68 THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY 



DEAD WOOL. 



Dead, or fallen wool, as it is sometimes called, is plucked, or 

 falls off, dead sheep. Dead wool is sorted on lines similar to 

 ordinary wool, but all plucked wool is kept separate, "as it is much 

 cleaner than the ordinary dead wool which is picked up in the 

 paddocks. Plucked wool is usually pulled off a sheep that has not 

 been dead any great length of time, but is too much decomposed 

 to skin. Sorting dead wool is dangerous work, and in most 

 countries it is sorted on a fine mesh wire table with a fan working 

 underneath so that all the dust will be sucked down. Sometimes 

 the wool is steeped in water before sorting. Sorters working on 

 dead wool have often contracted anthrax, a very deadly disease 

 which sheep die from. D. J. H. Bell, late Surgeon to the Bradford 

 Infirmary, whose position has given him many opportunities of 

 diagnosis and observation, has lectured on the subject and the 

 lecture has been published by the Lancet. He says": " The sorting 

 of wool is generally considered to be a healthy occupation, but the 

 sorting of hairs which are classed with wools, such as alpaca and 

 mohair, has long been known to be attended with considerable 

 risk to life. During my inquiry into the causes of this, I have 

 found sufficient reason to include with them as similarly dangerous 

 all wools and hairs that are characterized by being dry, dusty, and 

 more or less filthy, from contamination with decomposing animal 

 matter, and particularly if they contain fallen fleeces from diseased 

 animals. The sorting of this class of wool is injurious to health, 

 first from the dust and fine short hairs which arise from them, 

 exciting chronic diseases of the lungs as bronchitis and consump- 

 tion ; second, from the amount of virulence and poison from the 

 decomposing animal matter which is liberated, producing a lo\v 

 form of pneumonia ; third, from a specific blood poison derived 

 from the fleeces of animals which have died from anthrax, pro- 

 ducing the rapidly fatal disease called anthrax, or wool-sorters' 

 disease. The law in Great Britain and other countries compels 

 manufacturers to soak or steam the dangerous wools and also to 

 provide respirators for the sorters employed upon them." 



