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THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CHIEF INSPECTOR OF FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS FOR THE YEAR 1901.
238 .-to which your letter refers must, in Mr. Ritchie’s opinion, be considered as very discreditable to the medical men concerned, but he is glad toi believe that such incidents are very rare. Doctors are, as a rule, . perfectly willing to undertake an examination of this sort though aware that they will only be paid their expenses as witnesses. Mr. Ritchie would suggest that in an exceptional case where, owing to the refusal of a medical man to make such an examination. there might be danger of a serious miscarriage of justice, you should communicate with the Director of Public Prosecutions who could, if necessary, emplov an expert to make the examination. As a general rule, however, such expenses ought not to be thrown on I am, Sir, your obedient servant, .Imperial funds. CHARLES S. MURDOCK. The Chief Constable of East Suffolk, Ipswich.
THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CHIEF INSPECTOR OF FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS FOR THE
YEAR 1901. PART I. REPORTS. SECOND NOTICE.1
ONEof the most valuable parts of the chief inspector’s report is the summary which he gives of the Factory and Workshops Act, 1901. It may be remembered that two Factory Bills were introduced concurrently into the House
The CHAIRMAN: It only remains for the Bench to discover what is ,-the attitude of the medical faculty in this town upon the subjectwhether they still decline to deal with such cases or not ? Superintendent ANDREWS That I am not in a position to say, sir. I have not conferred with the medical men ; the matter has been in the of Commons. Of these two Bills the first was framed with a hands of Inspector Steggles. but I understand from him that they refuse to act in all eases ot criminal assault because their remuneration view to consolidate the then existing Factory Acts of 1878, not sufficient. 1883, 1891, and 1895, and the Cotton Cloth Factories Acts of The CHAIRMAN : Can yon ascertain what is the position? The CLERK: Mr. Tetlev is here. 1889 and 1896. The second Bill was drawn up to amend The CHAIRMAN : Then Mr. Tetley can speak for himself. (To Mr. the existing law in certain particulars. These Bills passed men in Do of the medical the you represent feeling ,Tetley.) Bungay ? Committee and received some amendments in the Mr, F. H. TETLFY: I am exceedingly obliged to you for allowing me to have the opportunity of hearing this letter read. I want it to be plainly process. The provisions of the second Bill were then added understood on behalf of the medical profession in Bungay that the to the first Bill which proceeded in the form of a reason we objected to examine this case was as a strong protest against measure and received the Royal Assent in August, A the miserably low fees which are offered to ns for attending the quarter sessions or assizes to give evidence. The fee we get is a guinea a day and very important feature of the new Act is that the question our railway ticket, and if detained over one day we get, 2s. 6d. for our of ventilation can now in many cases for the first time be bed. I may state also that it is contrary to the ethics of the profession In previous dealt with by the factory that in any cases where either life or limb is involved or in cases where Acts provisions had been made in to the amount of it is a matter of alleviating human suffering the question of fee or for the but reward scarcely ever-I hope never-enters the mind of a medical man air-space which had to be in deciding whether he should give his services or not. But in these there was no statutory provision to insure the of -cases I certainly think that the State should remunerate us better than fresh air. There was a requirement that the temperature of does. I hope the magistrates do not think that we sprang a mine the air should be reasonable, but there was a complete upon the police in the case referred to, for immediately after the case which went from here to the assizes in November last we distinctly told absence of any necessity on the part of the manufacturer to the inspector of police that in future under no conditions whatever trouble himself about the purity of the air breathed until the remuneration was altered would we attend to these sort of . -cases. I may add that it is unfortunate that my colleague Mr. G. H. by the workpeople. The manufacturer might, therefore, is away just now, but he is exactly of the same opinion as by any means he choose raise the temperature of myself, and unless the remuneration is altered we shall decline to air at the expense of its This is in fact what examine in any of these cases. actually happened. In the case Deane v. Beach it was The CHAIRMAN : That is your fixed determination? that the temperature of a room was raised ’’by Mr. TETLPY: Yes ; and of the medical men in Bungay. Superintendent ANDREWS : Is it only the fee allowed for stayingheating it with gas jets and stopping up the chimneys." The over-night that you complain of ? before whom the case was tried that magistrate Mr. TETLEY : No, the fees generally. : he was obliged to dismiss the summons which was taken out The CHAIRMAN : I should like to say that although we have heard from Mr. Tetley that the police were given notice in November under the section of an Act which reads thus : "In every last that the medical faculty of the town refused to attend these cases of or workship adequate measures shall be taken for factory criminal assault, and similar cases, so far as I am aware I never heard and maintaining a reasonable temperature in each The bench knew nothing of it. and it therefore ot any such notice. 3 came as a surprise to us when this child was brought up unexamined. room in which any person is It was held on We have listened to what Mr. Tetley has said and I again repeat that Bench Division) at the High Court of Justice we have nothing whatever to do with the rights of the matter. The that the magistrate was right in his decision. Mr. Justice .question at issue is one for the Home Office to deal with. Mr. TETLEY : Mr. Chairman, could I possibly have a copy of that Ridley held that temperature is clearly not the same thing as :.letter to send to THE LANCET ? THE LANCET is our medical journal and ventilation and that the temperature, which in this case was it has taken up the matter. 610 Fahr., was reasonable and Mr. Justice The CHAIRMAN : The letter having been read here by the request of aimed out that a reasonable temperature was the only the police authorities is public property. May I make a suggestion ? Would it not be possible for a medical man to be appointed for the at in the section which was relied on by the prosecution. division to deal with such cases ? The magistrate who first tried the case gave it as his Superintendent ANDREWS : I have been thinking the matter over state of seriously and I feel that the time has arrived when it should be so. opinion that "such an abominable and The Act of 1901 which has ’:This matter was duly reported to me by the inspector here and in turn things should be remedied." reported by me to my superiors. It is, however, a unique case and accomplished this reform that sufficient ventilation there was a difficulty in dealing with it. But I do think the time has must be maintained to render harmless all gases, vapours, arrived when a medical gentleman should be appointed for each and dust. Attention has been already called3 to the division so far as police matters are concerned. Mr. TETLEY : We have been driven to thisconclusion by degrees. condition of the ventilation in many extremely unsatisfactory The CHAIRMA.N: You have raised an important issue which has now of the cotton-weaving sheds, in which the air had been to be settled somehow. ...got of cotton cloth Mr. TETLEY: We get no fees from our police cases at all. We may be examined by Mr. W. Williams, the factories. In his introductory summary to the work done by rung up in the middle of the night for a man who may be hanged, but we get no fee whatever. his department, the Chief Inspector gives sufficient Superintendent ANDREWS : That is a matter for the coroner, except prominence to the report on the cotton cloth factories and he in cases of paupers when it comes on the parish. Mr. KEM13ALL: You object rather to be taken away from all your work omits to refer the reader to the part of the volume in which for perhaps two or three days to the county assize (or sessions) at the this report is to be found. The space at our remuneration ? present will only admit of a brief summary of the work done Mr. TETLEY : Yes. the inspector who gives a full account of the SuperintendentAND-REWS: We are in the same position with regard to by tions which he made in regard to the quality of the ..architects and surveyors whose allowance is but 3s. 6d. a day. the The CHAIRMAN (to Superintendent Andrews) : Perhaps you will convey air in certain factories and in weaving sheds. to the Chief Constable the suggestion which the bench makes that the 1901 13 new cotton cloth factories were worked and year Home Office should te communicated with and asked if a medical man there were 12 additional rooms. The regulacould not be appointed for each division. The suggestion made by the Home Office that the Director of Public Prosecutions should be com- tion of the amount of moisture in the air has already been a municated with scarcely seems to be adequate, ’because we all know matter of considerable in these factories. If that the delav might mean that any traces of an assault may have the air be too the of cannot be satisdry process weaving vanished by the time that any examination takes place at the instance of the Director of Public Prosecutions. factorily conducted, and if it be too moist the comfort of
is
through
single 1901.
efficiently
inspectors. regard provided workpeople, supply
it
Ransome
the
purity.
proved
regretted
securing
employed." (King’s
appeal
Bigham pointed thing
disgraceful
provides
inspector hardly
disposal
investiga-
During
cotton-spinning importance
MR. W. G. GRACE, M.R C.S.Eng., L.R.C.P.Edin., . completed his fifty-fourth year on July 18th. Lately he has been devoting some attention to the game of bowls and last Bweek he made his 200th three-figure score at cricket.
the workers is interfered with. On this question there were formerly many complaints and until the year 1889 no legal limit was put on the amount of humidity permissible and it in THE LANCET of July 19th, 2 58 & 59 Vict. cap. 37. THE LANCET, Oct. 29th, 1901, p. 1146.
1 The first notice 3
appeared
1902, p. 172.
239 not until that year that hygrometers were generally introduced into these factories. Improvements followed the introduction of these instruments and in 1896 a committee, under the chairmanship of Sir Henry Roscoe, made investigations which led to further changes in the law two years later. The condition of the workers has generally improved. Mr. Williams pays a pleasing tribute to the exertions of some of the large manufacturers who have raised the standard of sanitation and of comfort in their workshops to a higher level than that demanded by the letter of the law. They have been rewarded by an improvement in the quality of the work done and by the diminution in the sick The improvement in the purity rate of their work-people. of the air in these factories is a direct result of the recommendation of Sir Henry Roscoe’s Committee which was enforced first as a regulation and which has now become a statutory provision and is incorporated in the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901. The inspector of cotton cloth factories, in his report for the year 1900, gave a table showing the amount of improvement which had been affected in 35 weaving sheds.55 In the report for the year 1901 he gives figures respecting tests made during the year 1901 in 43 weaving sheds containing an aggregate of about 7000 workers. A comparison of this table with the one published in the previous report shows that a further improvement A table made from has been effected during the year. the averages of these two sets of cases is given below. It shows in the case of 35 sheds in the year 1900 and in the case of 43 sheds in the year 1901 the number of volumes of carbonic acid found in 10,000 volumes of air6 was
The ventilation of certain spinning rooms is still very unsatisfactory and the average length of life of a spinner is said to be shorter than that of a weaver. Many of the rooms in which spinning is done are sufficiently large to provide a fairly liberal amount of cubic space for each worker, but efficient provision is not made for the supply of fresh air. Sometimes it is said that the condition of the external air is too dry for admission into the rooms and that it would, if it were not first warmed and damped, act injuriously on the work. Moreover, the air of Lancashire towns is not free from smoke and fog, which are prejudicial to fine yarns. The impurity of the atmosphere in some of the mills is simply appalling. Some statistics were published from the report for the year 1900.7 The following extract is from one of the tables given in the report for 1901 ; it shows the gross pollution by carbonic acid found in the air of some of the mills. Carbonic Acid (CO2) in Cotton Spinning Illills.
(1) before the improvement in ventilating arrangements was effected and (2) after the improvement in ventilating arrangements was effected. The figures in columns C and D are obtained by deducting from the amount of carbonic acid experimentally found to be present in the workrooms the amount normally present in the outside air of manufacturing towns which is estimated
as four volumes per 10,000. The 15 tests in all are quoted. Amongst these the highest space improvement effected is perhaps most easily realised (approximate) per head in cubic feet was 12,660 and the lowest 2700. The temperature varied from 80° to 97°, in no by comparing these two columns. case was it under 80°. The number of volumes of carbonic Carbonic Acid (CO2) in Cotton-weaving Sheds. acid per 10,000 varied from 7-6to 41-3. There is little cause for surprise that the life of a cotton-spinner should not, as a rule, be a long one. In one or two directions considerable improvements have of late taken place in the factories. It now rarely happens that water contaminated by sewage is used for moistening the air of the workrooms, but the practice of using impure water for that purpose was formerly quite a common one. The more general use of electricity for lighting purposes is a great boon. At the present time, the cotton-weaving factories which are lighted by gas in many instances contain air much contaminated by carbonic acid gas. In a table recording the results of 23
actual
examinations of air from such factories the amount of carbonic acid gas was found to vary from 13-2 to 41-7 volumes per 10,000 volumes. It seems very remarkable that " the floor of a weaving shed "is, as a rule, never washed." It is less a matter for surprise that "spitting on the floors is by no means unknown among weavers " and we have the official assurance that this is the case. The general filthiness of many of the weaving sheds may be fairly well gauged The average of the respiratory impurity in the individual samples of air referred to in the table has been reduced to considerably less than one-half of the amount previously found and in some cases there was even a greater improvement than this. Considerable improvement undoubtedly has been effected in the health of the workmen through these changes, but no statistical details on the question are to be had as there is a general absence of records of sickness amongst weavers. It is, however, known that in ill-ventilated sheds it was a common thing in the summer for the workers to faint, and that this has not been the case since the improved conditions of ventilation have been introduced. Workmen say that they now feel less exhausted at the end of their day’s work than they had formerly felt at midday. Manufacturers are in general agreement that the work has been better done since the operatives have been placed under less unhygienic conditions. 4
" The arrangements for ventilation shall be such that during workhours in no part of the cotton cloth factory shall the proportion of carbonic acid (carbon dioxide) in the air be greater than nine volumes of carbonic acid to every 10,000 volumes of air." 5 THE LANCET, Oct. 29th, 1901, p. 1146. 6 The samples were taken from the " breathing level" and near to the centre of the shed in each case.
ing
from the following gratulatory paragraph from the report. "There are," says Mr. Williams, "I am glad to report, a few sheds in Lancashire where the floors, except immediately under the looms, are washed weekly and the result is so extremely pleasing that it is to be hoped that the practice will extend to other sheds." The inspector of cotton cloth factories has done an enormous amount of useful work, but it is evident that more remains behind.
THE COUNTY OF DURHAM MEDICAL UNION. THE fourth annual meeting of this union was held in the Town Hall, Durham, on June 23rd, Dr. E. JEPSON, J.P. (Durham), the President, being in the chair. There was a large attendance of members, amongst those present being Dr. James Murphy (Sunderland), the Vice-President ; Mr. E. H. Davies (West Hartlepool), Mr. J. Arthur (Wingate), 7 THE
LANCET, Oct. 26th, 1901,
p. 1147.
THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CHIEF INSPECTOR OF FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS FOR THE
YEAR 1901. PART I. REPORTS. SECOND NOTICE.1
ONEof the most valuable parts of the chief inspector’s report is the summary which he gives of the Factory and Workshops Act, 1901. It may be remembered that two Factory Bills were introduced concurrently into the House
The CHAIRMAN: It only remains for the Bench to discover what is ,-the attitude of the medical faculty in this town upon the subjectwhether they still decline to deal with such cases or not ? Superintendent ANDREWS That I am not in a position to say, sir. I have not conferred with the medical men ; the matter has been in the of Commons. Of these two Bills the first was framed with a hands of Inspector Steggles. but I understand from him that they refuse to act in all eases ot criminal assault because their remuneration view to consolidate the then existing Factory Acts of 1878, not sufficient. 1883, 1891, and 1895, and the Cotton Cloth Factories Acts of The CHAIRMAN : Can yon ascertain what is the position? The CLERK: Mr. Tetlev is here. 1889 and 1896. The second Bill was drawn up to amend The CHAIRMAN : Then Mr. Tetley can speak for himself. (To Mr. the existing law in certain particulars. These Bills passed men in Do of the medical the you represent feeling ,Tetley.) Bungay ? Committee and received some amendments in the Mr, F. H. TETLFY: I am exceedingly obliged to you for allowing me to have the opportunity of hearing this letter read. I want it to be plainly process. The provisions of the second Bill were then added understood on behalf of the medical profession in Bungay that the to the first Bill which proceeded in the form of a reason we objected to examine this case was as a strong protest against measure and received the Royal Assent in August, A the miserably low fees which are offered to ns for attending the quarter sessions or assizes to give evidence. The fee we get is a guinea a day and very important feature of the new Act is that the question our railway ticket, and if detained over one day we get, 2s. 6d. for our of ventilation can now in many cases for the first time be bed. I may state also that it is contrary to the ethics of the profession In previous dealt with by the factory that in any cases where either life or limb is involved or in cases where Acts provisions had been made in to the amount of it is a matter of alleviating human suffering the question of fee or for the but reward scarcely ever-I hope never-enters the mind of a medical man air-space which had to be in deciding whether he should give his services or not. But in these there was no statutory provision to insure the of -cases I certainly think that the State should remunerate us better than fresh air. There was a requirement that the temperature of does. I hope the magistrates do not think that we sprang a mine the air should be reasonable, but there was a complete upon the police in the case referred to, for immediately after the case which went from here to the assizes in November last we distinctly told absence of any necessity on the part of the manufacturer to the inspector of police that in future under no conditions whatever trouble himself about the purity of the air breathed until the remuneration was altered would we attend to these sort of . -cases. I may add that it is unfortunate that my colleague Mr. G. H. by the workpeople. The manufacturer might, therefore, is away just now, but he is exactly of the same opinion as by any means he choose raise the temperature of myself, and unless the remuneration is altered we shall decline to air at the expense of its This is in fact what examine in any of these cases. actually happened. In the case Deane v. Beach it was The CHAIRMAN : That is your fixed determination? that the temperature of a room was raised ’’by Mr. TETLPY: Yes ; and of the medical men in Bungay. Superintendent ANDREWS : Is it only the fee allowed for stayingheating it with gas jets and stopping up the chimneys." The over-night that you complain of ? before whom the case was tried that magistrate Mr. TETLEY : No, the fees generally. : he was obliged to dismiss the summons which was taken out The CHAIRMAN : I should like to say that although we have heard from Mr. Tetley that the police were given notice in November under the section of an Act which reads thus : "In every last that the medical faculty of the town refused to attend these cases of or workship adequate measures shall be taken for factory criminal assault, and similar cases, so far as I am aware I never heard and maintaining a reasonable temperature in each The bench knew nothing of it. and it therefore ot any such notice. 3 came as a surprise to us when this child was brought up unexamined. room in which any person is It was held on We have listened to what Mr. Tetley has said and I again repeat that Bench Division) at the High Court of Justice we have nothing whatever to do with the rights of the matter. The that the magistrate was right in his decision. Mr. Justice .question at issue is one for the Home Office to deal with. Mr. TETLEY : Mr. Chairman, could I possibly have a copy of that Ridley held that temperature is clearly not the same thing as :.letter to send to THE LANCET ? THE LANCET is our medical journal and ventilation and that the temperature, which in this case was it has taken up the matter. 610 Fahr., was reasonable and Mr. Justice The CHAIRMAN : The letter having been read here by the request of aimed out that a reasonable temperature was the only the police authorities is public property. May I make a suggestion ? Would it not be possible for a medical man to be appointed for the at in the section which was relied on by the prosecution. division to deal with such cases ? The magistrate who first tried the case gave it as his Superintendent ANDREWS : I have been thinking the matter over state of seriously and I feel that the time has arrived when it should be so. opinion that "such an abominable and The Act of 1901 which has ’:This matter was duly reported to me by the inspector here and in turn things should be remedied." reported by me to my superiors. It is, however, a unique case and accomplished this reform that sufficient ventilation there was a difficulty in dealing with it. But I do think the time has must be maintained to render harmless all gases, vapours, arrived when a medical gentleman should be appointed for each and dust. Attention has been already called3 to the division so far as police matters are concerned. Mr. TETLEY : We have been driven to thisconclusion by degrees. condition of the ventilation in many extremely unsatisfactory The CHAIRMA.N: You have raised an important issue which has now of the cotton-weaving sheds, in which the air had been to be settled somehow. ...got of cotton cloth Mr. TETLEY: We get no fees from our police cases at all. We may be examined by Mr. W. Williams, the factories. In his introductory summary to the work done by rung up in the middle of the night for a man who may be hanged, but we get no fee whatever. his department, the Chief Inspector gives sufficient Superintendent ANDREWS : That is a matter for the coroner, except prominence to the report on the cotton cloth factories and he in cases of paupers when it comes on the parish. Mr. KEM13ALL: You object rather to be taken away from all your work omits to refer the reader to the part of the volume in which for perhaps two or three days to the county assize (or sessions) at the this report is to be found. The space at our remuneration ? present will only admit of a brief summary of the work done Mr. TETLEY : Yes. the inspector who gives a full account of the SuperintendentAND-REWS: We are in the same position with regard to by tions which he made in regard to the quality of the ..architects and surveyors whose allowance is but 3s. 6d. a day. the The CHAIRMAN (to Superintendent Andrews) : Perhaps you will convey air in certain factories and in weaving sheds. to the Chief Constable the suggestion which the bench makes that the 1901 13 new cotton cloth factories were worked and year Home Office should te communicated with and asked if a medical man there were 12 additional rooms. The regulacould not be appointed for each division. The suggestion made by the Home Office that the Director of Public Prosecutions should be com- tion of the amount of moisture in the air has already been a municated with scarcely seems to be adequate, ’because we all know matter of considerable in these factories. If that the delav might mean that any traces of an assault may have the air be too the of cannot be satisdry process weaving vanished by the time that any examination takes place at the instance of the Director of Public Prosecutions. factorily conducted, and if it be too moist the comfort of
is
through
single 1901.
efficiently
inspectors. regard provided workpeople, supply
it
Ransome
the
purity.
proved
regretted
securing
employed." (King’s
appeal
Bigham pointed thing
disgraceful
provides
inspector hardly
disposal
investiga-
During
cotton-spinning importance
MR. W. G. GRACE, M.R C.S.Eng., L.R.C.P.Edin., . completed his fifty-fourth year on July 18th. Lately he has been devoting some attention to the game of bowls and last Bweek he made his 200th three-figure score at cricket.
the workers is interfered with. On this question there were formerly many complaints and until the year 1889 no legal limit was put on the amount of humidity permissible and it in THE LANCET of July 19th, 2 58 & 59 Vict. cap. 37. THE LANCET, Oct. 29th, 1901, p. 1146.
1 The first notice 3
appeared
1902, p. 172.
239 not until that year that hygrometers were generally introduced into these factories. Improvements followed the introduction of these instruments and in 1896 a committee, under the chairmanship of Sir Henry Roscoe, made investigations which led to further changes in the law two years later. The condition of the workers has generally improved. Mr. Williams pays a pleasing tribute to the exertions of some of the large manufacturers who have raised the standard of sanitation and of comfort in their workshops to a higher level than that demanded by the letter of the law. They have been rewarded by an improvement in the quality of the work done and by the diminution in the sick The improvement in the purity rate of their work-people. of the air in these factories is a direct result of the recommendation of Sir Henry Roscoe’s Committee which was enforced first as a regulation and which has now become a statutory provision and is incorporated in the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901. The inspector of cotton cloth factories, in his report for the year 1900, gave a table showing the amount of improvement which had been affected in 35 weaving sheds.55 In the report for the year 1901 he gives figures respecting tests made during the year 1901 in 43 weaving sheds containing an aggregate of about 7000 workers. A comparison of this table with the one published in the previous report shows that a further improvement A table made from has been effected during the year. the averages of these two sets of cases is given below. It shows in the case of 35 sheds in the year 1900 and in the case of 43 sheds in the year 1901 the number of volumes of carbonic acid found in 10,000 volumes of air6 was
The ventilation of certain spinning rooms is still very unsatisfactory and the average length of life of a spinner is said to be shorter than that of a weaver. Many of the rooms in which spinning is done are sufficiently large to provide a fairly liberal amount of cubic space for each worker, but efficient provision is not made for the supply of fresh air. Sometimes it is said that the condition of the external air is too dry for admission into the rooms and that it would, if it were not first warmed and damped, act injuriously on the work. Moreover, the air of Lancashire towns is not free from smoke and fog, which are prejudicial to fine yarns. The impurity of the atmosphere in some of the mills is simply appalling. Some statistics were published from the report for the year 1900.7 The following extract is from one of the tables given in the report for 1901 ; it shows the gross pollution by carbonic acid found in the air of some of the mills. Carbonic Acid (CO2) in Cotton Spinning Illills.
(1) before the improvement in ventilating arrangements was effected and (2) after the improvement in ventilating arrangements was effected. The figures in columns C and D are obtained by deducting from the amount of carbonic acid experimentally found to be present in the workrooms the amount normally present in the outside air of manufacturing towns which is estimated
as four volumes per 10,000. The 15 tests in all are quoted. Amongst these the highest space improvement effected is perhaps most easily realised (approximate) per head in cubic feet was 12,660 and the lowest 2700. The temperature varied from 80° to 97°, in no by comparing these two columns. case was it under 80°. The number of volumes of carbonic Carbonic Acid (CO2) in Cotton-weaving Sheds. acid per 10,000 varied from 7-6to 41-3. There is little cause for surprise that the life of a cotton-spinner should not, as a rule, be a long one. In one or two directions considerable improvements have of late taken place in the factories. It now rarely happens that water contaminated by sewage is used for moistening the air of the workrooms, but the practice of using impure water for that purpose was formerly quite a common one. The more general use of electricity for lighting purposes is a great boon. At the present time, the cotton-weaving factories which are lighted by gas in many instances contain air much contaminated by carbonic acid gas. In a table recording the results of 23
actual
examinations of air from such factories the amount of carbonic acid gas was found to vary from 13-2 to 41-7 volumes per 10,000 volumes. It seems very remarkable that " the floor of a weaving shed "is, as a rule, never washed." It is less a matter for surprise that "spitting on the floors is by no means unknown among weavers " and we have the official assurance that this is the case. The general filthiness of many of the weaving sheds may be fairly well gauged The average of the respiratory impurity in the individual samples of air referred to in the table has been reduced to considerably less than one-half of the amount previously found and in some cases there was even a greater improvement than this. Considerable improvement undoubtedly has been effected in the health of the workmen through these changes, but no statistical details on the question are to be had as there is a general absence of records of sickness amongst weavers. It is, however, known that in ill-ventilated sheds it was a common thing in the summer for the workers to faint, and that this has not been the case since the improved conditions of ventilation have been introduced. Workmen say that they now feel less exhausted at the end of their day’s work than they had formerly felt at midday. Manufacturers are in general agreement that the work has been better done since the operatives have been placed under less unhygienic conditions. 4
" The arrangements for ventilation shall be such that during workhours in no part of the cotton cloth factory shall the proportion of carbonic acid (carbon dioxide) in the air be greater than nine volumes of carbonic acid to every 10,000 volumes of air." 5 THE LANCET, Oct. 29th, 1901, p. 1146. 6 The samples were taken from the " breathing level" and near to the centre of the shed in each case.
ing
from the following gratulatory paragraph from the report. "There are," says Mr. Williams, "I am glad to report, a few sheds in Lancashire where the floors, except immediately under the looms, are washed weekly and the result is so extremely pleasing that it is to be hoped that the practice will extend to other sheds." The inspector of cotton cloth factories has done an enormous amount of useful work, but it is evident that more remains behind.
THE COUNTY OF DURHAM MEDICAL UNION. THE fourth annual meeting of this union was held in the Town Hall, Durham, on June 23rd, Dr. E. JEPSON, J.P. (Durham), the President, being in the chair. There was a large attendance of members, amongst those present being Dr. James Murphy (Sunderland), the Vice-President ; Mr. E. H. Davies (West Hartlepool), Mr. J. Arthur (Wingate), 7 THE
LANCET, Oct. 26th, 1901,
p. 1147.