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.
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![rect there can be no doubt; but it is well known that persons labouring under some forms of chronic bronchitis expecto- rate matter quite as dark, though they have never breathed a particularly smoky atmosphere. In such cases, therefore, the black matter must be excreted by the lungs, and cannot have been inhaled. It is therefore probable that the dark expec- toration of the men who have long ceased to work as miners is, in part at least, an excretion, not entirely the carbon formerly inhaled. The candles also, as stated by the men, 10 when burning so badly as they often do, and especially when the wicks have to be teazed out and the candles held on one side or two placed together, give out much dense smoke, and this must further deteriorate the atmo- sphere. The stour or dust of the mines is often blamed by the men as a cause of indisposition, and some say that the stour is worse than anything else. The mines are chiefly driven in the shales or plates of sandstone and beds of limestone, and much dust is caused by the boring and 20 blasting, and must, when the air is dry, be diffused in the workings and inhaled by the miners. Dr. Ewart thinks that in this respect also the atmosphere of the mines is very seriously detrimental to the men. He has published a case in which, after prolonged indisposition, cough, expectoration, difficulty of breathing, &c., a piece of sandstone as large as a pistol bullet, which had apparently been formed in one of the large bronchi by the accretion of small particles of sand, was expectorated by a miner. After the escape ofthe mass, the bronchitic symptoms were relieved. One of 30 the men who had a curvature of the spine and stated that he had always been delicate, especially complained that his breathing was affected by the dust of the mines. Judging by the reports of the miners, I am disposed to think that dust or gritty particles, thrown off from the sandy strata in which they frequently work, considerably adds to their sufferings when employed in the mines. I think it probable also, that in this respect the northern mines are more injurious than those of Cornwall, which are generally worked in the harder crystaline rocks, and which, therefore, 40 are probably less dusty. Some of the men especially com- plained of the dryness of the mines in connexion with the dust. Generally speaking, however, the atmosphere of the mines would appear to be damp ; and the men often com- plained of the cold and damp and thickness of the air in the workings. It mil be observed, that one man ascribed his severe rheumatic symptoms to working in cold draughts, and another blamed the cold for his illness. The mines do not appear, however, to be generally very wet, though there is often water in the workings and the men have to work 50 with their feet wet. Hard work, workiny too early, SfC.—The other causes assigned by the men as probably affecting them were, slavish work, and working too hard when he had a good bargain,— going to work at too early an age,— working at night. One man ascribed his illness to having taken cold, from having to walk a long way to his home, there being no changing house at the mine. Another admitted that he had injured his health from having been a hard drinker. 60 Ladder climbing.—I did not in any case find the climbing blamed by the men as having been injurious to them. Indeed, most of the mines, as at Nenthead, are entered by day levels ; the men ride to their work in waggons drawn by horses or pushed by their fellows, which remove the waste and ore, and have only to use the ladders when passing between the different levels or up or down short shafts. They have thus not usually to climb more than 15 to 20 or 30 fathoms. In other mines, as in Mr. Beaumont's, at Allen- head and Burtree Pasture, the men are let do^vn and drawn 70 up by machinery moving by water power, and have generally not much climbing when below. It is not, therefore, probable that the little ladder work which they have can produce any very injurious effects. Temperature of the mines.—The mines are also not appa- rently so hot as to exercise any injurious influence. When the men are working in very confined spaces, and there are many men at work, many candles burnt, and much blasting, the workings may become hot, but this does not generally seem to be the case. The mines are also 80 usually only worked in two shifts each day, and for four or five days in each week; and thus there is much time for the effects of the blastings to clear off, and for the places to be kept cool. In only two instances did the men complain of the heat of the mines, or state that they regarded them as injurious on that account. Of the different causes which have been enumerated as orobably operating unfavourably upon the health of the miners, I am led to conclude that by far the most influential is the defective quality of the air which they breathe. Comparison between the State of the Miners in the 90 North of England and in Cornvitall. 1. General condition of the miners.—I was much struck, in visiting the northern mining districts, with the more robust character of the men whom I found at work at the different mines, and the larger proportion of middle- aged and old men among them. On analyzing the reports which I then made, I find that they confirm the impressions formed at the time. On comparing the table of the con- dition of the men at work with the similar table showing the state of the Cornish miners, it will be found that there 100 are a smaller proportion of young boys, and a larger number of middle-aged and elderly men, employed in the mines in the North than in those in Cornwall. It will further be seen that the state of the men, as judged of by their general condition and appearance and by their own statements, was better in the North than in Cornwall; the proportion of delicate and aihng persons being at all ages less in the North, and especially in more advanced life. On referring also to the ages at which the men permanently disabled by miners' asthma, &c. first went to work under- 110 ground, and the ages at which their indisposition became so marked as to prevent their pursuing their occu- pation any longer, it will be seen that the period during which the miners were able to work in the North of England was much greater than in Cornwall. Indeed, the period of work in the North exceeds that in Corn- wall by, on the average, 5-8 years. It does not, however, appear that there is the same difference between the periods at which the health of the miners first fails in the two districts;—the men in the North suffering from their 120 occupation, probably at nearly as early an age as in Corn- wall; but the affections under which they labour being less severe and less rapidly advancing, they are not so soon disabled. 2. Diseases of the miners.—The diseases met with among the miners in the North of England correspond generally with those observed in Cornwall, but present some differ- ences. In both districts the men suffer frequently and severely from symptoms of indigestion, constipation, &c. Miner's asthma is, however, amongst all miners, the form of 130 serious disease which is of most common occurrence, and which appears to indicate the ordinary process of decay in the men who are originally of healthy constitution. Next in frequency also in both districts' is pulmonary consumption; this disease being developed at an earlier period than the former, and in men possessed of less constitutional vigour. It appeared, however, to me that miners' asthma was in the North usually a simpler form of disease than in Cornwall and less frequently compU- cated by the results of inflammation of the lungs occa- 140 sioning serious disorganization of their tissues. I also found the affection in the North not so commonly complicated with disease of the heart as in Cornwall. Doubtless in all advanced cases of miner's asthma the right side of the heart undergoes dilatation, as in other similar forms of bronchial desease. In Cornwall, however, it was found that the miners labouring under asthma very frequently presented symptoms and signs of imper- fection of the mitral valve; a condition not decidedly met with in any case in the North, though it may possibly 150 have existed in one or two instances. Other forms of disease of the heart also occurred among the miners in Cornwall in several instances; and palpitation was a very common symptom in their various ailments. Whereas decided disease of the heart was only once met with in the North, and the affection could in that instance be only indirectly referred to the undergound work. Palpi- tation also was not a frequent complaint in other forms of affection. What then is the cause of the differences indicated in 160 the condition and diseases of the two sets of men ? ] st. Ventilation of the mines.—The mines in the North of England are worked by horizontal shafts or day levels, opening from the sides of the hills, sufficiently large to allow of the passage of waggons and horses, and by vertical sumps or shafts rising from the horizontal shafts at different levels or sinking into the lower strata. The horizontal shafts sometimes pass entirely through the hills, and the vertical shafts frequently open on the surface above. The mines also are comparatively shallow. They would I/O therefore appear to afford great facilities for natural ven- tilation. In the mines in Cornwall, on the contrary, which communicate with the surface only by deep ver- tical shafts, the natural ventilation is more likely to be imperfect. It might, therefore, be supposed that the miners in the North breathe better air than in Cornwall. I cannot, however, think that the more satisfactory sanitary condition of the miners can be ascribed to the mines in the North being generally in a better state as to ventilation](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b23983292_0018.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
