Ankylostomiasis : its cause, treatment, and prevention.

Date:
[1903]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Ankylostomiasis : its cause, treatment, and prevention. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    of making up the difference between the sick allowance and full pay of the men undergoing the cure is borne by the company, an extra allowance being made to men with large families. On this score the expenditure in the month of August amounted to £450. The Knappschaftsverein provides board for the men in barracks. It is estimated that about 23 per cent, of the under- ground staff work in a temperature lower than 20 degs. Cent. (68 degs. Fahr.), 60 per cent, in temperatures between 20 and 25 Cent. (68 to 77 Fahr.), and 17 per cent, in temperatures between 25 and 29 Cent. (77 to 80 Fahr.). In order to ascertain the effect of drying the pit, per- mission was obtained from the Mining Board to suspend sprinkling operations in two districts at a time for a period of two to three months, except for local spraying just at the time shots are being fired. Samples of faeces were placed in dry parts of the workings, and examined every two or three days, with the result that by the middle of September no ova or larvae could be found alive. This suspension of sprinkling will be extended to all the fourteen districts of the mine in turn, the experiment being expected to last about fourteen months. In connection with the question of sprinkling only while shot-firing is in progress, the little booklet of instructions issued to the shot-firers at the Shamrock pit enjoins that, when the shot-holes are charged, the sprinkling apparatus provided in the vicinity must be set to work by the foreman blaster at least three minutes before the shot is fired, and kept going for not less than ten minutes after the blast or miss-fire. The arrange- ment of the spraying device is such as to ensure a thorough drenching of the face and the surrounding atmosphere. Lothringen Colliery, Gerthe.—This pit was one of the originating centres of the disease in Westphalia, and at the first examination of the staff of 1,334 men employed under ground, 758, or 43 per cent., were found to be infected with the worm. In consequence, however, of the systematic treatment of the sufferers, the percentage was reduced before the second examination (in September) to 245 per cent., there being then only 404 sufferers out of a total of 1,636 men employed. Attempts have been made to disinfect the workings with milk of lime, but in view of the problematical value of this operation they have been discontinued. The assistant doctor appointed by the Knappschafts- verein examines about twenty samples of dejecta daily, in the ambulance room (fig. 14); but though the smell is rather unpleasant in the hot weather, no special method of ventilation has been adopted, the covered cups shown in the illustration being merely placed outside the window and handed in, one by one, as required. In order to prevent the men going away to other pits before their examination is completed, and thus causing unnecessary trouble to the doctors, they are charged a fee of 2s., which is returned them by the Knappschafts- verein on production of the certificate of immunity or cure. The treatment consists in the administration of 10 grammes of extractum filicis, in doses of 2, 4, and 4 grammes on three successive days. The first d< se is given in the evening, without a purgative, and the second on the following morning, this time with purgative. The sufferers remain for the three days in barracks and are then re-examined in accordance with the new regulations. The barracks contain twenty beds (see fig. 20, outside view, and fig. 21, interior); and the Fig. 20.—Barracks at Lothringen Pit. cooking-room attached to this temporary hospital was erected at a cost of £500. Since August 15 the men confined to barracks have received full pay, the difference being paid by the colliery; w.c. accommodation, of the same class as at the Erin pit, is in course of erection, at a cost of about £150. Portable pails have been placed in the pit, and five to six men in each district are charged with the duty of keeping them clean and sending them up to bank to be washed and disinfected. It was at this pit that the discovery was made that reservists, who had been serving their time with the colours, were still carrying the worm. Graf Schwerin Colliery, Castrop.—This pit, which belongs to the same proprietors as the Lothringen pit, namely, the Gewerkschaft Graf Schwerin, has the un- enviable distinction of being about the most seriously infected pit in the whole district, a condition un-