1040 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[June 23,1872. 
of flour and tallow, some sort of salt being added either 
for the purpose of lessening the glutinous quality of the 
Hour (which otherwise would, when used in quantity, 
stick the warps together) or else for the further purpose 
of retaining moisture, and thus of increasing weight 
Epsom salts and chloride of magnesium (with sulphate 
aud chloride of zinc, not yet in common use at Todmor- 
den) have been the principal salts used for one or both 
of these purposes; and these substances go by the gene¬ 
ric name of ‘ antiseptics,’ a name which would appear 
to belong more properly to those of the salts which have 
the further property of preventing mildew in the artifi- 
ci illy weighted cloths._ This class of substances is that 
to which the memorialists refer as ‘ poisonous ingre- 
dJe its.’ 
4 ho salts above mentioned are not in the ordinary 
sense ‘poisonous;’ that is the small quantity of them 
that comes oil the cotton warps in the weaving process 
would not, if taken into the stomach, kill a person. It 
is indeed asserted that more mischievous substances have 
for their ‘ antiseptic ’ properties been put into size. 
These are the terms in which a newspaper refers to cer¬ 
tain of such: ‘ Size is fcimented vegetable and animal 
matter; and when once life, vegetable or animal, has 
been started in it, it is rarely and with great difficulty 
extinguished. And here again comes another source of 
mischief. The antiseptic Mr. Molesworth so mys¬ 
teriously vapoiu’s about, is an addition intended, practi¬ 
cally speaking, to keep tho mixture of cotton size and 
clay from vegetation, and as a rule, consists of alum, 
arsenic, or baryta. None of these compounds are desirable 
elements of our daily bread or food, but their effect and 
quality have also been exaggerated.’ 
“ After the best inquiries I was able to make, I have 
satisfied myself that this statement, so far as regards the 
use of arsenic and baryta, has no application to the pro¬ 
cess of sizing as practised at Todmorden. It will sub¬ 
sequently be seen that this opinion is supported by 
chemical analysis. I think it doubtful whether arsenic 
has anywhere been at all commonly used. 
‘‘But, although the sizing that shall give the desired 
amount of weight does not necessarily include China 
clay, yet in practice, that substance is far most commonly 
added in heavy sizing ; for not only does it give a white¬ 
ness to the over-sized cloth, and help tho weaver by 
‘ opening the twist’ (that is, lessening the cohesiveness 
of the warp threads that w r ould result from the over’-use 
of the Hour-size alone), but the clay itself serves, with 
particular efficiency, the desired object of giving weight 
to the cloth. One-third of clay (33 to 37 per cent.) is 
the usual proportion for these purposes introduced into 
‘ size,’ the remainder of the size consisting of flour and 
some fatty substance, with or without one or other of the 
so-called ‘ antiseptics,’ and perhaps, also, some animal 
glue or rosin. . The composition of the size, and the pro¬ 
portions of its ingredients, vary in different factories and 
with different sizers, and the minuter processes upon 
which depends the ability to get the greatest amount of 
size upon the warps, are frequently trade secrets with 
particular sizers. In general terms, however, the prac¬ 
tice of sizing at Todmorden, for the kind of cloths that 
are made there, consist in putting on to the warps from 
50 to 90 per cent, of ‘size,’ one-third of which consists 
ot China clay. The chief differences consist in the 
amount and nature of the fatty substances used, and in 
the employment or not of some or other ‘antiseptic.’ 
“ The adherence of China clay to the warp is much 
affected by these differences. Whatever the other in¬ 
gredients of the size, some of the clay comes off in the 
weaving process. That quantity is smaller when the 
rest ot the size consists of flour and fatty matters 
only;. larger when the fatty matters are in smaller 
quantity, and when ‘ antiseptic’ is used.’’ 
One subject alluded to in the memorial was the imper¬ 
fect ventilation and humidity of the weaving sheds. In 
weaving warps of interior cotton, weighted with China 
clay and flour mixed with deliquescent salts, there is 
especial occasion to keep the weaving sheds damp, as in 
this w r ay the brittle compound of cotton, flour and clay 
is less liable to break, the clay comes off less, and the 
resulting cloth is also heavier by the weight of the re¬ 
tained moisture. Tho conditions most favourable for 
retaining in the air the moisture desired for facility of 
weaving, were at the time of the inspector’s visit secured 
by windows and so-called “ ventilators ” being habitually 
kept closed. 
With regard to another point, the diffusion of dust in 
the air, Dr. Buchanan reports that he visited seventeen 
weaving sheds on the premises of twelve manufacturers. 
In four sheds, belonging to two manufacturers, there 
was, in daylight, no perceptible haze in the atmosphere. 
In all the others there was more or less of haze, caused, 
by very fine particles of du3t. In all the sheds there 
was more or less dust on every surface where it could 
settle, and this though the floors and looms had been 
cleaned of the dust on the previous evening, or in the. 
course of the same day. This dust was generally loose, 
but in one or two establishments it tended to adhere to 
the floor. These were places were sizing was done in 
the establishment, and where fatty material, but no 
‘antiseptic’ was used. The looms were, in all cases, 
covered with opaque dust, varying in amount from a 
slight bloom, in the sheds of the just-mentioned esta¬ 
blishments, to a thick layer in some other sheds. The 
quantity of dust was found to depend, in part, upon tho 
sort of cloth that was being made. In the most dusty 
sheds the clothes and hair of tho weavers were seen 
covered with fine white dust. Further, the stranger- 
visitor expei’ienced, in all the more dusty sheds, and 
roughly in proportion to the amount of visible dust, very 
great irritation in the nose, and in a less degree to the 
eyes and throat. To this irritating effect of the dust, a 
frequent visitor, and still more a weaver, gets speedily 
accustomed; though there is a certain number, appa¬ 
rently a minority, of weavers who remain incommoded 
by it whenever their work is more than usually dusty. 
Of course there is no cause for satisfaction in the deaden¬ 
ing of sensations that should be sentinels against irri¬ 
tating matter entering the throat and lungs. 
Respecting the matters composing this dust, analyses, 
made for the purposes of this report by Dr. Dupre, show 
that there is a good deal of agreement in its general 
composition ; the chief difference consisting in the pro¬ 
portions of the several substances composing it. None 
of the more poisonous minerals were found in any of 
the specimens examined. One-third to one-half con¬ 
sisted of clay in its ordinary sense (i. e. anhydrous 
clay, with the addition of about one-eighth its weight 
of moisture). 
“ As for the China clay, against which especially the 
representations of the Memorialists were directed, the 
statement is confidently made by manufacturers that, 
through its weight, the particles must fall directly down¬ 
wards from the looms, and cannot reach the face-level 
of the workers who stand over them. This statement .is 
little less than absurd to any one who goes, without 
preconceived notions, into an average Todmorden weav¬ 
ing shed. Wherever dust can lodge, at all levels of the 
shed, on tho hair and caps of the workers, on the heat¬ 
ing-pipes eight feet from the ground, everywhere the 
dust is of the same opaque, white kind. When the gas 
is lighted, the spaces between the lights are white in the 
weaving-sheds, while in the adjacent throstle-room the 
spaces between the gas jets are perfectly black. That 
this dust is, in effect, the China clay, quite as much as 
other matters, has been proved by direct experiment.” 
It is alleged by some of the manufacturers that men. 
employed at the extremely dusty works in Devonshire 
and Cornwall, where this clay is obtained, are healthy 
and long-lived; to which statement Dr. Buchanan 
thinks it enough to oppose the high mortality from 
; lung-diseases among potters, employed under in-door 
