Epitome of evidence taken before the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the condition of all mines in Great Britain to which the provisions of the Act 23 & 24 Vict. cap. 155 do not apply, with reference to the health and safety of persons employed in such mines / presented to both houses of Paliament by command of Her Majesty.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Mines.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Epitome of evidence taken before the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the condition of all mines in Great Britain to which the provisions of the Act 23 & 24 Vict. cap. 155 do not apply, with reference to the health and safety of persons employed in such mines / presented to both houses of Paliament by command of Her Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    13/302 (page 13)
    (A.)—HEALTH AND I , -^g^Kif 10,624. What size is the infirmary at Truro?—I think itiiseases we make np 6-i beds. fl.ers. 10,625. Is the infirmary large enough for its district, do vou think ?—It is not large enough since the railways have been opened. We are always full of late. 10.626. What number of cubical feet of space is allowed in proportion to the luimber of beds ?—I cannot answer that question, although the space has been measured. The infirnuiry is not altogether well built. 10.627. Holland.) Is the infirmary small in pro- portion to the number of its inmates ?—The beds are too much crowded to please me, while the old wards are not high enough. 10.628. I suppose there is no doubt that miners are specially liable to lung disease P—I have no doubt that they arc. I always examine a miner's lungs, and expect to find some mischief there ; if not consumption something else, with which they seem to drag on for years. 10.629. Have you seen many miners suffering from distinct tubercular consumption ?—I have seen a great many young miners, and several older ones so suffering. 10.630. Have you seen many miners with hmg disease that was not tuberculous ?—Yes. 10.631. A large proportion ?—Yes. 10.632. Do you think it likel3% from the miuer's mode of life, that they will suffer from an unusual amount of bronchitis ?—I think it is likelv that they will. 10.633. You do not know that they do, from your own knowledge ?—I am inclined to say that they do suffer from bronchitis more than the average of the labouring people. Special classes appear to me to suffer more than they, but they more than the average. 10.634. It has been stated in evidence that a very lai'ge proportion of the miners die from lung disease, which is called consumption, and includes all sorts of lingering disease, with cough and expectoration. Can you give auj' evidence as to what that disease gene- rally is ?—I instanced the case of Collins, to give yoTi an idea of what kind of case might be registered as such a case. All such cases, I think, are so regis- tered. There are a great many cases of pleurisy among miners. 10.637. A thickening of the lining membrane of the bronchial tubes has been mentioned as a very fre- quent circumstance ; does that correspond with your observation?—I hiive never had an opportunity of examining the bronchial tubes. Still I find miners with black mucous expectoration, which may arise, for what I know, from what they breathe in the mines—car- bonaceous matter, which had adhered to the lining membrane. 10.638. Do you think that that may arise from the smoke ?—I suspect that such cases do occur among others. I think that the lungs get irritated by breath- ing very likely dusty matter in the mines and the gun- powder smoke, and that these irritate the bronchial tubes, and among other things, tends thus to damage the miner's health. These, combined Avith the anaemic state they get into, from the peculiar conditions undei- which they breathe, certainly weaken the miner, and make him at last worth little as a man of work; but I have rarely had an opportunity of following these men to ascertain whether they die soon from such de- clining health. ■ Mr. JoHX Permkwax. 10,657- {Chairman.) Have you formed any opinion I as to the pathological condition of the patients ?—Yes. ! I think, in describing a case of miner's disease, that I we have an opportunity of seeing it at the beginning, i Very frequently a man comes complaining first of j symptoms of indigestion and dyspepsia; that is the i first symptom that we find, with headache and loss of j appetite, and vomiting frequently ; throwing xip his- food. He also complains of pain ovei- the epigastrium, I and in a very short time he complains of his breath being short, and the heart beats irregularly ; there is palpitation. I think I might say that for the first three weeks or two months there is no cough; but after that they have a short hacking cough, without any ' expectoration. 10,658. [Mr. Holland.) How long does that condition last ?—That is at various times ; it may go on; it all depends upon the character of the man's work. If he B ISEASES OF MINERS. is still working in the same place it will be for a very (A.) Health short time before expectoration will take place ; if he and Diseases goes out of the place where he has been working, and is ^if Miners. properh- treated, and gets rest, he will get better in that stage. 10.659. [Chairman.) Have you ever known a case in which where a man has been shifted from the particular end in which he was working to another level a good eflect has been produced ?—Yes, decidedly. 10.660. [Mr. Holland.) From changing to another level ?—Yes, there has been a decided change at once. We ask the minei's how long they have been working at such a place —They say three months, perhaps, and then we say that they ought to get out of it, and they say, We expect to hole in a fortnight. After that time they go into purer air, they get on very well indeed, and it passes off entirely if they get into purer air. We find that these dead or poor places are generally in a winze or in a shaft. 10.661. Is the effect equally good whether they change their place of work or not, provided the air be improved ?—Yes, I think so ; there is no doubt about it. 10.662. [Chairman.) Do you ever advise men to leave mining work altogether, and to go to the surface ?— Yes ; frequently that is our recommendation, if we see that the}' are able to do so. They ask us whether we think they had better do so, and we always recommend it, if possible. 10.663. Do the men who come to you in that state spit up a good deal of black sputa ?—Yes ; that is the first character of the expectoration ; it is frothy stuff, mixed up with black particles ; what it may be we cannot exactly say. 10.664. How long after leaving his work would a man continue to spit up tliat black stuff?—I have known it for years, and I think I could point out to you two or three people now. I kuow one in particular, and I know that he has not worked underground for 10 or 15 years, and he has every characteristic symjDtom of the old miner; he spits up now black expectoration. His name is John (Jock. Capt. Joseph Viviax. 10.735. [Chairman.) But you have visited mines abroad ?—Yes, I was in the Brazils about five years. 10.736. Were you woi'king there ?—Yes, in Gongo mine. 10.737. Did you suffer at all from working there ?— No. I have been working underground 30 years. 10.738. In other parts of Cornwall ?—In the neigh- bourhood of Camborne principally, North Roskear. 10.739. Did you ever know a man suffer from working undergi'ound ?—No. 10.740. You never met with any man who suffered ?— Not any one. 10.741. Then you do not think that the men do suffer from working underground ?—None that ever came under my experience. Mr. James Weabne. 10.895. [Chairman.) During your experience aa surgeon have any men come under your notice affected with what is called miners' disease ?—I do not know what miners' disease is. 10.896. Affected with consumption?—Knowing of course that I was coming before you to-day I looked about among my patients to see whether I could find a case of consumption, and I am not sure that I could find one. 10.897. Are your patients affected with any illness specially applicable to miners ?—I think that that would depend in a great measure upon the depth at which the men were working. 10.898. Is there any peculiar illness to which miners are subject ?—Not one that I know of. 10.899. Do you think that there is any one disease noi peculiar to miners but which prevails amongst any num- ber of miners ?—Yes, I should say bronchitis ; they suffer from chronic bronchitis. 10.900. Is there any other disease ?—I do not know that there is. 10.901. Have you observed the case of any miner in an early stage of the disease, and watched its progress till he has died ?—I am obliged to do so. 10.902. In those cases it is bronchitis?—I think so; you may have a little dilatation of the air cells, for S