Mr John Spear's report to the local government board upon the so-called "Woolsorters' Disease" as observed at Bradford and in neighbouring districts in the west Riding of Yorkshire.

  • Spear, John.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr John Spear's report to the local government board upon the so-called "Woolsorters' Disease" as observed at Bradford and in neighbouring districts in the west Riding of Yorkshire. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    skin; and secondly, its much greater cleanliness, by far the greater part having, unlike most of the foreign wool, been carefully washed before the shearing. It follows that in the sorting of it no dust or short hairs arise; the atmosphere of the sorting room appears perfectly free from dust, whilst in the sorting of the other it is greatly charged with such impurity. A third, and probably still more important difference, is the fact that in these English and colonial wools “ fallen fleeces,” i.e., the fleeces of dead animals, are comparatively rarely found. The wool is subjected to more careful examination at the time of buying, and “ fallen fleeces,” if found mixed with others, an occurrence which it is said is most unusual, are excluded. Now to these “ fallen fleeces ” great interest attaches, for inasmuch as anthrax is a rapidly fatal disease amongst sheep and goats, infected fleeces, or at least those originally infected, must, one would suppose, in the vast majority of cases, be shorn from dead animals. Even in the foreign wool these fallen fleeces are found only exceptionally in the better qualities, and amongst the inferior qualities they are mixed in a more or less surreptitious way, being found often pulled to pieces and hidden as it were in the centre of a “ bump ” or roll of fleeces. But they are readily distinguishable ; not having reached maturity (as must most often be the case) the hair is shorter in the fibre ; it has, too, lost its elasticity, is limp and lustreless. From our knowledge of the pathology of the disease and the nature of the contagium, we should, as I have said, expect the danger to lie with these fallen fleeces; and there is some evidence that this danger is proportionate to their number and frequency. The dry foreign “ wool,” then, is that to which attention must be particularly directed. The term includes the following classes that are used in the Bradford district, enumerated so far as present experience permits, somewhat in the order of their apparent noxiousness :— (1) Van Mohair; (2) Persian wool; (3) Camel’s hair; (4) Alpaca; (5) Turkey mohair; (a) average; (b) inferior; (c) locks; (6) Pellitan; (7) Cape mohair; (a) superior; (b) inferior ; (c) locks; (8) Cashmere. Van Mohair, the fleece of the Mohair, a species of goat, that is raised in flocks by the wandering Arab tribes of Kurdistan in Asiatic Turkey. About 9,000 bales, (a bale weighing 180 lbs.), are imported annually into England, and about 8,700 of these (the remaining 300 going to Norwich) are brought into the Bradford district. The “ wool ” is long and coarse in fibre, is often very dirty, and is sorted usually into only a few qualities, four or five. The mode of its collection and transportation are as follow: the Kurdish tribes attend with their flocks, once a year, a great fair, Bitlis, Djezireh. and Mogoul being the principal seats of these gatherings, and there the goats are sheared ; or in other cases petty dealers collect from the country round, and bring the wool to these market towns. It is bought there by agents, and sent overland, or partly overland and partly by the Black Sea, to Constantinople. There it is roughly divided into four classes, according to its colour and quality (white, brown, grey, and locks), by men, mostly Greeks, employed for the purpose ; packed, and sent to England. Here each class is again sorted as above described. Such is the usual channel by which this wool or hair reaches England. Some consignments, however, have recently been sent through Bagdad, Bassora, and the Persian Gulf, and by this route the material is classed still more roughly and only according to the colour before exportation. Some small quantity, again, may be exceptionally delayed in the transit. It is said that a Kurdish family, when not in immediate want of money, will often store up the wool in their tent or dwelling ; that it will be used then as a bed in sickness and so on ; to be brought out for sale when necessity arises. I have no evidence, however, of its being a vehicle for the trans- mission of human contagia. Persian Wool is a sheep’s wool, and, as its name implies, comes from Persia. About 16,000 bales are imported, chiefly through Bagdad, to this country, and most of this (unless, as happens in some years, a considerable quantity be re-exported to other countries) finds its way to Yorkshire. It is a fine but very dusty wool; not classified before reaching this country ; and indeed subjected to little sorting here, the process being one rather of selection according to the colour of the hair, the unraveling of the knotted portions, and the subsequent blending of the colours, to procure the proper shades. At present these processes, all very dusty ones, are gone through before the wool is washed. Camel Hair, about 9,000 bales of which are imported, in about equal proportion from Russia and China, is likewise a very dusty material. It, too, is only roughly sorted ; and not at all before it reaches England. The great bulk of the above amount is