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CONSERVATION OF HEALTH. 
Sickness due directly, or indirectly, to industrial occupation takes 
various forms and degrees, from the passing headache due to eyestrain or 
impure air, to serious organic disease resulting in death. The lungs, 
the heart, the digestive organs, the nervous system, the muscular system, 
each or all may be affected with results harmful both to industrial 
efficiency and output, and also to personal health and expectation of 
life. Certain occupational conditions have to be seriously considered in 
this connexion. Examples are :— 
Excessively long hours of work. Fatigue plays an important 
a Pata os Se : 
part in favouring the development or transmission of disease. 
Cramped or constrained attitudes or postures during work which 
prevent the healthy action of the lungs or heart. 
Prolonged or excessive muscular strain which may produce 
rupture, varicose veins, or possibly arterial degenerations. 
Machine accidents. 
Working in unventilated or insufticiently ventilated premises pre- 
disposes to disease, and interferes with individual energy and 
physical capacity. The effect of continuously working in a 
polluted atmosphere may be very serious. 
Imperfect lighting, whether natural or artificial, especially when 
combined with the use of material of certain colours, induces 
eye-strain, headache, or permanent eye defects. 
Working with or in the presence of gases, vapours, poisonous or 
other irritating substances, may lead to direct poisoning. 
In the case of women there are special features — 
Disturbances of digestion due to unsuitable food, irregular and 
hurried meals, or to fatigue. 
Angemia. 
Headache and nervous exhaustion. 
Muscular pains and weakness. 
Derangement of female physiological functions. 
It is unnecessary to extend this list further. There is obviously a 
wide scope for the investigation of the presence of, and the causes of, 
ill-health in every trade or profession. It is equally important, 
economically, to the community to determine whether the excessively 
long hours worked by a doctor in general practice reduce his expectation 
of life, and dispose to the occurrence of ill-health, as it is to determine 
the extent of phthisis amongst miners, or of adenoids amongst school 
children. In all of these things, the critical methods of exact scientific 
investigation must be applied. There has been too pronounced a 
tendency to assert that certain results are due to certain causes, without 
endeavouring to establish the exact facts. 
General statements of a loose kind have in the past done much harm, 
and careful search for facts in relation to the actual prevalence of 
ill-health, the causes of such, and the appropriate remedies is urgently 
needed. te 
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