The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-11

poisoning, and these are SO common
that not even a note of the death was
printed in the local paper. The body of
the =irl was horribly distorted. as if
she had died OF strychnine poisoning
A SCIENTISTS OPINION.
Some time a-o a distinguished En-
gliSh physician made an investigation
of the Newcastle lead factories, and
among other things. said: THE fact re-
mains that every now and then girl
OF from IS to % years of age works
only a few weeks or months in lead
factory when symptoms of acute lead
poisoning are noticed-namely, collie,
constipation, vomiting, headache, pains
IN the limbs and incomplete blindness.
In a few DAYS, with or without treat
ment, she becomes convulsed and dies
IN state OF coma. the death being so
sudden that we cannot but regard il
as due to acute toxaemia
For example, a girl works, it may
be, onl-- few weeks or months in a
lead factory. when. after having been
noticed by her friends to have been
rapidly becoming anaemic, she COM
plains of colo. constitution, headache,
dimness OK vision and in a few days
develops commissions or becomes de-
hriouS and dies comatose- AS the
symptoms are so rapidly developed and
as no organic change is found post
mortem the death can only be attribut-
able to toXaemia. Death in these cases
is analogous to strychnine poisoning"
The same scientist has shown that
women are more susceptible to Tad
poisoning than men. yet they are en-
ployed by preference because they per-
FORM lust as much work but for a
mere Dlttance, the average earnings
being "A cents a day, or S144 a week
Tor Y hours work.
Some women are at work in the fac
tories who have been there 40 years,
but the lead poisoning has distorted
these fearfully. nearly all of them be-
ing cross-eyed, and the limbs of many
are also terribly twisted by the paraly-
sis. Knee jerk and wrist drop" are
such common ailments among these
workers that they attract not the
slightest notice.
So much pressure has recently been
brought upon Sir Matthew White Rid
ley, the English home secretary in
regard to this evil that he has issued
an order prohibiting the employment
of women in the lead factories after
June of 1897. The chief reason for
governmental interference was the fact
that the lead women, most of whom are
married, seldom give birth to live chill
dren, and even when born naturally
the children rarely live. One case
brought to the notice of The home sec
rotary cited an instance of a lead
worker who had given birth to eight
children, none of whom had lived to
be u months old.
All of the women employed in the
lead factories are forced to wear respir-
ators, or muzzles, as they are called.
but these are small protection against
the poisonous matter, as the death
and sick lists show. Moreover. they
are under constant medical inspection
and are laid off when acute phases OF
disease appear, but they resort to
many expedients to hide these eviden-
ces. as laying off, means real starva-
ton for them and their children.
In large cloth factories the workers
suffer from the dust from the cuttings,
which gets into the lungs and infiames
them. In some shops men cannot wear
watches, because of the permeating
dust. and if watches are ruined by it,
the human works must suffer This is
particularly the case in the great Eng
lish shops at Leeds. where vile cloth is
handled, mos. of it being sized with
and the cloth itself being
made of veritable hodge. Dodge of
rubbish. GRANTLAND GRIEVE.