First report of the Special Investigation Committee upon the Incidence of Phthisis in Relation to Occupations : the boot and shoe industry.

  • Great Britain. Medical Research Committee. Investigation Committee upon the Incidence of Phthisis in Relation to Occurence.
Date:
1915
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First report of the Special Investigation Committee upon the Incidence of Phthisis in Relation to Occupations : the boot and shoe industry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    First Report of the Special Investigation Committee upon the Incidence of Phthisis in relation to Occupations. L—THE BOOT & SHOE INDUSTRY. To the MEDICAL RESEARCH COMMITTEE. Introduction. 1. The Special Committee appointed on the 26th October, 1914, to investigate and report upon the incidence of phthisis in relation to particular occupations, beg leave to submit the following first report. 2. At an early stage in our consideration of the questions referred to us, we found that Dr. E. L. Collis, Medical Inspector in the Factory Department of the Home Office, acting in collaboration with one of his colleagues, Mr. W. F. E. Seymour, H.M. Inspector of Factories stationed at Leicester, had been conducting an inquiry, under instruc- tions from the Chief Inspector of Factories, to ascertain whether tuberculosis was unduly prevalent in the Boot and Shoe Industry, and, if so, what measures, if any, should be recommended for its prevention. The Home Office courteously placed the information so acquired at our disposal, and our special attention was accordingly directed in the first instance to the special problems presented by the Boot and Shoe Industry. We are greatly indebted to the results of the Home Office inquiry; many of these, confirmed by our own observations, are incorporated within the report which is now laid before you. The Recent Development of the Boot and Shoe | Industry. 3. In the last half century the boot and shoe industry has been com- pletely revolutionised. Machinery for sewing or closing boot tops or uppers was first introduced about the years 1857-60; before that time practically the whole of a boot was made by hand in the cottage home, and the so-called factory was primarily a distributing and collecting centre. In a small measure this form of factory may . still be found, but the invention and introduction of machines for dealing with the numerous processes through which a boot now passes in course of manufacture, have called into existence the modern