56 



reason that could be given for this great difference was that 

 the barracks of the Foot Guards were badly ventilated. 

 From 1858 to 1884 the average annual death rate (for 26 

 years) was 2*5 per 1,000 strength, and in the year 1888 it 

 was 1*20, a great reduction from 7*86. 



In Partes' Hygiene we are told that in the third ventilated 

 prison at Leopoldstadt, in Vienna, during the years 1843 to 

 18i7, no fewer than 51 per 1,000 deaths were due to phthisis, 

 while in the well- ventilated House of Correction in the same 

 city, for vears 1850 to 1854, the deaths from phthisis were 

 8 per l,00a 



Dr. E-ussell, of Glasgow, shows not only the effect of over- 

 crowding on the total death rate, but also the great effect it 

 has on the death rate from consumption. He divided the 

 city into nine districts ; in two districts there was an average 

 of one and a half persons to each room, and in these districts 

 the death rate was 16*7 per 1,000. In seven districts there 

 was an average of two and a half persons to each room, and 

 here the death rate was 30' 7 per 1,000. Coming to lung 

 disease, and principally phthisis, he shows the death rate in 

 the first two districts to be 5*10 ; in the remaining 7 districts 

 it was 11*38 (or more than double) per 1,000 living. 



Wherever, then, we have overcrowding and bad ventilation, 

 whether in our dwellings, workrooms, or office, we expect to 

 find the future victims of consumption. 



I have been speaking to you principally of foul atmosphere, 

 arising from defective ventilation, due chiefly to the accumula- 

 tion in the air of the air products of respiration, of exhalation 

 from the human body, as well as the pollution of the atmos- 

 phere from the accumulations of filth, refuse, and other 

 putrefying waste, but there are other impurities which tell on 

 the mortality of phthisis besides these from organic vapours, 

 namely, those from trades of different kinds. Just as there 

 are many kinds of impurities, so we recognise many kinds of 

 consumptions. We have the " knife grinder's " phthisis in 

 Sheffield and Birmingham, then we have the " stonemason's " 

 consumption, "weaver's" consumption, etc. 



All trades which give rise to dust predispjose, and j)ar- 

 ticularly where metallic dust is floating about, to phthisis. 

 Knife grinders, file makers, cutlers, and stonecutters are at 

 the top of the list, while fishermen, agriculturists, and 

 coal miners are the most exempt. 



The inhaled dust in these cases simply acts in a mechanical 

 manner by injuring the mucous membrane of the lungs, and 

 thus favours the conditions for the growth of the bacillus 

 should it be inhaled. 



