Ixxxv 
“Mr. Higgs had told him some 20 or 30 years ago, a considerable 
alteration was made, by the use of better grease and by the 
substitution of white cotton wick of smaller size than the brown 
wick (made, Mr. Henwood believed, of hemp or flax) which had pre - 
viously been employed. Objection to the difference of price—which 
amounted to some 3d. or 6d. per dozen—was, however, made by 
-the miners, and much prejudice on the part of the workmen had 
to be overcome; to the present time, indeed, the thick wick was 
preferred in some places. Mr. Higgs added that, owing to this 
alteration in the quality of the candles, and to improved ventila- 
tion, there had not been a single sufferer from miners’ consumption, 
on the Club of either of the several mines of which his firm had 
been the pursers, for nearly twenty years. 
Mr. St. AUBYN said the mortality of miners was a subject in 
which he had taken a deep interest, having, in conjunction with 
his late colleagues, Mr. Davey and Mr. Kendall, been a member 
of the Commission appointed in 1862 to enquire into that partic- 
ular subject. It had been a matter for regret that the pressure of 
public business had not allowed the recommendations of that 
Commission to be followed up by an Act of Parliament. The 
Mines Regulation Bill, which would be before Parliament next 
Session, was intended to meet, as far as possible, some of the evils 
to which Dr. Barham had referred. It was generally agreed, he 
believed, by all who had looked into the subject, that accidents 
might be prevented, to some extent, by legislation ; but in reference 
to miners’ diseases it was never very clearly ascertained whether 
those diseases arose from bad ventilation, or from climbing from 
great depths, or probably from a combination of the two. The 
provisions of the Mines Regulation: Bill, so far as it related to 
metalliferous mines, would attempt to deal, he did not know how 
far successfully, with the case of accidents; but nobody had been 
able to frame a clause, which would work, in an Act of Parliament, 
with regard to regulating ventilation. It had been impossible to 
produce anything more than a generally worded clause, to the effect 
that proper ventilation should be provided; and therefore any 
any assistance in that direction from gentlemen connected with 
this Institution, or others, would be of great value when the 
measure came to be considered next Session. He hoped the pro- 
visions of the Bill, so far as related to accidents from explosions 
in tamping, falling down shafts not properly protected, and so on, 
would prove useful. 
Mr. RAWLINGS suggested that there should be some means of 
ascertaining the number of miners that annually left a district. 
FS 
