Charles Turner Thackrah (1795-1833) was a Leeds surgeon and a pioneer in the field of occupational medicine. In 1832 he published ‘The Effects of Arts, Trades and Professions and of civic states and habits of living on Health and Longevity with suggestions for removal of many of the agents which produce disease and shorten the duration of life’ This work prompted the introduction of the Factory Act in 1833.
The following are his observations on those connected with the silver trade.
Workers In Gold And Silver have different degrees of muscular exertion according to their departments. In the process of casting and moulding, the men have moderate exertion, and generally stand. The slight dust which arises from the charcoal or brick-powder, does not produce apparent effect. In the chasing, hampering, mounting, and pumicing the workmen sit, and are, in consequence, considerably more affected with disorder of the digestive organs. In the hampering, where they are obliged to lean much forward, the men are decidedly paler than in the mounting, where they sit upright. In the polishing they have an alternation of sitting and active exertion, for while one man turns the wheel to which the brush is affixed, the other holds the article to be polished. The men appear more robust in this, than in most of the preceding departments. Stamping, effected by raising a great weight and then allowing it to fall, is a laborious process. Each man is supposed to lift 80lbs. 500 times a day. In most of the rooms charcoal is burnt, but its gas does not produce a sensible effect, except when the apartments are low and the roofs of the common, instead of the pottery form. The "blue vapour" in this case affects respiration at the time, and establishes a morning expectoration of mucus. In no department are the men crowded. Workers in gold and silver earn good wages, live well, and are not generally intemperate. In the department of stamping, which occasions profuse sweating, we find the men to take each during the day about three quarts of porter, twice the quantity consumed by individuals in other departments. It does not, however, seem to be injurious. The stampers were the most healthy men in the great London -house we examined. In no department did we find aged operatives; but this seems to arise rather from the preference given to young men, as more expert in the improvements of the art, than from any thing baneful in the employ. A master of 12 or 16 working-silversmiths has since informed us that he has two or three between fifty and sixty years of age, and that, on examining a club of 100 men, he found as great a proportion of aged, as town-life commonly exhibits. He makes some general remarks, which I beg to insert in his own words,–" Their habits are various, say two of every dozen are rather abstemious, taking about a pint of malt liquor per day, and spirituous liquors not once a month, and live regularly; eight of the same number are men who live well the first four or five days in the week, that is, eating meat two or three times a day, and drinking perhaps from two to four pints of beer. They then appear dull and heavy, but in the last two days they ' study Abernethy,' as we say; take perhaps no meat, and water instead of beer, which makes them as cheerful as possible, aided a little by the idea of being near the eating and drinking days. The remaining two, or one at any rate, is a regular drunkard, taking from four to eight pints of beer per day, and perhaps three or four glasses of spirits in the same time. Some of this class die at 30, but others are in the workhouse, and live to 50 or 60."
Gold-beaters have an employment distinct from the preceding. They are engaged above half the day in beating the metal with heavy hammers, and the rest in spreading the gold leaf on paper. The process affords, therefore, an excellent alternation of labour and comparative rest. The men exposed to no injurious agent, and enjoying good wages, are healthy and robust.
Workers Of Tortoise-shell have an occupation sedentary, but not otherwise injurious. The dust which arises in drilling is too slight to affect them.
Engravers fix the trunk and limbs more than almost any other operatives. The head is brought forward, and the eye intensely and long occupied with objects generally so small as to require a strong artificial lens. In one part of the process, the engraver is subjected to the annoyance of nitrous fumes, but this is only occasional. The posture and confinement affect the head, but more frequently, and more considerably, the organs of digestion. Sometimes the appetite is reduced, almost always the action of the bowels is greatly impaired. Organic diseases, however, of the abdominal viscera are by no means so frequent as in many other sedentary occupations, tailors and shoemakers for instance. This I attribute to the less general intemperance of engravers. The employment affects vision. Young men, for a short time after removing the lens, are unable to judge accurately of the relative size of objects, even at a foot's distance. And the eyes of old engravers are considerably impaired, both as optical and vital instruments.
Mr. B., now about the age of 60, was closely employed in engraving for 30 years. His right eye, that which he applied with a convex lens to his art, is considerably more prominent than his left; and he is consequently obliged to close it when he looks at distant objects. Though not of late years engaged in engraving, he cannot accurately estimate the distance and relative position of near objects. In playing at backgammon for instance, he frequently takes up a wrong marker. In weak light, the left eye is better than the right. Cases of this kind illustrate some points of function and disease.
Clockmakers have little objectionable in their occupation ; for though the making and fitting-up are carried on in the house, the posture is varied, and the men are frequently travelling to repair clocks in the country. They are generally healthy, and attain often advanced life. Watch-makers have a much worse employ. They sit all day with the trunk bent forward. The digestive organs almost always suffer, and the lungs are sometimes affected. The close and continued application also greatly injures the eyes. Many youths apprenticed to watch-making are obliged to leave the employ, and the individuals who remain rarely live to old age.
Wire-drawers are in an atmosphere disagreeably impregnated with the odours of tallow and oil, and with the exhalation from the sour ale-grounds, in which the cylinders revolve. The general health, however, does not appear to suffer. Some men have contraction of the fingers. This they ascribe to the sulphuric acid employed ; but a more probable cause is the flexed position, in which the fingers are kept in handling the wire.
The Makers of Military Ornaments at Birmingham have various occupations, several of which are injurious. In bobbing, some of the articles produce much dust, and proportionally excite sneezing, cough, and difficulty of breathing. In turning, the small wheel, covered with emery, throws off sparks of fire, which entering the throat, cause a warm sensation in the chest and stomach. In filing, the particles detached are larger, and consequently do no injury. Lackering is considered by the women who perform it, unhealthy; but the only results apparent are paleness and loss of appetite. No person is confined to any one of these processes, and hence the effects of each are not marked. The operatives do not commence work till eight in the morning. Generally temperate, they live to age.
Metal Spoon Makers are subjected to some fumes from the melting of their materials; but temperate workmen enjoy health, and attain full age. We did not hear that the antimony, tin, and lead which they use, induce any form or modification of palsy.
Metal And Iron Button Makers are exposed in the casting department, to great heat and some dust. The fumes from the zinc produce occasionally that form of ague to which brass-founders are subject. The men, however, though pale, are generally healthy. In this, as well as in the preceding employ, scalds from the melted metal sometimes occur. In turning, particles of the buttons are detached, which frequently pass into the stomach or air-tube. For the gastric annoyance, the men occasionally take emetics. The irritation of the air-tube produces often more serious effects, bronchitis, inflammation of the lungs, and ultimately consumption. In grinding, smaller particles are detached, the atmosphere is consequently more clouded, and serious disease more frequently produced. The men who escape pulmonary disease, appear unhealthy, and are seldom able to remain at the employ after the age of 45 or 50. Their posture is leaning and confined ; and the opportunities which offer for exercise and fresh air, are often devoted to the destruction of health : Mondays and Tuesdays are spent at the alehouse. In finishing the buttons, the stone and sand powder does not foul the atmosphere, and hence urgent disease is not produced; but the rooms are small, and the operatives confined to a leaning posture. Men, boys, and females are employed. Though some in this department live to a considerable age; the general health in most of the elder operatives appears to be reduced. In the polishing, the dust is especially injurious, bronchitis is soon produced, and consumption frequently follows. In the varnishing department the operatives look pale, but seem to suffer only from confinement and the leaning posture.
Gilt Button Makers, in the casting department, are subjected not only to great heat, but to rather severe effects from the fumes of zinc. These are giddiness, headache, sickness, reduction of the appetite, and bilious disorders. The men have the appearance of ill health; 45 is about the average duration of life. In this, however, as well as other baneful occupations, it is difficult to determine the proportion of evil which the employ and intemperance respectively produce; for labour that distresses is generally well paid; high wages admit considerable intervals of rest and leisure; and leisure, by most uneducated workmen, is spent happily only at the alehouse. In gilding, the temperature of the rooms is 110° to 120°. But the principal evil is the mercurial vapour. Reduction of appetite and of sleep, trembling of the limbs, soreness of the gums, and disorder of the bowels are the common effects. At Birmingham, the women employed in this department begin their work at 10 a. m., and leave it at 5 p. m. They seldom live to full age.
Grinders of Sheffield. Dr. Knight, in the North-of- England Medical Journal, states that the fork-grinders, who use a dry grindstone, die at the ages of 28 or 32, while the table-knife grinders, who work on wet stones, survive to between 40 and 50. Dr. K.'s paper very properly alludes to the combination of injurious agents and circumstances. It is not merely the pernicious employment, but the want of sieve and ventilation in the apartments where the men now work,–the want, moreover, of that exercise in the open air which they formerly took in going to work and returning from it; and finally, the intemperance which results from their congregation, and still more from their desperation of life. It appears, that in 1822, " out of 2,500 grinders, there were not 35 who had arrived at the age of 50, and perhaps not double that number who had reached the age of 45: and out of more than 80 fork-grinders, exclusive of boys, it was reported that there was not a single individual 36 years old."
The symptoms of the grinders' disease are difficulty of breathing, such as to require generally the action of the muscles auxiliary to respiration ; tightness of the chest; hoarseness of voice, and tenderness of the larynx; sonorous cough; spitting of blood; expectoration of mucus, containing often dust, and, in the latter stage, of fetid and purulent matter; muddiness of complexion; anxiety of countenance; pulse quickened, not at first, but in the after stage; colliquative sweats and diarrhoea; emaciation;–in a word, the signs of slow but certainly fatal consumption. The remedies judiciously recommended by Dr. Knight, are, 1st. Dusting the machinery, before the work commences ; 2nd. Great reduction in the time of labour ; 3rd. Use of wet stones as much as possible; 4th. Large flues to be laid on the floor for ventilation, and currents of air to be forced through them by the machines ; 5th- Fork-grinding to be confined to criminals.
Makers Of Looking-glasses, or rather Men Who Silver Mirrors, are exposed, both by inhalation and touch, to the action of mercury oxygenized by the atmosphere. The operatives are chiefly Italians. Few can bear the employ daily for a long period. Some work on alternate days ; and many, more constantly engaged, are obliged from illness to be absent for weeks or months. An English master tells me that he has been in the habit of silvering mirrors, for two or three hours a day during the last fourteen years, and considers it remarkable that he has suffered, even from this short diurnal employ, no other injury to health than constant though not great trembling of the hands. The general effects of the art are difficult enunciation, pain and constriction at the base of the chest, emaciation, debility, tremors, and lastly salivation. The gums are often wasted and the teeth left loose in the sockets. As the fingers and hands are generally the parts first disordered, it appears that the primary impression is on the nervous system at large, and is made through the medium of the skin rather than that of the lungs.* Intemperate men suffer most.
" In the London Medical and Physical Journal, for November, 1831, is an interesting article on this employment, by Mr. Mitchell, of Lamb's Conduit-street, London. I extract two of the cases he relates :–
" Peter Cataneo, an Italian, had worked for five years at silvering mirrors ; during that time he had repeatedly been obliged to desist from his employment, until the effects of the mercury subsided.
November,1829. The tremors are general; gums sore : spirits depressed ; bitter taste in the mouth, which is also very clammy; tongue white ; temperature of the skin sensibly above the natural standard; pulse quick and small, but is with difficulty felt, in consequence of the constant tremor: he likewise complains of cough and tightness. He took the sulphur, as recommended by those who have practised at the mines, with some degree of benefit; a grain of opium at bedtime ; and his subsistence consisted of milk, gruel, fish, and porter. He used for the sore mouth an acid gargle. The ptyalism abated ; the tremors subsided, and in the course of a fortnight, in a great degree, vanished ; leaving, however, behind a great feeling of weakness, which was successfully combated by nutritious diet and bark. The injunction never to resume the employment of silvering had no effect ; but he has since, I understand, been obliged to relinquish it.
P. Nash, aged twenty, of nervous temperament, commenced silvering six months ago, the trembling came on three days after he began to work, and his mouth was sore in six days; and he has continued to suffer, more or less, up to the present time. 14th March, 1831 : The speech greatly impeded ; the limbs totter when he attempts to stand or walk, which he accomplishes very slowly and with great difficulty, an infirm step, and awkward gait; he is unable to convey any substance to the mouth, in consequence of the severity of the tremors; slight subsultus tendinum, confined the upper extremities; the tongue quivers, gums slightly tender ; pulse strong, rather quick ; appetite diminished ; sleep disturbed; body wasted ; he complains as if a feeling oppressed like a load across the lower part of the chest; or as if a substance lay at the bottom of the lungs, as he expresses himself, which he conceived to have been drawn in by inspiration; the breathing was quick, accompanied with strictured feeling and cough. He was nearly thrown from a bath by the violence of the trembling ; a large quantity of the water was driven by his excessive agitation over the sides of the bath ; and if two men had not held him steadily in the water, he must have been thrown out before he was capable of remaining quiet."
Mr. Mitchell remarks that in twelve looking-glass manufactories he visited, "it clearly appeared that the metal became oxidized, by combining with part of the oxygen of the atmosphere, and the more quickly so from the friction which is necessary in the application of the quicksilver to the plate of glass."
The French see much of this disease, and call it Tremblement des doreurs, or Tremblement mercuriel. Merat has paid particular attention to the subject, and Patissier enters on it at large; but after the details already given, I need only remark that they dwell especially on the nervous diseases in. duced, the convulsive motions of the muscles so universal and urgent, and the occasional occurrence of somnolency and delirium. Sometimes the men, from their inability to direct their hands with precision, are obliged to feed like quadrupeds.
* The superintendent of a manufactory told us, that from the sweeping of the chimnies on one occasion, he collected twenty pounds of good quicksilver.
Water-gilders, men who coat silver or other metal with an amalgam of gold and quicksilver, are exposed to the same poison as the silverers of mirrors.* They diminish its effects, however, when employed on small work, by interposing glass between the mouth and the materials; and when engaged on larger articles, by affixing to the mouth and nose a kind of proboscis, which hanging down, opens at a distance from the source of the mercurial fumes. Notwithstanding these contrivances, and every attention paid to ventilation, the art cannot be closely pursued without the induction of serious disorder. Depression of spirits or " nervousness," is succeeded by trembling, sickness, depraved taste, fetid breath, and finally salivation.* Palsy also is frequent; but this, as well as the other maladies, is in most cases removed by rest and fresh air. Repeated attacks, however, destroy vigour of constitution and shorten life. Men past middle age suffer so much more than others, that scarcely any are found at the employ. Water-gilders generally work but four days a week, and for about nine hours each day.
Personal cleanliness and change of dress considerably diminish the bane of this and the preceding employment. Ventilation also, and the management of currents of air through the workshops, should be regarded as much as possible.t When tremors appear, rest, fresh air, and aperients should be promptly employed; and for salivation, I have found opium the most efficacious and speedy remedy.
Jewellers And Workers in Gold, a distinct class from that of the Silver-workers, are subjected, not only to the evils of confinement, but to the effects of gases evolved in the manufacture. These are, the gas from the coke employed, as in collecting the gold from the sweepings of the floor; the gas from the charcoal used in melting; and the vapour, which arises in the process of dry colouring, from the fusion of saltpetre, alum, and common salt. The last produces such distress in the head and nervous system as to make it particularly disliked by the men. Wet colouring, in which mineral acids are used, I believe, is comparatively innoxious.* The jewellers' work-rooms are generally crowded, and the atmosphere consequently fouled by respiration, animal effluvia, and the smoke of lamps, as well as by the specific exhalations of the manufacture. Its temperature is generally raised, and in summer the heat is excessive. The labour is light; but the confinement to a leaning posture, with the head much depressed, and the elbows generally fixed to the sides of the trunk, for ten, fourteen, or sixteen hours a day, is irksome and injurious. Intemperance is general, and dram drinking especially prevalent. The disorders of which jewellers principally complain, are pains and soreness of the chest, disorders of the stomach and liver, and plethoric affections of the head. They enter the employ about 13 or 14 years of age, and are obliged to abandon it generally at 45-50. In an establishment of 37 men, two were under 20 years of age, twelve were between 20 and 30, thirteen between 30 and 40, and nine between 40 and 50 ; one only had passed the age of 50. An old jeweller is worthless to the art, and seldom indeed to be found. A master observes, that " the men drop off from work unperceived and disregarded. I am quite at a loss to know what becomes of them. When they leave off working, they go, and are seen no more. Some, perhaps, became applicants for charities; but so few have I known of the ages of 60 or 70, that leaving work, they seem to leave the world as well, a solitary one appearing at intervals to claim some trifling pension, or seek admission to an alms' house."
This is a melancholy, but, I fear, a correct representation of the end of artizans in other manufactures, as well as this, where health is either forgotten, or deliberately sacrificed to lucre, and where this lucre is devoted to intemperance–where the high wages moreover of a baneful employ, afford opportunities of absence from work for hours, or days–and where this absence or interval, instead of being devoted to the refreshment and renovation of the animal frame, harassed and injured by labour, is wickedly perverted to the induction of effects, more baneful than those of any art or occupation.
Charles Turner Thackrah died of tuberculosis in 1833, aged just 38. He never lived to see the advancement of occupational medicine and the improvement in working conditions that his exposure of the industry would produce.
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