Germs, dust and disease : two chapters in our life history / by Andrew Smart.

  • Smart, Andrew.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Germs, dust and disease : two chapters in our life history / by Andrew Smart. 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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    DUST AND CONSUMPTION. enumerated in the Act, is prohibited in the manufacture of playthings. Fourthly, the use of arsenical colours for the manu- facture of paper-hangings, or for materials of dress, is prohibited. Fifthly, the sale of food stuffs, or food products, preserved or packed contrary to these regulations, is prohibited. Sixthly, the enactment shall come into operation on the 1st of April 1883. Now, you will perhaps characterise this proceeding on the part of the German government, as a bold, if not a sweeping and summary measure. Let us see what came of it. Germany is, as you are aware, the great manufacturing workshop of these pig- ments, and of the arts to which they are applied. Here, then, is an act that threatened the extinction of these industries, with its consequent widespread commercial ruin. In view of this disaster, we may believe there were no lack of appeals, remonstrances, and even threatenings. The government, however, remained firm in its determination to waive every consideration except those which had regard to the best welfare of the people. Now notice what comes of doing what is right regardless of consequences. The dreaded 1st of April — the day on which the Act would come into force —at length arrived, but with it, not the expected ruin. How was this ? How often—as in this case—has necessity proved the mother of invention, especially when it touches that sacred depository of the public conscience—the pocket? In short, before the fated day, by the joint aid of money and science, new and poisonless pigments were devised, tried, and found to fully meet all the requirements of the case. Thus, Germany at this moment, has the proud satisfaction of having initiated a great sanitary reform. You have not, I am sure, failed to be struck with the fact that these effects of unhealthy occupations culminate, in an extra- ordinary degree, in the production of one particular disease. It is unfortunately the most prevalent and fatal of our maladies; and it is on that account that I have chosen pulmonary con- sumption as the crucial disease by which to test the ill effects of these occupations. A high death-rate, amongst any class, from consumption, im-
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