February 27, 1914.

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THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

457

The Hygienic Aspect of the Coalmining Industry.

FAR-REACHING EFFECTS OF TRAUMA: PREVALENCE OF NERVOUS DISEASES.

Dr. Frank Shufflebotham, of Newcastle-under-
Lyme, delivered his first Milroy lecture before the
Royal College of Physicians on Thursday of last week,
February 19. Sir Thomas Barlow, the president of
the College, presided. Amongst those present were Mr.
Albert Stanley, M.P., and Mr. Josiah Wedgwood, M.P.

The lecturer prefaced his remarks by thanking the
president and council for the honour they had done him
by asking him to deliver the Milroy lectures for the
present year, and said he proposed to take the oppor-
tunity of describing the hygienic aspect of what might
be regarded as the most important industry in the
United Kingdom.

He thought it might be said coalmining occupied a
premier position among the industries of the country ;
and from a medical point of view the manifold problems
associated with it were of the greatest scientific interest,
while at the same time they affected the life and well-
being of all the workers engaged. More than a milllion
men and boys were occupied as miners, and they worked
under peculiar conditions. Not only did they work
underground away from the light of day, but also
because the atmosphere had to be artificially treated to
make it possible for him to conduct his work at all.
There were varying degrees of temperature, humidity,
and atmospheric pressure, and altogether these con-
ditions made this industry one of the most dangerous
in which any man could find employment.

After a brief history of the industry and other descrip-
tive matter, the lecturer gave limelight illustrations
showing miners at work in various kinds of seams.
Dr. Shufflebotham said the illustrations referred to
deep mines, as, although there were many shallow ones
still worked in this country, they were worked out very
rapidly. He was indebted for the slides to Prof.
Cadman, of Birmingham.

With increased depths they had increased tempera-
tures, although they varied very much at approximately
the same depths. He quoted Prof. Cadman’s paper
before the Royal Institute of Public Health of Paris in
1913 to show that in many pits the wet bulb readings at
the working face exceeded 80degs. Fahr., although at
that figure working efficiency was seriously impaired.
This country was the only one in Europe where regula-
tions were not made for the regulation of the temperature
at which men worked, and he hoped that something
would be done to save the miners from the consequences
of working at such abnormal temperatures. These
considerations were of the greatest importance from the
health point of view.

The illumination of mines was also of the greatest
importance from a health point of view, but what struck a
medical man and probably also an ordinary layman was
the extraordinarily low candle-power of the safety lamp.
The earlier lamps had a candle-power of about 012, and
even with a modern safety lamp we did not find a
greater candle-power than perhaps 0'6 or 0'7 after an
hour or two, and at the end of the working day, when it
required to be trimmed and was covered with dust, it
might be only 0*2.

Discussing the domestic circumstances of miners, the
lecturer said that considerable attention had been paid
of late years to the housing conditions of miners.
Mining villages had often to be created away from
centres of population, and in too many instances the
houses provided had been houses for miners, and not
homes for men, necessitating the special attention of
the authorities. In England and Wales the infantile
mortality was highest in the counties which were the
seat of the textile industries, and in those counties
which are the centres of the mining industry. Any
enquiry into the cause of the high infant death-rate in
mining communities soon led to the consideration of the
habits, and above all the domestic conditions under
which the miner lived. The chief factors in the produc-
tion of a high infantile mortality were poverty, intemper-
ance, and defects of sanitation. Poverty in the case of
miners could be practically passed over as a determining
agent, as it was much more likely to be secondary to
other causes. The miners’ wage was relatively a high
one, and it was significant that police proceedings for
drunkenness were highest in the mining counties. All
the circumstances seemed to have an interesting effect
on each other, so that a vicious circle of conditions was
continually in operation. That the domestic circum-
stances of the miner were generally deplorable is
evident from the reports of the medical officers of
the mining counties in Scotland to the Local Govern-
ment Board. From these reports, it appeared that in
the counties of Midlothian, Linlithgow, Kinross, Stirling,
Dumbarton and Lanark, out of 33,355houses occupied by
miners, 18,582 (which was equivalent to 55'7 per cent, of
the whole) were only two-roomed tenements, while
3,866 (or 11'3 per cent.) were only one-roomed dwellings.
Thus of the mining houses in these counties, 67 per
cent, of them had only either one or two rooms.

The lecturer went on to speak of the old-fashioned
sanitary conditions, and spoke of the aggravation of the
infantile death-rate by the accumulation of refuse near
the dwellings, and said that a high birth-rate added
overcrowding to the other difficulties, but admitted that
everywhere the standard of housing was rising, but
much remained to be done. The lecturer concluded this
section of his address with the following observations :—

“ The miner, as a rule, is a man who marries young.
He has begun when quite a boy to work in the pit, and
earns good wages from the time he is employed. No
doubt he and his brothers are to some little extent

exploited in the ’teens by the parents. The average
family is large, and the home more or less overcrowded,
so he marries about the age of 20, and has a home of his
own. Large families, be it noted, are not unwelcome
amongst miners, as a boy of 14 years frequently earns 10s.
per week. A single man, on the other hand, has every
inducement to intemperance, as his wage is good and
hours of work are not prolonged. An idle day in the
fortnight is more or less common, and home comforts
and means of amusement are limited. The public-house
is at any rate always handy. Minimum concessions to
the ordinary requirements of living decently, and the
conditions of life in colliery villages, in conjunction with
the hours of work and rate of wages, as well as the
habits of the miner, constitute an interacting set of
conditions not conducive to good health.”

If one viewed the health of miners from the mortality
point of view one saw that accidents were the chief
danger. The Registrar-General’s returns had con-
sistently shown the coalmining industry had a higher
mortality figure than any except the seamen, fishermen,
and bargemen. Taking all occupied males at 100, the
figure for miners would be 212. The miners’ figures for
accidents, in other words, were more than twice as great
as for the whole male community. In the last 10 years,
not counting 1913, for which the figures were not yet
available, 12,750 men and boys had been killed in the
mines in this country. The average was greater than
for any of the three previous decades, but if we look at
the death-rate per 1,000 persons employed—and that
was the real test—we found that for the last 10
years the average was 1'33, and it was lower than
it had ever been in any previous decade. There
had thus been some slight improvement, but when the
figures relating to the disaster at Senghenydd were
taken into account for last year he feared the figure
would be as high if not higher than ever. One had also
to realise that while the death-rate per thousand per-
sons employed was perhaps a little improved, it was
hardly a fair way to look at that alone. Men were not
working such long hours, and he thought the best test
of all was the mortality per million tons of coal brought
to the surface. From this point of view there was very
little improvement at all, and when the figures for 1913
were added the mortality would be even greater, com-
pared with the death-rate prevailing in other countries.
There was a lower mortality in France than in either
Britain or Prussia. He did not say this was due to any
laxity on the part of the law. He believed mining
experts would say the conditions of work were more
favourable in Belgium and in France. The coal could
be got easier and in such a way as to make accidents
less frequent; but the number of deaths which occurred
as the result of accidents gave no idea of the number of
injuries caused by non-fatal accidents.

The lecturer dealt at length with falls of ground and
other causes of accidents, and said that non-fatal
accidents did not mean only broken bones, lost limbs or
fingers, but diseased conditions directly set up as a
result of injuries sustained at work. Medical men in
colliery districts had constant and daily experience of
cases of trauma, perhaps as an aggravation of some
pathological condition already existing. There was a
great mass of material upon which observations could
be made in this direction. One found so many cases of
tuberculosis in mining districts associated with injuries,
and it caused far-reaching effects. Tuberculous
arthritis might be associated with an injured joint; a
crushed chest might be regarded as the beginning of
tuberculous pleurisy or phthisis; or a strain might
aggravate a tuberculous condition of the lungs so as
even to cause a fatal issue. There were other cases
where tuberculous meningitis followed a blow on the
head, and where an injury to the abdomen was
associated with or was followed by tuberculous
peritonitis. In the same way, periostitis, nephritis,
cystitis of a tuberculous nature might in certain cases
be said to result from an injury to the region of the
diseased part, and undoubtedly trauma might play a
prominent part in the etiology of Pott’s disease of the
spine. These were only a few instances in which it
might be inferred that there was a direct connection
between the injury and the disease. The lecturer
proceeded to give other instances of diseases associated
or following upon non-fatal accidents.

The sedentary life imposed on a miner by an accident
might produce—in those who had previously led
vigorous lives—fatty degeneration of muscles, and even
of heart, and there were instances of rheumatism arising
from a similar cause, while frequently it led to such
minor complaints as indigestion, constipation, or
hsemorrhoids.

Various nervous diseases also resulted from the
miner’s calling. Trauma often produced diseases of the
nervous system, and this side of the subject had been
more fully considered than any other. Dr. Pierce
Bailey came to the conclusion that trauma had a decided
influence upon the causation of many well-known nervous
conditions, including neuralgia, neuritis, locomotor
ataxy, and so on, and the functional conditions of
hysteria and neurasthenia. The commonest nervous
sequela of all kinds of injury among coalminers was
neurasthenia. No class of men was so liable to it. It
was due to the dangerous nature of the work and the
influence of heredity. There was no industry in which
heredity played so important a part as in mining.
Officials and workmen alike were the sons and grandsons
of those who worked before them in the same industry.
He noticed a marked difference between the faces of
colliers and other classes when going to work. The
pottery worker, for example, went laughing and joking

to work ; but the facial expression of the miner indicated
mental sadness, although miners themselves would
probably deny it. So far as he could judge, his
attitude of mind was one of unconscious appre-
hension, and the effect of this from one generation
to another had an important influence upon the
etiology of neurasthenia. That was the predisposing
cause. Generally an injury to the back was the exciting
cause, and want of proper treatment in the early stages
of the injury greatly aggravated the trouble. As a rule,
a miner who sustained an injury to the back was treated
with some local application, such as a plaster or liniment,
and he was treated either by his club or the panel
doctor. Very occasionally he might become an out-
patient at the local hospital. Often enough he simply
loafed about with a stiff back, and thus developed
neurasthenia. The only treatment for such cases was
the Weir-Mitchell treatment, and that was, as a rule, not
at his disposal. Were he treated in this way from the
outset, with massage and movements, their incapacity
for work would be very short in most cases. But when
neurasthenia was once definitely set up, the treatment
which would deal satisfactorily with it was not at his
disposal.

He had seen so many in North Staffordshire that he
was convinced malingering played no part practically.
One attack of neurasthenia, even if the condition
improved to such an extent that the man was able to
follow his employment, would predispose to the next
attack, and on one occasion he had seen a miner who
had suffered no injury at all fall a victim to neurasthenia.
He had been working with another man in a new
cutting, when the roof fell in and injured his fellow-
workman. The man who escaped the accident was so
upset that in a few days he presented the characteristic
symptoms of neurasthenia.

Dr. Shufflebotham announced, in conclusion, that his
second lecture would be devoted to coaldust explosions
and to a description of the signs of gases in mines,
including blackdamp, firedamp and carbon monoxide.
His third lecture would deal with the effect of dust and
high temperatures, and the fourth to nystagmus, when
he hoped to bring four or five typical cases with him.
The fifth lecture would be devoted to those questions
peculiar to miners’ diseases.

___________________

HIDLMO INSTITUTE OF MIMIMG, CIVIL AO
MCHAHICAL E^GIKEERS.

Stonedusting at Bentley Colliery.

The important subject of stonedusting in collieries
occupied the attention of the Midland Institute of
Mining, Civil and Mechanical Engineers at a meeting
held at the Danum Hotel, Doncaster, on Saturday,
February. 21, when Mr. Robert Clive read a highly
interesting paper describing stonedusting work actually
carried on at Bentley Colliery, near Doncaster. The
paper was a report presented to the Doncaster Coal-
owners’ (Gob Fires) Committee. There was an unusually
large attendance, and the chair was occupied by the
President (Mr. Walter Hargreaves, of Whitwood
Collieries, Norman ton). Among those present was Dr.
J. S. Haldane.

A Report io the Doncaster Coalowners" (Gob Fires)
Committee.

The seam worked at Bentley Colliery is the Barnsley
seam, and the following is an average section :—

Blue shale ........'...................

Soft shale ....................
Top coal ......................
Soft clunch and shale, with
coal-streaks ................

Top soft coal..................
Soft friable clunch............
Hard coal ....................
Soft coal ......................
Dirt ..........................
Hard clunch ..................

Ft. In.

20 0

2 0

1 6

4 0

0 6")

2 6 ( Seam worked

2 6 t at the face.

0 2J

Floor.

The system of working is by longwall, with the gates
40 to 50 yards apart, and the crossgates 120 yards. The
roads, owing to the tender nature of the roof, have to
be frequently ripped, and the packs are soon buried.
Shot-firing is unnecessary. The main haulage is by
endless rope, and the auxiliary haulage by small com-
pressed-air main-rope sets, and horses. The tubs are
all made of steel, and are practically dust-proof.

Preparation and Application of Stonedust.

At Bentley the pure coal contains from 3 to 34 per
cent, of ash, and the incombustible dust used for stone-
dusting about 88 per cent, of ash. A mixture yielding
50 per cent, of ash will, therefore, contain about 54'8
per cent, of stonedust, and 45'2 per cent, of coaldust.
The 12 per cent, of volatile matter in the stonedust
consists mostly of moisture, partly of carbon dioxide,
with a slight percentage of inflammable material. The
following is an analysis of the stonedust:—

Silica .............
Alumina ..........
..........

Iron oxide.........

Magnesium oxide.....
Not analysed ......
Water.............
Carbon dioxide .....

..........

Combustible........

Per cent.

58’01

16'0 |

7'0 )■ Ash, 87’5 per cent.

2'0 |

4'5 J

Volatile matter,
q.|J 12'5 per cent.

Total ............ 100'0

The silica occurs mainly as hydrated silicate, the free
silica is not crystalline, and the dust is no more
dangerous to breathe than coaldust.

The stonedust used is ground in a mortar-mill from
shale above the Top coal. Soft light-coloured shale only
is used, and care is taken that no shale containing crystal-