30 WOOL-SORTER'S DISEASE. 



hair causes when lodged in a sensitive part of the air-passages ; 

 and how much greater the discomfort if it happen to be a bristle 

 from a tooth-brush. Now, if we hold in remembrance, that it is 

 owing chiefly to the action of sharply cuminated particles from 

 bristles that the brush-maker is exposed to, the fact will suffi- 

 ciently account for his high death-rate of forty-nine in every 

 hundred, from consumptive disease. 



The hair preparers for that is their proper designation have 

 also a large proportion of deaths from consumption; the number 

 being thirty-two per hundred. To those exposed to the effects of 

 inhaled animal dust, there is moreover, the additional risk of 

 poisoning, derived from the diseased animals from which the hair 

 has been taken. 



There is a special liability in some of the lower animals to be 

 attacked by a very fatal and contagious malady called anthrax. 

 Should the hair of the infected animals unfortunately find its 

 way into the market, and thence to the hands of the wool-sorter, 

 he is certain to be attacked by the disease, and equally so to 

 die of it. Special attention has lately been given to this disease, 

 and much light thrown upon it in connection with the occupation 

 called wool-sorting.* 



THE EFFECTS OF GASES AND VOLATILE 

 EMANATIONS. 



Asthmatical and bronchial affections are those induced by 

 inhaled gases of an irritant character. When, however, such 

 occupations are associated with a sedentary posture and confined 

 air, they induce considerable consumption. Thus, straw-hat 

 makers, who are mostly women, are exposed to the fumes of 

 sulphurous acid ; and jewellers, in the refining processes, to nitrous 

 acid vapours. Consumption, in both, prevails to the extent of 

 eighteen in each hundred ; and inflammation of the lungs 

 (pueumonia) to the extent of eight in each hundred. 



Bleachers are exposed to chlorine gas and alkaline vapours. 

 As a class they are not generally healthy, but their average life 

 is comparatively good, being fifty-eight years. The operations 



* We are indebted to the careful researches of Professor Greenfield for 

 much of what we know of this disease. 



