Industrial pneumonoconioses, with special reference to dust-phthisis / by Edgar L. Collis.

  • Collis, Edgar L. (Edgar Leigh), 1870-1957.
Date:
1915
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Industrial pneumonoconioses, with special reference to dust-phthisis / by Edgar L. Collis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    heaps of sand, that in running the knife throLigli the puhnonary vesicles he thought he was cutting some sandy body; and de- scribes how stone-cutters oftentimes suck in, by inspiration, the sharp, rough, and cornered small splinters or particles that ily off: so that they are usually troubled with a cough, and some of them turn asthmatic and consumptive {12). The same author, quot- ing (ij) from the Acta Hassniensia, describes pleurisy in a potter, in wdiose dissected corps the right lobe of the lungs was found grown to the ribs and tending to a withered dryness and a phthisick; this indisposition of his lungs being attributed to the trade he had worked at ; and his description of the manu- facture of earthenware, which is first bakd in a furnace, then covered with lead calcined, pound(^d with powdered flint and melted, and then put into the furnace again, shows_)^hat the potter of that day was exposed to the in- halation of flint dust, which has long been recognised in this country to be injurious. Thus a patent for grinding flints by a wet method granted in 1713 to Thomas Benson, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, states that previ- ously flints were pounded dry, which process proved very destructive to mankind inso- much that any person, ever so healthful and strong, working in that business, cannot pos- sibly survive over two years, occasioned ])v the dust sucked into his body by the air he breathes (20). While these quotations display a recog- nition of a causal relationship between dust inhalation and consumption, that piquant observer, Ramazzini, who went personally to inspect the trades he speaks of, knew that some dusts, though injurious, did not tend to the development of consumption, for he tells (14) how there Hies out of hemp and flax a foul mischievous powder, that, enter- ing the lungs by the mouth and throat, causes continual coughs, and gradually makes way for asthma; and, after describing the process of combing silk cakes, he remarks (74) that the poor people that comb these threads are usually troubled with a vehement cough, and a great difficulty of breathing, and few of them live to old age in that wav of business. The ^■irulence that gives rise to this tragedy is owing to the cadaverous par- ticles of the silkworm that are mixed with these cakes. Xote how he distinctly refuses to ascribe the trouble to silk dust (in which he is borne out bv the much later work of Givre) (27), and also the omission of ;\ny reference to consumption in either of these trades, lie is even clearer in speaking (75) of men who sift corn and who are so plagued with this powder or dust, that when work is done they curse their trade with a thou- sand imprecations. The throat, the lungs, and the eyes sustain no small damage bv it, for it stuffs and dries up the throat; it lines the pulmonarv vessels with dustv matter that causes a dry and obstinate cough ; . . . hence it is that almost all that live bv that trade are short-breathed, and cachectick, and sel- dom live to be old; nav, thev are apt to be seized with an orthopnoea, and at last with a dropsy. Surely an excellent clinical de- scription of dust-bronchitis, emphysema, dilated heart, and failure of circulation. These distinctions, implied or definitelv stated, between the types of respiratory trouble which follow inhalation of different dusts, are the more notable, because even to-day pneumonoconioses are pigeon-holed in clinical teaching as a single entity, ascribed to exposure to any and every form of injuri- ous dust, of which pulmonary fibrosis sums up the pathological findings and phthisis the morbid result. Such generalisation has probably resulted from the publicity accorded to certain special inquiries into the prevalence of dust-phthisis, for example, that of Prof. Alison, who, when speaking (2/) of that modification of phthisis which occurs in middle and advanced life, ... in those workmen who are much exposed to irritation of the lungs, particularly such as are in the constant habit of inhaling \ari- ous fine powders into their lungs, says, I have reason to belie\e that there is hardly an instance of a mason regularly emploved in hewing stones in Edinburgh, li\ ing free from phthisical symptoms to the age of 50. The newer parts of l^dinburgh were then being- built out of Craigleith sandstone, the suppiv of which is now exhausted. This industrial disease was shown by Gulland to persist among Edinburgh masons in this centurv (jj); and was deplored by that famous writer, geologist, and stone-mason, Hugh Miller,