---------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+
| Whole year {| 14,838 |}146| 10 | 4 | 41 | ...| 3 | 55 | 44 | 3.7| 3.0 |
| {|(average)|} | | | | | | | | | |
| +=========+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+=====+
| 1899. | | | | | | | | | | |
|Half-year ended June 24| 15,393 | 78| 7 | 6 | 23 | ...| 3 | 36 | 26 | ...| ... |
| „ „ Dec. 30| 15,854 | 99| 2 | 13 | 39 | ...| 4 | 54 | 43 | ...| ... |
| +---------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+
| Whole year {| 15,623 |}177| 9 | 19 | 62 | ...| 7 | 90 | 69 | 5.8| 4.4 |
| {|(average)|} | | | | | | | | | |
| +=========+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+=====+
+-----------------------+---------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+
| Average for 6 years | 4.5| 3.4 |
+=========================================================================+====+=====+
LONDON SOCIETY OF COMPOSITORS.
+----------+--------+-----+----+----+----+-----+----+----+----+-----+-----+
|Year 1897 | 10,780 | 126 | 13 | 10 | 33 | ... | 11 | 56 | 44 | 5.2 | 4.0 |
| „ 1898 | 11,079 | 141 | 10 | 5 | 40 | 1 | 11 | 56 | 51 | 5.0 | 4.6 |
| „ 1899 | 11,415 | 132 | 11 | 9 | 28 | 1 | 7 | 49 | 35 | 4.3 | 3.0 |
+----------+--------+-----+----+----+----+-----+----+----+----+-----+-----+
| Average for 3 years | 4.8 | 3.9 |
| | | === |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+-----+-----+
| ENGLAND AND WALES.--_Per 1000 Population (1881–90)._ |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+-----+
| Mean Annual Death-rate of male persons, 20–65 years of age 4.5 | 1.8 |
| | === |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+-----+
In thus expounding the subject of lead poisoning in printers, I have
rather drawn attention to dangers that were more common in the past
than exist at present, for, fortunately in this country at least,
plumbism among compositors is very much on the wane. It is seldom that
we meet with cases of printer’s colic in these days, owing very largely
to the change in the method of printing newspapers. Until recently
the printing of newspapers was done by ordinary type, the compositor
setting the type by touch and not by sight. He quickly picked out the
required letters, deftly inserting the nail of his thumb into the
groove on one side of the type. It was through these operations that
the skin of the fingers became thickened, and lead dust got under his
finger nails. Having set and printed the paper, he had to take up,
wash the type in lye, and subsequently distribute it, _i.e._, put
each type back into its proper place. The distribution of the type
required even more care than the setting of it, for a type wrongly
distributed became a source of future trouble. Printing by hand type
is rapidly on the decline, and is being replaced by stereotyping and
linotyping. For newspaper printing there are now several fast printing
machines in existence. Stereotyping has made it possible to print from
a stamped cylinder without making direct use of the individual type.
Endless rolls of paper, too, feed the printing machines. As many as
10,000 thirty-two page periodicals can be thrown off in an hour, but by
perfecting the apparatus, as in Hoe’s machine, as many as 24,000 are
capable of being thrown off in an hour. It is in typesetting machines
with automatic distribution that the greatest progress has been
made. The Merganthaler linotype machine, which is used for newspaper
printing, produces and gathers in order successive bars of metal, each
of the required length and breadth of a line, and bearing on its upper
surface the type which prints the line. In the machine are small brass
matrices, representing the different letters, etc. When the operator
presses a finger-key on the board in front of him a single matrix
bearing the required letter falls out of the magazine, and is carried
to the assembling block, where the various matrices are set up, side by
side, in a line or row. Subsequently these are transported to the face
of a vertical mould wheel. Into the face of the mould molten type-metal
is pumped, and thus a slug or linotype is produced. As the formation of
the slugs is effected automatically, the operator does not handle the
metal, consequently plumbism is rare, only two cases of lead poisoning
in linotypists appearing in the Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of
Factories for 1899, and four in 1900.
The new methods of printing have certainly diminished the numbers
of cases of lead poisoning among printers, but the introduction of
linotyping is losing us, as a people, an art. No person contends that,
for finish, linotyped printing is equal to that obtained by hand-set
type. Except for book-printing, in which the letters stand out boldly
and clearly, and which as a trade is being relegated to a few towns,
stereotyping and linotyping are in our own country rapidly eliminating
typography. Since this is unavoidable, it is to be hoped that
linotyping will yet further improve, for badly-printed newspapers are
trying to the eyes. On the Continent most of the small newspapers are
still printed by hand-set type, and consequently lead poisoning among
printers is more prevalent there than here.
Compositors working the linotype machine run little risk of lead
poisoning if they keep themselves and the workrooms clean. In
linotypists the danger is not in handling the metal, for the need of
doing this is rare; it is rather through inhalation of the fumes of
the molten lead or from oxidation of lead particles that are lying
about on the machine and floor. I have met with a few cases of colic
in linotypists, but the attacks of pain have been mild and much more
quickly got over than in compositors who use the ordinary type. In
some, too, I have observed some of the milder derangements of the
nervous system, mostly functional, that are the result of plumbism.
_Plumbing._
Plumbers are not a long-lived class. They suffer from lead poisoning
in consequence of handling sheet-lead, pipes made from the same metal,
also from working with white lead. They often complain of a sweet
metallic taste in the mouth during the beating of the lead and the
application of solder.
Gasfitters and plumbers run the risk of being poisoned also in another
manner, to which allusion may be incidentally made here. When making
the necessary connections between the pipes going into the houses and
the mains, the gas in the latter is not shut off on account of its
requirement by consumers. As a consequence of exposure to coal gas
escaping from the main pipes, the workmen occasionally become dizzy
and unconscious, lose their eyesight for several minutes, as well as
the muscular power of their limbs. They have to be removed by their
fellow-workmen, who often administer an emetic of salt and water when
consciousness has sufficiently returned to enable them to swallow. The
vomited matter smells strongly of coal gas. The symptoms are known as
“gassing” by the workmen. In some of the men who have thus suffered I
have found that complete muscular power had not returned to the limbs
three months after the accident, that the knee-jerks were exaggerated,
and that the patients were nervous and the subject of tremor. Albumen
or sugar may be temporarily present in the urine.
_House Painting._
House painting is a prolific cause of plumbism. Dr Stühler, of
Berlin, who obtained his facts from benefit societies, states that
of 3000 painters in Berlin 313 or 10.4 per cent. were annually off
work from the effects of lead poisoning. In Paris, Gautier found that
out of 14,000 painters and varnishers 250 on an average attended the
hospitals on account of plumbism, and that an equal number was treated
at home, making a total percentage of 3.5. Of late the admissions
into the hospitals of cases of lead poisoning have been increasing
notwithstanding the regulations issued by the French Government, and
the fact that the patients coming from white lead works have been
getting fewer. This circumstance is explained by other industries
sending more patients than formerly, and of these industries house
painting has contributed the largest number. During the years 1894–98
this trade alone, and colour-grinding, contributed 223 patients,
while white lead works only sent 4, and the occupation of plumbing 22.
Of 86 fatal cases of lead poisoning in Paris during the five years
mentioned, 43 occurred in painters, 2 in plumbers, and only 1 in a
white lead worker. In consequence of the large amount of plumbism that
prevails among house painters in Paris, it is Gautier’s contention that
the occupation should be brought under closer Government supervision.
The same remark applies equally to the trade in our own country. Lead
poisoning among house painters is much more prevalent than people
imagine. Taking a few monthly reports at random, there were 12 cases of
plumbism in house painters (with 1 death) reported to the Home Office
during the month of June 1900; in the month of November 1900 there
were reported 11 cases of lead poisoning (including 2 deaths) among
house painters and plumbers, and in the following month 14 cases of
lead poisoning (including 4 deaths) in house painters and plumbers.
During 1900 there were 199 cases of lead poisoning in house painters
and plumbers reported to the Home Office. These figures show that if
Saturnine poisoning in house painting was notifiable, both it and
plumbing would be found to be trades that are the cause of a great
amount of sickness, of which at the present time we hear very little.
During the year 1899 upwards of 100 cases of lead poisoning were
notified, while from district registrars information was received of 18
fatal cases of plumbism attributed to the occupation of house painting.
Notification of lead poisoning in house painters is not compulsorily
required by the Home Office. Cases of industrial lead poisoning, also
arsenic, phosphorus, mercury, and cases of anthrax, are obliged to be
reported to the Chief Inspector of Factories by the medical men who
attend the patients, and by employers, but an exception is made in
regard to house painting, one of the reasons being that as painters
pursue their avocation largely in the open air and in houses away from
the employer’s premises, it is difficult to say where the poisoning
was contracted. Industrial lead poisoning to be notifiable to the Home
Office must have occurred in places that are controlled by the Factory
and Workshop Acts. When a painter, who is following his occupation in
a factory or workshop and is engaged in grinding or mixing colours,
develops lead poisoning, the illness has to be notified. As the Act
stands at present, the Home Office cannot deal with certain forms of
industrial lead poisoning, nor have the factory inspectors power to
enforce improved conditions of labour. In view of house painting being
ultimately brought under _Special Rules_, it is very desirable
that all cases of sickness in house painters and deaths from plumbism
should be reported. To the ordinary medical practitioner, who has been
informed that he must report all cases of occupational lead poisoning
coming under his care, it is embarrassing for him to draw a distinction
between lead poisoning caught by one man filling a barrel with dry
lead carbonate in a workroom, and another man who uses this as a paint
in decorating the interior of a house or shop, and yet while the
former is notifiable, the latter is not, although the same cause is in
operation in both. The sphere of Home Office influence ought therefore
to be extended so as to include house painting, and this might be done
under the Act that allows the Home Secretary on sufficient evidence to
schedule a trade as dangerous.
There are several ways in which painters and colour-mixers become
the victims of lead poisoning. The men who grind or mix the colours
run the risk of inhaling the dust. Unless this process is carried on
either in closed spaces or in airy and well-ventilated rooms, the
atmosphere becomes thick and can only be cleared by means of a fan.
In this country there are, excluding house painters, upwards of 6000
persons employed in the manufacture, mixing, and grinding of paints and
colours. Of 48 cases of plumbism that occurred among these persons in
1899, 30 were grinders and 7 of them packers.
For the purposes of house painting, the pigments are generally
mixed with oil and a turpentine body. It has sometimes been thought
that the lead poisoning of painters is due to the inhalation of the
terebinthated vapour that rises from the painted surface. That this
is a possible source is shown by the outbreaks of “belly ache,” or
_colique sèche_, that occurred a few years ago in the Tropics,
and played sad havoc with the sailors of the French Navy. For a long
period the nature of the illness was not recognised. It was thought
by some to be a neurosis of the abdominal sympathetic nervous system,
and due to chill, while other physicians regarded it as a form of
malarial disease. Lefèvre, the Director of the Naval Sanitary Board
at Brest, ultimately gave it as his opinion that “the _colique
sèche_ of the French Navy is nothing more than lead poisoning,
and the reason why colic was more frequent among French sailors than
those of other countries was due to the fact that lead entered more
into the construction of their ships of war. It formed the tanks for
holding the drinking water and the pipes for carrying the water;
it was present in the paint of the cabins, in the enamel of the
drinking-cups, and in the cooking utensils.” Out of this number of
possible causes some of the cases of _colique sèche_ might have
been due to sleeping in cabins newly painted with lead compounds,
although drinking contaminated water would be the more probable cause.
A common cause of lead poisoning in house painters is inhalation of
the fume evolved during the burning-off of old paint. When engaged for
long at this kind of work the men complain of headache, nausea, and
occasionally have colicky pains in the abdomen. There is yet another
manner in which plumbism may develop, and this occurs in finer work,
where several coats of paint have to be applied. After what is called
laying-on of the prime colours and puttying with white lead comes the
flat colouring. When the coats of paint have become dry the workman
is obliged to use sandpaper to rub the surface flat. In doing this a
considerable amount of dust is given off which is rich in white lead.
It is inhalation of this dust that so frequently induces colic and
paralysis of the hands in house painters. Carelessness and ignorance
are frequently contributing causes. Men, while laying-on the white
paint with a flat knife, have often been observed using the hollow of
their left hand as a reservoir for the paint. If there is any erosion
of the skin, absorption of the poison is sure to follow. Layers-on are
an unhealthy class of men. In Paris alone there occurred 18 deaths
during the years 1898 and 1899 in a small union of 200 members, the
greatest age at death being 35 years.
A fresh danger has been recently introduced into house painting. A few
months ago a house painter, aged 40, was admitted into the Newcastle
Infirmary suffering from extreme blueness of the face, lips, ears,
hands and fingers, and from colic. He had also a very blue line on
his gums. The illness was plumbism, but with something superadded. He
had been engaged in removing the varnish and paint from old Venetian
blinds, and had been using a dark brown liquid with a pungent,
penetrating odour, known in the trade as a special patent. During
the process of rubbing and swilling the blinds, and subsequently of
sandpapering them, a strong sickening odour arose, which caused him
to vomit and to have severe headache. The vapour, too, caused him to
become so drowsy that he would almost fall asleep. He would feel giddy,
but had no difficulty in walking, nor was his eyesight affected. The
man was pale as well as blue, he had a haggard expression, and there
was the most marked cyanosis possible. He had colic and constipation.
His internal organs were healthy, including the kidneys. He had marked
tremor of both hands, but no paralysis. It was quite clear that there
was an acute intoxication of some kind or another, over and above lead
poisoning. Several examinations of the urine were made by Dr R. A.
Bolam, who had charge of the patient, with the view of establishing
the nature of the poison. The symptoms reminded me of those observed
in men who are employed in painting ships with quickly-drying spirit
paints. It was thought at first that the symptoms were due to the
presence of aniline oil in the “patent,” or of some chemical akin to
the pyridine group of compounds. The case is an illustration of the
danger incidental to the use of highly volatile, complex, and unstable
chemical compounds whose nature is not quite known, whose effects upon
the human body can only be learnt by experience, and which have for
their object, from a trade point of view, rapid execution of work.
Painters of ships’ cabins suffer from plumbism as much if not more than
house painters, since they are often obliged to work in close, confined
spaces; so, too, do the painters of the back of mirrors, from using red
lead; also painters of agricultural implements, etc.
It is worthy of mention that shipbuilders have found in the red oxide
of iron a cheaper and safer pigment for painting the outside of steel
plates than red lead.
The question as to whether any comparatively harmless substitute for
white lead can be found for house painting is discussed at p. 293,
_q.v._
_Coach Painting._
Lead poisoning in coach and carriage painters is far from being rare.
In the painting of carriages there are often as many as eighteen coats
of paint and varnish applied. Frequently the work is done in rather
close and very ordinarily ventilated places. In Newcastle it is the
practice of large firms of coach makers to give a carriage three coats
of primary paint, six of filling up, three or four of oil colours, two
of varnish colour, _i.e._ oil and varnish mixed, and, finally,
about four coats of varnish. The colours used are white lead, dry and
ground in oil: lampblack, ultramarine, yellow chromes, zinc white, and
others known by particular names in the trade. “Driers” are also used,
such as sugar of lead and terebene. Coach painters become the subjects
of plumbism chiefly through inhaling the dust when sandpapering to
get a good surface. They suffer from colic and wrist-drop. Many of
the cases approach in severity the lead poisoning of file cutters. Dr
Morison Legge states that the percentage of chronic plumbism among
coach painters is greater than among file cutters.
Several cases of plumbism have occurred in the painting of new
carriages, also in the breaking-up and burning of the wood of old
railway carriages. Thirty-four of the cases of plumbism reported during
1900 as having taken place in coachbuilders. occurred in men engaged in
railway shops.
It is almost unnecessary to repeat that in all places where lead paints
are being handled and used, as in workshops, factories, ships and
dockyards, there should be adequate washing accommodation, with plenty
of soap, towels, and nail-brushes, and sufficient time ought to be
given to the men to wash before leaving work.
_Glass Polishing._
After glass and crystal have been cut they have to be polished. The
polishing is generally conducted on a revolving wheel or table made
of wood, and upon which water, containing rouge or putty powder in
suspension, is allowed to drip. When the article to be polished is a
plane surface, _e.g._ a mirror, the wheel is a horizontal one
revolving on a vertical axis. The water containing the rouge or putty
powder escapes by a narrow opening from a conical vessel placed above
the wheel. When finer work is required, _e.g._ the polishing of
wine-glasses, electric-light globes, etc., the water drops on to a hard
brush, which is attached to the external rim of a vertical wheel, from
four to six inches in diameter, running at a high speed and revolving
on a horizontal axis. For this kind of polishing putty powder alone is
used. In some factories the liquid putty powder is fed on to the brush
by a boy; in others the supply, as already mentioned, is automatic.
Several samples of putty powder were sent to the Dangerous Trades
Committee, and subjoined is the analysis of two of them:--
A. B.
Oxide of tin 29.72 per cent. 28.96
Oxide of lead 70.28 „ 68.07
In the very free use of this putty powder, rich in lead, the clothes
and hands of the workers become bespattered by the thick spray thrown
off from the rapidly-revolving wheels. Putty powder administered to
animals in their food causes symptoms of Saturnine poisoning almost
as quickly as white lead. In the evidence given before the Dangerous
Trades Committee there was abundant proof of the extremely harmful
effects of the use of putty powder in glass polishing. Many of the
workers examined had suffered from colic, while others had been obliged
to give up their employment on account of paralysis of the fingers
and hands. It was ascertained that several of the male workers had
died from acute convulsive seizures due to poisoning by lead. Another
point to which attention was drawn was, that plumbism might develop in
workmen in a glass-polishing shop who were not engaged in the actual
process of polishing, and who had therefore not been directly brought
into contact with the putty powder. This was due to the dried liquid
on the floor becoming rubbed and trodden upon, rising as dust into the
atmosphere, and being inhaled by the workmen in the shop.
Putty powder is a frequent cause of lead poisoning. The master
polishers have for years tried to find a substitute for it. In many
factories rouge is used. This is considered by many of the employers
to be innocuous. On analysing rouge powders for the Dangerous Trades
Committee, Professor Thorpe found that they contained commercial
oxide of tin: that in one powder 0.13 per cent. of arsenious acid was
present, and in another a trace of the same substance. Probably not
much danger would follow the use of rouge powders containing such a
mere trace of arsenic, but their employment would not be altogether
free from risk; besides, since it can be shown that the presence of
arsenic is not essential, then it ought to be eliminated altogether.
The difficulty in regard to the use of harmless rouge powders is rather
a technical or industrial question than medical. Do they answer the
purpose as well as putty powder? The Dangerous Trades Committee found
that opinions were much divided upon the point. Some of the glass
polishers stated that rouge did not give such a fine effect, and that
it took a longer time. On the whole, however, the results obtained have
been such as to encourage employers to adopt it more freely. Where
putty powder has been interdicted by the masters and only rouge used,
the health of the workmen has wonderfully improved.
A few years ago M. Geroult proposed to the French glass polishers and
crystal manufacturers, metastannic acid as a partial substitute for the
putty powders that contained a large percentage of lead, and which had
been the cause of several fatal cases of plumbism. The Academy awarded
the Montyon prize to Geroult for his discovery. For the last ten years
the new method has been followed in the glass works of Baccarat, and
has given the most satisfactory results. Dr Schmitt, the surgeon to
the works, says, that since 1891, the date of the substitution of the
new for the old method, there has not been one single case of lead
poisoning among the crystal cutters and glass polishers, nor an acute
attack of plumbism in those workers who had previously suffered from
lead poisoning. Formerly the putty powder contained 62 per cent. of
lead, but in that recommended by Geroult there is only 20 per cent.,
and even with a smaller percentage of lead good manufacturing results
can be obtained.
Glass polishing is one of those trades in which personal cleanliness
of the worker can do a very great deal to prevent plumbism, and,
knowing this, employers ought to provide ample washing accommodation
and appliances; overalls should be worn; no food should be taken into
or eaten in the workshop. All polishing should be conducted as far as
possible in semi-enclosed cupboards, with draught tubes and fans, and
the feeding of the wheels should be done automatically. There ought
also to be frequent periodical medical examination of the workers,
with power to suspend in case of signs of plumbism. These were the
recommendations of the Dangerous Trades Committee, and as one result
of their being put into practice the Medical Inspector of Factories,
in his Report for 1899, says he is satisfied that the introduction of
fans has materially diminished the danger of lead poisoning in the
process of glass polishing. It has, practically speaking, abolished
the bespattering of the workmen’s clothes and the splashing formerly
observed during glass polishing.
_File Cutting._
Hand file cutting, although still giving employment in this country to
a fairly large number of people, is generally stated to be a decaying
industry. This is controverted by Dr John Robertson, Medical Officer of
Health, Sheffield. It is, however, an unhealthy trade. In 1898 there
were 46 cases of lead poisoning reported in file cutters, in 1899 the
number was 41, and in 1900 there were 40 cases. The centre of the
industry is Sheffield, but the manufacture is carried on in London,
Glasgow, Rainhill, and Birmingham. There are upwards of 2000 hand
file cutters in Sheffield alone. In the Annual Report on the health of
the City of Sheffield, 1900, it is stated that there are 2040 persons
engaged in 546 hand file cutting shops. Files can be cut both by hand
and by machinery, but as file cutting by machinery is usually carried
on in modern and well-ventilated factories, this method of manufacture
need not detain us, for it is a healthy occupation, there being no lead
used in the process. It is otherwise with hand file cutting. Seated on
a “stock,” the hand file cutter has in front of him a stone block, into
the centre of which a small piece of bar steel called a “stiddy” is
inserted, and on this stiddy is placed a piece of metallic lead, which
is called the “bed.” The file about to be cut is strapped on to the
bed. The lines that are seen on a file are made by means of a chisel
and hammer, each line representing a blow. The reason for using the
lead bed to strike the file upon is, that while there may be as little
recoil as possible, there shall yet be sufficient resistance to develop
the line in its entirety as a result of the blow given by the hammer
and chisel. As a consequence of constantly striking files of uniform
size a groove comes to be formed on the lead bed, into which succeeding
files easily fit. When he has cut one face of the file, the workman
rubs that side with charcoal, turns it over, and then proceeds to cut
the other side, after which both faces are briskly rubbed. The file
cutter grips the chisel between the index finger and thumb of the left
hand, and in order to get a good grip of the chisel, he often licks
his finger. A good deal of strain is experienced by the fingers in a
day’s work. The steel hammer used by a cutter generally weighs from
7½ to 9 lbs., and as each line on a file represents one stroke of the
hammer, and there are often on large files as many as 3800 lines, it
is estimated that in the course of one day a file cutter will lift a
weight equal to several tons. A Gateshead file cutter, who consulted me
recently, works with a hammer 7 lbs. in weight; he cuts files 16 inches
in length. Each file receives 1500 “bats,” and he makes one and a
quarter dozen of files daily, working eight to eight and a half hours.
In the course of a day’s work he lifts 157,500 lbs. weight.
File cutting by hand is properly regarded as a dangerous industry.
Although it claims annually large numbers as the victims of plumbism,
it is difficult to say exactly in what form lead enters the system.
In Sheffield the work is for the most part carried on in small,
badly-ventilated, and overcrowded shops, more like outhouses, often
situated in backyards or in the rear of dwellings, and not unfrequently
contiguous to privies. Of 546 hand file cutting shops, in only 48 was
there any means of ventilation provided, and in many of these “the
means of ventilation consisted of a brick taken out of the wall.”
Inside, the floor in nearly all of them is the bare earth, or bricks
badly placed together. The workers are closely packed together without
any consideration of the cubic space of the workroom. Hand file
cutters as a class are anything but cleanly. Possibly their sense of
indifference to dirt is largely the outcome of the long custom of
the men taking their meals in shops totally unprovided with washing
appliances. As a consequence of hammering and brushing the files, a
considerable amount of dust is created, some of which must be inhaled,
as the man or woman--for both sexes follow the occupation--bends
closely over the stock. In several samples of dust removed from
the stocks and rafters of the shops, lead[66] was found, the other
constituents of the dust being particles of iron, charcoal, and chalk.
File cutting is a sedentary occupation. In order to get as much light
as possible upon their work, the men sit close up to the window, but
they object to any part of the window being open on account of the cold
and draughts. Owing to the close and dusty atmosphere in which the work
is carried on, the general health of the file cutter becomes gradually
undermined. As a consequence of this diminished vital resistance, and
the practice of eating his food with unwashed hands, the licking of
his fingers when at work, and inhalation of dust, the file cutter, in
course of time, becomes the victim of lead poisoning. It is metallic
lead dust that is given off during the blows with the hammer and
chisel upon the file. Lead in this form is certainly much less harmful
than when in such a soluble combination as the oxide or carbonate,
but oxidation of the surface of the lead is constantly taking place,
thereby rendering the metal more or less absorbable.
In addition to the ill-health caused by lead, pulmonary consumption
carries off a large number of file cutters. The men work in a stooping
position in overcrowded and ill-ventilated shops for long hours daily,
with the result that the trade occupies an unenviable position on
account of its mortality from phthisis. It is not, therefore, lead
_quâ_ lead that is the sole danger, but the unhealthy conditions
under which the labour is carried on.
In Sheffield, file cutting has received considerable attention from
members of the medical profession. Thirty years ago Dr J. C. Hall
denounced the trade as unhealthy, and demonstrated how, with such
simple means as the free use of soap and water, much of the suffering
and ill-health traceable to lead could be averted. Drs Sinclair White,
Porter, and Harvey Littlejohn have in recent times written upon the
evils of the trade from different standpoints. Notwithstanding all the
attention the subject has received, hand file cutting still remains
a most unhealthy industry. All the workers look anæmic. Many whom I
examined both in Sheffield and in Rainhill had suffered from colic;
several were completely disabled on account of paralysis of the
extensor muscles of the fingers and wrists. It is rather in the chronic
forms of plumbism, and in those persons in whom the kidneys become
affected and health breaks down, that the worst effects of file cutting
as an occupation are seen. Out of 100 file cutters examined by Dr
Sinclair White, 74 had a blue line on the gums, 28 had had lead colic,
and 20 paralysis of the wrists and fingers. The trade is characterised
by a high mortality, the figures being 316 against 123 for occupied
males in general.
The possibility of finding a substitute for the lead bed upon which the
file is cut is, although not a new subject, one to which the Dangerous
Trades Committee gave considerable attention. It was felt that if
lead could be eliminated, the occupation would be rendered much less
harmful. It was ascertained that in Germany pads of paper had been
tried for small files, also that clay and sand encased in canvas, bars
of wood, copper, vulcanite, and various combinations of indiarubber
and gutta-percha had been tried, but each in turn discarded, owing to
its unsuitability as a bed. This is a field of inquiry that would well
repay any practical file cutter.
File cutters may work at their trade for years without becoming ill.
Others again early suffer from colic, and the attacks of abdominal
pain keep recurring every few months. Gradually, or suddenly, in
those who have been thus afflicted, or even in those who have not had
colic, paralysis of the fingers and hands develops. The peculiarity
of file makers’ paralysis is, that while the extensor muscles of the
fingers and wrists may become affected, so as to constitute a veritable
“wrist-drop,” there is observed more frequently paralysis with wasting
of the smaller muscles of the fingers and thumb. The loss of power is
usually confined to the fingers of the left hand. It is with the left
forefinger and thumb that the chisel is grasped, and as a consequence
of the workman holding the chisel in this position during a great
portion of the day, there is an amount of muscular strain experienced
which cannot but play a part in determining the paralysis and its
location. It is not the sole explanation, however, for the paralysis
also affects at times the muscles of the right hand of the file cutter.
This is the hammer hand that really does the hardest work, though not
of the same strained character.
While it is to the fact of the work being conducted upon a lead
bed, and the want of personal cleanliness on the part of the file
cutter, that plumbism is mainly due, there are, as seen in Sheffield,
contributory causes in operation which tend to increase the harmfulness
of the occupation. One of these is, that file cutting is often a home
industry. The work is frequently carried on in the living room or
kitchen of a dwelling-house. Domestic and family duties come to be
disregarded by the mother, for she, no less than the other members
of the family, interruptedly lends a hand to increase the income of
the home. Readers of this paper are prepared to learn that work under
these circumstances is usually carried on in houses of the poorest
description, and that, as a consequence of the dangerous character
of the occupation, the unhealthy atmosphere of the workroom, and the
constitution of the workers having become undermined through poverty,
lead poisoning when it occurs is not only extremely severe, but may
affect those who are simply living in the house and not actually
engaged in file cutting at all. How to grapple satisfactorily with
this most unhealthy trade is one of the many difficult labour problems
that have been presented to the Home Office. Both for it and the
peculiar tenement conditions under which the industry is carried on in
Sheffield, fresh legislation is required.
In file cutting shops generally, the air space ought to be extended
to 450 cubic feet at least for each person (it is 600 feet in cotton
factories); there should be greater distance between the stocks, say
4 feet; better ventilation; washing appliances, with plenty of soap,
water, towels, nail-brushes; wearing of overalls; periodic lime-washing
of the workshops; concrete, asphalt, or wooden floors, which can be
damped and swept regularly; prohibition of the taking of food into the
workshops; and in the event of new buildings being erected, submission
of the plans to the Home Office. For ventilation purposes Dr John
Robertson recommends an inlet of the type of a Sherringham valve.
The report on the sickness experience of the Society of File Cutters
by Hand in Sheffield, by Mr Stuart Uttley, Secretary of the Federated
Trades Council, and which is published in the Fourth Interim Report of
the Dangerous Trades Committee, 1899, p. 21, shows the extent to which
file cutters are thrown off work every year through illness, including
lead poisoning. This Society does not contribute any sick benefit,
but during the illness of members their contributions to the Society
cease. In this way it is readily known how many members are off work.
The report deals with adult males only, and the dates chosen are 1891
and 1896, two years when trade was good, when all the members were at
work, and malingering was practically beyond question. Out of 1092
members in the Society in 1891, the claims for exemption on account of
sickness were equivalent to 1109 weeks, or a fraction of over one week
per man per year. It is not maintained that all the sickness was due
to plumbism. In 1896, 961 file cutters who were working in Sheffield
claimed 951 weeks’ exemption from payment of contributions on account
of sickness, or a fraction under one week each per man per year.
There were 36 cases of plumbism in file cutters notified in Sheffield
from July 1898 to June 1899, and of these 35 were men. A glance at Dr
Tatham’s tables of comparative mortality, in an earlier part of this
book, will show to what a large extent pulmonary consumption prevails
in file cutters.
Dr Harvey Littlejohn found that in twelve years there occurred 91
deaths from plumbism in Sheffield, and that of the 91 people who died,
56 were file cutters. These statistics, however, do not represent the
total number of deaths from lead poisoning. Plumbism is sometimes so
tardily developed, and the constitution of the workman so gradually
undermined, that as pathological changes are very slowly induced in
internal organs, such as the kidneys, an individual may die long
after he has given up working in lead, and the death be registered
as having been caused by chronic disease of the kidneys, which but
for lead poisoning would probably not have developed at all. It is
thus that many fatal cases of lead poisoning fail to be attributed to
their proper cause, owing to the fact that as death is the result
of well-defined disease of internal organs, the connection of which
with plumbism is overlooked, the occupation of the patient is either
not inquired into or is completely ignored by the medical attendant.
It was with the view of minimising this error, and of bringing into
greater prominence the connection of lead poisoning with industrial
occupation, that the Dangerous Trades Committee suggested in its final
Report, 1899, p. 6, that if all deaths among workpeople who had been
employed at any time within three months immediately preceding death
in a trade in which Special Rules are established were compulsorily
reported to the coroner, many facts of intrinsic and statistical value
would be ascertained, and much light shed upon some of the occupations
that give rise to industrial disease. By this means much injury and
suffering might be mitigated at an earlier date than at present through
alteration of the conditions under which the particular industry
is carried on. Possibly six months would be better than the three
suggested in the above sentence. Usually lead poisoning is so slowly
and insidiously developed in file cutters, that the workpeople become
indifferent to the dangers, and yet when symptoms of plumbism occur
they can be very severe. Occasionally in female file cutters the malady
shows itself at an early date after exposure, and the symptoms are
those rather of the acute than the chronic form of plumbism.
Since, doubtless, the tendency to plumbism in file cutters is favoured
by the nasty habit indulged in of licking their left thumb in order to
get a better grip of the chisel, the application of resin to the finger
has been recommended, but the suggestion does not appear to have met
with much approval. Allusion has been made at the commencement of this
article to the fact that it is only hand made file cutters who suffer
from lead poisoning. In the United States all file cutting is done by
machinery, and in that country plumbism among file cutters is unknown.
In Britain machine-made files are slowly supplanting those cut by hand,
but the customs of a trade die hard.
_Use of Lead in Potteries._
Staffordshire is the home of the pottery industry in this country. In
Stoke-on-Trent, Burslem, Hanley, Longton, Fenton, and Tunstall, the
trade is centred. These towns form what is called the “Potteries,”
a district of about ten miles in length and four in breadth. Here
nine-tenths of the earthenware produced in the United Kingdom
are manufactured. The location of the manufacture of pottery in
Staffordshire is an illustration of how industries cling to particular
districts. At the present time none of the clay which is used in the
manufacture of the finer earthenware is found in the neighbourhood.
Originally there was plenty of coarse clay, and there is still
abundance of marl, which is used for making saggers and firebricks.
Coal, however, is abundant, and cheap fuel is an important item in the
manufacture of pottery. In the early part of the seventeenth century
there was a good supply of clay and fuel in the locality. The ware
produced at that time was made from yellow or red marl, glazed with
galena, or crushed raw lead ore brought from the Derbyshire mines;
but in 1680, common salt was substituted for galena in the glaze. The
articles produced were known as Crouch ware. It was in Burslem that
this ware was first made. In 1759, Wedgwood perfected the white cream
ware, and introduced many improvements into pottery, especially in
the manufacture of green, black Egyptian, and jasper wares. Although
England never outrivalled France and Germany, _e.g._ Sèvres
or Dresden, in the manufacture of soft china, yet she has produced
earthenware on a larger scale and supplied more of the world’s markets
than other pottery districts, and is still doing her utmost to maintain
her supremacy. In Staffordshire there is plenty of common clay, marl,
or fireclay which, as already mentioned, is useful for making saggers,
_i.e._ the large vessels in which earthenware is fired. The clays
necessary for making the finer earthenware and china are brought from
Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall. The clay or felspar used is, roughly
speaking, a silicate of alumina in combination with water, potass,
soda, lime, or iron. These ingredients act as fluxes on the silicate,
and therefore help its vitrification. For earthenware, two kinds of
clay may be used, the blue or ball clay and kaolin, but for porcelain
only kaolin. It is estimated that upwards of 70,000 tons of ball clay
are annually imported into the Potteries from the south of England.
Kaolin, the Chinese word for the clay out of which porcelain is made,
is in Staffordshire called China or Cornish clay, and is got from
granite rocks. Workmen mix this Cornish clay with water in a large
tank. The quartz, mica, and undissolved felspar sink to the bottom,
while the thick white water in which the fine particles of kaolin are
suspended is run off into another tank in which the kaolin is allowed
to become precipitated. The precipitate is subsequently removed, dried,
and exported from the south of England as a very fine white clay,
which contains more alumina but less iron than the untreated clay. Of
this material about 130,000 tons are sent to the Potteries every year.
In Staffordshire what is called Cornish stone is also used. This is a
kind of granite in which the felspar retains its alkaline elements, and
is also useful as a vitrifying agent. Ground flints, too, are employed
in the manufacture of earthenware. Ball clay forms the foundation of
earthenware; flint is simply the whitening material. The addition of
Cornish clay makes the body still whiter and less liable to break under
a heavy weight and changes of temperature, while Cornish stone renders
the ware more compact and of a closer texture. A mixture of these
substances when fired would not produce earthenware of a perfectly
white colour. The iron contained in them would impart a yellow tinge.
This is overcome by adding oxide of cobalt, which neutralises this
tendency so completely that white ware is produced.
It is unnecessary to describe at any length the process of manufacture.
Once the ware is made it is gently dried by exposure to the ordinary
air; afterwards it is placed in saggers and fired in large cylindrical
ovens, slowly at first to prevent too sudden evaporation of moisture
and to prevent splitting. When the ware has undergone its first firing
it is known in the trade as _biscuit_. Common terra-cotta and
stoneware only require one firing, but for all English ware it is
necessary that it should be placed twice in the oven so as to get a
denser texture of the ware, also for the purpose of glazing, or that
process whereby the article is dipped in a liquid in which usually raw
or ground vitrified lead is suspended. If the ware is to remain white,
it is, after it has been biscuited, sent to the dipping department to
be glazed, and if it is to be decorated and sold as an inexpensive
ware it goes in addition to the printing shop, where by means of thin
paper transfers it receives the desired coloured impression. The more
expensive ware is painted by hand in the ordinary way by means of
small brushes. In underglazed colouring the decorated ware is placed
in a kiln and brought to a red heat so as to burn off the oil in the
colouring. The earliest glaze used in Staffordshire contained galena or
sulphide of lead. The materials used for glazes are the same as those
for the body, viz., silica as found in flint, and felspar, to which is
often added Cornish stone. These are called the hard materials, and
they are vitrified by such fluxes as oxide or carbonate of lead, borax
or boric acid, potash, soda, carbonate of lime and barytes. In the
Potteries each manufacturer has his own receipt for glazes, and he
guards it with a conservatism that to outsiders seems unnecessary in
these days of advanced chemical research. The ingredients or the glaze
can be rendered very insoluble by vitrifying them in a reverbatory
furnace or crucible by exposure to an intense heat, whereby a compound
like green glass is obtained, which is called a _fritt_. This is
subsequently ground and mixed with water. Into this liquid the ware is
dipped, and having been biscuited, the porous ware rapidly absorbs the
water, leaving the solid particles of the glaze on the surface. Instead
of fritting the lead, many manufacturers until lately simply added raw
lead, _i.e._ white lead or carbonate, to the other ingredients in
the dipping tub, and it is owing to persistence in this practice that
lead poisoning has been so prevalent in the Potteries. After the ware
has been dipped in the glaze it is fired for a second time in a manner
similar to the first, only in smaller ovens, and with greater care, the
individual pieces being better separated from each other. On removal of
the ware from the oven it is ready for the market. In most factories
the ware, after having been dipped, is dried and _cleaned_ by
women, _i.e._ the borders are scraped with a knife to remove any
surplus glaze. When this process of cleaning is conducted over a trough
that is aspirated there is very little dry glaze dust scattered about
the room, but if performed in a room without proper ventilation the
atmosphere becomes dusty and dangerous. Ware cleaning ought never to be
conducted in the same room as the dipping.
What is called _porcelain_ or _china_ differs slightly from
earthenware. There are three kinds of porcelain: (1) that made from
kaolin and felspar, with the addition of quartz: this is manufactured
in Limoges in France; (2) soft porcelain, which was formerly made
at Sèvres, near Paris; and (3) English porcelain, which, like the
first, is made from kaolin and Cornish stone, but differs from it in
containing calcined bones. For hard porcelain, the glaze is made from
felspar, which contains a variable quantity of quartz, while in the
glaze used for the other two there is usually some silicate of lead and
borates, the presence of which allows of a lower temperature being used
for the biscuited ware. Thirty-five firms in the Potteries make china,
and 195 earthenware.
The population of the Potteries and of the district immediately
round about is probably not less than a quarter of a million. It is
estimated that there are from 46,000 to 50,000 people working in the
Potteries, of whom 4703--viz., 3123 males and 1580 females--are engaged
in what might be called lead or dangerous processes. In his Annual
Reports the Chief Inspector of Factories shows that in 1898 there
were 457 cases of lead poisoning notified to the Home Office from the
Potteries, 249 in 1899, and 200 in 1900, whereas for the same periods
the following numbers were reported from all other trades combined,
excluding house painters, 1278, 1258, and 1058. The number of persons
working “in the lead” in the Potteries in July 1898 was 4703, and were
classified as follows:--
NUMBER OF PERSONS employed in Processes where Lead is used in
the manufacture of Earthenware and China, North Stafford
District, July 1898.
+------------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
| Persons Employed. | Under 13. | 13 to 18. | Over 18. |
+------------------------+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+
| |Males.|Females.|Males.|Females.|Males.|Females.|
|(_a_) Dippers | ... | ... | 9 | 15 | 486 | 66 |
|(_b_) Dippers’ | | | | | | |
| Assistants | 7 | ... | 408 | 49 | 103 | 58 |
|(_c_) Ware Cleaners | ... | ... | 15 | 76 | 90 | 382 |
|(_d_) Glost Placers | ... | ... | 58 | 8 | 1747 | 38 |
|(_e_) Majolica | | | | | | |
| Paintresses | ... | ... | ... | 62 | ... | 233 |
|(_f_) Ground Layers | ... | ... | ... | 9 | 89 | 373 |
|(_g_) Colour Dusters | ... | ... | ... | 24 | 7 | 118 |
|(_h_) Enamel Colour & | | | | | | |
| Glaze Blowers | ... | ... | ... | ... | 9 | 12 |
|(_i_) Other persons | | | | | | |
| coming in contact| | | | | | |
| with lead, not | | | | | | |
| enumerated in the| | | | | | |
| foregoing list | ... | ... | 19 | 13 | 76 | 44 |
+------------------------+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+
| Totals | 7 | ... | 509 | 256 | 2607 | 1324 |
+------------------------+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+
Males 3123
Females 1580
----
Total 4703
====
At the date of the Report on the Use of Lead in Potteries, presented
by Professor Thorpe and myself to the Home Secretary (1899), the total
number of cases of lead poisoning in the Potteries during the previous
three years, _i.e._ since the Act of 1895, as to compulsory
notification, came into force, was:--
Males 478
Females 607
----
Total 1085
====
These were distributed thus:--
NUMBER OF PERSONS reported as suffering from Lead Poisoning
during the years 1896, 1897, and 1898.[67]
+------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| | 1896. | 1897. | 1898. |
| +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| | 13 to | Over | 13 to | Over | 13 to | Over |
| | 18. | 18. | 18. | 18. | 18. | 18. |
+------------------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | M.| F.| M.| F.| M.| F.| M.| F.| M.| F.| M.| F.|
|Dippers | 3| 1| 50| 14|...|...| 48| 9|...| 1| 41| 6|
|Dippers’ Assistants | 9| 6| 3 | 12| 26| 2| 3| 8| 14| 2| 6| 17|
|Ware Cleaners |...| 3| 2 | 54|...| 2|...| 66|...| 3| 1| 55|
|Glost Placers | 1|...| 57| 1|...|...| 53| 2|...|...| 48| 1|
|Majolica Paintresses |...| 1|...| 38|...| 7|...| 41|...| 4|...| 27|
|Ground Layers |...|...|16 | 34|...|...| 15| 40|...|...| 10| 45|
|Colour Dusters |...| 2|...| 11|...| 9|...| 1|...| 6|...| 9|
|Litho. Dusters, or | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Cleaners in making | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Litho. Transfers |...| 10|...| 11|...| 8| 4| 10| 4| 8| 6| 9|
|Other persons coming in | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| contact with lead, not | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| enumerated in the | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| foregoing list |...| 1| 10|...|...| 2| 25| 5|...|...| 22| 3|
+------------------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| Totals | 13| 24|139|175| 26| 30|148|182| 18| 24|134|172|
+------------------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
Age. 1896. 1897. 1898.
13 to 18 { Males 13 26 18 = 57
years. { Females 24 30 24 = 78
Over 18 { Males 139 148 134 = 421
{ Females 175 182 172 = 529
Grand total in 3 years { Males 478
{ Females 607
----
1085
====
COMPARISON of Number of Persons “Working in Lead” in July
1898, with number of cases of Lead Poisoning reported
in year 1898.
+----------------------------+---------------+---------------------------+
| | Workers. | Lead Cases. |
| +------+--------+------+-----+--------+-----+
| |Males.|Females.|Males.| Per |Females.|Per |
| | | | |cent.| |cent.|
+----------------------------+------+--------+------+-----+--------+-----+
|Dippers | 495 | 81 | 41 | 8.2 | 7 | 8.6 |
|Dippers’ Assistants | 518 | 107 | 20 | 3.9 | 19 |17.8 |
|Ware Cleaners | 105 | 458 | 1 | 1.0 | 58 |12.7 |
|Glost Placers | 1805 | 46 | 48 | 2.6 | 1 | 2.0 |
|Majolica Paintresses | ... | 295 | ... | ... | 31 |10.5 |
|Ground Layers | 89 | 382 | 10 |11.3 | 45 |11.8 |
|Colour Dusters and Litho. | | | | | | |
| Dusters | 16 | 154 | 10 |62.5 | 32 |20.8 |
|Other persons in contact | | | | | | |
| with lead | 95 | 57 | 22 |23.2 | 3 | 5.3 |
+----------------------------+------+--------+------+-----+--------+-----+
| Totals | 3123 | 1580 | 152 | 4.9 | 196 |12.4 |
+----------------------------+------+--------+------+-----+--------+-----+
These statistics were obtained for Professor Thorpe and myself by Mr
J. H. Walmsley, H.M. Inspector of Factories, Stoke-on-Trent, and are
reproduced from our Conjoint Report to the Home Secretary on Lead
Compounds in Pottery. From these figures it is seen that of the total
male workers 4.9 per cent. become “leaded,” whereas of the female
workers, who form the smaller body, the proportion is as high as 12.4
per cent.; and if the official figures for 1897 had been taken, the
results, it is believed, would have been even higher. Before Professor
Thorpe and myself commenced our investigation of lead poisoning in the
Potteries, _Special Rules_ had been issued by the Chief Inspector
of Factories in 1898, the good effects of which were already being felt
at the time of our visits to Staffordshire. From the Annual Report of
the Chief Inspector of Factories it appears that in 1900, 200 cases of
lead poisoning in the Potteries were reported, as against 249 notified
in 1899. Dr Morison Legge in alluding to this subject remarks that it
is natural to attribute the diminution partly to the new _Special
Rules_ (1898), and to the fact that in some factories the use of
raw lead has been discontinued. The numbers of cases of both sexes in
1899 are much fewer than in 1898; but of the total persons, it is to
be noted that whereas females constituted 55.2 per cent. and males
45.8 per cent. during 1898, the reverse occurs in 1899, viz., 51.4
per cent. males and 48.6 females. The alteration in sex distribution
among persons attacked is attributed by Dr Morison Legge to the medical
examination, in which adult males did not participate. It would appear,
too, that there is a diminution in the number of severe cases reported,
a circumstance which is also attributed to the medical examination. The
diminution is most observed among ground layers and colour dusters, but
not in ware cleaning or dipping operations.
What are called the dangerous processes of pottery manufacture are
those in which the worker is brought into contact with lead. The
preceding tables show that from lead poisoning a very high percentage
of colour and litho-dusters suffer, also that dippers’ assistants,
ground layers, ware cleaners, majolica paintresses, and dippers run
a considerable risk from plumbism. There are fewer women than men
working as dippers, and in this department the incidence of plumbism
is nearly equal in the two sexes. With the exception of glost placing,
_i.e._ filling the ovens with the ware about to be fired, and
which is heavy labour and only fit for men, females predominate in
all the other departments. From these figures it is seen that males
who are colour dusters suffer in much larger proportion from lead
poisoning than do females, but in nearly all the other processes it
will be observed that the percentage of lead poisoning is higher in
females than males. It is the lead processes that have justly caused
pottery manufacture to be regarded as one of the dangerous industries,
and whatever may be said to the contrary, women, especially young women
from seventeen to thirty years of age, and all _young_ males
or females, are especially susceptible to plumbism. Lead poisoning
in pottery manufacture has for long been known, but neither had the
Home Office, nor employers and the public, any adequate idea of the
extent to which the evil prevailed until industrial plumbism became
notifiable. It was with the view of throwing light upon this subject
that the Secretary of State invited Professor Thorpe and myself, in
May 1898, to institute a special inquiry into the hygienic questions
involved in the use of lead in pottery processes, and to ascertain--
(1) How far the danger may be diminished or removed by
substituting for the carbonate of lead ordinarily used, either
(_a_) one or other less soluble compound of lead, _e.g._ a
silicate; (_b_) leadless glaze.
(2) How far any substitutes found to be harmless or less
dangerous than the carbonate lend themselves to the varied
practical requirements of the manufacturer.
(3) What other preventive measures can be adopted.
Professor Thorpe and myself, either singly or together, visited not
only the potteries in Staffordshire and in Scotland, but several of
the leading manufactories on the Continent, _e.g._ at Delft, La
Louvière, Maastricht, Copenhagen, Charlottenburg, Dresden, Limoges,
Choisy-le-Roi, etc., and our opinions and recommendations are
embodied in a Blue Book which was presented to the Home Secretary,
Sir Matthew White Ridley, in February 1899. These, it is to be hoped,
will ultimately form the basis of legislation for the trade in this
country. At present our recommendations have been challenged by the
manufacturers, and are the cause of considerable dispute between
the master potters of this country and the Home Office. I therefore
reproduce our recommendations:--
(1) That by far the greater amount of earthenware of the class
already specified, _i.e. white and cream-coloured ware_, can
be glazed without the use of lead in any form. It has been
demonstrated, without the slightest doubt, that the ware so made
is in no respects inferior to that coated with lead glaze. There
seems no reason, therefore, why in the manufacture of this class
of goods the operatives should still continue to be exposed to
the evils which the use of lead entails.
(2) There are, however, certain branches of the pottery industry
in which it would be more difficult to dispense with the use
of lead compounds. But there is no reason why, in these cases,
the lead so employed should not be in the form of a fritted[68]
double silicate. Such a compound, if properly made, is but
slightly attacked by even strong hydrochloric, acetic, or lactic
acid. There can be little doubt that if lead must be used, the
employment of such a compound silicate--if its use could be
insured--would greatly diminish the evil of lead poisoning.
(3) The use of raw lead as an ingredient of glazing material, or
as an ingredient of colours which have to be subsequently fired,
should be absolutely prohibited.
(4) As it would be very difficult to ensure that an innocuous
lead glaze shall be employed, we are of opinion that young
persons and women should be excluded from employment as
dippers, dippers’ assistants, ware cleaners after dippers, and
glost placers in factories where lead glaze is used, and that
the adult male dippers, dippers’ assistants, ware cleaners,
and glost placers should be subjected to systematic medical
inspection.
These were our recommendations, and while they received a considerable
amount of approval throughout the country, some of them, as might be
expected, have been the subject of hostile criticism on the part of
the pottery manufacturers. It should be borne in mind that a few years
previous to our inquiry a Committee appointed by Mr Asquith, then Home
Secretary, and composed of Mr S. W. May, H.M. Superintending Inspector
of Factories (Chairman), Dr John T. Arlidge, Mr W. D. Spanton,
F.R.C.S.E., Mr A. P. Laurie, M.A., Mr J. H. Walmsley, H.M. Inspector
of Factories, and Mr W. D. Cramp, H.M. Superintending Inspector of
Factories (Secretary), had reported to the Secretary of State, and
made certain recommendations, including one specially by Mr Laurie, in
which it is suggested that the manufacturers should be circularised
from the Home Office to experiment with and test the uses and the
effect upon the health of the workpeople of glazes and colours in
which all the lead had been fritted; also the practicability of making
a glaze that would be harmless to those employed in the manufacture,
and at the same time would not injure the ware. It remains a cause
of disappointment that, considering the assistance rendered by the
1893 Committee, the pottery manufacturers did so little to introduce
the improvements that were recommended so as to minimize the evils
that were yearly increasing. Periodical medical examination of the
workers, male as well as female, they certainly encouraged, and they
admit that the result was beneficial. There is a feeling that, had
the manufacturers bestirred themselves a little more in the direction
of using properly fritted lead compounds instead of raw lead in the
glaze, and of again experimenting with leadless glazes to see what they
could accomplish, plumbism in pottery manufacture would have materially
diminished, our inquiry might not have been necessary, and certainly
the recommendations made by Professor Thorpe and myself would not have
been viewed, as they are by employers, in the light of a menace to the
industry and a check to its commercial prosperity.
If there is one thing upon which the British public has made up its
mind in regard to some of the important labour and social questions of
to-day, it is, that there ought to be fewer cases of lead poisoning
in the manufacture of pottery generally, and that plumbism should
be practically abolished in the production of certain kinds of
earthenware. It would therefore be rather to the advantage of the
industry than otherwise, were the Staffordshire employers to meet
the wishes of the public in this respect, by making a greater effort
to produce ware dipped in leadless glaze. When the Home Secretary
published our recommendations, and stated to employers that it was his
intention to give effect to them, the pottery manufacturers assumed
an attitude partly of agreement and partly of disagreement. They at
once stated their willingness to discontinue the use of raw lead in
glazes; they asked for a lengthened period to test and experiment
with fritted lead, while in regard to leadless glazes they have taken
up the position which, up to the time of writing, may be regarded as
one of no compromise. The abolition of raw lead, if carried out,
would mark a very important stage in the pottery manufacture of this
country, and of itself would do much to reduce the number of cases of
lead poisoning. The use of fritted lead compounds would also prove
helpful; but in order to obviate the risks of plumbism from the use of
these substances, the fritting of the lead compounds has to be done
carefully, for although less soluble than raw lead, yet plumbism has
followed their use. A simple silicate of lead possesses advantages
over the carbonate, both in its physical and mechanical characters; it
is, for example, less dusty and clammy than either white or red lead,
and is more easily removed from the skin by washing. Such an ordinary
silicate may contain as much as 70 per cent. of lead oxide, and 25 per
cent. of silica, with small quantities of alumina, lime, magnesia, and
alkalis, corresponding in fact to a crude mono-silicate, “and this
compound, which is generally understood as ‘fritted’ lead, is hardly
less soluble in acids than basic lead carbonate,” besides “glazes in
which the whole of the lead has been fritted as a properly compound
lead silicate--that is, fritted directly with the other components of
the glaze, so as to form a double silicate--have been found to possess
greater covering power than a glaze containing the same relative amount
of lead in the ‘raw’ state, with the further advantage of enhancing
the colour.” When the amount of silica is increased the fritt becomes
more innocuous, but there is a limit to which silica can be added to
litharge, so as to produce a homogeneous silicate. Even bisilicate of
lead is not wholly insoluble in acids. Professor Thorpe found in his
experiments, conducted in the Government Laboratory, that it was not
desirable the fritted lead should be a simple silicate, also that a
properly compounded double silicate could be made that would fulfil all
the requirements of the potter, and at the same time be practically
insoluble in acids. He suggested the following as a suitable
constituent of glaze, and as a compound that would be only slightly
attacked by hydrochloric acid, viz.--
Lead Monoxide 22.0
Alumina 7.5
Lime 8.3
Alkalis 3.9
Boracic acid 3.5
Silica 54.8
-----
100.0
This combination can be obtained by “fritting an intimate mixture of
litharge, flint, felspar, tincal, and chalk, or an intimate mixture of
litharge, flint glass, borax, china clay, and ground flint; or, as is
done on the Continent, a portion of the flint may be replaced by white
sand, the colour if necessary being corrected by cobalt.” There is a
very strong feeling that in Staffordshire the pottery manufacturers
have been using more lead than is actually required to make a good
glaze. Lead has been used without proper discrimination. As to what
the amount of combined lead, calculated as oxide, which the glaze of
“glost” ware should contain, the opinion of even practical potters is
divided. It has been thought by some that 20 per cent. is required,
while others fix the limit at 10. Professor Thorpe found excellent
examples of lead-glazed ware in which the monoxide of lead did not
exceed 12 per cent. of the total weight of the glazing materials,
while on analysing some of the liquid taken from the dipping tubs in
the potteries, he found the amount varied from 13 to 24 per cent.,
and even higher. If, therefore, the use of lead compounds is still to
be permitted, and, as has been shown, fritted lead in the form of a
simple silicate is not much less soluble than raw lead, it is apparent
that, with the view of preventing injurious consequences, their use
must be restricted and regulated. It was with this object that the Home
Office insisted upon all fritted lead compounds conforming to a certain
test of solubility, and it is around this point there is considerable
disagreement between the master potters and the Home Office. In a
Report on the “Use of Lead in the Manufacture of Pottery,” presented
to the Secretary of State by Professor Thorpe (1901), the Government
chemist deals, among other things, with the relation between the
composition and solubility of lead silicate, as shown in the following
table:--
+-------------------------------------------+------------------+--------------+
| | Oxide of Lead | Percentage |
| | dissolved by | Composition. |
|Fritts arranged in order of Increasing |0.25 per cent. of | ---- |
| Solubility. |Hydrochloric Acid.|Oxide of Lead.|
+-------------------------------------------+------------------+--------------+
| | Per cent. | |
|Preparation from Maastricht fritt (Belgium)| None. | 18.04 |
|Preparation from Boch’s fritt (Belgium) | Traces. | 21.83 |
|Boch’s fritt | 2.6 | 22.44 |
|Ålmström’s fritt (Sweden) | 4.8 | 44.06 |
|Maastricht fritt | 5.6 | 18.97 |
|Owen’s glaze fritt | 6.6 | 16.23 |
|Owen’s fritt | 23.8 | 45.77 |
|Doulton’s fritt | 60.4 | 37.92 |
|Owen’s lead silicate (No. 2 sample) | 99.6 | 70.40 |
+-------------------------------------------+------------------+--------------+
I have not reproduced in the table the percentage composition of
the other ingredients of the fritt, but it is maintained that the
solubility does not depend upon any of the constituents, nor does any
single base or acid increase or decrease continuously as the solubility
of the fritt increases. Although in a general sense the solubility
increases with the sum of monoxides present in the fritt, yet there is
no regular progression. The solubility, according to Thorpe, depends
upon the value of the ratio bases/acids which, judging from the results
obtained by him, should not exceed 1.45, or thereabouts, if the fritt
is to be practically insoluble in 0.25 per cent. hydrochloric acid and
be therefore safe. With the view of coming to some understanding upon
this question a conference was held between representatives of the
pottery industry and the Home Office on 31st October 1899. Two months
afterwards the Secretary of State intimated that it was his intention
to propose that after a certain interval a standard of insolubility
for fritted lead employed in glazes should be observed by the
manufacturers--the standard of insolubility being that the glaze should
not yield more than 2 per cent. of lead when acted upon by hydrochloric
acid, under certain conditions. Permission was granted to manufacturers
to submit specimens of fritted lead to Professor Thorpe, so that they
might have the necessary chemical assistance if wanted. Several samples
were received, and on examination it was found that they could contain
amounts of lead ranging from 24 to 53 per cent., and yet be capable of
conforming to the standard of solubility required by the Home Office,
although generally speaking they yielded slightly larger quantities
of lead oxide to dilute hydrochloric acid than the insoluble silicate
prepared from Continental fritts. In a short Report by Dr Thorpe,
dated 20th November 1900, are published directions for the fritting
of lead. The manufacturer, for example, “may, in the first place,
fritt together all the materials given in the receipts--that is in one
operation. If he chooses to take this course it would, as a matter of
economy, be preferable to substitute litharge, if not for the whole
of the raw lead, at least for the white lead. It seems absurd to pay
for the trouble of putting the carbonic acid and water into the white
lead, when these ingredients are expelled by the heat of the kiln. The
required alteration in the receipt may easily be calculated from the
fact that 1 lb. of litharge contains the same amount of lead oxide as
1.02 lb. of red lead or 1.18 lb. of white lead. Or the manufacturer may
make up his fritt by commingling two other fritts. Thus he may fritt
together borax, stone and flint, and fritt also the lead oxide, flint
and stone, each in such proportions that the two when mixed with the
whiting and china clay form a composition containing 18 per cent. of
lead oxide.” It was urged by the manufacturers that the 2 per cent.
solubility of lead in a glaze would be materially affected by the
degree of fineness to which the fritt might be ground, but experiments
showed that while within limits increased solubility of the fritt and
fineness of grinding were concurrent, yet this question was rather
of an academic nature, and had no practical bearing upon the use of
fritted lead compounds in pottery. In our Conjoint Report, dated 1889,
when discussing the amount of combined lead that might be allowed in
glazes, we stated as the opinion of practical potters that it should be
from 10 to 20 per cent. We ourselves suggested 12 per cent. Subsequent
experience and experiment convinced Professor Thorpe that 12 per cent.
is higher than is actually necessary in earthenware and china glaze.
Nor does he regard the limit of 2 per cent. of solubility as too hard
or stringent a requirement. The manufacturers pressed the Home Office
to raise the limit to 5 per cent., but to do this in the face of
existing evils was far from helping the object that the Home Office
had in view. The stamping out of lead poisoning in pottery manufacture
is a most desirable object, and one all must wish to see accomplished
without, if possible, any injury to the trade. “If the limit is raised,
as suggested, to 5 per cent., it means that the lead in an ordinary
earthenware or china glaze, as at present used, may be so soluble
that one-third of it may be extracted by very dilute acid at ordinary
temperatures in one hour.” More than that, to raise the limit to 5 per
cent. would be to throw away all the result of the experience that has
been gained by experiments conducted over a period of three years, and
would tend to perpetuate the evils that at present exist.[69]
No matter in what form lead is used for glazing pottery, there is
always a risk of plumbism. The French pottery manufacturers employ
for enamelling purposes a glaze the principal ingredient of which is
_calcine_--an alloy of 15 to 20 parts of tin, and 100 parts of
lead. An ordinary composition for white glaze for table ware is--
Calcine 44
Minium (lead oxide) 2
Decize sand 44
Sea salt 8
Soda 2
Yellow and green coloured enamels are got by adding to the white glaze
a quantity of antimoniate of lead, but for other colours no lead is
used. (_Poisons Industriels_, Office du Travail, Paris, 1901, p.
45.)
Since the publication of the Report on Pottery Manufacture in 1899,
by Professor Thorpe and myself, in which we recommended the use
of leadless glazes for cream and white ware, electrical fittings,
sanitary ware, etc., attempts have been made to place leadless glazed
earthenware and china on the market. Commercially the thing can be
done. The Worcester Porcelain Company, also Messrs Mortlock, Maling &
Sons, and others, are willing to supply china finished with a glaze
quite free from lead. The Coalport China Company state that they have
used a leadless glaze for the past eighty years, and that they have
never had a case of lead poisoning in their works. Messrs Maling &
Sons, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, regularly produce a large amount of ware
dipped in leadless glaze, particularly jam-pots.
In France a circular issued by the Minister of the Interior, and
bearing date 19th June 1878, interdicts the manufacture and sale of
pottery, either of French or foreign manufacture, glazed by means of
oxide of lead which has been incompletely fritted, and which gives up
readily oxide of lead to feeble acids. I am not in a position to say
how far this has been given effect to.
In potteries where red or brown ware is used plumbism is not unknown.
It has generally been traced to the use of red lead. Occasionally lead
poisoning from red earthenware potteries, mostly in the form of wrist
drop, has come under my notice at the Newcastle Infirmary. Some of
the cases have been drawn directly from the immediate district, while
others have come from Sunderland. With the view of diminishing plumbism
in the manufacture of red and brown earthenware, Professor Thorpe
suggested that where employers decline to use fritted lead, on the
ground of expense, there would be no practical hardship in adopting the
use of ground blue lead or galena, _i.e._ the native ore, instead
of red or white lead. It is cheap, but it requires to be ground. The
drawback to it is that it gives off sulphur fumes when fired, but the
amount of sulphur oxides given off is small to that formed in the
combustion of the coal in the oven. It gives a faint yellow or brownish
tinge to the glaze, but this does not seem to be objectionable. In
visiting potteries in Holland, I found one firm in Gouda which used
ground galena for glazing this kind of ware. They had not only every
reason to be satisfied with the results, but in the factory plumbism
was unknown. Several decades ago galena was similarly used in
Staffordshire.
I have dwelt at considerable length upon the question of fritting
lead compounds and the use of leadless glazes, both in defence of the
attitude which Professor Thorpe and myself have assumed, and to show
the reasonableness of our recommendations.
If our recommendations were adopted they would certainly make for
better health of the operatives engaged in pottery manufacture. At
the time of writing they have not been adopted. Some months ago a
statement was issued by a joint committee representing 283 of the 579
manufacturers coming under the Special Rules, challenging our Report.
The manufacturers say that it is impossible to glaze the greater part
of their ware without lead, and that serious injury will be done to
the trade if a radical measure of so sweeping a character is enforced
without giving sufficient time to test the products so treated.
Employers maintain that from a trade point of view existing regulations
are hard enough. They suggest that there should be an extension of the
medical examination of all operatives engaged in lead processes quite
irrespective of age or sex. The Home Secretary subsequently indicated
to the manufacturers the steps he proposed to take with the view of
protecting workers from lead poisoning in china and earthenware,
viz.--(1) relaxation of the Special Rules for factories or processes in
which no lead is used; (2) medical examination of male workers in lead
processes; (3) use of fritted lead--six months being allowed before
this becomes compulsory; (4) fixing of standard of safety in fritts as
regards solubility in acids.
There is everything to show that within the last three or four years
the conditions of labour in the Potteries have materially improved,
and that there has been a distinct diminution in the number of cases
of lead poisoning. The operation of the Special Rules, the periodical
medical examinations, and a more restricted use of raw lead have
largely contributed to this satisfactory result. A return of cases
of lead poisoning reported under the Act 1895, occurring in the
manufacture of earthenware and china from 1st January 1899 to 31st
December 1900, and presented to the House of Commons by Mr Jesse
Collings, 27th February 1901, conveys information upon this particular
point. During the year 1899 there were in the Potteries 129 persons
suspended from work on account of lead poisoning, and in the following
year 95. In 1899, 34 of the 129 persons were ware cleaners, 29 worked
in the dipping house, 26 were majolica paintresses, ground layers
formed 14 of the total, and 10 were colour dusters, while for 1900
the numbers were respectively 20, 42, 8, 6, 13. The districts of
Hanley, Burslem, Tunstall, and Stoke include practically the whole
of the North Staffordshire Potteries, where about 46,000 persons are
at present employed in the manufacture of china and earthenware, and
of whom 4700 are employed in lead processes. Taking, therefore, the
cases of lead poisoning in the Potteries for the last four years,
they run as follows: in 1897, 446; in 1898, 457; in 1899, 249; and in
1900, 200.[70] Allowing a margin on either side for discrepancies and
incompleteness in the statistics, these figures at once show how in a
trade that has hitherto been regarded as dangerous the conditions of
labour can be materially improved, with a very marked gain in health
to the workers. These encouraging results are, it is hoped, only a
forecast of others yet to come.
There is considerable discrepancy in the returns of lead poisoning in
the Potteries, due to the source from which the statistics have been
obtained, and the manner in which the cases have been notified. All
the statistics concur in showing a declension of plumbism. From an
article in the _Times_, 24th September 1901, the following has been
taken:--“That lead poisoning has rapidly diminished among potters and
increased among other trades is proved by the following table of cases
reported in the last four years, and compiled from the _Labour Gazette_
and other official sources.”
Potters. Other Trades.
1897 469 745
1898 463 954
1899 249 1009
1900 200 1057
It will be thus observed that there has been a progressive diminution
in the number of cases of lead poisoning in the pottery trade, a
diminution that is still proceeding, judging from the returns of the
first half of the year 1901. The cases reported for the six months,
January-June, in the last four years are:--
1898 1899 1900 1901
200 165 110 59
“In the course of three years the amount of lead poisoning has been
reduced to one-fourth of that reported in 1898.” The manufacturers
attribute this result to the monthly medical examination of women and
young persons brought into contact with lead.
An accidental delay in the passage of these pages through the
press allows me to add a further note upon the attitude of the Home
Office and the pottery manufacturers in regard to the use of fritted
lead compounds, the suggested standard solubility, and the use of
leadless glazes, and thus to bring up to date the history of this
important trade inquiry, probably the last of the large industrial
conflicts that will be submitted to arbitration. The questions at
issue between the Home Office and the manufacturers were referred
to arbitration, Lord James of Hereford being chosen as umpire. The
Court sat at Stoke-on-Trent on 7th November 1901, and subsequent
days. Mr Chester Jones acted as arbitrator for the Home Office, and
Mr Llewellyn for the manufacturers; the counsel being, Mr Cripps,
K.C., and Mr H. Sutton, for the Home Office; Mr Fletcher Moulton,
K.C., for the manufacturers; and Mr Colefax for the operatives.
Evidence was given by Professor Thorpe, Mr Wilton Rix; Dr Wilkin,
director of large potteries, Dresden; Mr Alström, of the Rorstrand
Potteries, Stockholm; Dr T. M. Legge; Miss A. M. Anderson, Principal
Lady Inspector of Factories; and myself, on behalf of the Home Office.
The principal points urged were: the possibility of using leadless
glazes for certain kinds of ware; the greater safety of fritted lead
compounds over raw lead; the greater freedom of Continental potteries
from plumbism, where most, if not all, of the lead was fritted, than
is the case in Staffordshire; and, in a general way, the better
structural arrangements in Continental potteries than in those at home.
On behalf of the manufacturers, Messrs W. H. Grindley, G. E. Meakin,
H. J. Johnson, J. L. Whittaker, and J. Sherwin gave evidence. It was
admitted by the witnesses on both sides that there had been since the
introduction of the Special Rules 1898 a very notable decline in the
number of cases of plumbism in Staffordshire, and that towards this
happy circumstance better ventilation, greater personal cleanliness
on the part of the workpeople, and systematic medical examination had
doubtless contributed. The main part of the inquiry centred round
the subject of fritting the lead for the glaze. It was demonstrated
by Professor Thorpe that excellent results could be obtained by the
use of vitrified lead, which was soluble to the extent of only 2 per
cent. in .25 per cent. of hydrochloric acid. The manufacturers having
previously intimated to the Home Office their willingness to accept a
5 per cent. standard solubility as the test of lead in their glazes,
wished to recede from this position, and at the time the Court was
sitting, claimed the right not to be bound by this or any other test
of solubility. In fact, it was admitted that many of the manufacturers
had returned to the use of 30 to 40 per cent. of raw lead in their
glazes. As to the greater safety in the use of fritted lead compounds
of the low solubility insisted upon by Professor Thorpe there can be
no question. There never will be absolute safety so long as lead in
any form is used; a 2 per cent. soluble fritted lead compound must
be much less harmful if swallowed than one containing lead which has
a solubility of 5 per cent. or more.[71] My contention, like that of
Professor Thorpe, was that the .25 per cent. of hydrochloric test was
not at all a hard one; that while this was the amount of hydrochloric
acid present in the gastric juice, the test proposed was not so severe
as that which would be carried on in the human stomach, where there was
a higher temperature, greater agitation, and therefore better admixture
of the contents.
It is unnecessary here to reproduce the evidence in detail either for
or against the recommendations of the Home Office, which were based
upon the Thorpe-Oliver Report; but I may mention one or two additional
facts. While the Court was sitting, a male dipper of 20 years’
experience, and who had never been ill, requested permission of Lord
James to give evidence. This was gladly complied with. The evidence
tendered was directed against the proposed monthly examination of males
employed in lead processes. The operative simply wished to assert
his right to work in lead even if he was the subject of plumbism, to
express his unwillingness to submit to periodical medical examination,
and to state that he objected to be bound by the arbitrary order of
the certifying surgeon either for temporary or permanent suspension.
In a word, he stated that he and his comrades knew the risks of their
calling, and they were prepared to take them. He appealed against the
application of all official restraint, which he regarded as of too
coercive a character. When working men, in whose interests well-meant
efforts are being made to render their occupation more healthy,
prefer to court death and to throw their wives and families upon the
ratepayers rather than forego the loss of a few weeks’ wages so that
they may regain their health, the difficulty of bringing into line the
many conflicting forces is at once apparent.
To the fritting of lead compounds the manufacturers raised many
objections. It was stated that, quite apart from the expense, their use
was impracticable. Mr W. H. Grindley of Tunstall stated that he had
tried fritted lead, but had relinquished it, as its use had involved
him in a financial loss of some hundreds of pounds in a few weeks. Mr
Henry J. Johnson and other manufacturers gave similar evidence.
Quite unexpectedly, on the fifth day of the sitting of the Court, Lord
James announced his intention of not carrying the inquiry further.
Balancing the various conflicting issues at stake, and influenced
by the reduction in the number of cases of lead poisoning from 12
to 3.5 per cent. in the four years’ operation of the Special Rules,
he postponed the arbitration for eighteen months, during which,
putting the manufacturers on their honour, he looked to them to
rigidly give effect to the Special Rules of 1898; to take a lesson
from Continental manufacturers; to try fresh experiments with fritted
lead, and to reduce them to the lowest possible solubility consistent
with a satisfactory production of their ware; also to come to some
understanding with the workpeople in regard to founding a mutual
assurance fund. As the whole subject is to be again discussed in
eighteen months, it would ill become me to do more than simply state
these facts, and to express the hope that by a loyal adherence to the
special regulations the amount of lead poisoning in Staffordshire may
meanwhile still further decrease.
_Chromo-lithographic Works and Transfer Making._
In the printing of coloured trade advertisements and wrappers there
is frequently used metallochrome powder, known under various names,
_e.g._ “flake white,” “china white,” etc. Usually the dry powder
is dusted on the sheets of paper by hand and dusted off again by young
women or lads, an operation that is extremely dusty, and too often
carried on in workrooms totally unprovided with any artificial means
of ventilation. Practically speaking, the manufacture of transfers
for giving coloured impressions to pottery is a similar operation.
The coloured impressions are made upon paper which, when applied to
china and earthenware about to be fired, allow of the floral design and
pictures being transferred to plates, cups, and saucers, etc. Under
all circumstances, whether it is the making of transfers for pottery
work, covers for fancy tins of biscuits, mustard, tobacco, etc., or
coats-of-arms for railway carriages, the occupation is not only dusty
but is dangerous, owing to the fact that metallochrome powder often
contains as much as from 50 to 60 per cent. of white lead. In the
manufacture of transfers the workers, usually girls, throw the powder
loosely on the paper and tilt it from side to side, or what is more
common, they gently rub the powder all over the paper by means of a
soft cloth or a pad of chamois leather, the superfluous powder being
removed by shaking. In visiting factories where transfers are made both
at home and on the Continent, I have been struck by the extreme pallor
of the workers; frequently they have complained of splitting headache
and severe abdominal pains. Nearly all the workers presented a deep
blue line on their gums. In Limoges, where large quantities of coloured
porcelain are made, the introduction of transfers into the industry
took place only about twenty years ago, and it was not until several
fatal cases of lead poisoning had occurred that the plumbism was traced
to its cause, viz., the making of transfers. Many of the girls had
succumbed to that extremely severe and often suddenly developed form
of Saturnine affection of the brain, which is attended by epileptiform
convulsions, and known as lead encephalopathy. It is when metallochrome
powder is used in the dry form, and therefore dusty, that there is
danger. When mixed and moistened as in coloured printers’ ink, and the
printing is done by machinery, there is no danger. Men, however, have
suffered from plumbism after mixing “flake white” and varnish. This is
not a dusty process, but there is considerable danger when spirituous
materials are used along with lead.
Much of the risk to health in this trade can be overcome by diminishing
the amount of white lead in the metallochrome powder. Experience shows
that this is often present in excess of what is necessary. A less
harmful metal, too, might in several instances be substituted for
lead. Barium has been suggested, but time and trial alone can tell
whether even the use of barium is quite free from danger. Animals can
be fed upon barium salts, and apparently thrive when they would die
if given the same quantity of lead carbonate. It is a heavier metal
than lead, and on the whole may be said to be safer. Magnesia has also
been recommended as a substitute for white lead in the metallochrome
powders. The trade of transfer making is one in which, fortunately
in one sense for the workers, employment is irregular. Under any
circumstance it is an occupation in which the workers should have some
alternation of employment, and in which no young person should be
engaged, no food should be eaten in the workroom, overalls ought to be
worn, and before leaving the factory the hands and face of each worker,
should be washed. Not only should adequate lavatory accommodation be
provided, but sufficient time should be given by the masters before
break, for the workers to wash. In this, as in all trades in which lead
is used, the individuals should be subjected to periodical medical
examination--experience in the potteries, for example, having shown
how very beneficial this has been in preventing plumbism. Such an
examination often succeeds in eliminating persons who are susceptible
to lead before they have worked too long at the trade. In Limoges,
so impressed were several of the large porcelain makers by the great
susceptibility of young women to plumbism, that they now only employ
men in the manufacture of transfers. The work, too, is no longer
conducted on open tables, but in closed glass cases, through openings
which are guarded by indiarubber, the hands of the workman are thrust,
so that the operation of “laying on” is conducted under cover, the
dust created being drawn away by strong aspiration on the distal side
of the enclosed space. Since the introduction of this method of making
transfers, plumbism has disappeared from most of the large porcelain
works in Limoges. In Staffordshire a similar method of transfer making
has also been adopted, and with equally satisfactory results to the
workpeople.
Eleven cases of lead poisoning were notified to the Home Office as
having occurred in litho-transfer works during 1899.
_Tile-making and Manufacture of Porcelain Stoves._
The manufacture of tiles for useful and decorative purposes, such as
the floor of entrance halls, hearths, sides of fireplaces, and stoves,
is a large and increasing industry. The pressing of clay into the form
of tiles is done by machinery, and although it is a dusty process,
there is usually in operation at the time the pressing is done a strong
aspirating draught brought into play, whereby the dust is removed
from the face of the worker. The tiles when dried are subsequently
dipped in glazes often rich in lead. Usually the lead which enters into
the composition of the glaze for majolica tiles is fritted; but some
manufacturers have until recently been in the habit of using only raw
lead, and it was occasionally in their factories that lead poisoning
occurred. The opportunities for a worker becoming leaded are during
the dipping, cleaning, or painting. In some of the factories visited
by Professor Thorpe and myself, we saw mechanical dippers in use
which gave promise of superseding hand-dipping and of abolishing the
necessity for cleaning and trimming the edges of the tile. Employment
of mechanical dippers and of fritted lead compounds, conforming to the
solubility standard required by the Home Office, with enforcement of
the Special Rules, would pretty well abolish plumbism in this industry.
During the manufacture, at Velten in Brandenburg, of glazed tiles for
making earthenware stoves, there recently occurred a considerable
amount of lead poisoning among the operatives,[72] due to the glazing
of tiles with oxide of lead. The outbreak is of sufficient importance
to be mentioned here. The glazing material is made, first, by firing
together lead oxide and tin in the proportion of three to one. To
the compound thus obtained there are added felspar, marine salt, and
quartz. These are mixed together, and subsequently exposed to a great
heat so as to form a fritt. The vitrified material thus obtained is
crushed, finely pulverised and mixed with water, while the thick liquid
is applied to the surface of the tiles, which are afterwards heated in
a special furnace. During these operations there are many opportunities
for the workmen to become poisoned by lead. In the act of crushing,
a considerable amount of dust rich in lead salts rises into the
atmosphere. Rasch caused some of the air to pass through cotton-wool,
and he thus arrested the dust. The lead in this he estimated as
sulphide. The quantity found by him in 100 litres of air varied between
0.0012 to 0.0066 gramme, which was equivalent to an amount of lead
oxide entering into the lungs during the twelve hours’ work in the
factory of 0.05 to 0.6 gramme. Upon the clothes of the workmen he
obtained as much as 3 to 4.8 grammes. It was found that all the lead
in the fritt had not been converted into an insoluble form. There was
at least one-hundredth part in the form of lead oxide, a circumstance
which rendered the glaze harmful to those who dipped the tiles, and
also to those who handled them after dipping. It is needless to say
that where this industry is carried on, precautions should be taken
similar to those in use in the potteries, care being taken to have the
fritting of the lead carried on in well-ventilated places, and the
grinding of the fritt done in enclosed machinery.
_Washing of Lead-workers’ and Painters’ Clothes._
In my Gulstonian Lectures on Lead Poisoning, I make mention of the fact
that dogs which had slept on the coats or jackets of their masters,
who were lead smelters in the vales of Durham, sometimes suffered
from colic; also that a peculiar epidemic of Saturnine poisoning
occurred in France in women who had simply washed the clothes of their
husbands, who were workers in lead factories. One of the main reasons
for the White Lead Commission recommending the wearing of overalls
when at work was that the Committee ascertained that the clothes of
several of the female workers, which were often dust-laden, became
the bedclothes of the family at night. Lead dust is always a danger,
so, too, may be the bespattered working clothes of house painters.
A woman, thirty-six years of age, consulted me at the Newcastle
Dispensary on account of anæmia, headache, and double wrist drop. In
addition she had a well-marked blue line on her gums. There was no
difficulty in diagnosing the case as one of plumbism, the difficulty
was rather in tracing the lead poisoning to its source. She was a widow
and had never worked in any factory, nor, so far as she knew, had she
ever been brought into contact with lead. She simply attended to her
domestic duties. On inquiry I found that since her husband’s death,
in order to increase her income, she had taken to reside with her two
male lodgers--her own brother and a nephew. Both were house painters,
and they wore the ordinary white jackets and trousers of the artisan.
The patient was in the habit of washing their clothes once a week,
which were frequently very much discoloured, especially those of the
younger man, the nephew. I asked for a bottleful of the water removed
from the washtub when she washed the clothes. This water was dirty
brown in colour, and contained a good deal of sediment. I submitted
it to Dr Bedson, Professor of Chemistry at the College of Science in
Newcastle, who reported the presence of a very large quantity of lead
in suspension in the water, and a small quantity in solution. That the
woman’s ill-health and paralysis of the hands were due to Saturnine
poisoning there was not the least doubt, for under medicinal and
electrical treatment and cessation on her part of the weekly washing of
the painters’ clothes, health was gradually regained and muscular power
restored. It is known that women who wash the overalls, etc., in white
lead factories occasionally suffer from plumbism.
_Lead Foil Manufacture._
Makers of lead foil which is to be subsequently used for the tops of
bottles or for wrapping round tobacco, snuff, and cheese, occasionally
suffer from plumbism; so, too, do those who handle and fix the lead
discs over the corks of bottles. On analysis the metallic foil which
envelops Roquefort cheese has been found to contain 12 parts of tin
and 85 of lead, among other substances, while in that which envelops
Angelots cheese there has been found as much as 95 per cent. of lead.
Tobacco smokers and chewers have suffered from using tobacco kept in
metallic dishes, and I have had professional experience of the very bad
effects of the use of snuff wrapped in leaden foil. An attempt is being
made to substitute parchment for lead discs for bottles.
_Shoe-finishing and Staining by Lead Compounds._
A few months ago, owing to several shoe finishers in Northampton
having been thrown upon their benefit societies, all suffering from
the same type of symptoms, ultimately certified to be lead poisoning,
the circumstance was necessarily brought under the cognisance of the
Factory Inspector for the district. The men worked in the same factory.
On investigation it was found that they were in the habit of using, for
finishing the bottoms of shoes, certain powders, known in the trade
as Chinese red and yellow chrome. These contained lead compounds. In
the manipulation of the powders to stain the boots and shoes with,
a considerable amount of dust arises. The process is thus described
by Mr Wright, H.M. Inspector. Dry China-red powder is by means of a
sponge dusted on to the sole of a boot, a piece of fine glass-paper is
then used to scour the colour into the leather, a small quantity of
grease is subsequently applied, and the sole is polished with a dry
cloth. The workman, during the whole of the process, has to bend down
closely over the boot, and thereby inhales the coloured dust. Sometimes
chrome-yellow is mixed with the China-red. It was found necessary by
the Home Office to interdict the use of these powders, less harmful
substitutes being suggested.
_Lucifer Matches containing Lead._
In order to make matches strike softly, and in other instances with the
view of making matches free from yellow phosphorus, various compounds
of lead have been introduced into the paste for heading the lucifers.
The mixing of the ingredients and the manipulation of the paste were
attended by such an amount of sickness among the workers that their use
has been discarded, for it was found that although less painful, lead
poisoning was just as serious a malady as that caused by phosphorus.
_Buffing of Brass Cocks and Plumbism._
In buffing brass cocks upon rapidly revolving wheels covered with
leather, the surface of which is kept coated with emery powder, several
of the men have become ill, and shown signs of lead poisoning. Buffing
is done so as to smooth the brass cocks after casting. In what is known
as “gun” and “pot” metal, lead is sometimes present to the extent of 5
to 6 per cent.
APPENDIX
NUMBER OF CASES of Lead Poisoning notified to the Home
Secretary under Section 29, 1895, during 1898, 1899,
and 1900.[73]
+---------------------------+--------------------------+
| | Number of Reported Cases.|
| Disease and Industry. +--------+--------+--------+
| | 1900. | 1899. | 1898. |
+---------------------------+--------+--------+--------+
|Lead Poisoning | 1058 | 1258 | 1278 |
|China and Earthenware | 200 | 249 | 457 |
|Litho.-Transfer Works | 10 | 11 | [73] |
|Glass Polishing | 7 | 8 | 19 |
|Smelting | 34 | 61 | 82 |
|Tinning and Enamelling | 16 | 24 | 24 |
|File Cutting | 40 | 41 | 46 |
|White Lead | 358 | 399 | 332 |
|Paints and Colours | 56 | 75 | 59 |
|Coachmaking | 70 | 65 | 45 |
|Shipbuilding | 32 | 30 | [74] |
|Electric Accumulator Works | 33 | 33 | 11 |
|Other Industries | 202 | 290 | 103 |
+---------------------------+--------+--------+--------+
ANALYSIS OF REPORTS on Lead Poisoning by Certifying Surgeon.
Factories and Workshops: Annual Reports for 1899 and 1900
(Dr T. M. Legge).
+----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| | Total Cases. |
| +-------------------+-------------------+
| | 1900. | 1899. |
+----------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+
| | Males. | Females. | Males. | Females. |
|Smelting | 34 | ... | 52 | ... |
|Brass | 3 | ... | 11 | 1 |
|Sheet Lead | 17 | ... | 26 | ... |
|Printing | 17 | ... | 25 | 1 |
|File Cutting | 35 | 3 | 39 | 1 |
|Plumbing | 8 | 1 | 16 | 1 |
|Tinning and Enamelling of | | | | |
| Iron Hollow Ware | 2 | 3 | 11 | 4 |
|White Lead | 288 | 28 | 340 | 22 |
|Red Lead | 19 | ... | 19 | 2 |
|Earthenware | 92 | 105 | 119 | 111 |
|Litho.-Transfers | 7 | 3 | 6 | 4 |
|Glass | 7 | ... | 7 | 1 |
|Enamelling of Iron Plates | 8 | 3 | 6 | 4 |
|Electric Accumulators | 30 | ... | 31 | 1 |
|Paints and Colours | 51 | 5 | 47 | 1 |
|Coachpainting | 61 | ... | 58 | ... |
|Shipbuilding | 31 | ... | 30 | ... |
|Paint in other Industries, | | | | |
| excluding House Painters | 46 | ... | 47 | 5 |
|Other Industries | 58 | 18 | 64 | 17 |
+----------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+
Dr T. M. Legge deals with the age, distribution, and duration of
employment in persons brought in contact with metallic lead, and
with the salts of lead, either in the form of dust or of paint; and
in the following table, taken from his annual Report for 1900, shows
that in those who handle metallic lead or use it as paint, symptoms
of poisoning are more slowly developed than in those employed in
industries in which the salts of lead are present in the form of dust.
+--------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+
| | | Duration of |
| | Age. | Employment. |
| Source of Poisoning. +---------+---------+---------+---------+
| | Under |30 Years | 1–5 | 5 Years |
| | 30. |and over.| Years. |and over.|
+--------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
|Metallic Lead per cent.| 43.0 | 57.0 | 37.4 | 62.6 |
|Salts of Lead as Paint „ | 43.6 | 57.4 | 45.8 | 55.2 |
|Salts of Lead as Dust „ | 65.4 | 34.6 | 76.0 | 24.0 |
+--------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
The reports bring out the fact that Saturnine palsy is essentially an
affection of the male sex, while the symptoms of headache, anæmia, and
encephalopathy are more common in the female.
THOMAS OLIVER.
CHAPTER XX
ELECTRICAL TREATMENT IN CASES OF LEAD POISONING
The treatment of lead poisoning by electricity is based upon two
distinct ideas. First, the use of the electrolytic effects of a current
to eliminate the metal from the system; and secondly, the treatment
of its symptoms, especially its nervous symptoms, by electricity,
in virtue of its usefulness as a remedy for paralytic disorders.
In any treatment of lead poisoning these two considerations are of
importance:--
1. _The Elimination of the Metal._--There is no doubt that the
elimination of the metal is necessary for the recovery of a patient
from the effects of the poison. In the ordinary course of events
elimination probably takes place by the sweat glands of the skin,
by the kidneys, and by the mucous membrane and glands of the bowel;
whereas the direct effect of an electrolytic elimination would be to
cause the lead to pass by a process akin to osmosis in some soluble
form, most probably as a chloride of lead, from the tissues of the
body to the electrolyte surrounding the body, and so to the plates or
poles of the electrolytic cell or bath in which the patient is placed.
Unfortunately, the experimental evidence that lead can be extracted
from the tissues of the body in this way is not free from possible
sources of error. The amount of lead existing in the tissues of a
patient suffering from lead poisoning may not be more than a few grains
in weight, and the quantity which could be deposited by electrolysis
in an electric bath of the ordinary strength and duration could not
amount to more than a few milligrammes. In solutions such as the juices
of the body, containing but little lead, the lead ions could play but
an insignificant part in the transport of the current, and therefore
there are considerable difficulties in depositing at the poles of the
bath a quantity of lead which could only be a small fraction of the
total amount contained in the body. Lead compounds also have a somewhat
special behaviour when submitted to electrolytic treatment, for whereas
most metals are deposited from their solutions at the negative pole,
lead compounds when submitted to electrolysis have a tendency to be
deposited in part upon the positive pole, as lead peroxide, and in part
upon the negative pole, in a spongy metallic form. In the presence of
chlorides the lead peroxide does not adhere to the positive pole, but
tends to undergo changes and decomposition. Statements have frequently
been made that after the treatment of a patient by electrolysis in a
bath of water, traces of lead may be found upon the poles of the bath.
I have been able to detect lead on the plates in one case of my own in
which the experiment was tried. But there is always some uncertainty
as to the source of this lead, for in cases of workmen it may very
well have come from dust and dirt containing lead which has been
mechanically deposited upon the surface of their skin; or again, it
may be lead which has actually come from the tissues, but has already
been eliminated by the sweat glands, and is lying on the surface of the
skin, so that it could be washed away by ordinary washing with soap and
water. But at the same time we must not forget that even if the direct
electrolytic elimination of lead is a thing which can be brought about
by electricity, it is not the only way in which electrical applications
may act favourably in removing lead from the system, for by their
means we can also influence what may be called the natural processes
of elimination, so that after electrical treatment one might expect to
find traces of lead in the urine, in addition to that which might be
found by a careful examination of the poles of the bath. And so far as
mere opinions go, I certainly take the view that electrical treatment
favours such an indirect elimination of the poison, and to that extent
is of service in the treatment of cases.
2. _The Electrical Treatment of the Paralysis caused by the
Lead._--This is probably as important, or more important, than
the question of the extraction and elimination of the metal. In
practical treatment we may say that it is the paralytic symptoms
which are most readily dealt with by electrical methods. All forms
of electrical application have been recommended for paralysis due to
lead, _e.g._, the constant current, the interrupted current of
the coil, and, more recently, the sinusoidal current of an alternating
dynamo. These can all be used, and apparently with advantage. As I have
frequently maintained in other places, the state of contractility in
a paralysed muscle need not necessarily dictate to us the form that
the electrical applications are to take. I mean that when a muscle
paralysed from lead ceases to react to induction coil currents, it
does not at all follow that induction coil currents are useless in its
treatment; and, therefore, I consider that the widely held view that
a coil should be used only for those muscles capable of responding to
it is not correct. Muscles which show the reaction of degeneration,
and contract only to direct applications of the constant current,
will almost certainly derive benefit from a course of induction coil
currents, and these should in every case be given to them, not to
the exclusion of constant currents, but in addition thereto. Many of
the rules laid down for the treatment of paralysis by electricity
are based upon the view that the therapeutic effect of electricity
upon a muscle can be measured by the amount of contraction which the
electrical application can produce in it; but this is quite wrong.
Even in the absence of all visible contractions in a muscle under
treatment, electrical applications produce effects--vasomotor, trophic,
and other--which are of service. Indeed, we may go further, and say
that treatment by currents purposely made strong, in order to set up
contractions in paralysed muscles with very feeble contractility,
may easily be overdone, and that fatigue and injury may be caused
to muscles through too severe stimulation when strong currents are
demanded, in order to make them contract visibly.
In the practical treatment of paralysis due to lead, the choice of
an electrical method will turn upon the supposed relative advantages
of electrolytic extraction of the metal on the one hand, and of
electrical stimulation of the paralysed parts on the other. For the
former the electric bath with constant current is to be used, and for
the latter induction coil currents or sinusoidal currents, with or
without a water bath. The advantages of the sinusoidal current over
that of the induction coil consist mainly in the greater smoothness
with which the current varies in the former case, and in the greater
magnitude of the currents which can be borne. The two methods differ
from each other rather in degree than in essence. When, as is usual,
the case is one of paralysis of the extensor muscles of the forearm,
the use of an arm-bath as the medium for applying the electricity
has very decided advantages, so that I am accustomed to treat most
of my cases by the arm-bath and sinusoidal current. In cases of
severe or extensive lead poisoning, or in cases where the muscles
of the lower limbs are affected, I make use of the full-length
bath, and at the commencement of the case would advise the use of
direct and sinusoidal currents on alternate days, in order to secure
electrolytic effects as well as those of simple stimulation. It is
probable that hot baths, without electricity, are of very decided
service in treating symptoms due to lead. In former days the thermal
waters of Bath enjoyed a very considerable reputation in this disease.
Thus, by combining a full-length bath with electricity, one is able
to make use of the increased elimination set up by hot bathing, as
well as of the increased elimination set up by general electrical
stimulation. The electrolytic effect also comes in if the current used
is a continuous one, but not so if it is alternating. In practical
treatment, the cases of lead poisoning most commonly met with, are
cases of operatives who handle lead, or some preparation of lead, in
the course of earning their living. The symptoms of which they commonly
complain in London, at least, are wrist drop and paralysis of the
extensors of the wrist and fingers. This is the class of case which I
have had under treatment during the last ten years; and the opinion
which I have formed of electrical treatment is decidedly favourable.
Although in a number of cases the lead has had many years in which to
poison the patient, yet it is the rule that within a few weeks from
the commencement of electrical applications the paralytic symptoms
become very considerably decreased. Unfortunately, recovery is usually
followed by a return to the old occupation; fresh infection follows,
and paralytic symptoms sooner or later reappear. The patient returns
for further treatment under conditions less favourable than before. He
is older, the system is more seriously damaged, and his recovery is
apt to be less perfect than on the previous occasion. It is this state
of things which is chiefly responsible for the fact that brilliant
results are not often met with in the treatment of lead poisoning due
to occupation. In districts where lead poisoning is common, I would
recommend an installation for electrical treatment on the following
lines: (1) one or more arm-baths; (2) one or more full-length baths for
the whole body. Both of these sets of baths should be supplied with
sinusoidal current, generated by a dynamo on the premises, or drawn
from the mains of an electric light station, if the current supplied
in the neighbourhood should happen to be alternating. In each case
some clockwork or other mechanical contrivance for slowly varying the
current from zero to the maximum might with advantage be installed,
although good results may be obtained without this. In addition, for
direct treatment by constant current in special cases, it would be
necessary to have a battery or other source of constant current, either
for use with the bath or for local applications by means of pads and
conductors of the usual class. The induction coil may be used where
the sinusoidal current cannot be obtained, but wherever possible, the
latter should be used in preference. A pressure of ten or twelve volts
is about a suitable one for an arm-bath, and if an average of twelve
and a half volts per arm-bath is taken, it is sometimes convenient
to arrange the arm-baths in series, as is done, for example, at St
Bartholomew’s Hospital, where four arm-baths in a series are fed from
one source at fifty volts. This, it will be seen, gives twelve and a
half volts per bath, minus a small loss of one volt or so over the
whole circuit for the conductors. So if eight or ten baths could be
employed with advantage, they might be arranged in a single series
upon mains of a hundred volts pressure. In the fitting up of a new
establishment, it would be convenient to provide waste pipes and water
taps fixed over them, to obviate the inconvenience of filling and
emptying by hand. A very convenient vessel for arm-bath treatment is
an oblong stoneware picklepan, which can usually be obtained in towns;
or wooden vessels of the same shape may be made almost anywhere. It
is advantageous to use narrow oblong vessels of a suitable length and
width to take the arms and hands, because with round tubs there is
considerable loss of current, carried by the water without entering
into the patient. There is also a certain waste of hot water by reason
of the greater capacity of round tubs. The electrodes for arm-baths may
conveniently be made of one piece of sheet copper or sheet zinc, shaped
like a tennis racket, with the handle bent over in a hook, by which to
suspend it to the end of the tub.
The progress of treatment is slow, and without incident. There is
a gradual return of power and a gain in thickness of the wasted
muscles. The duration of the case varies much with the severity of the
poisoning, and the state of health of the patient. The final results
are good.
H. LEWIS JONES.
CHAPTER XXI
ARSENIC
Arsenic is employed for colouring purposes in various arts and
industries, and may produce injurious effects on the workers and on
others who are exposed to the influence of the poison. A Committee
of the Medical Society of London, of which I was secretary some
twenty years ago, compiled from the information collected by them the
following list of articles in which arsenical pigments, dyes, and
mordants were used.
Paper, fancy and surface coloured, in sheets for covering cardboard
boxes; for labels of all kinds; for advertisement cards, playing
cards, wrappers for sweetmeats, cosaques, etc.; for the ornamentation
of children’s toys; for covering children’s and other books; for lamp
shades, paperhangings for walls and other purposes; artificial leaves
and flowers; wax ornaments for Christmas trees and other purposes;
printed or woven fabrics intended for use as garments; printed or
woven fabrics intended for use as curtains or coverings for furniture;
children’s toys, particularly inflated indiarubber balls with dry
colour inside, painted indiarubber dolls, stands and rockers of
rocking-horses and the like, glass balls (hollow); distemper colour
for decorative purposes; oil paint for the same; lithographers’ colour
printing; decorated tin plates, including painted labels used by
butchers and others to advertise the price of provisions; japanned
goods generally; Venetian and other blinds; American or leather
cloth; printed table baizes; carpets, floorcloth, linoleum, book
cloth and fancy bindings. To this list may be added coloured soaps,
wafers, sweetmeats, and false malachite. Arsenic is also used in the
preparation of skins for stuffing and of some preservatives used by
anatomists. Workers employed in the manufacture of any of these things
may suffer from the effects of the arsenic contained in the materials
which they handle. The fluid known as “sheep dip,” which is sold for
the purpose of killing tic on sheep, contains a large quantity of
arsenic. Occasionally the men who manufacture the liquid or who wash
the workmen’s clothes have suffered from the effects of arsenic upon
their extremities and nervous system.
The metal is mostly employed in the form of green arsenites of copper,
known as Scheele’s green, and Schweinfurt or Vienna green. The poison
gains admission to the system either by being carried into the mouth on
the hands and thence taken into the stomach, or by inhalation into the
lungs.
In the preparation of artificial flowers Scheele’s green is powdered
over the leaves, and in this process some of the dust is drawn in with
the breath, while some may lodge in the furrows of the skin and under
the nails. In the manufacture of green wallpapers Scheele’s green and
the aceto-arsenite of copper are mainly used; from 1 grain of the
poisonous substance to 50 or 60 grains per square foot has been found
in different samples. Arsenic has been found in red, orange, brown,
and grey papers as well as green. The poisonous material may be dusted
off the wallpapers and distributed through the atmosphere of the room.
Bamberg, of Stockholm detected arsenic in the atmosphere of a room that
had been papered for twenty-five or thirty years. According to Parkes
and Kenwood,[75] in the case of the smoother papers arseniuretted
hydrogen is formed by decomposition of the size and paste acting
chemically on the arsenical salt. The same authors point out that even
distempered walls must not be assumed to be innocuous, as there is
frequently arsenic in distemper which is mixed with size to make it
adhere, thus forming a combination of organic matter and arsenic ready
for the development of arseniuretted hydrogen.
Persons living in rooms hung with arsenicated wallpapers, and workmen
who strip walls or hang pictures, are liable to suffer from the
inhalation of the poisonous dust or vapour. Injurious effects may also
be caused by the use of green lamp shades, and of gloves, stockings,
and other articles of clothing coloured with aniline dyes in the
preparation of which arsenic is largely employed. The use of arsenic
in many of the arts that have been enumerated, and particularly in
the manufacture of wallpapers and in the tinting of textile and
silken fabrics intended for furnishing and clothing purposes, also of
arsenical colours, has greatly diminished since attention was called to
the danger of these by the Medical Society and by sanitarians, among
whom the late Mr Henry Carr[76] deserves special mention. Yet, as is
proved by cases which are from time to time reported in the papers,
they are still too much employed.
_Symptoms._--The symptoms are those of chronic arsenical
poisoning, and may vary in severity from slight inflammation of
the eyes or conjunctivitis, and running at the nose, or coryza, to
prostration, or convulsions ending in death. The strong are attacked
as well as the weak. In the slighter forms of the affection they are
marked by conjunctivitis, running at the nose, and injection, with
dryness and soreness of the throat, accompanied by depression. In
more severe forms there is headache with colicky pain and abdominal
“cramps,” with vomiting, diarrhœa, and sometimes dysentery; the
throat and mouth are sore and parched; there is great thirst, with
distaste for food. The congested condition of the respiratory passages
manifests itself by cough and bronchial catarrh, sometimes by asthma.
If the cause is not removed the affection may last indefinitely in
a stage of more or less troublesome indisposition, or the prolonged
gastro-intestinal derangement may gradually undermine the health and
exhaust the patient. In some cases the nervous system suffers most;
there is increasing depression, with restlessness and insomnia;
in certain severe cases paralysis of the extremities occurs, with
convulsions ending in death. This, however, is altogether exceptional,
and indeed death from arsenical poisoning of what may be called
industrial origin is decidedly rare.
In certain cases arsenic produces local as well as general effects.
According to Arlidge[77] workers employed in the manufacture of
arsenical green often exhibit peculiar symptoms. That product is
derived from arsenite of soda, which is decomposed by sulphate of
copper, and the resultant treated with pyroligneous acid.
The workers are liable to the development of boils and pimples, and
suffer from an itching eruption about the nostrils and in the flexures
of the arms. In severer cases there is headache with thirst and
nausea, and an irritating eruption appears on the scrotum. Vomiting,
quickening of the pulse, and conjunctival injection are observed in
some persons. In workmen employed in the calcining or “burning” houses
for arsenical ores the fumes produce sometimes gastric disturbances,
sometimes bronchial and laryngeal irritation. The commonest effect is
the production of an eruption about the genitals and on the exposed
parts of the body, especially at the bends of the limbs. Stockings,
handkerchiefs, gloves, etc., dyed with aniline colours often cause
severe irritation, especially on the skin of delicate women and
children. This ought never to occur, for if the process is rightly
carried out no arsenic passes into the finished dye.
_Treatment and Prophylaxis._--The first principle of treatment is
removal of the cause. The symptoms will then, in the great majority of
cases, spontaneously disappear. Debility or other conditions calling
for active measures should be treated _secundum artem_.
As regards the prophylaxis, in trades where exposure to the arsenic
is unavoidable, sanitary precautions on the same lines as those taken
against lead poisoning should be enforced. For colouring purposes
arsenical colours are unnecessary. In the dyeing of textile fabrics and
in the tinting of papers they should be absolutely prohibited.
No paper should be placed on a wall unless it be guaranteed free
from arsenic, and even with a guarantee from the manufacturer it is
advisable to test a piece with Marsh’s apparatus to make sure.
MALCOLM MORRIS.
CHAPTER XXII
CHINA AND EARTHENWARE MANUFACTURE: POTTERS’ ROT
In all dusty trades pulmonary disease is the cause of death of large
numbers of the workpeople. The manufacture of pottery is a dusty
trade. Potters’ asthma and consumption have for long been known. The
potteries of Staffordshire formerly had an unenviable notoriety on
account of the prevalence of ill-health, and the large death-rate among
the hands employed. For much that we know of the pulmonary diseases
of potters and of _pneumoconiosis_ in general we are indebted to
Drs Greenhow, Addison, Peacock, and the late Dr J. T. Arlidge, who, as
Physician to the North Staffordshire Infirmary, Stoke-upon-Trent, had
unusual opportunities of observing and recording the prevalent diseases
of that district.
In the manufacture of china and earthenware the workpeople are exposed
to two dangers: (1) pulmonary disease due to inhalation of particles
of clay and flint; and (2) plumbism in consequence of the presence of
lead used in the glazes and for colouring purposes. In another part
of the book the dangers incidental to lead poisoning in potteries are
dealt with. Here we are concerned with mineral dust solely, and its
effect upon the lungs. Cheap pottery is made from ordinary clay, but
in the manufacture of the finer ware, Cornish clay and stone are used.
In firing china, ground flint is largely used as a packing between the
cups, saucers, and plates, etc., when these are placed in the “saggers”
or burnt-clay boxes in the ovens. In addition to the ingredients
mentioned above, ground calcined bone is also one of the constituents
of china.
Clay and flint both contain very hard, sharp, angular particles of
silex, which when drawn into the respiratory organs during inhalation
are not dissolved by the secretions of the bronchi. They become
deposited in the smallest bronchial tubes and the pulmonary alveoli,
and set up irritation. The initial process in the manufacture of
earthenware consists in mixing the clays with ground flints and
water. This is rather a dusty operation, but fortunately only a few
men are employed at it. When properly mixed, the compound is known as
“slip,” and the men are called slip-makers. The mixing of the slip is
sometimes done by hand by means of long, broad pieces of wood, but
usually by machinery. The next stage in the manufacture is known as
“throwing,” where the potter throws moist clay upon a revolving wheel,
and by means of his hands and fingers shapes the clay into all forms
of useful dishes, elegant vases, etc. These products are known as
hollow ware, but other kinds of ware just as useful, _e.g._ plates
and saucers, can be made by pressing. The clay vessel when removed
from the potter’s wheel is felt by the fingers when run over it to
be rough and uneven, and in order to get the required smoothness it
is necessary later on to turn such hollow ware as cups upon a lathe,
while flat goods like plates and saucers are made even by being rubbed
with tow or flannel upon a rapidly revolving table. This process is
called “towing.” Ware thus smoothed is ready for the oven. The first
firing is known in the trade as “biscuiting.” After this it is ready
to be painted or imprinted by coloured transfers, and then glazed. The
ware to be fired is placed in large thick-walled vessels the size of
an ordinary cheese, made of very coarse local clay, and known by the
name of “saggers.” These are capable of withstanding great heat. Into
these the earthenware and china goods are packed, care being taken
to separate the individual china pieces from each other by plenty of
loose ground flint. The men who carry the saggers into the kilns are
called “placers.” They build up the saggers on the top of one another,
pile after pile, and when doing this they are naturally exposed to
alternating heat and cold, to high temperatures in ovens just emptied,
to the fumes of sulphur in the kilns from the expiring fires, and to a
considerable amount of dust when emptying the saggers. Coming out of
the warm kilns covered with perspiration they run the risk of getting
chilled.
In this description of the manufacture we have simply dealt with ware
that has not been glazed or in any way brought into contact with
poisonous compounds, such as lead. The products have only once been
fired. Should the biscuited ware be subsequently glazed, this is
done by dipping it into a liquid which contains, among other things,
“raw” or “fritted” lead. The man who plunges the ware into the glaze
is called a “dipper,” and he is followed in his work by the dipper’s
cleaners, who rub the rough edges off the ware, while the person who
places the dipped ware in the saggers, which go again into the oven
for a second firing, is called a “glost placer.” The workman who fills
the unglazed ware in the saggers and carries them into the kilns for
the first firing is, as already stated, called a “placer.” He only
incurs such risks to health as might be caused by exposure to varying
temperatures and to dust, but the “glost placer” runs in addition the
risk of lead poisoning. About 3 per cent. of them suffer from plumbism.