The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-07-26

tions running as high as thirty-eight 20
forty-two per minute upon the slightest
exertion. AS the weeks pass the loss
| of weight continues, the respiration
does not improve, the patient suffers a
general malaise and soon finds Il i'm
| possible TO get about and By the time
he is confined to This room has lost from
twenty to sixty pounds in weight, fea-
| lures are drawn and eyes sunken-
| Pulse ranges from 80 to 10. weak
and intermittent. Patients are restless.
anxious and apprehensiVe of results:
! they do not sleep well and are subject
! TO hideous dreams. As the disease be-
comes more marked and IL its later
/ stages the temperature may rise to
l02 or 1O4, though 4 high temperature
( is not always present. There is al
ways q characteristic odor of the
breath at all times probably due TO the
tellurium that the dust contains. There
is no arsenic, as has been stated
DR.. Belts here presented a table con-
tanning a record OF fourteen cases, OF
whom eleven died in st. George. The
figures showed that the average age
of the men was % years. Their aver
age weight was 160 pounds, and they
worked an average of thirteen months.
They died on an average of ten months
after leaving the mill. Orson Wood
Jury SlOpQ II lftc lOllStSl- ne MOlhE0
thirty-three months and lived twenty
four months afterward. 1t was just
ten months from the time John Frost
entered the mill until his death. He
worked three months and died seven
months after giving up.
DR.. Jones' Vigorous Talk.
Dr. Philo E. Jones opened the dis
cussion. This is an exceedingly inter-
esting subject" said DR.. Jones, ''es-
pecially so TO residents OF this valley
and the southern part of the state.
The disease does not differ particularly
from that contracted by those en-
ployed in the great cutlery works of
Sheffield, England, employees of grind
stone quarries and grain shovelers. The
men who shovel barley are specially
liable to it.
so long as life is less valuable than
gold, just so long will these lives be
sacrificed at the De Lamar mill. There
are methods of doing away with this
dust, but they cost money. The best
remedy, in my judgment, is an invoca-
ton of the strong arm of the law.
DR.. Crift of st. George, who mater
tally assisted DR.. Belts in securing data
for his paper, made a strong talk. All
the men who left st. George to work in
that mill" he said, have come back
with this trouble. At present there
are three who are still alive, but they
must follow the others within three
months. The remedy is the one just
suggested by Dr. Jones-the strong arm
of the law. The mill can be run by an
other process and should be compelled
to do so. There is not the slightest
doubt but that the men who work in
that milJ now are doomed. There are
no exceptions. and there will be none"
DR.. Hall of Denver was even more
emphatic than his brother medicos. 1t
seems to me- he said, briskly, that if
the law can't be invoked a rope would
about fit the case. a little thing like
murder in such an instance as this
should not be criticised. 1 have listened
with amaZement TO the cases reported
and l am astonished at the rapid
course taken by the disease
DR.. Mayo Defends Company.
When DR.. Hall had finished, Dr.
Mayo, who now resides in Salt Lake,
but who was De Lamars company sur
geon for more than four years, rose to
the defense of the mill. In my con-
nection with the company" said he, Il
have had more experience in these cases |
than all the rest OF the profession COM
bined. l think DR.. Belts estimate of
166 deaths is wrong. There were only
thirtyfour in reality.
I'm that list l have charged up men |
who died in Salt Lake, and whose cases |
were diagnosed differently. l have /
charged up one who died of acute al 1
coholism, and one who died from pneu- |
monia, superinduced by exposure.
When you speak of the strong arm
of the law taking hold of the owners of /
the mill, you are doing nothing more |
than the owners themselves are trying |
TO do. The mill has been enlarged. and. /
necessarily, the ventilation has been |
bad in some places. Efforts to better !
the conditions are being made by Hart
wig =. Cohen and by Captain De La /
mar himself. Not only that, Captain /
De Lamar sent an expert from the east |
to see what could be done.
He made a report and Immediately |
a contract was let for doing away with
the dust so far as possible. The state
ment that an electric light could not
be told from a candle at a distance of a
few feet was true, but Improvements
are being made. l have always in
the men to protect themselves.
Since the death rate became high the
furnished respirators and the
men were instructed as to their use.
I don't agree with Dr. Gift that
other methods can be used. 1t is neces-
5arily dry process mill. I am willing !
TO ADMIT that when man gets the dust !
into his lungs he is doomed. The New 1
DIRK Life Insurance company sent an !
Inspector to the mill because it carries
4 number of policies there On his re-
turn he reported that there was no
more danger to life in the De Lamar
mill than in the -four mills of Mime
lpolis and the Mississippi valley"
DR.. Delano of Philadelphia closed the
discussion by expressing the opinion
that Dr.. Belts paper was a most val
liable contribution. He thought it
should be given a place in medical lit
erature. He hoped some mechanical
genius would soon come to the front
With an invention that will effectuallv
10 away with the dust