The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1889-07-20
DISEASE FROM WORK,
Ills That Afflict Farmers, Bakers
and PaY-Laborers.

anu edy-LdOOTeTSs
Those persons who are engaged in
out-of-door occupations, as rule,
breathe pure air and have plenty of
muscular exercise. They are usually
robust and brawny, and the average
duration of their lives is long; but, be-
ing exposed to alterations of heat and
cold, to winds, rain and snow, they
are liable to acute pulmonary affec-
tions and rheumatism. Boat-men and
fishermen are quite subjec ct to chronic
bronchial catarrh. The latter are
said to suffer greatly from paneris of
the light index finger due to the rub
bling of the | ne.
Farmers and those occupied in agri-
cultural pursuits, says the Boston
Globe, are often attacked with ca
tarrh and pneumonia; among the elder
y'and aged ones chronic rheumatism
prevails. The life of an independent
farmer is so free from anxiety and so
healthful in its conditions that if it
were not for the poorness of food set
forth on most farmers tables, their
lives would be much longer and more
comfortable than they are. But in
most farmhouses the diet is very much
restricted, the meat consisting OF plen-
ty of salt pork. More pitifut wrecks
of women, by reason of hard work and
poor food, than some of the farmers
wives of New England it would be
hard to find.
Laborcrs furnish large number of
deaths from Brights disease and
phthisis.
There are occupations in which per-
sons are exposed to extreme artificial
heat where the atmosphere of the
work room is necessarily kept at a
high temperature, and where the VEN
tilation is always poor; for a rapid
change in the air would call for in
creased consumption of fuel. Whether
the high temperature Or the bad air
De the cause, it is certain that those
working under those conditions are
generally sickly, and their power of
resisting disease is much reduced.
Copious perspiration has great deal
to do, no doubt, with the low state
of their vitality, and the sudden
changes OF temperature which they un-
dergo after leaving OF work and going
out doors, render them liable to catar-
rhal trouble, both pulmonary and
gastric intestinal. They are good SUBJ
jects for rheumatism and Brights dis
case.
Brickmakers are generally robust
men. Those who press the clay into
molds by hands suffer painful crepita-
tation of the tendons of the wrist
They are exposed 10 the smoke and
heat from the lime kilns, which pro-
duce disease.
Bakers and cooks are exposed to en-
IRENE heat, and nearly always in badly
ventilated and damp places. The for
mer work at night, and their pale,
puffy faces are very characteristic
Both are subject to rheumatism and
varicose veins. The heat OF the fire
and the irritating substances in which
they work produce eruptions of the
skin on the hands and arms and acute
Inflammation on the face. OF the two
trades, that of the baker is the most
unhealthy. The hands of bakers ara
generally large and powerful becluse
Of the muscular exertion USE in knea1-
ing dough.
Charcoal burners are exposed to a
temperature varying from 1OS to 1l2
degrees Fahrenheit, but do rot suffer
much, as their work is done in the
open air.
Blacksmiths are strong and healthy
men, partly because only robust men
could endure the hard work of this
trade, and partly because constant
muscular exercise tends to increase
the natural vigor of those who adopt
it. But the extreme exertion and ex-
posture to the heat of the forge, the
great peaspiration and sudden change
of temperature, are many sources of
peril to the health; and it is the uni
versal opinion of writers on hygiene
that they age very quickly. The light
and heat from the forge, as well as
the white-hot metal, produce many
diseases of the eyes. Blacksmiths are
also said to suffer greatly from head
aches and catarrh. The sudden change
of temperature naturally produce acute
and chronic rheumatism.
Engineers and stolzers on railroads,
In steamships and attending stationary
engines, are also exposed to great heat.
On steamers, where their quarters are
very small, they are most unhealthy
class of men. This is especially true
of the stokers. They are always pale,
subject to catarrh, rheumatism and
pneumonia, and frequently die of
phthisis.
Many writers describe peculiar az
lection which attacks men who clean
out the boilers of steam engines. They
enter by a man-hole, and in few
minutes emerge with red faces, lips
blue, veins swollen, interrupted respir-
alton and the heartbeat very percepti-
BILE. There is a peculiar whiteness
around the lips, as if they had been
touched with nitrate of silver. They
are often sick for days after their work,
and suffer greatly. These workmen
are liable to serious accidents from
bursting boilers, breaking shafts. etc.
The men who work at large FORCES,
iron-puddlers and glass-blowers are
also exposed to intense heat. Hirt
states that iron-puddlers work from
eight to ten hours in air of tempera-
ture OF one hundred and thirty degrees
Fahrenheit. Such workmen are con-
stantly perspiring profusely and drink
enormous quantities of water to make