March 7, 1913.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN,

499

surface support. The members of the Man-
chester Geological Society meet on Tuesday,
when a paper, by Dr. Harger, on firedamp, will
be under discussion. The annual meeting of
the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy is to
held at Burlington House on Thursday, when
Mr. Bedford McNeill will deliver his address.

Arrangements are being made for a national
conference of miners to consider what action
shall be taken as a result of the ballot taken by
the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain on the
question of a five-day week. The date of the
conference will probably be March 19.

During the discussion of the Finance Bill in
the French Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday,
M. Albert Thomas, Socialist, moved an amend-
ment placing a new tax upon coal of 1 fr. 20 c.
per ton at the pit’s mouth. After some discus-
sion the amount of the tax was reduced to 50 c.
per ton, and the Chamber adopted the amendment.

It is now stated that the general strike which
had been arranged to take place in Belgium on
April 14 will not take place.

The Railways (No. 2) Bill was again before
the House of Commons yesterday. The Govern-
ment accepted the Lords’ amendment, deleting
clause 3, which limited the application of the
Bill to five years.

In the House of Commons yesterday, the
Lords’ amendments to the Trade Unions (No. 2)
Bill were also considered. On the motion of the
Attorney-General, the amendment prohibiting
the use of trade union funds for the publication
of a newspaper having a political purpose, unless
this use of funds is approved on a ballot by a
majority of the members voting, was rejected.

As the outcome of the controversy over the
relation between coal prices and Scottish railway
mineral rates, a conference has been held at
Glasgow between the chairmen and general
managers of the Scottish railway companies and
representatives of the coalmasters in Scotland.
The conference came to an end without any
definite agreement being arrived at, but it is
hoped that eventually the outcome will be
suitable to all parties.

An Order has been issued by the Home Office,
dated January 14, 1913, under section 33 of the
Coal Mines Act, approving certain types of
safety lamps. The lamps approved, which are
the first to appear on the official list, are the
Hailwood No. 1 lamp and the Oldham
“emergency” electric lamp. We also learn
from Messrs. John Davis and Son (Derby)
Limited, of All Saints Works, Derby, that the
Gray-Sussmann lamp, for which they are agents,
has been officially passed at the Home Office
Testing Station at Eskmeals.

Among the continually increasing
€100,000 anxieties of the colliery proprietor
per annum, must be numbered that of the
disease known as miners’ nystag-
mus, which has recently been brought into promi-
nence by the published works of Dr. T. Lister
Llewellyn, who has made the subject his own.
An important consideration, “ Should a man with
miners’ nystagmus work ? ” was selected as the
theme of the presidential address recently
delivered by Dr. Stanley Riseley before the
Sheffield Medico-Chirurgical Society, a report
of which appears in the Lancet, March 1, 1913.
Attention was drawn to the serious nature of
this disease, from an industrial point of view, in
Dr. Llewellyn’s recently-published book on
“Miners’ Nystagmus,” in which the author
confirms his previous estimate of the annual
cost of the disease to the country as £100,000.
The figures given, extracted from the official
statistics of compensation, show an increase in

the incidence of the disease which is truly
alarming. In 1908 the number of certified cases
was 400 ; in 1909, 1,011; in 1910, 1,618 ; and in
1911, 2,519.

The attention of the Government was directed
to the matter by Sir A. B. Markham, in
correspondence with the Home Secretary in
the early part of last year.*

(Jn July 13 following, a discussion upon
miners’ nystagmus took place at the Oxford
Ophthalmological Congress, when the two
following resolutions were passed unanimously :

(1.) That the chief factor in the disease was
the deficient light present in the mine.

(2.) That the Government be asked to
appoint a Departmental Committee to deal
with the question.

As regards the opinion expressed in the first
of these resolutions, there seems to be little
doubt as to its correctness. In his preface to
Dr. Llewellyn’s book, above mentioned, Prof.
Haldane says that the statistical and other
evidence collected by the author, and his
thorough quantitative examination into the
actual illumination at the working face with
different lights, have rendered the whole subject
intelligible on its practical side, and that the
extraordinary deficiency in the illumination
given, under actual working conditions, by the
safety lamps at present in use, will come to
mining engineers as something of a revelation.
This, Prof. Haldane has no doubt, will act
as a powerful stimulus to the introduction of
better lamps, whether electric or dependent on
combustion.

The extension of the use of electric lamps
depends, however, ultimately upon the Govern-
ment, and they move slowly.

According to the Coal Mines Act, 1911, section
32, (i) (e) (i)-

“ (Where safety lamps are required to be
used) and subject always to the provisions of
this Act and any regulations made thereunder
as to the use of electricity in mines, electric
lamps, if enclosed in airtight fittings and
having the lamp globes hermetically sealed,
may be used on main haulage roads or else-
where within such limits as may be fixed by
the regulations of the mine.”

The regulations proposed by the Government in
reference to this matter have recently been
issued, and limit the use of electric lamps as
follows :—

“ (a) On main intake airways and haulage
roads ventilated by intake air up to within
300 yards of the first working place at the
working face which the air enters.

“ (6) On main return airways within
300 yards of the bottom of the upcast shaft,
if that shaft is regularly used for the purpose
of winding persons or minerals, but not within
300 yards of the last working place at the
working face which the air leaves.”
These regulations preclude the use of electric
lamps at the coal face (where safety lamps are
required to be used).

Dr. Llewellyn, in considering the conditions
determining the occurrence of miners’ nystagmus,
gives as his conclusion that the men who work
at the coal face are chiefly affected, and says:
“ It is generally acknowledged that men who
work at the coal face are more likely to be
attacked than any other class of workmen and
some authors go so far as to say that the
disease is practically confined to coal-hewers.
Dransart gives 97 per cent, coal-hewers, Snell
96 per cent., Thompson and Nielden chiefly
coal-getters, and Jeaffreson ‘confined to coal-
tiewers, practically without exception.’” Dr.

* Colliery Guardian, April 12,1912, p. 736.

Llewellyn found that among his own cases
89 2 per cent, consisted of colliers, collier lads
and fillers.

As far as facilitating the introduction of
electric lighting into those parts of the mine
where miners’ nystagmus prevails, the proposed
Government regulations will do nothing towards
removing the growing burden upon the coal
industry; and the probabilities are, therefore^
that it will continue to grow.

The colliery owners have already made a
general objection to the proposed regulations^
and it is probable that the objection will, under
the statute, be referred to a referee appointed
under section 17 of the Act. This may give an
opportunity, of thoroughly ventilating the ques-
tion, and would to an extent meet the require-
ment of the second resolution passed at tho
Oxford Congress.

Regarding the question as to whether men
with miners’ nystagmus should work, Dr.
Riseley is in general agreement with Dr.
Llewellyn. He suggests letting them work
until obliged to cease, as otherwise they only
swell the list of those drawing permanent
compensation. Considering the difficulty, if not
impossibility, of stating whether a man suffering
from the disease is able or unable to work, the
steady increase in the number of cases year by
year, and the tendency of the courts to look upon
the disease as causing absolute incapacity, Dr
Riseley is of opinion that something in the way
of legislation should at once be taken in hand to
meet a situation which must become intolerable
to employers.

The conclusions drawn by Dr. Riseley are
that when a man claims to be and is admitted
to be incapacitated by nystagmus, after a
reasonable period during which he has been
under constant observation, if his condition?
warrants his being employed, he should
eventually resume work underground, but as a
commencement occupation above ground should
be provided. For there is no doubt that a man
with bad nystagmus can work and do good
work, and is no worse for doing it; and certainly
the attitude of the medical profession towards
the disease—viz., that as soon as a man was-
diagnosed to have nystagmus he should not be
allowed to work in the pit, and should be advised
never to return—has been responsible in great
measure for the present state of affairs. Seeingr
however, that many medical men brought in
contact with the disease now know that the
willing men can work with nystagmus, and are
doing so, he pleads that a different attitude be
taken up, and instead of immediately looking
upon a man with nystagmus as totally incapaci-
tated, they should, with the exception of serious-
cases, urge the claimant to continue work
knowing that he can do so without injury to
himself.

As already indicated, the incidence of miners*
nystagmus is assuming alarming proportions,
and the situation is not one to be trifled with.
If, as appears to be the case, the remedy consists
in securing a better light at the coal face, a
standard of construction and suitable tests could
surely be devised by the Government which
would render unnecessary the limits proposed
to be placed upon the use of electric lamps.

Trade Summary.

The London ooal trade continues fairly busy, although^
the mild weather has seriously checked the flow of orders
for household qualities. Manufacturing coals are selling
freely, especially slacks and small nuts. The fear of labour-
complications led to an increase in the demand early in the
week, and factories were particularly anxious to improve
their stocks. The London wharves and depots are compara-
tively clear, but with the lessened consumption in household,
fuel the loaded wagons in transit are running into stock.