SiGERSON — On the Atmosphere. 
25 
Oat Mill Dust. — Eibres are here present in greater number than I 
had expected ; for, indeed, I hardly expected any. Fragments of the 
pericarp of the caryopsis or grain, as well as plenty of starch granules, 
are matters of course. Some spores may be occasionally detected, but 
not usually. Some acari or mites were present in the dust, and they 
rapidly generate in the lower contents of meal barrels. The mill air, 
the workmen assured me, had comparatively little dust in it, and was 
vastly superior to the atmosphere of flour mills, which, filled with 
lighter dust similar in kind, was exceedingly trying, and, in fact, very 
injurious. 
Scutchmill Air. — The dust is light-brown, spongy; fibres and fine 
dust present. Scutchmills, as generally found, I must declare to be 
human slaughter-houses. The atmosphere is thick with dust, or 
stoor," of the very worst character; for it is filamentous from the 
presence of long, fine branching liber cells, which help to stuff up the 
lungs ; and it contains a great quantity of broken wood fibre, whose 
sharp points and brittle hardness must tease and irritate them. 
The ejfect on health is very bad. When a workman first joins, he 
feels, for the first week, as if about to die from great oppression in 
breathing, sick stomach, and headache. He gets, however, somewhat 
used to the work, but soon his emaciated look indicates ill health ; 
and it is a general saying that scutchers die young." 
The stoor" I have seen in mills where the scutching was done 
on the old and on the new systems — in the latter case the slaughter 
might readily be greatly diminished, and almost altogether prevented. 
The machines should be so covered as to prevent the ''stoor" from 
pouring forth in front ; it could and should be sent backwards out of 
the building, away from the workers. Those who have charge of the 
inspection of factories should extend their range of observation to the 
sanitary conditions of mill workers. 
Printing Office Air. — Erownish dust, few fibres, collected on rafters 
eleven feet high. Prom a statement made to me by an intelligent 
printer, that, when stereotyping was being accomplished, he sometimes 
experienced nausea, I suspected the presence of antimony in the at- 
mosphere. Types are now composed of lead and antimony, the latter 
substance being added to harden them. Boiling water is usually dashed 
on them to cleanse them of ink, and to dry them ; in this way some 
antimony might be volatilized. The movement of the types Avhilst 
they are being handled helps to reduce portion of their substance to 
dust. 
At my request. Professor W. K. Sullivan was kind enough to make 
a chemical analysis of printers' dust — taken from rafters eleven feet 
from the floor — and there, in fact, antimony was readily found. There 
was iron also, which possibly came from the machine room, or the 
metal bars of the skylights. 
Antimony, being diaphoretic and sedative, may probably produce 
little or no injurious effect, considering the small amount of it present 
in the air to be inhaled. Although many printers keep healthy and 
R. I. A. PKOC. — VOL. I,, SER. II., SCIENCE. E 
