Appendix B to the report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the condition of all mines in Great Britain to which the provisions of the Act 23 & 24 Vict. Cap. 151 do not apply, with reference to the health and safety of persons employed in such mines. / Presented to both houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty.
- Great Britain. Royal Commission on Mines
- Date:
- 1864
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Appendix B to the report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the condition of all mines in Great Britain to which the provisions of the Act 23 & 24 Vict. Cap. 151 do not apply, with reference to the health and safety of persons employed in such mines. / Presented to both houses of Parliament 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.
16/526 (page 13)
![for 20 years, and had since followed the occupation of a butcher. He had laboured under the symptoms of disease of the heart for about 12 months before I saw him, and was then dropsical, suffering from difficulty of breathing so severe as to prevent his lying down, and presented the charac- teristic signs of obstructive and regurgitant disease of the aortic valves. This affection could not, of course, be directly traced to his former occupation as a miner; but he stated that when so employed he had suffered from 0 rheumatism, and probably might then have had some affec- tion of the lining membrane of the heart, which laid the foundation of the subsequent disease. In another case, a man ii7 years of age, who reported that he had recently suffered from chronic diarrhoea or dysentery, and was probably becoming consumptive, complained of suffering from palpitation of the heart, especially when using active exertion ; and there was reason to suspect that the mitral valve might be in some degree defective. In three other cases, two of advanced miner's asthma and one 20 of general failure of power with indigestion, difficulty of breathing, &c., the patients complained of paljiitation ; ])ut no disease could be detected on examining the heart. The fu'st case referred to, and possibly the second, constituted therefore the only instances in which decided disease of the heart was met with among the miners in the North of England. I was further assured by several medical men practising in the district that diseases of the heart and great vessels were not of frequent occurrence among the miners. 30 4. Chronic Rheumatism.—A man 47 years of age was reported to have been entirely incapacitated for work for four years, in consequence of suffering from chronic rheu- matism. The affection commenced in the slioulders and then passed into the hip. He stated himself to be otherwise well and free from any difficulty of breathing. He ascribed his indisposition to having worked in cold and draughty places, but said that he had never been in workings that were particularly damp or where the air was bad. He first went to work underground when 10 or 12 years of age, and 40 had Ijeen employed 1 to 33 years before his health failed. In several instances, men labouring under other forms of disease complained of suffering from different kinds of rheu- matic affection, or stated that they had formerly had rheu- matic fever, or pains in different parts of the trunk or limljs. 5. General failure of power. Dyspepsia, c^'c.—The only other case which will be found fully reported in the Appen- dix is one in which a man, 66 years of age, was ])ermanently disabled in consequence of general failure of ])ower, difficulty of breathing, palpitation, and symptoms of indigestion. He 50 had gone to work underground when about 9 yeaxs of age, and had been a miner for about 5/ years, and had been unfit for work for two or three months. In all the forms of miners' disease, symptoms of indigestion were of common occurrence. The men state, that, as a general rule, the miners have small appetites, while the pit- men take much food. Not only also do they frequently complain of want of appetite, but also of flatulency, nausea, and occasionally actual vomiting. The action of their bowels is uncertain ; sometimes they suffer from diarrhoea ; 60 more frequently from consti])ation ; and they are very liable to colicky pains in the bowels. 6. Disease of Kidneys, Sj-c.—In some cases the men stated that they suffered from pains in the loins, and symptoms of gravel, but I met with no case of disease of the kidneys or dropsy among the men. 7. Injuries.—^Vmong the cases only cursorily referred to will be found notices of two, in which the men were entirely blind, and were stated to have lost their sight from explo- sion.j or shots in the mines. I was also informed that 70 there were two other miners in Alston parish^who had lost their sight in the same way. I saw among the men at work several cases of partial blindness and injuries of the face from explosions, and heard of other injuries from falls of rock and in other ways in the mines. Several of the men were extremely deaf. Causes of Disease among the Sliners. There is a striking uniformity in the causes which are assigned by the miners for the impairment of their health ; the answer very generally being, when questioned on this 80 point, that it was bad air, powder reek, and stour. Bad air.—The reports of the older men, and of the agents and medical officers, and indeed of almost every one connected with the mines, show that formerly the state of the mines as to ventilation was very much more defective than at present. The most striking accounts of the ex- tremely deleterious effects of the air in which they had to work was given me by men who had been employed in driving the fossway, extending from Alston to near Nenthead, which was constructed by the Commissioners of 90 Greenwich Hospital some years[ago. But^ notwithstanding B that great improvements have of late years been effected in the state of the mines, some of the workings are still evidently, from the reports of the men, very defective. I was repeatedly told by miners now at work, that all miners have to breathe bad air, more or less, or that m all mines there are places where the air is bad. From the Table of the assigned causes of disease in the men it will be seen that in 11 cases bad air is stated to have been the source of indisposition, and all but one of those who referred their illness to other causes or did not give any direct answer 100 to tlie inquiry, stated that they had worked to a greater or less extent in bad air. When questioned as to the reasons which made them regard the air as bad, they frequently stated that the candles could not 1)8 got to burn, except when heeled or placed on one side, or when the wicks were being continually teazed out, or two candles were placed together. Sometimes, they said, that the candles could not be got to burn where they worked, and had to be placed some distance behind them. Occasionally, they stated, that the air was so bad that the candles wotdd not burn at all, and they HO could not work in conscejuence; and they said that this was esi)ecially the case in dull days in summer and autumn, and might occur for several days together. A man to whom I spoke on his way home from Burtree Pasture Mine on the afternoon I was there, said that several men had been compelled to leave their work that day; and one of the men who was ailing and had been at work in the fore end, said the air had been \-ery l)ad. When asked to describe Uie effects of the breathing of bad air, the miners mentioned all those sym|)tonis with which my incjuiries in Cornwall had 120 made me familiar. They said, that the bad air made tliem dizzy, sometimes adding, as if they had been in liquor,— caused violent headache, and made them feel sleepy, so that they could scarcely keep awake, and took all the power out of their limbs. .Sometimes, they said, that they became quite faint; and I was told that the men had occasionally fits when working in very bad air, and had to be carried out. Not unfrequently they felt sick, and would vomit violently on coming to the surface ; and they suffered from jjains in the bowels, constipation or diarrhoea; were much ] 30 prostrated, and had little or no appetite for their food on getting home. The mines are generally in this district entered by day levels, or horizontal shafts, running into the sides of the hills. From these, other shafts are raised or sunk, which open up the different levels and frequently reach the surface, so as to provide for the supply of fresh air through the different workings by a natural process of ventilation. It is chiefly when driving the fore ends or foremost ends, or in the rises carried up from the 140 different levels, or the sumps sunk from them, that the men are subjected to bad air. For the purpose of ventilating these close places, air is frequently driven by a fan worked by hand or by water power, or by a water blast, and in some of the mines of Mr. Beaumont exhausting furnaces have been introduced. Of the efficacy of the latter plan, I had very decisive evidence in several cases; being assured by the men that the general atmosphere of the mines was much im- proved, and by the agents that places were worked which were before scarcely capable of being entered, or in which 150 the men could only remain for a short time. The choke damp or carbonic acid gas, which consti- tutes the most dangerous element in the workings of the mines, is doubtless partly the result of the combustion of the candles, the respiration of the men, and the explosion of the powder in blasting the rock. The agents, however, state, that it is g'wen off from the strata, and especially the shaly strata or plates, and often escapes quite suddenly into the workings. This account was confirmed by several of the men, especially by one who had worked at the 160 fossway. He stated they had a bell which they could pull below to give warning if an escape of gas suddenly took place, in which case they were immediately drawn up, and sometimes, nevertheless, very narrowly escaped with their lives. As I have before-mentioned, powder reek is also frequently assigned by the men as rendering the air of the mines very injurious to them, and they often complain of the length of time required in some places for the smoke to clear off after the blasts or shots. Dr. Ewart, to whom I70 I have before referred, ascribes much importance to the deleterious influence of the gases generated by the explo- sions of powder in the mines, and to the diffusion in the air of the unoxidyzed charcoal. He states, that when a miner is injured by an explosion, the face or hands are thoroughly blackened and remain so partially for life. He also ascribes to the charcoal so diffused in the air and inhaled by the miners, the black spit or blackish mucus brought up by the men when they leave their work, and which he states they often continue to expectorate for years after they have 180 ceased to go underground. That this view is generally cor- 3](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b23983292_0017.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
