The Russellville Democrat., 1880-05-27
TUNNEL TRICHINOSIS.
The Terrible Malady Which Attacked the
 Miners of St. GOthard,

Geneva Correspondent London Times. ss l Eiie Gdzefta Pism0ntese gives some | interesting particulars concerning the
 effects on health of the men employed
 in the St. Gothard Tunnel, of the unfa. | vorable conditions in which they are
 compelled to work, with special refer
 ence to disease engendered by the
 presence in the intestines of animaleule having a certain resemblance to trichine The general appearance of the St. Goth
 ard miners, particularly of those of them
 and they are the majority affected by the malady in question, is described
 as deplorable in the extreme. Their
 faces are yellow, their, features drawn, eyes half closed, lips discolored. the skin is humid and the gait difficult. If they eat with appetite they can not digest, and when wine is taken 1t is invariably rejected. Let man be as strong as he may, three or four months work seri- ously injures his health, at the end of a year or a little more he is a confirmed invalid.
 Profs Calderini, of Parma, and Bozzolo and Pagliani, of Turin, have made sev- eral visits to Airolo for the purpose of studying the disease on the spot. They state that 70 to 80 per cent of the men are suffering from this complaint, to which they give the name anemia anky. lostoma, term derived from the worm found in the intestines of miner who died in the Turin Hospital last year. A somewhat similar malady, arising from the presence of the ankylostoma in the intestines, is epidemic in Egypt and Brazil Thirty per cent of the cases are classified as seyere;" and among the men who have worked in the tunnel a year or more 95 per cent are affected. For boys from IA to Is, many of whom, as can personally testify, are employed in the tunnel, the Professors stigmatize it as "veritable he'll" continuous labor in it's pestlferous atmosphere being al- most certain death for them. Prof. Bozzolo is of the opinion that ten hours spent in the tunnel are sufficient to bring about condition of body favora- blc to the development of anemia anky-a
 The disease, though it has probably prevailed more or less for years, has only shown itself to an alarming extent dur. ing the last six months. The distance of the points of attack, as the extremi- ties of the galleries where the perfora- tors were at work have been called, from the respective entrance ton the north side nearly five miles) rendered ventilation extremely ditficult-an evil which has increased by the occasional freezing of the acompressors. The air thus insufficiently renewed was further vitiated by the perpetual explosions of dynamite, of which the consumption has beenat the rate of 600 pounds day, the smoke from 400 or 800 oil lamps, and the exhalations from the bodies of 400 men and forty horses. Add to this that a like number of men and horses have been working night and day in each section of the tunnel for years, that there IS an entire absence of sanitary appli ances, and that the temperature has averaged from 80 to 95 degrees Fahren' helt, and we have state of things as inimical to life and health as can well be conceived Of this the mortality among the horses affords ample proof
 They are kept in the tunnel only eight hours out of the A, yet they die-gen- orally dropping down dead is if struck by a bullet--at the rate of 20 per cent month--that is, the average duration ot equine life in the St. Gothard Tunnel has been exactly four months. AS most of the miners employed in the tunnel are Piedmontese, the Italian professors, from whose report I have quoted some of the foregoing statements, naturally enough call the attention of their gov, ernment to the. facts disclosed therein, and claim their interference on behalf of the men. It is only fair, however, to mention that the Swiss papers contest the accuracy of some of their conclu- sions, and. while admitting that the tun- nel is by no means pleasant place to work in, they affirm that things are not nearly so bad as Profs. Bozzolo and Pag- liam make out, and that the figures which these gentlemen give with refer ence to the prevalence of disease among the men require confirmation. Be that as itmay, you could not pass seven or eight hours inside the tunnel before the boring was completed, without suffering both at the time and afterward consider able inconvenience, if not something worse, and on leaving it your feelings would not improbably resemble those of the Austrian journalist who, after a sim liar experience, telegraphed to his paper; "I have been in the St. Gothard Tunnel, and am glad to inform you that have come out alive"