﻿50 ATMOSPHERE IN RELATION TO HUMAN LIFE AND HEALTH. 



Carbonic oxide is given off by iron works, brick fiekls, copper furnaces, 

 and cement works. It is dangerously present in tke cheap illuminat- 

 ing gas known as ''water gas.'' 



ORGANIC VAPORS. 



Organic vapors of various composition are given off by marshes, wet 

 forest ground, "made soil," soil containing organic matter under warm 

 sand, and by many manufactories for the conversion of animal refuse, 

 etc. The effluvia from tanneries, glue and soap works, slaughter- 

 houses, pigstyes, etc., are apt to lower the health of people living 

 near them and to aggravate disease. 



SOLID ARTIFICIAL IMPURITIES. 



Many severe forms of disease, especially of the respiratory organs. 

 are caused by the dust inhaled in various trades and occupations. 

 These are generally proportionate to the sharpness and angularity ot 

 the dust and its quantity. Coal dust is among the least harmful. 

 Among lead miners, bronchitis and lead poisoning; in copper mines, 

 gastric disorders; in pottery works, in stone cutting, steel grinding, in 

 flax and cotton factories, in shoddy works, and in metal i^olishing, lung 

 diseases are common, and the death rate is high. 



Thus the comparative mortality of file makers was 300 compared with 

 108, that of gardeners; of earthenware .makers 314, compared with 

 139, that of grocers; of cutlers and scissors makers 229, compared with 

 129, that of paper makers. The dust of soft woods and of flour seems 

 to have little bad effect. 



As regards phthisis and lung diseases the figures of several trades 

 are as follows, when comx)ared with fishermen, 100: Carpenters, 170; 

 bakers, 201; cotton workers, 274; file makers, 396; stone and slate 

 quarrymen, 294; pottery makers, 565; northern coal miners, 166. The 

 injuriousness of the dust iu cotton mills is increased by the use of 

 mineral substances for sizing. The mortality of cutlers, etc., from 

 these diseases is almost as great as that of fishermen from all causes 

 put together, including accidents. The comparative exemption of col- 

 liers in well- ventilated coal mines deserves investigation, for there 

 would appear to be some ground for the supposition that it may be 

 owing to an inhibitive action of this i^articular dust upon the develop- 

 ment of tuberculosis; on the other hand, it maybe simply through 

 living in fairly good air of an even temperature, where the specific 

 germs of phthisis are few or absent. The homes of the men are gen- 

 erally comfortable, and much larger fires are kept up than in the south, 

 so that their rooms are dry and well ventilated. 



