An Investigation into the Nature of Black Phthisis Part 4

[8] The black sputum retains its colour after being submitted for some days to the action of nitric acid.

[9] This is the only case in which I at any time observed colliquative sweats as a symptom of this disease.

[10] To convey an impression of the nature of the labour in which the man was engaged I shall simply extract a few remarks from the evidence of the miners at this coal-work, taken by Mr Franks for the Government's Commissioners, Note 105. "At all times the air is foul, and the lamps never burn bright. The seam of coal is 24 inches, and the road only three feet high." Note 108--"Experienced colliers do not like the work, and many are touched in the breath." And in such a situation man is doomed to labour! Note 114--"Most of the men here are _fashed_ with _that trouble_; Foster, Miller, Blyth, and Aitken are all clean gone in the breath together. Colliers here drop down very soon."

[11] It is evident in this disease that the bronchial ramifications are destroyed, while the arteries, with the exception of the minute twigs, are preserved.

[12] One of the lungs (the left one) now described, I sent to Dr John Thomson, late Professor of Pathology, and will probably be found in his collection, which I understand is in the College of Surgeons.

[13] After a free expectoration of black matter, there was an evident mitigation of all the pectoral symptoms, and as the carbon again acc.u.mulated in the lungs, the sufferings of the patient were very considerably increased.

[14] This sputum was subjected to the action of nitric acid, which produced no effect upon its colour.

[15] When pulmonary disorganization has proceeded far, from the presence of carbon, there is a languor in the vital action from defective oxygenation of the blood, which produces a gradual reduction in the temperature of the body, requiring double clothing, and even that addition is, with the aid of stimulants, not sufficient to keep the patient warm.

[16] This lung is in the possession of Sir James Clark, of London.

[17] The above substances were submitted separately to the action of nitric acid and caustic potash, and the result was that a large proportion of carbon was precipitated.

[18] Since writing the above the patient has died; and I regret that, owing to neglect in communicating with me, I have been prevented examining the morbid appearances.

[19] Several of the Pencaitland colliers are at present engaged in the tunnelling operations near to Edinburgh, connected with the North British Railway.

[20] Dr Hamilton's of Falkirk paper in the Edin. Med. and Surgical Journal, Vol. xlii.

[21] I have very lately, through the kindness of Mr Girdwood, surgeon at Falkirk, had an opportunity of examining two or three iron-moulders in that district. Both from the nature of the employment in those iron works, and the character which the pulmonary affection exhibits, the fact of inhalation is fully established. The moulder is at a certain stage of his labour enveloped in a cloud of finely-ground charcoal, a portion of which cannot fail to find its way to the lungs in breathing.

He is subject to tickling cough, and as the disease advances, the respiratory sounds, which indicate considerable bronchial irritation, present themselves, and ultimately become dull, and in some parts obscure.

Of the several cases which I saw with Mr Girdwood, one, who has not been labouring for some years as a moulder, occasionally expectorated black matter, and in the other two, there was general dullness of both lungs; and, I doubt not, impaction.

[22] It has not been in my power hitherto to procure so satisfactory a chemical a.n.a.lysis of the blood as I would wish, but through the kind a.s.sistance of Dr Douglas Maclagan, who has undertaken to conduct the process, I expect very soon to be able to lay it before the profession.

[23] I found little or no black matter in the lungs of farm servants, who are much in the open air.

[24] _Vide_ MONTHLY JOURNAL for 1845, p. 702.

[25] At any time when these colliers required venesection, particularly towards the last stage of the disease, the blood appeared peculiarly dark and treacle-like.

[26] Could oxygen not be prepared and forced down?

[27] I am happy to find that the attention of the n.o.ble proprietor of the Newbattle coal works is now directed to this subject.

[28] I cannot pa.s.s from this subject without an observation on the beneficial results which have been the consequence of Lord Ashley's valuable colliery Act. The female Labourers, and particularly the unmarried, have improved not only in their appearance, but also in general physical development, since they have abandoned the unhealthy labour of the coal-mine. They are no longer the squalid, filthy, and ill-favoured race they formerly were. There is now exhibited on the face of the collier girl the bloom of health and cheerfulness; and when we descend to their domestic economy, there is observed a comfort in the management of their households, which formerly did not exist. Their children are now particularly cared for, both in health and when suffering from disease; and we must regard this early watching as an important step to the removal of that predisposition to pulmonary irritation, so general in the collier community.