The industrial diseases of South Africa : being the annual lecture of the Cape of Good Hope (Western) Branch of the British Medical Association / by W. Watkins-Pitchford.

  • Watkins-Pitchford, Wilfred.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The industrial diseases of South Africa : being the annual lecture of the Cape of Good Hope (Western) Branch of the British Medical Association / by W. Watkins-Pitchford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    14/54 (page 10)
    These jieople are mosth^ Eurafricans, and their com- plaint almost always passes by insensible gradations into pulmonary tuberculosis. Dr. W. Gilbert, the- Desident iNIedical Officer of the Port Elizabeth Hos- ])ital, has also observed many cases of feather- sorters’ phthisis, but thinks that the early stages of the disease are those of a broncho-pneumonia rather than a bronchitis, and that such broncho-pneumonia annears to be primarily non-tuberculous. Dr. G. Porter INIathew considers that the occupation is also responsible for a troublesome form of rhinitis. Popular opinion seems to be that the mischief is done more by the dust which is shaken out of the feathers than by the liberated particles of “dons” or fluff; thi.S, however, is a speculation and not an ascertained fact. That- the air of the feather-market during' the sales abounds in particles of floating down is quite obvious to the casual observer. As it is an acknowledged fact that the habitual inhalation of particles of cotton, flax, and wool (in the spinning and weaving industries of Great .Britain) ^ives rise to chronic bronchitis in the worker, ft is jirohable that these rumours and oiiinions concerning the pres(‘nc(> of fc-ather-sorters’ ])hthisis in South Africa an* W(>ll founded. Whether or not the comjilaint can he justly deemed a strictly industrial disease future investigation can alone decide. Coal-miners and bunkerers—more especially when the softer varieties of coal are dealt with—are liable to very extensive infiltration of the lung tissues with coal dust. This condition is known as pulmonary anthracosis. Although it is undoubtedly an ab- normal one yet ‘it is probably not correct to con- sider it a disease. It is not productive of extensive perilymphatic induration, nor of generalised fibrosis of the lungs, and this peculiarity is probably the reason why it does not predispose to a pulmonary tuberculous infection. The coal-miners of England and Wales share with agricultural labourers the privilege of being recorded as the least liable of all industrial classes to suffer from phthisis. Dr. F. J. Allen, who has been INIedical Officer to several of the leading Transvaal collieries for ten years, in- forms me that although an excessive degree of