perhaps because the latter have cleaner habits and possibly also stop work more promptly upon the appearance of the first symptoms.

In Paris it is estimated that over 30,000 persons are engaged in occupations involving exposure to lead, and of the 14,000 painters and varnishers employed there an average of 250 are treated annually in the hospitals for lead poisoning.

File cutters are subjected not only to an irritant dust, but also to lead poisoning, because the file in cutting is being held upon a leaden bed "and particles of lead are inhaled with the dust and may also be absorbed by the fingers in handling the stiddy." In England the mortality figure for plumbism, in 1890-1892, was no less than 75.(") The greatest danger in lead works is from inhalation of the lead dust and fumes; hence a special spray apparatus and exhausters have been designed, and employees have been taught to protect their hands with gloves and the mouth and nose with respirators.

In the pottery industry, where the danger arises from the glazes, the flux being made of litharge, clay, and flint, it has been found that the danger can be very much reduced by using only 8 per cent of carbonate of lead in the form of a "double-fritted silicate," instead of the older method, in which from 13 to 24 per cent of lead carbonate was employed.

Smoking should be forbidden during the working hours, and the work should be done in a special suit, frequently washed. The hands, face, and nostrils should be thoroughly washed with soap and water upon cessation of work, and the mouth and throat rinsed with a watery solution of tartrate of ammonia before eating and drinking. The same rules are applicable to painters, who would likewise find it of benefit to soften old paints with an alkali (weak lye) before scraping and to keep the handles of tools clean from deposits.

THE LEAD INDUSTRY IN MASSACHUSETTS.

The report of the Massachusetts Board of Health gives a very complete account of the conditions which obtain in the manufacture of lead compounds in the several factories visited. "The men who attend the grinding machines are of a very different class from those who empty the stacks, and, since they are not exposed to lead dust, they do not suffer from lead poisoning and are comparatively healthy. Those who empty the stacks do not remain long at work. It is said that this is due in part to the disagreeable nature of the work, in part to the fact that they are largely roving characters who do not care to work more than a few days occasionally, and in part to the fact that they acquire lead poisoning and are obliged to quit. Even those of good intention rarely work more than a month."

a Dangerous Trades, Oliver, 1902, p. 138.

One establishment is referred to where white lead is made by the "wet process," with no evolution of dust, and there is no history of lead poisoning. In a "red-lead" factory, also, the general process is commended, especially the absence of appreciable amounts of dust, and the intelligence of the workmen, who are mindful of the dangers and who, with an experience of 6 to 25 years, appear well and strong. In one of the lead-oxide works more or less dust escapes into the air during the transfer to the mill and packing it into barrels. The men wear respirators, and each man washes carefully and changes all his clothes before leaving the establishment. In another establishment "all of the 40 employees appeared to be in good health, and the conditions everywhere were found to be commendable."

In the lead pipe and plumbers' supplies factories the lead fumes are carried away by hoods and exhaust pipes, and in no instance was it possible to trace a case of lead poisoning to faulty methods. All of the employees observed the necessary precautions and appeared to be in good health. In the manufacture of solder the same precautions are employed, and although in the establishment described rats, cats, and dogs appear to succumb to lead poisoning only one case of lead poisoning occurred among the employees in 35 years.

In the pottery industry it is said that lead poisoning is almost unknown in the six establishments visited; only two cases occurred a few years ago in girls who applied the glaze. A possible explanation for this gratifying contrast to conditions observed in French and English potteries may be found in the fact "that the persons engaged in this industry appear to be of good intelligence, and understand thoroughly the importance of care and strict personal cleanliness, and that the employers provide ample means for its maintenance.” (“)

Wire and wire-cloth making as carried on in some of the plants visited in Massachusetts appears to be attended, in the opinion of Doctor Hanson, () by "avoidable dangerous conditions." "After the wire is hardened by being run into crude oil, it is passed through kettles of molten lead inside the tempering furnaces, and is then finished and wound for shipment. From the tempering furnaces dense blue fumes arise, and envelop the men whose work it is to feed and tend them. Occasional cases of lead poisoning occur in this department. In one establishment, one of the employees of 5 years' experience shows the characteristic blue line of lead poisoning on the gums; and another, of 14 years' experience, in the same room, has a history of 'wrist-drop' and other evidence of chronic poisoning. Efficient

a Report of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts upon the Sanitary Condition of Factories, Workshops, etc., 1907, pp. 97-101.

b"The effect of industry on health," Boston Medical Journal, No. 14, April 4, 1907, Wm. C. Hanson.

mechanical ventilation is most necessary in this work, but it is not always provided." (@)

Doctor Hanson, evidently referring to the same factory, writes: "All of the employees in this room worked 11 hours a day and had + irregular hours for eating. There were no rules concerning the duties of the employers or those of the persons employed in order to avoid this serious danger. On the contrary, the hoods and blowers and top ventilators for the lead and other fumes were found to be distinctly inefficient, and over one large furnace there was no protection of any sort, the appliances having been broken years before and none renewed, so that all the fumes mingled at once with the air of the room."

In making shingle stains pigments like chromate of lead, zinc oxide, iron oxide, and Prussian blue are used, and in the two establishments visited the men appeared to be careless in the matter of handling the pigments. In the manufacture of paints, colors, and varnishes much of the work is done outdoors by men who have worked from 6 to 20 years; "the man who makes the lead colors has worked 17 years without sickness. The last cases of poisoning at this establishment occurred 16 years ago, when a number of inexperienced men were poisoned with Paris green." In a color and mordant factory where aniline colors, logwood, starch, sodium dichromate, etc., are used, "about one in five of the employees is noticeably pale and sallow," and inflamed eyes were not uncommon. The latter condition is ascribed to the sodium dichromate. In the manufacture of "whiting" about half of the 58 men employed in three establishments visited "looked to be in poor condition." (")

PRINTERS, TYPE FOUNDERS, AND TYPESETTERS.

The mortality of printers in England is high, being 1,096 per 10,000, as against 953 for all occupied males, and 602 for agriculturists. (©) According to Schuler, of 1,000 Swiss typesetters and founders, 304.7 are annually taken sick, and of printers 250. Diseases of the digestive organs predominate (78 per 1,000). Diseases of the respiratory passages come next (75 per 1,000). Sommerfeld states that among 38 occupations tabulated by him the printers occupy the fifth rank in the number of deaths from tuberculosis. Albrecht reports that the statistics of the Berlin Sick Benefit Insurance Company covering a period of 33 years show that 48.13 per cent of the deaths among printers are caused by consumption. (4)

• Report of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts upon the Sanitary Condition of Factories, Workshops, etc., 1907, p. 91.

Ibid., pp. 106, 107.

c Dangerous Trades, Oliver, p. 151.

d Roth, Kompendium der Gewerbekrankheiten, Berlin, p. 56.

This may be due in part to the fact that many weaklings engage in this occupation, but the work itself is often performed in most unfavorable environments and in an impure and dusty atmosphere, which has been found to contain traces of lead, arsenic, and antimony. Special attention should be paid to proper ventilation, and particularly to the collection and removal of dust from the type cases. One gram of this dust has been found to contain 57.7 mg. of lead, 186.8 mg. of antimony, and traces of arsenic. (a) Strasser has suggested a type case with perforated tin bottom which is placed within another case, so as to facilitate the collection and proper disposition of this injurious form of dust.

A recent study of the "Health of printers," by George A. Stevens, in the Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of New York, based on the records of the International Typographical Union and the London (England) Society of Compositors, shows clearly the very high death rate from tuberculosis among printers.

The following table gives for the years 1901 to 1905 the annual death rates per 1,000 from the leading causes and from all causes among compositors in certain localities:

ANNUAL DEATH RATE PER 1,000 FROM PRINCIPAL CAUSES AND ALL CAUSES AMONG COMPOSITORS IN CERTAIN LOCALITIES, FOR THE FIVE YEARS, 1901 TO 1905. [From Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of New York, 1906.]

A second table gives for the same period the per cent of deaths due to tuberculosis in the selected localities for compositors and for all persons 20 years of age or over. It will be seen that in all the localities the percentage of deaths due to tuberculosis is very much higher for compositors than for all persons 20 years of age or over in the same community. For New York State outside of New York City and for London, England, the percentage for compositors is more than double that for the population 20 years of age or over as a whole.

a Rozsahegyi, Archiv. für Hygiene, Munich and Leipzig, vol. 3, p. 522.

PER CENT OF DEATHS FROM TUBERCULOSIS OF THE LUNGS AND OTHER RESPIRATORY ORGANS OF PERSONS 20 YEARS OF AGE OR OVER AND OF COMPOSITORS, IN CERTAIN LOCALITIES, 1901 TO 1905.

[From the Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of New York, p. cxxv.]

Mr. Stevens, in commenting on the high death rate from tuberculosis among compositors, says: "Scarcely any other occupation furnishes so large a quota of victims from consumption. The domestic life of printers is parallel to that of other artisans in equal financial circumstances. As wages go in these days, they are fairly compensated for their labor, thus enabling them to have homes as healthful as may be procured by the best paid workmen in any community. Neither can it be said that compositors are ill-nourished and therefore rendered more susceptible to the insidious action of tubercle bacilli. The determining cause of their susceptibility to the harmful process of the 'great white plague' lies in a different direction-to the neglect of sanitary precautions in far too many composing rooms.'

With proper attention to sanitary conditions in the composing rooms the death rate from consumption could undoubtedly be very materially reduced. The excellent results that have come from improved sanitation in workrooms appear from the mortality statistics for 1905 of the National Organization of Printers in Germany. "The average membership of the union in that year was 44,236, of whom 283, or 6.40 per 1,000, died from all causes, while 134 of the total were affected with diseases of the respiratory system, from which the death rate was 3.03, (a) tuberculosis not being separated in the tabular presentation.”(")

a The corresponding death rates among compositors in New York City was 7.17; other New York State, 4.04; total New York State, 6.34; Chicago, 4.11; Philadelphia, 5.04; total United States, 5.02, and London, England, 5.50.

Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of New York, 1906, p. cxxxvii.